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Mark Renner ENGL 308W Dr. Marinova 12/10/2013 Gender Equality in The Betrothed Anton Chekhov has long been rightly regarded as one of the foremost authors to come out of Russia, if not the world at large. Although his works ranged widely in format, he is best remembered for his dramatic offerings. The Seagull is still widely studied and performed as a masterpiece of composition. However, his work also spread into different areas. He wrote several novellas as well as one single novel. However, he was by far more prolific as an author of the short story. Known for heavy use of subtext and a bizarre combination of grim observances and humor, Chekhovs short stories are full of incredible subtlety and social messages. A recurring theme in these stories is the value of women as fully fledged individuals, capable of autonomy and independent thought at the same level or above their male counterparts. An excellent example of this theme is found in the very last short story that Chekhov published. The Betrothed is a chaptered short story detailing an existential crisis experienced by a young woman expected to be married. Chekhov uses this backdrop to deconstruct the expectations of men and women at the time, followed by a radical break with social convention on the part of women. The end result is the story of an individual discovering her worth as an individual, entirely separate from the values and misogyny of her surroundings, even showing others how to follow her in one instance. The Betrothed is a clear defense of the value of women on their own terms.

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The story begins on the eve of a wedding. The opening paragraphs read like the setting of a fairy tale. A beautiful girl is engaged to a rich and handsome young man. He gallantly wooed her and asked for her hand. The family is ecstatic and everyone is bustling about preparing for the wedding. The setting is so picturesque the rest of the story turns it something approaching irony. The first conflict of the story is that Nadya, the protagonist of this tale, is unhappy at the idea of marrying Andrey, her fianc (Chekhov 248). At this point of the story, Chekhov begins to destroy any stereotypical expectations about the quality of men and marriage. Andrey looks excellent on paper. He is the son of a priest and from a respected family. He appears to have observed all of the forms, having wooed Nadya and her personally for her hand. Clearly, Andrey has done nothing wrong in regards to the marriage and Nadya agreed to it (Chekhov 250). The question arises as to the nature of her disquiet. To clearly understand Andreys position in the story, it is first necessary to be introduced to Sasha. Sasha is a sickly young man who seems to wander aimlessly through life. He was considered to be a good artist, though Chekhov casts doubt on this assertion. He went to school, pursued several subjects and ended up working on lithographs. He primarily rejoins the family when he is in poor health and needs to recuperate in the country (Chekhov 249). He serves exactly one role in this story: he likes to turn the lives of others on their heads. He is something of a free spirit that is very unhappy with the current order. He chastises Nadya and her family for living lavishly and keeping serfs. He is the one that sows seeds of discontent when he encourages Nadya to run away to Moscow and become educated (Chekhov 249). In short, Sasha is the perfect opposite of Andrey. Where Andrey is physically robust, Sasha is sickly. Andrey is a respectable man with society driven thought, Sasha is a traveler who despises society and

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wants it overturned. These two men are two opposite tropes for male characters. Andrey is the conservative prince and Sasha is the free spirited liberal. Nadya, at the beginning of the book, is essentially trying to decide which way of life she should follow. Sasha quickly points out that the old aristocratic ways of living, idleness as he calls it, is disgusting and a waste. It comes from the labor of others. Nadya begins to see Andrey through this lens. His arm around her waist seems like iron and his talks about the future and his estates seem vulgar (Chekhov 255). A key detail concerning Andreys background and the life that he represents appears when Nadyas mother broaches the topic of hypnotism. Andreys father asks if she believes in the practice. Nina tactfully avoids telling a priest that she believes in such things, but says also that she [has] to acknowledge that there is much that is mysterious and incomprehensible in nature. The priest rejects this out hand and insists that there is no such thing as a mystery that has not been explained by men of faith. Not even one (Chekhov 250). Eventually, Nadya listens to Sasha. She chooses the path of the free spirit and rejects Andrey. As such, the conservative, fairy tale ending, the marriage of society, is rejected. That common ideal of manhood is shown as worthless. It is not simply poor enough to be rejected, it must be escaped. However, in leaving Andrey, Nadya is not simply rejecting her fianc and that ideal for men. She is also rejecting what society says the proper place for women. Nadya was raised by country aristocracy and the realization that some may criticize their way of life is a foreign thought to her when Sasha suggests it. Like all good daughters, Nadya thinks her mother is a marvelous woman (Chekhov 249). Nina is perfect country noble. She is well educated, a socialite and bedecked in diamonds at all times it seems. Nadya even seems entranced by her, standing on her porch and watching her mother. That is the life that would await Nadya when

