Betrothed (Chekhov)
Short summary
A provincial Russian town, early 20th century. Twenty-three-year-old Nadya was engaged to Andrey Andreitch, with their wedding planned for July 7. Despite this, she felt no joy and slept poorly. Her distant relative Sasha came to stay with them, as he did almost every year to recover from illness.
Sasha criticized the idle, stagnant life of Nadya's family and urged her to go to university. His words affected Nadya deeply, making her question her engagement and future. She began to see her mother as an ordinary, unhappy woman dependent on Granny, rather than the exceptional person she had once thought.
In mid-June, Sasha decided to return to Moscow. Meanwhile, Andrey showed Nadya their future home, which she found vulgar and unbearable. When Sasha left, Nadya secretly decided to go with him. They traveled together to Moscow, where Sasha assured her she wouldn't regret her decision.
She went upstairs to her own room to pack, and next morning said goodbye to her family, and full of life and high spirits left the town—as she supposed forever.
A year later, Nadya visited Moscow and found Sasha still ill but no longer seeming as novel and interesting as before. Soon after, she received news that Sasha had died of consumption. Recognizing that her life had been turned upside down as Sasha had wished, Nadya saw before her a new, spacious life that beckoned her forward.
Detailed summary by sections
Section titles are editorial.
Section 1. Engagement without joy: Nadyas growing doubts
In the Shumins' house, an evening service had just concluded at the request of Marfa Mihalovna, Nadya's grandmother. Nadya stepped into the garden, observing her grandmother bustling about in her silk dress while her mother Nina Ivanovna conversed with Father Andrey, the cathedral priest. Andrey Andreitch, Father Andrey's son and Nadya's fiancé, stood nearby listening attentively.
She, Nadya, was already twenty-three. Ever since she was sixteen she had been passionately dreaming of marriage and at last she was engaged to Andrey Andreitch... and yet there was no joy in her heart.
The wedding was set for July 7, but Nadya felt no happiness. She was sleeping poorly and her spirits were low. From the kitchen came the sounds of servants preparing dinner, with smells of roast turkey and pickled cherries filling the air. Nadya felt that her life would continue this way forever, unchanging and endless.
Someone emerged from the house and stood on the steps. It was Sasha, a distant relation who had arrived from Moscow ten days earlier. Years ago, his mother, Marya Petrovna, had come to the house seeking assistance. When she died, Nadya's grandmother had sent Sasha to art school in Moscow. Though he had studied painting for fifteen years, he now worked at a lithographer's. He visited almost annually, usually ill and needing rest.
Sasha joined Nadya in the garden, commenting on how nice it was there. He mentioned he might stay until September. They sat together, with Nadya remarking on how young her mother looked from a distance. Sasha agreed that Nina Ivanovna was nice but criticized the living conditions of the servants who slept on the floor with rags for bedding, just as they had twenty years ago.
Section 2. Seeds of rebellion: Sashas influence and Nadyas decision
Sasha continued his critique, noting that nobody in the household ever did anything productive - not Nadya's mother, grandmother, Nadya herself, nor her fiancé Andrey Andreitch. Nadya had heard this criticism before and found it stale, telling him to think of something new. They walked together toward the house, with Nadya feeling sorry for Sasha and awkward about her own health and smart appearance beside him.
When they entered the dining room, supper was already being served. Granny, a stout old lady with bushy eyebrows and a small mustache, spoke loudly, establishing her importance in the household. She owned shops in the market and prayed daily to be saved from ruin. The family discussed hypnotism during dinner, with Nina Ivanovna expressing belief in mysterious forces beyond understanding.
After supper, Andrey Andreitch played the fiddle while Nina Ivanovna accompanied him on the piano. Though he had graduated from university ten years earlier, he held no regular position and only occasionally performed at charity concerts. When midnight struck and a violin string broke, everyone said their goodbyes. After seeing her fiancé out, Nadya went upstairs to her room but could not sleep, listening to the sounds of the household settling down for the night.
"If only you would go to the university," he said. "Only enlightened and holy people are interesting, it's only they who are wanted. The more of such people there are, the sooner the Kingdom of God will come on earth."
In the afternoons, Sasha would pace around the room while Nadya sat in an armchair with her eyes closed, listening to his passionate speeches about education and a better future. He urged her to go to university and escape her stagnant life, but she replied that she couldn't because she was getting married. Sasha dismissed this as nonsense.
"And however that may be, my dear girl, you must think, you must realize how unclean, how immoral this idle life of yours is. Do understand that if you do nothing, it means that someone else is working for you."
Section 3. The escape plan: Nadya decides to leave with Sasha
By mid-June, Sasha grew bored and announced his intention to return to Moscow. He complained about the town's lack of proper sanitation and the filthy kitchen conditions. Granny tried to persuade him to stay until Nadya's wedding on July 7, reminding him he had planned to remain until September. Sasha insisted he needed to get back to work but eventually agreed to stay until July 1.
