What is the theme in Stories of Anton Chekov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov?

Religion is another theme. The lowly clerk in "The Small Fry" is looking out the window envying the higher class people able to answer the church bells on Easter and attend service. The poor fisherman who is sentenced to hard labor crosses himself in an effort to deal with his fate. There are references to the Mother of Heaven (Mary). The title of one story "Panikhida" means an Orthodox (Eastern) prayer to commemorate the dead. Also in "Panikhida" there is a reference to the blessed Mary of Egypt. The madman Ivan Dmitirch in "Ward No. 6" attributes to Dostoevsky and Voltaire the concept that if there were no God, people would have invented him.