The Helpmate (Chekhov)
Short summary
Russia, late 19th century. Doctor Nikolay Yevgrafitch discovered a telegram in his wife's room from someone named Michel in Monte Carlo. He realized it was from Riss, a young man his wife had been seeing secretly.
Feeling trapped in his miserable seven-year marriage, Nikolay decided to confront his wife when she returned home at five in the morning. He offered her freedom, suggesting divorce so she could marry Riss. To his surprise, Olga rejected his offer.
"I don't want a divorce! I am not asking you for a divorce! ... I understand you perfectly. You are sick of me, and you simply want to get rid of me, to force this divorce on me. Thank you very much; I am not such a fool as you think."
She refused to leave her social position and was uncertain if her feelings for the younger Riss would last. Furious, Nikolay threatened to throw her out, but she remained defiant. The next morning, despite everything, she still asked him for the money he had promised her.
Detailed summary
Division into chapters is editorial.
Nikolay discovers a suspicious telegram from Michel
Past midnight, Nikolay Yevgrafitch searched anxiously for a telegram he had received the previous day. He asked his maid to look for it, but she could only find patient telegrams. They searched the drawing room and his wife's room, but to no avail. Nikolay knew his wife wouldn't return until at least five o'clock in the morning.
Eventually, he found a telegram under his wife's stationery box. It was addressed to her, sent from Monte Carlo and signed "Michel." The message was in a foreign language, likely English, which Nikolay couldn't understand. He wondered who Michel was, why the telegram came from Monte Carlo, and why it was directed to his mother-in-law's care.
Bitter reflections on an unhappy marriage
Reflecting on his marriage, Nikolay recalled meeting a young man named Mihail Ivanovitch Riss about a year and a half ago in Petersburg. He had been introduced to them by an old schoolfellow, a civil engineer. Later, Nikolay had seen the young man's photograph in his wife's album with a French inscription and had met him at his mother-in-law's house.
This coincided with his wife's frequent absences and her requests for a passport to travel abroad. Six months earlier, when doctors had diagnosed Nikolay with consumption and recommended he go to the Crimea, his wife had insisted they go to Nice instead, where she would care for him.
It seemed that if a band of brigands had been living in his rooms his life would not have been so hopelessly, so irremediably ruined as by the presence of this woman.
Using an English dictionary, Nikolay translated the telegram: "I drink to the health of my beloved darling, and kiss her little foot a thousand times, and am impatiently expecting her arrival." He realized his wife wanted to go to Nice because her lover Michel lived in nearby Monte Carlo. The thought of the humiliating role he would have played had he agreed to go filled him with mortification.
The decision to offer his wife freedom
As Nikolay paced through his rooms, he reflected on his marriage. He remembered how this woman, from a class utterly alien to him, had entered his life and ruined it. The best years of his life had been spent in misery, his hopes for happiness shattered, his health deteriorated, and he was deeply in debt.
By five o'clock, his anger subsided, and he began to blame himself. He thought that if Olga had married someone with a good influence over her, she might have become a decent woman. He considered himself a poor psychologist who knew nothing of the female heart, as well as churlish and uninteresting.
Believing he didn't have long to live, Nikolay decided not to stand in the way of the living. He resolved to have a conversation with his wife, let her go to the man she loved, and offer her a divorce, taking the blame upon himself.
Olga returns home distressed about a lost bag
Finally, Olga Dmitrievna returned home. She entered the study in her white cloak, hat, and overboots, sobbing about a student named Azarbekov who had lost her bag containing fifteen roubles she had borrowed from her mother.
Nikolay tried to talk to her about the serious matter at hand, but she continued lamenting about the lost money. Irritated, he promised to give her twenty-five roubles the next day if she would stop talking about it.
The confrontation about Michel and plans to go abroad
After Olga changed into her dressing gown, Nikolay handed her the telegram. She read it, shrugged, and dismissed it as a routine New Year's greeting with no secrets. Nikolay explained that he had used a dictionary to translate it and knew it was from Riss, who was sending her kisses and awaiting her arrival.
Rather than reproaching her, Nikolay calmly stated that she was free to live as she wished. If she loved the young man and wanted to go abroad to him, she should go. Nikolay acknowledged his poor health and limited time left to live.
"I set you free from the necessity of lying and keeping up pretences," Nikolay Yevgrafitch continued. "If you love that young man, love him; if you want to go abroad to him, go. You are young, healthy, and I am a wreck..."
Crying, Olga admitted she loved Riss, had driven out of town with him, visited his rooms, and now longed to go abroad. She asked Nikolay to be generous and get her a passport. Nikolay repeated that she was free.
Olga moved closer to examine his face, not believing his sincerity. She always suspected hidden motives in others' actions, no matter how generous their intentions. When she looked at him searchingly, Nikolay thought he saw a gleam of green light in her eyes, like a cat's.
Olgas refusal of divorce and Nikolays resignation
Olga said she would only go abroad for a month. Nikolay offered to get her a divorce, taking the blame himself so Riss could marry her. To his surprise, Olga quickly retorted that she didn't want a divorce, only a passport.
When Nikolay questioned her hesitation between marriage and adultery, Olga's face took on a spiteful, vindictive expression. She accused him of trying to get rid of her through divorce and declared she wouldn't accept it or leave him.
"I won't accept the divorce and I won't leave you—I won't, I won't! To begin with, I don't want to lose my position in society," she continued quickly, as though afraid of being prevented from speaking.
She explained that she was twenty-seven while Riss was only twenty-three; he would tire of her within a year. Furthermore, she wasn't certain her feelings would last. Enraged, Nikolay shouted that he would throw her out of the house, calling her vile and loathsome. Olga defiantly responded, "We shall see!" and left.
As daylight broke, Nikolay sat at his table, mechanically writing or looking at an old family photograph. He wondered how he, a straightforward man with a democratic upbringing, could have surrendered to this alien, petty creature. When a servant came at eleven o'clock to tell him his wife was asking for the promised twenty-five roubles, Nikolay's resignation was complete.