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she marries. She will have jewels and an estate. She will be respected and rich. Sasha quickly moves to point out the holes in the faade of such a life. He tells Nadya that he found out that the servants sleep on piles of rags in the kitchens, lying among bugs and cockroaches. Serfdom had been outlawed twenty years before. In fact, Sasha pardons the grandmother as she had lived most of her life in such a culture. However, he says that Nina should know better. Encouraged by Nadyas lack of response he says, Good Heavens! Nobody ever does anything! Your mother does nothing but stroll around like a grand-duchess, Granny does nothing at all, nor do you. And Andrey Andreyevich, your fianc, he does nothing too (Chekhov 249). Here an entire class is excoriated. There may be beauty and glamor, but the recipients do nothing. They resign their servants to a life of filth while they do nothing. It is expected for a woman to be idle. It is expected for a woman to be beautiful and allow herself to be doted upon. Sasha dares to say that that expectation is wrong. He criticizes Nadya and Andrey in the same breath. Men and women both need to be active. He does not say that women are too idle, or that men need do something else (Chekhov 252). He treat both genders with the same amount of contempt. He values, or rather devalues, both as the same. This is the choice that Nadya must make. Sasha has presented her two options: She must either marry Andre and seal the cycle, or run away and do something, anything. It does not matter that she is a woman because, according to Sasha, both men and women who are slaves to the patterns of the society at large are wrong. This is the first pull towards gender equality in the story. Sasha destroys both the image of men and women for Nadya. She was on the fence about Andrey before, but she begins to read poor things about him from his words and deeds. Finally, she declares, I despise my fianc, I despise myself, I despise this whole idle, empty life (Chekhov 258). Her decision made, Nadya conspires to leave her home secretly on the pretext of sending Sasha off at the train while she actually leaves

Renner 5 on it herself (Chekhov 259). She rejects her mothers way of life that required such poor treatment of others. By abandoning her family, she also cut herself off from their support. That society, that system is gone from her. She followed Sashas advice and put the lie to the cultural expectations to marry. Her self-determination and rejection of Andrey and her mother allow Chekhov to reject the gender norms of his day. This is the point where Nadya becomes an individual. Up to this point, Nadya has functioned merely as a woman. Her introduction was as a rich, young woman with expectations attached to her. Because she is a woman, she must marry. Because she is a daughter, she must marry well. Because she is a wealthy woman, she must do nothing and remain beautiful. Here, she acts. She throws off the mantle thrust upon her by birth and listens to the council of her friends, Sasha about what a person ought not to do. She shirk her unwanted responsibilities and runs. Upon first glance, this may seem like the victory Nadya needs. She has rejected the strictures of the patriarchy. However, she has yet to truly take on her own agency. She has merely exchanged the instruction of one man for another. Sasha is the author of her will at the moment. The thought to run away belonged to him. In a way, Nadyas actions and will belong to him as well. Nadya has yet to truly act purely as an individual because she went from acting like societys depiction of a woman, to Sashas definition of a person. She has yet to act on her accord for her own motivations. Nadya occupies herself in St. Petersburg by attending university, an admirable endeavor that symbolizes her examination of the world. She has left her old assumptions behind her and is now trying to learn about the world as it really is. However, Nadya still feels a pull from the life that she left behind. She often makes trips to Moscow to visit her friend (Chekhov 259). He clearly is very important to Nadya now. She ran away from the structure that informed her on

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how to dress, act and live. Sasha helped her to leave, gave her the idea. Before, she only saw on Sasha on the few occasions that he came to visit, usually when he was ill. She never sought him out before now, having to need of any other input for her life. Now, he is the only advisor that she has left. Her family, with whom she does still write, would be useless to tell her what to do in the world as they vehemently oppose he decision (Chekhov 260). She needs Sasha to direct her because she still has not learned to act on her own account. Her decision to listen to Sasha was a good one. She managed to reject the domineering influence of the greater part of society. However, she is not yet truly free. Some may argue that Sashas influence is not so insidious. Indeed, he clearly means well and passionately believes what he says. However, he displays a desire to turn the lives of his friends on their heads with no other justification than that they ought to be changed. If he had been a friend to Nadya the individual, his desire for her to change would be more acceptable. Knowing her predicament, temperament and desires, his advice could have been tailored to her. He could have supported her identity. However, it appears that his view point on how she ought to live her life had nothing to do with her. He saw her as a cog in the machine he disliked and wanted to dislodge her. He applied the same the view and direction to his friendships with other and, whether he realized it or not, objectivized Nadya and did not treat her as an individual. In fact, he even tells Nadya that he wants to convince another female friend of his to go away to university with no other justification than to turn her life topsy-turvy (Chekhov 261). In order to achieve her independence, Nadya would have to be separated from her friend Sasha. Eventually, Nadya became homesick and returned to the country (Chekhov 261). At first glance, this may seem counterproductive to the steps she had made up to this point, expressing a longing to undo the steps she has made towards emancipation. However, it is necessary to point

