And again, a comic sketch, this one skewering love and courtship.
A mother and father stand at a door, eavesdropping as their simpering daughter entertains an oafish suitor. However unappealing the young man may be, he’s apparently the best thing that the parents can hope for their daughter, and they have a plan: When the young lovers move to kiss, the mother and father will rush in and bless them with an ikon, which according to custom of the time (per this story) essentially binds the young man and woman together and requires that they get married.
(Presumably this was a small-town custom, not a big city thing!)
As the suitor prepares to press his lips to the girl’s hand, in rush the parents, calling out the blessing and waving the ikon. The young man sees what they have done and accepts his fate.
Chekhov has a nice little twist to serve up at the end, and the story is short enough that it’s an enjoyable tale.
But from a modern perspective it’s interesting to consider the idea that the characters in this story truly believe that the proffering of a blessing, at just the right moment, accompanied by someone waving a picture of a saint, would create a binding contract over another person. It’s sort of amazing, no?
This folk tradition strikes me as reflective of an autocratic society–it’s a world where absolute authority is brandished impulsively and even cruelly. In 19th century Russia, even after the freeing of the serfs, power was its own justification. The lower classes were used to bearing that weight, simply accepting any edict of authority as a kind of cruel, regrettable but non-negotiable fate. Simple superstitions, like waving an ikon over an unsuspecting pair of lovers, were a way for the powerless to briefly grasp power over someone else.
I rule you!
READ THIS? READ THAT!
“At the Barbers” is another story of courtship, but with a very different spin. It points up the transactional nature of marriage even though the young people in question are seeking matches based on love and companionship.
A Chekhov Circus 