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How did internal monologue shape I.L. Peretz's early short stories?

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Portrait of Russian author Sholem Aleichem with wavy hair, glasses, and mustache, wearing a suit and tie with medals on his lapel, early 1900s. — Yiddish literature Pen name of Sholem Rabinovitsh, Sholem Aleichem was the most popular and well-known of all Yiddish writers.

In his early short stories, I.L. Peretz utilized internal monologue to provide a groundbreaking, introspective look into the minds of his characters, a technique that had not been widely explored in Yiddish literature prior to his work.1

By drawing on contemporary trends in European fiction, Peretz moved away from traditional narrative styles to offer deep psychological insights. Notable examples include:21

Der meshugener batlen ("The Mad Talmudist"): This story enters the mind of a yeshiva student, allowing the reader to follow his reflections on his own unstable identity and illicit desires.1
Der meshulekh ("The Messenger"): This narrative follows an old man carrying money through a snowstorm; as he freezes to death, the internal monologue reveals his final, imagined visions of happier scenes.1

These works marked a significant shift in Yiddish fiction, establishing Peretz as a modernizer who brought new expressive force and psychological complexity to the language.21