Meaning of Chekhov's gun | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A dramatic principle that states that every element in a story must be necessary, and irrelevant elements should be removed.
2. An element that is introduced early in the story whose significance to the plot does not become clear until later.

Equivalents

Examples

“It seems like a violation of Chekhov’s gun rule to put Naomi Campbell in the first act and not have her throw a phone at someone in the third. (She tore up a check instead.)”

“An on-screen pill bottle works like Chekhov’s gun: Eventually, its contents will be fired at an actor’s mouth, or smashed between his lips, or hurled into his gullet.”

“The episode of the sun-god's island is the Odyssey's equivalent of Chekhov's gun, announced in the poem's earliest lines as the occasion of the companions' downfall and anticipated ever since.”

“He is Chekhov's gun on the wall, destined to go off at the crucial moment.”

CEFR level