Betrothed

Betrothed by Anton Chekhov (1889)

In the Shumins' provincial household, twenty-three-year-old Nadya sits engaged to Andrey Andreitch, whose father, Father Andrey, is a cathedral priest; the wedding is set for July 7, yet Nadya feels only dread and sleeplessness instead of joy. Staying with the family is Sasha, a sickly distant relation of Nadya's grandmother, Marfa Mihalovna, whom the grandmother had educated in Moscow and who now works at a lithographer's; each visit he chides the household—Granny, Nadya's mother Nina Ivanovna, and Nadya herself—for their idle, unclean life and urges Nadya to go away and study, insisting that enlightened people are what the world needs and that all of them are living off others' labor. Nadya's unease deepens. At night she cannot get Sasha's words out of her mind. Her mother, who dabbles in spiritualism, homeopathy, and philosophy, seems increasingly to Nadya a simple, unhappy woman rather than the exceptional figure she once imagined. When Andrey Andreitch proudly shows Nadya the house prepared for their marriage—complete with a vulgar painting of a naked lady, a water tank he had installed, and his vague talk of one day working the land—Nadya feels only revulsion and realizes she has never truly loved him, though she cannot say so aloud. During a stormy night, Nadya breaks down before her mother, begging to be let go and declaring she cannot marry Andrey. Nina Ivanovna, alarmed, dismisses it as a lovers' quarrel, then breaks down herself, crying that she too wants to live and feels made old before her time. The next day Nadya goes to Sasha and asks him to take her away. Delighted, he arranges for her to leave with him the next evening by train, promising that turning her life "upside down" is what matters. Despite Granny's protests about the weather, Nadya departs with Sasha, weeping and praying as the train carries her away, her old life shrinking behind her. Nadya spends the winter studying in Petersburg, growing homesick but freed. In spring she stops in Moscow to see Sasha, who looks older, thinner, and unwell, coughing constantly and living amid neglect and disorder; he mentions plans to travel down the Volga and drink koumiss for his health. Though Nadya feels great gratitude and affection for him, he now strikes her as outdated and faded compared to her new life. Back home, Nadya finds the house, her mother, and Granny all diminished and aged; her mother has taken up religion and philosophy, and the family's former social standing feels lost. Nadya grows restless again, sensing the town itself as stagnant and waiting to be swept away, while neighborhood boys taunt her by calling out "Betrothed! Betrothed!" A telegram arrives reporting that Sasha has died of consumption in Saratov. Amid Granny's and her mother's grief, Nadya reflects that her life has indeed been overturned as Sasha wished, that she is now estranged from her old surroundings, and that everything of her past has been burned away. She says goodbye to Sasha's room, packs, and the next morning leaves her family and the town again, full of life, believing it to be forever.

By Anton Chekhov · First published 1889 · Genre: Literary Fiction, Drama, Romance · 6 chapters · 9,014 words

First lines

It was ten o'clock in the evening and the full moon was shining over the garden. In the Shumins' house an evening service celebrated at the request of the grandmother, Marfa Mihalovna, was just over, and now Nadya -- she had gone into the garden for a minute -- could see the table being laid for supper in the dining room, and her grandmother bustling about in her gorgeous silk dress; Father Andrey, a chief priest of the cathedral, was talking to Nadya's mother, Nina Ivanovna, and now in the evening light through the window her mother for some reason looked very young; Andrey Andreitch, Father Andrey's son, was standing by listening attentively.

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Russian Literature · Short Story · Marriage · Social Class · Love Triangle · Family Dynamics · Class Conflict · Romanticism · Realism · Satire · Comedy of Manners · Social Commentary

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