Oh! The Public (Chekhov)
Short summary
A Russian railway, late 19th century. After lecturing himself about the importance of conscientious work, Podtyagin, the head ticket collector, woke his subordinates in the middle of the night to inspect passengers' tickets.
When Podtyagin asked a sleeping passenger for his ticket, the man complained bitterly about being disturbed while trying to sleep after taking morphia for his rheumatism. Other passengers supported the invalid, criticizing Podtyagin's actions as cruel.
Feeling misunderstood, Podtyagin brought the stationmaster to explain his duty, but this only further upset the invalid. Later, two gentlemen threatened to report Podtyagin unless he apologized. When Podtyagin attempted to apologize, he once again woke the invalid, who had just taken a third dose of morphia, causing more outrage from the passengers.
Defeated, Podtyagin retreated to the attendants' compartment and lamented his situation.
“Oh, the public! There’s no satisfying them! It’s no use working and doing one’s best! One’s driven to drinking and cursing it all… If you do nothing—they’re angry; if you begin doing your duty, they’re angry too.”
He then emptied a bottle of alcohol and abandoned all thoughts of work, duty, and honesty.
Detailed summary
Division into chapters is editorial.
Podtyagins resolution to work conscientiously
After giving himself several stern lectures about the importance of honest work, Podtyagin, the head ticket collector, felt an irresistible urge to perform his duties diligently. Despite it being past one o'clock in the night, he woke up the ticket collectors and began inspecting tickets throughout the railway carriages, briskly snapping his clippers and demanding tickets from sleepy passengers.
“You’ve got into the way of taking a salary for nothing, my boy—that’s not the right thing… not the right thing at all.…” After administering to himself several such lectures Podtyagin... begins to feel an irresistible impulse to get to work.
Confrontation with the ill passenger
Podtyagin approached a second-class passenger, a lean, scraggy-looking man wrapped in a fur coat and surrounded by pillows. When the passenger did not respond to his request for tickets, Podtyagin touched him on the shoulder and repeated his demand impatiently. The passenger woke with a start and appeared alarmed.
The invalid passenger complained bitterly about being disturbed. He explained that he suffered from rheumatism and had not slept for three nights. He had just taken morphia to help him sleep when Podtyagin woke him for something as trivial as checking his ticket. The passenger called this behavior merciless and inhuman.
“It’s merciless, it’s inhuman! If you knew how hard it is for me to sleep you wouldn’t disturb me for such nonsense… It’s cruel, it’s absurd! And what do you want with my ticket! It’s positively stupid!”
Podtyagin considered whether to take offense and decided he should. He told the passenger not to shout, saying this was not a tavern. The passenger retorted that people in taverns were more humane and complained that he had traveled abroad without being constantly asked for his ticket. He accused the railway of strangling passengers with red tape and claimed that half the passengers traveled without tickets anyway.
Seeking validation from the stationmaster
Angered by the passenger's attitude, Podtyagin threatened to put him off at the next station and file a report. Other passengers came to the invalid's defense, calling Podtyagin's actions revolting and accusing him of persecuting an invalid. Feeling somewhat scared, Podtyagin backed down but insisted he was only doing his duty.
After walking away, Podtyagin felt somewhat aggrieved but also uneasy. At the next station, he returned to the same carriage with the stationmaster, hoping to validate his actions and pacify the passenger.
“There’s no pleasing them!” he thinks, bewildered. “It was for his sake I brought the stationmaster, that he might understand and be pacified, and he… swears!”
Reprimand from fellow passengers
At another station, during the ten-minute stop, Podtyagin was standing at the refreshment bar drinking seltzer water when two gentlemen approached him. One was an engineer named Puzitsky, and the other was a colonel in a military overcoat.
The engineer told Podtyagin that his behavior toward the invalid passenger had revolted all witnesses. He and the colonel threatened to complain to the traffic manager, who was their friend, unless Podtyagin apologized to the passenger. Panic-stricken, Podtyagin immediately agreed to apologize.
A failed attempt to apologize
After half an hour of contemplation, Podtyagin devised an apologetic phrase that would satisfy the passenger without diminishing his own dignity. He entered the carriage and addressed the invalid passenger, who startled and leaped up in alarm.
“My God! I have taken another powder and only just dozed off when here he is again… again! I beseech you have some pity on me!” “You can ask the stationmaster… whether I have the right to demand your ticket or not.”
The invalid passenger clutched at his heart and gasped for water. He had just taken a third dose of morphia and fallen asleep when Podtyagin disturbed him again. In desperation, he begged to be put off at the next station, saying he could not stand any more and felt he was dying.
The other passengers were revolted by Podtyagin's persistent harassment of the invalid. They shouted at him to go away and threatened that he would pay for such persecution. Podtyagin waved his hand in despair and left the carriage.
Return to old habits
Defeated and exhausted, Podtyagin went to the attendants' compartment and sat down at the table. He complained about the public, lamenting that there was no satisfying them. If he did nothing, they were angry; if he did his duty, they were angry too. Seeing no other solution, he emptied a bottle straight off and abandoned all thoughts of work, duty, and honesty.
“Podtyagin empties a bottle straight off and thinks no more of work, duty, and honesty!”