Characters
SAVYOL PROKOFYICH DIKOY, a merchant, a figure of significance in the town.
BORIS GRIGORYCH, his nephew, a young man of decent education.
MARFA IGNATYEVNA KABANOVA (KABANIKHA), a rich merchant’s widow.
TIKHON IVANYCH KABANOV, her son.
KATERINA, his wife.
VARVARA, Tikhon’s sister.
KULIGIN, a townsman, a self-taught clockmaker, searching for a perpetuum mobile.
VANYA KUDRYASH, a young man, Dikoy’s clerk.
SHAPKIN, a townsman.
FEKLUSHA, a pilgrim woman.
GLASHA, a maid in the Kabanov house.
A LADY with two footmen, an old woman of 70, semi-insane.
Townspeople of both sexes.
(Note by A.N. Ostrovsky: All characters, except Boris, are dressed in Russian style.)
The action takes place in the town of Kalinov, on the bank of the Volga, in summer. Ten days pass between the third and fourth acts.
Act One
A public garden on the high bank of the Volga; a view of the countryside beyond the river. On stage are two benches and a few bushes.
SCENE ONE
KULIGIN is sitting on a bench, looking across the river. KUDRYASH and SHAPKIN are strolling about.
KULIGIN (Singing.) “Amidst the level valley, on a smooth height…” (Stops singing.) Miracles, one truly must say, miracles! Kudryash! Here, my friend, for fifty years I have looked across the Volga every day and still cannot look enough.
KUDRYASH So?
KULIGIN An extraordinary view! What beauty! It makes the soul rejoice.
KUDRYASH Really?
KULIGIN Ecstasy! And you say “really”! You’ve grown accustomed to it, or you don’t understand what beauty is spread throughout nature.
KUDRYASH Well, what’s the point of talking to you! You’re an antique among us, a chemist.
KULIGIN A mechanic, a self-taught mechanic.
KUDRYASH It’s all the same.
(Silence.)
KULIGIN (Pointing aside.) Look, my friend Kudryash, who is that waving his arms like that over there?
KUDRYASH That? That’s Dikoy scolding his nephew.
KULIGIN He found a place for it!
KUDRYASH He finds a place everywhere. Is he afraid of anyone! Boris Grigorych has been handed over to him as a victim, and he rides him hard.
SHAPKIN One would still have to search far and wide for a scolder like Savyol Prokofyich! He’ll tear a person to shreds for no reason.
KUDRYASH A nasty fellow!
SHAPKIN Kabanikha is a fine one too.
KUDRYASH Well, at least she does everything under the guise of piety, but this one is like he’s broken his chain!
SHAPKIN No one can restrain him, so he runs riot!
KUDRYASH If we only had a few more lads of my stripe, we’d teach him to stop his mischief.
SHAPKIN And what would you do?
KUDRYASH We’d give him a good scare.
SHAPKIN How so?
KUDRYASH Four or five of us would have a heart-to-heart talk with him in some alley, and he’d turn as gentle as silk. And he wouldn’t breathe a word about our lesson to anyone, he’d just walk around constantly looking over his shoulder.
SHAPKIN It’s no wonder he wanted to send you off to the army.
KUDRYASH He wanted to, but didn’t, so that’s the same as nothing. He won’t send me away: he smells it with his nose that I won’t sell my head cheaply. He’s terrifying to you, but I know how to talk to him.
SHAPKIN Oh, really?
KUDRYASH What do you mean, “oh, really”! I am considered a lout; why does he keep me? It means he needs me. Well, that means I’m not afraid of him, let him be afraid of me instead.
SHAPKIN Does he really not scold you?
KUDRYASH How can he not scold! He can’t breathe without it. But I don’t let up either: he says one word, and I say ten; he spits, and then he leaves. No, I won’t be a slave to him.
KULIGIN Should we take him as an example! It’s better to endure.
KUDRYASH Well, if you’re so smart, you teach him politeness first, and then teach us. It’s a pity his daughters are young, not a grown one among them.
SHAPKIN And if there were?
KUDRYASH I’d give him reason to respect me. I have a fierce way with the girls!