One day, Andrey Andreitch took Nadya to see the house prepared for them after their marriage. It was a two-story house with the upper floor already furnished. There were Viennese chairs, a piano, and an oil painting of a naked lady with a purple vase. Andrey proudly showed Nadya around, keeping his arm around her waist the entire time.
Andrey Andreitch led Nadya about the rooms, all the while keeping his arm round her waist; and she felt weak and conscience-stricken. She hated all the rooms, the beds, the easy chairs; she was nauseated by the naked lady.
Nadya felt increasingly trapped. She realized she no longer loved Andrey Andreitch, or perhaps had never loved him at all, but didn't know how to express this or to whom. Everything about the house and her fiancé seemed vulgar and unbearable to her. On their way home, Andrey lamented his own idleness, seeing it as a sign of the times, and spoke of their future life together in the country.
That night, during a storm, Nina Ivanovna came to check on Nadya, who suddenly burst into tears and begged to be allowed to leave. When her mother asked where she wanted to go, Nadya explained she couldn't go through with the wedding because she didn't love Andrey Andreitch. Nina Ivanovna dismissed this as pre-wedding nerves that would pass.
"Mother, mother, my own," she said. "If only you knew what is happening to me! I beg you, I beseech you, let me go away! I beseech you!" "Where?" asked Nina Ivanovna, not understanding. "Go where?"
Section 4. Departure: Leaving home for a new life
The next morning, Nadya went to Sasha's room and, without saying a word, knelt before an armchair and hid her face in her hands. She told him she couldn't continue living there and begged him to take her with him when he left. Sasha was delighted by her decision, dancing around in his slippers with joy.
Sasha explained his plan: he would leave the next day, and Nadya should come to the station to see him off. He would take her luggage in his portmanteau and get her a ticket. When the third bell rang, she would board the train with him. They would travel together as far as Moscow, after which she would continue to Petersburg alone. He promised she wouldn't regret her decision.
Though Nadya expected to spend the time until departure in misery and agonizing thought, she fell asleep immediately after lying down, with traces of tears and a smile on her face. She slept soundly until evening.
The next day, a cab was called. Nadya, wearing her hat and overcoat, went upstairs to take one last look at her mother, who was asleep. She kissed her mother, smoothed her hair, and stood still for a couple of minutes before walking slowly downstairs.
Section 5. The farewell: Final moments before departure
It was raining heavily as Nadya left. Granny, standing on the steps, told Nadya there wasn't room for her in the cab and suggested she stay home rather than see Sasha off in such weather. Sasha helped Nadya into the cab and covered her feet with a rug before sitting beside her. Granny called out for Sasha to write from Moscow and invoked the Queen of Heaven to keep them.
The rain pattered on the carriage windows, nothing could be seen but the green fields, and joy made her hold her breath; she thought that she was going to freedom, going to study, and this was just like what used to be called going off to be a free Cossack.
Section 6. Return and transformation: Nadyas new life and Sashas fate
Autumn passed, and winter too. Nadya had grown homesick and thought often of her mother and grandmother, as well as Sasha. The letters from home were kind and gentle, suggesting that everything had been forgiven and forgotten. In May, after her examinations, she set off for home in good health and high spirits, stopping in Moscow to see Sasha.
Sasha was unchanged in appearance, still wearing the same coat and canvas trousers, but he looked unwell and worried, both older and thinner, and kept coughing. His room smelled of tobacco and was full of dead flies. He was delighted to see Nadya and called her his darling girl. Nadya told him that her grandmother was not angry and only kept going into her room to make the sign of the cross over the walls.
Noticing Sasha's ill health, Nadya became agitated and tearful. She realized that Sasha and his ideas now seemed outdated to her, like something from the distant past. Two days later, Sasha told her he was going down the Volga to drink koumiss for his health. He was still trying to persuade women to go to university and "turn their lives upside down."
Nadya reached her hometown at midday. The streets seemed very wide and the houses small and squat. Granny, who appeared to have aged considerably, embraced Nadya and cried for a long time. Nina Ivanovna also looked older and plainer. Both women seemed to realize that their former social position was lost forever.
That evening, Nina Ivanovna visited Nadya's room and confessed she had become religious and was studying philosophy. The next morning, a telegram arrived announcing that Sasha had died of consumption in Saratov. Granny and Nina Ivanovna went to church to order a memorial service, while Nadya walked about the rooms, thinking.
She recognized clearly that her life had been turned upside down as Sasha wished; that here she was, alien, isolated, useless and that everything here was useless to her; that all the past had been torn away from her and vanished.
Nadya went into Sasha's room and stood there for a while, saying goodbye to him in her thoughts. Before her mind rose the vista of a new, wide, spacious life that still beckoned her despite being full of mysteries. She went upstairs to pack and the next morning said goodbye to her family, leaving town full of life and high spirits, believing it was forever.