Mire

Mire by Anton Chekhov (1892)

Lieutenant Alexandr Grigoryevitch Sokolsky, on furlough and needing five thousand roubles as a marriage deposit required by law before age twenty-eight, rides into the yard of the vodka distillery belonging to the heirs of M. E. Rothstein to collect a debt of two thousand three hundred roubles owed by the late Mr. Rothstein to Sokolsky's cousin, Alexey Ivanovitch Kryukov, for a purchase of oats. He is received by Susanna Moiseyevna, the deceased owner's daughter, reclining ill and swathed in shawls amid a jasmine-scented room full of flowers and birds. She banters caustically about marriage, about women (including her own scorn for "ladies"), about Jews and Jewish women, and about languages, charming and unsettling Sokolsky by turns. She agrees to pay the debt, fetches Sokolsky's I.O.U.s from a locked cupboard, then suddenly snatches the papers back and tries to hide them in her pocket. A physical struggle follows; Sokolsky recovers the papers from her fist, but she laughs it off, refuses point-blank to honor the debt, and dares him to stay until she yields it. Provoked and increasingly attracted by her insolence, he abandons his resolve, sits down to lunch with her, and stays. He does not return to Kryukov's country house until the next morning, disheveled, and confesses what happened. Kryukov is indignant, denounces his cousin's weakness, and declares he will get the I.O.U.s back himself, storming off by droshky to confront Susanna. He too fails to return that night. The next morning he comes back laughing helplessly: he had played the outraged avenger, but Susanna wept, flattered him, admired his strength, and he too succumbed to her without recovering the notes, though he jokes about halving the "debt" with his cousin and swears his wife to secrecy about his whereabouts. The two men laugh together, dress up as Turks to play soldiers with the children, argue drunkenly about dowries, and let the matter drop, privately treasuring the episode as a comic memory. A week later, on Sokolsky's last day of furlough, Kryukov hands him the five thousand roubles for his marriage deposit and urges him to leave at once, having guessed his cousin means to visit Susanna again. Sokolsky admits it and departs by post-horses. Another week passes. Kryukov grows restless and irritable at home, orders his droshky, and after hesitating, drives again to the distillery, rationalizing his need for "something out of the common round." He finds a party of local landowners and officials at Susanna's house, singing and drinking, all pointedly avoiding acknowledging one another as gentlemen who know the place isn't quite respectable. Susanna greets him warmly and goes to arrange tea. Moving through the rooms, Kryukov is stopped short: at Susanna's writing table sits Sokolsky, who was supposed to have left for good, murmuring with a fat Jewish man, and who reddens with shame at being caught, claiming he only stopped to say goodbye and will "certainly" leave tomorrow. Overwhelmed with shame and unable to reproach him, since he is there himself, Kryukov says nothing and walks out silently as singing continues in the hall; his droshky is then heard bumping away down the dusty road.

By Anton Chekhov · First published 1892 · Genre: Drama, Realism, Comedy · 2 chapters · 8,687 words

First lines

Gracefully swaying in the saddle, a young man wearing the snow-white tunic of an officer rode into the great yard of the vodka distillery belonging to the heirs of M. E. Rothstein. The sun smiled carelessly on the lieutenant's little stars, on the white trunks of the birch trees, on the heaps of broken glass scattered here and there in the yard. The radiant, vigorous beauty of a summer day lay over everything, and nothing hindered the snappy young green leaves from dancing gaily and winking at the clear blue sky. Even the dirty and soot-begrimed appearance of the bricksheds and the stifling fumes of the distillery did not spoil the general good impression. The lieutenant sprang gaily out of the saddle, handed over his horse to a man who ran up, and stroking with his finger his delicate black moustaches, went in at the front door. On the top step of the old but light and softly carpeted staircase he was met by a maidservant with a haughty, not very youthful face. The lieutenant gave her his card without speaking.

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Russian Literature · Short Story · Tragic · Melancholic · Poignant · Psychological Insight · Character Study · Social Commentary · Class Struggle · Isolation · Loneliness · Disillusionment

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