Dikoy and Boris pass by. Kuligin takes off his hat.
SHAPKIN (To Kudryash.) Let’s step aside: he might pick a fight.
(They step aside.)
SCENE TWO
The same. DIKOY and BORIS.
DIKOY Did you come here to be idle? You parasite! Go to ruin!
BORIS It’s a holiday; what is there to do at home?
DIKOY You’ll find something to do if you want to. I told you once, I told you twice: “Don’t you dare cross my path”; yet you persist! Is there not enough room for you? Wherever I go, there you are! Bah, you cursed thing! Why are you standing there like a post? Are they talking to you or not?
BORIS I am listening; what else should I do!
DIKOY (Looking at Boris.) Go to hell! I don’t even want to talk to you, you Jesuit. (Leaving.) He’s been foisted on me! (Spits and exits.)
SCENE THREE
KULIGIN, BORIS, KUDRYASH, and SHAPKIN.
KULIGIN What is your business with him, sir? We just can’t understand. Why do you choose to live with him and put up with his abuse?
BORIS As if I choose it, Kuligin! It’s necessity.
KULIGIN But what necessity, sir, allow me to ask? If you can, sir, please tell us.
BORIS Why not tell you? You knew our grandmother, Anfisa Mikhailovna?
KULIGIN Well, how could we not!
KUDRYASH How could we not!
BORIS She took a dislike to my father for marrying a noblewoman. That is why my father and mother lived in Moscow. My mother used to say she couldn’t stay with the relatives for three days; it all seemed so wild to her.
KULIGIN And why wouldn’t it seem wild! No need to talk about it! One needs a great deal of habituation, sir.
BORIS Our parents raised us well in Moscow, sparing nothing for us. They put me in the Commercial Academy, and my sister in a boarding school, but they both died suddenly in the cholera epidemic, and my sister and I were left orphans. Then we heard that Grandmother had died here and left a will that Uncle should pay us the due portion when we came of age, but only on one condition.
KULIGIN And what is that, sir?
BORIS If we are respectful to him.
KULIGIN That means, sir, you will never see your inheritance.
BORIS No, it’s not just that, Kuligin! He will first torment us, mock us in every possible way, as pleases his soul, and in the end, he will still give us nothing, or only some trifle. And then he will claim that he gave it out of charity, and that he shouldn’t have given even that.
KUDRYASH That’s the custom in our merchant class. Besides, even if you were respectful to him, who is to stop him from saying you are not respectful?
BORIS Exactly. He already says sometimes: “I have my own children, why should I give money to strangers? I would be wronging my own by doing so!”
KULIGIN It seems your situation is bad, sir.
BORIS If it were just me, it would be nothing! I would drop everything and leave. But I pity my sister. He had invited her here too, but Mother’s relatives didn’t let her go, they wrote that she was ill. What her life would have been like here is terrifying to imagine.
KUDRYASH Naturally. Do they understand civilized behavior!
KULIGIN How do you live with him, sir, in what position?
BORIS In no position at all. “Live with me,” he says, “do what you are told, and I’ll pay what I see fit.” That is, he’ll settle accounts after a year, as he pleases.
KUDRYASH That is his established way. No one among us dares to breathe a word about wages, or he’ll scold them for all he’s worth. “How do you know what I have in mind?” he says. “Can you know my soul? Maybe I will be in such a mood that I’ll give you five thousand.” Now, you try to talk to him! Only he has never once in his entire life been in such a mood.
KULIGIN What is to be done, sir! You must try to please him somehow.
BORIS That’s the whole point, Kuligin, that it’s utterly impossible. Even his own family can’t please him; how could I?
KUDRYASH Who can please him, when his whole life is based on scolding? And most of all, about money; not a single account is settled without abuse. Another man is glad to give up what is due to him, just so he would calm down. But it’s a disaster if someone makes him angry in the morning! He finds fault with everyone all day long.
BORIS My aunt begs everyone with tears every morning: “Fathers, don’t anger him! Darlings, don’t anger him!”
