The subject of analysis is the opposition of two themes – boredom and pleasure – in Chekhov’s The Shooting Party. The category of “boredom” includes the characters’ daily duties and work, while “pleasure” corresponds to the unfettered Karamazian lust for life. The fight against boredom turns into the pursuit for the fulfilment of all life desires but also leads to conflicts, which leads to many tragic events related to the deaths of several of the novella’s heroes. The polarization of the world of text on the metaliterary level allows us to notice the features of parody in relation to the popular literature of the day.

Sophie de Grouchy in her Letters on sympathy analyses the notion of sympathy, as a starting point using a critique of Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments. She also points out that sympathising with other people’s joys brings us pleasure, other people’s good experiences make us happy (especially if we are the ones who contribute to their well-being) and we want to see other people happy and not suffering. As she assumes, we naturally seek other people’s well-being and not their harm. De Grouchy underlines the role of imagination and reason, discerning coincidental good deeds and those that are an effect of intended actions. The paper aims to reconstruct a way in which de Grouchy seeks the grounds for morality in sympathy that is based on feeling and observation of physical pain and pleasure. This presentation of her theory that Polish readers are not closely accustomed with is a good starting point to inquire whether the argumentation presented by the author of the Letters on sympathy is coherent within her theory and whether it has proper justification.