person
Andrei Andreich Shipuchin
Shipuchin
also: Шипучин, Andrei Andreyevich Shipuchin, Андрей Андреич
The vain, self-congratulating chairman of the board of the fictional N. Mutual Credit Society, protagonist of Chekhov's one-act farce "The Anniversary" ("Юбилей"); is trying to finish a florid self-glorifying report in the hour before the board's delegation arrives to mark the bank's fifteenth anniversary, and repeatedly punctuates his own bluster with the catchphrase "не будь я Шипучин" ("or my name isn't Shipuchin") -- a name that also puns on "шипучий" ("fizzy, sparkling," as of champagne), fitting his effervescent self-promotion. His composure collapses completely over the course of the play under the combined pressure of his wife's interminable anecdote and the petitioner Merchutkina's refusal to leave.
Reading notes
- The Anniversary §36 or my name isn't Shipuchin!
Shipuchin's recurring catchphrase, "не будь я Шипучин" (literally "may I not be Shipuchin [if it isn't so]"), doubles as a private pun the character never acknowledges: his surname derives from "шипучий," "fizzy" or "sparkling" (as of champagne or seltzer water), an apt description of his own effervescent, ultimately hollow self-promotion. The catchphrase recurs at sections 36, 42, 44, 58, 64, 83, and 164 (the last one turned bitterly ironic, muttered about Merchutkina rather than about himself), and is rendered identically throughout to preserve the running gag.
Mentioned in 1 work (66 mentions)
The Anniversary
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