KUDRYASH But how can you avoid it! If he goes to the market, that’s the end of it! He scolds all the peasants. Even if you ask for less than is due, he won’t leave without a quarrel. And then it starts for the whole day.
SHAPKIN In a word: a warrior!
KUDRYASH And what a warrior!
BORIS But the real trouble is when he’s insulted by a person he dares not scold; then his household had better look out!
KUDRYASH Mercy me! What a laugh there was! Once, a hussar insulted him on the ferry across the Volga. The things he did then were miraculous!
BORIS And what was it like for the household! After that, everyone hid in the attics and cupboards for two weeks.
KULIGIN What is that? Surely the people are coming from the evening service?
(Several people pass in the background.)
KUDRYASH Let’s go, Shapkin, for some fun! Why stand here?
(They bow and exit.)
SCENE FOUR
BORIS and KULIGIN.
BORIS Ah, Kuligin, it’s so hard for me here, without being used to it. Everyone looks at me so strangely, as if I’m superfluous here, as if I bother them. I don’t know the local customs. I understand that this is all our Russian, native way, but I just can’t get used to it.
KULIGIN And you never will get used to it, sir.
BORIS Why is that?
KULIGIN Savage ways, sir, in our town, savage! Among the townsfolk, sir, you will see nothing but rudeness and abject poverty. And we will never, sir, break free from this rut! Because with honest labor, we can never earn more than our daily bread. And whoever has money, sir, tries to enslave the poor so that they can gain even more money from their free labor. Do you know what your uncle, Savyol Prokofyich, answered the police chief? The peasants came to the police chief to complain that he never properly settled accounts with any of them. The police chief started telling him: “Listen,” he says, “Savyol Prokofyich, settle with the peasants properly! They come to me with complaints every day!” Your uncle patted the police chief on the shoulder and said: “Is it worth it, your High Well-Born, for us to talk about such trifles! I have many people passing through in a year; you just understand this: if I underpay them by just a kopeck per person, that adds up to thousands for me, so it’s good for me!” That’s how it is, sir! And among themselves, sir, how do they live! They undermine each other’s trade, not so much out of greed as out of envy. They are at enmity with each other; they lure drunken clerks into their fancy houses, clerks, sir, who don’t even have a human appearance, their human face is lost. And for a small act of charity, those clerks write malicious accusations against their neighbors on stamped paper. And then, sir, their litigation begins, and there is no end to the torments. They sue here, and then they go to the provincial capital, and they are already waiting for them there and clapping their hands with joy. The fairy tale is quickly told, but the deed is not quickly done; they lead them on, and drag them on, and they are even happy with this dragging, that is all they need. “I will spend money,” one says, “but it will cost him a pretty penny too.” I had intended to describe all this in verse…
BORIS And you can write in verse?
KULIGIN In the old style, sir. I’ve read quite a bit of Lomonosov, Derzhavin… Lomonosov was a sage, a natural scientist… And yet he was also one of us, from the common class.
BORIS You should write it. That would be interesting.
KULIGIN How can I, sir! They’ll devour me, swallow me alive. I already get scolded for my talk, sir; but I can’t help it, I love to scatter conversation! I also wanted to tell you about family life, sir; but some other time. There’s plenty to hear about that too.
FEKLUSHA and another woman enter.
FEKLUSHA Bea-a-uty, darling, bea-a-uty! Divine beauty! But what’s the use of talking! You live in the promised land! And the merchant class is all pious people, adorned with many virtues! With great generosity and almsgiving! I am so content, so, Mother, content, up to my throat! For not leaving us, even more generous bounty will multiply for them, especially for the Kabanov house.
(They exit.)
BORIS The Kabanovs?
KULIGIN A hypocrite, sir! She gives to the poor, but she has completely tormented her own household.
(Silence.)
If only I could find the perpetuum mobile, sir!
BORIS What would you do then?
KULIGIN Well, sir! The English offer a million; I would use all the money for society, for support. The townsfolk need work. Otherwise, they have hands, but nothing to work on.
BORIS And you hope to find the perpetuum mobile?
KULIGIN I certainly do, sir! If only I could raise some money for a model now. Goodbye, sir! (Exits.)
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