A Living Chattel

A Living Chattel by Anton Chekhov

Groholsky, a wealthy young man deeply in love with Liza, the young wife of government clerk Ivan Petrovitch Bugrov, presses her one evening in her drawing room to leave her husband and run away with him that very night, since he cannot bear to share her. Liza tearfully agrees, though she keeps protesting how sorry she feels for "Vanya." Before they can act, Bugrov himself walks in unnoticed and catches them embracing. After an agonizing, stilted exchange of small talk, Groholsky flees the room, and Bugrov turns on his weeping wife, shaking her, striking her shoulder, and threatening to kill her if she is ever unfaithful again, all while treating her like a scolded child. Groholsky then bursts back in and confesses everything to Bugrov directly, begging forgiveness and offering money as compensation for "robbing" him of his happiness. As he offers increasing sums, Bugrov, gazing out at a carriage of happy country holidaymakers and remembering his poor, barefoot childhood as a deacon's son, is overcome by visions of the wealthy leisure life he could have. He holds out for a hundred and fifty thousand roubles, which Groholsky immediately fetches and hands over in cash and securities. Bugrov, now rich, negotiates one condition: he keeps custody of their son, Mishutka. He outfits himself in expensive new clothes and leaves for the country, planning to depart at dawn. Months later, in the Crimea near Feodosia, Groholsky and Liza are living together in a rented villa, Groholsky nursing an imagined lung ailment with milk and Seltzer water while Liza grows bored and restless. By chance, Bugrov and Mishutka move into the villa directly opposite, now living in lavish style with fine horses, servants, and a piano. Liza is thrilled to secretly watch her son and husband from the verandah, weeping with joy and longing to embrace Mishutka again. When Bugrov and Groholsky finally meet face to face, both are extremely awkward, but they resume superficial cordiality, and Mishutka is allowed to visit his mother. Bugrov's elderly priest father visits for a fortnight, during which Liza must hide indoors so the old man won't discover the scandal. Afterward, Bugrov begins visiting nightly, drinking, dining at Groholsky's expense, and tearfully lamenting before Mishutka that he "sold" his wife, tormenting Groholsky. Bugrov also monopolizes Liza's company, takes her on outings, and eventually installs two French mistresses, Fanny and Isabella, whom Liza is later caught laughing and cavorting with, provoking a jealous outburst from Groholsky. Confronted, Groholsky demands Bugrov leave the area; Bugrov agrees to sell him all his furniture for ten thousand roubles and departs for Moscow with Mishutka. The following spring, Bugrov returns to the Crimea, now shabbier and poorer, having squandered much of his fortune, and resumes secret meetings with Liza in the garden, where the two openly lament their separation and Bugrov promises to visit her at night. Groholsky overhears this exchange and, devastated but resigned, gives Bugrov his estate in the Tchernigov province to send him away again. Liza, informed of this, has a hysterical breakdown, and both she and Groholsky spend months as miserable, wasting "shadows" wandering the resort. In July, Liza abandons Groholsky by night, leaving a note that she is going "for a time" to her son; Groholsky falls ill, later goes abroad, drinks heavily, and eventually returns merely to catch sight of Liza again — after which Bugrov takes him in indefinitely. The narrator, visiting Bugrov's estate, Groholyovka, some time later, finds Bugrov and Liza living comfortably as master and mistress of the house, both grown stout and coarsened, with Mishutka being raised there and taught piano. Groholsky, now a diminished, unkempt dependent in the household, is summoned to entertain the narrator by singing and playing guitar, then is scolded by Bugrov like a servant. Bugrov complains privately that Groholsky broods, moans in his sleep, and cannot be trusted with money. Groholsky, walking the narrator to the station, calls Bugrov a tyrant but says he stays for Liza's sake, revealing she is pregnant with what he insists is his child and claims she "cannot endure" Bugrov. He attributes his own weakness of character to his birth, explaining his father cruelly wronged a poor clerk and his soft-hearted mother took pity on and loved that clerk, making Groholsky, as he sees it, congenitally unable to have a strong will. The narrator calls him "a rag," and Groholsky, agreeing, boards the train while Groholsky heads off toward a water-barrel.

By Anton Chekhov · Genre: Drama, Realism, Social Commentary · 3 chapters · 16,517 words

First lines

Groholsky embraced Liza, kept kissing one after another all her little fingers with their bitten pink nails, and laid her on the couch covered with cheap velvet. Liza crossed one foot over the other, clasped her hands behind her head, and lay down.

Groholsky sat down in a chair beside her and bent over. He was entirely absorbed in contemplation of her.

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Russian Literature · Social Commentary · Slavery · Abolitionism · Morality · Ethics · Societal Critique · Class Struggle · Marriage · Family Dynamics · Power Relations · Exploitation

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