Renner 7 out the fact that she missed her mother and Granny (Chekhov 259). She makes no mention of missing her money, her servants or her house. She expresses no wish for people to think well of her as the child of nobility. She misses nothing of the system from which she had fled. She missed the persons of her mother and her grandmother. When she had left the home, she had rejected the way of life that her family had accepted. She was disgusted with the way they treated servants and the way that they were idle. She fled that way of life. She left because she feared the system. Now, she decides to return home in order to embrace individuals. The systems of society are no longer in control of her. She goes home to meet her family on her terms having neither been begged nor forced. She returns home on her accord as a free willed individual, an attitude not associated with women at the time. When Nadya makes it to her home, things are different than when she had left it. Her family is no longer at the top of the social circle. Her escape had disgraced them (Chekhov 261). However, her rejection of the system had forced her family to reevaluate the world around them. In fact, Nadyas mother talks about the fact that people ought to look at the world like a prism. She says, The great thing for life is to be seen through a prismIn other words, life must be divided up in our consciousness into the seven primary elements, as if into seven primary colors, and each must be studied separately (Chekhov 262). This is the view of Chekhov on the world, societys expectations and people in general. Here is a clear call to make individual choices based on upon individual examinations of the world. Chekhov himself rejected any blind swallowing of prevailing opinion and advocated that each person make their own judgments. For women in particular, Chekhov did not think that he understood them. This is not uncommon among men. Most think that women are mysterious. However, Chekhov thought that the world had failed to understand women and that that failing

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was fatal (Zviniatskovsky). The way that people had looked at women was insufficient. Elsewhere, Chekhov also said that "I can write about anything you like. Tell me to write about a bottle and there will be a story entitled "The Bottle. Living images create thought, it is not the thought which creates the image (Martin). This is what makes Chekhov so unique in his approach to women. To passively accept a societal view of women and their place in the patriarchy is to allow the thought to create the image. He defied this way of thinking and wrote women as he saw them. It is also worth noting that Chekhov married an actress who had a career in a different city than he. If he did not celebrate the spirit of individuality and selfdetermination of women, then his life makes little sense. Carolyn Heilbrun once said of Chekhov that in his day, he was them man who was best attuned to the feminine impulse and who understood the ways in which society frustrates it (Boken). Chekhov treated women as the people he saw them to be. He rejected anything that did not line up with his own observations. He expected people to make their own choices. This is why Nadya is so important. She makes the journey everyone inevitably takes if they mature and try to make their own judgments. People grow and reject the majority opinion for the minority because they are dissatisfied with the status quo, as Nadya did by adopting Sashas views. However, that is merely a trade, not breaking free. Nadya, at the end of the story, learns that Sasha is dead. She is not terribly saddened by this passing. She outgrew him and his restrictions. Before his death it vexed her that the thought of Sasha no longer moved her as formerly. She felt a longing to live, to be in Petersburg, and her friendship with Sasha seemed to belong to a past, which, while dear, was now very distant (Chekhov 263). The part of her life controlled by Sasha, the part of a searcher controlled by the thoughts of another, was over. Nadya was free of the control of others, free to live by her own wants and desires. Of course,

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she mourns Sasha in her way. He was dear to her and not evil by any means. His passing was sad. In a way, the dying of old passions and ideas, even if they were not original to the individual, are all sad. But Nadya is not crippled by sorrow. She sees clearly that now she is free. Her last line of dialogue in the story is Goodbye, Sasha (Chekhov 263). After that life stretched before her. She saw clearly that she determined her own fate and she would not relinquish control to any outside force. No longer bound by her past she says goodbye to her old life, to her family, and left the town, gay and full of spirits-as she supposed, forever (Chekhov 263). Feminism is, at its core a movement and ideology focusing on the ontological equality of men and women as a natural state of being that ought to be recognized and encouraged by society. Chekhov many years before the rise of the feminist movement, it clearly a supporter of those ideals. In the very last story he wrote, Chekhov writes about a woman named Nadya. Nadya, listening to her friends, runs away from the life expected of her by society. She rejects the marriage expected of her as well as the life of idleness and irrelevance. She educated herself. She lives on her own. Eventually, she even frees herself from the influence others who, though well meaning, had been outgrown. The Betrothed is clearly an advocate of equality and selfdetermination.

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Works Cited Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich. Anton Chekhov's Short Stories: Texts of the Stories, Backgrounds, Criticism. New York: Norton, 1979. Print. "Early Feminist Writings." Carolyn G. Heilbrun. Julia B. Boken. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1988. 33-57. Twayne's United States Authors Series 672. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 11 Dec. 2013. Martin, David W. "Chekhov and the Modern Short Story in English." Neophilologus 71.2 (Apr. 1987): 129-143. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Thomas J. Schoenberg and Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 85. Detroit: Gale, 2006. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 11 Dec. 2013. Zviniatskovsky, Vladimir. "In Chekhov Then and Now: The Reception of Chekhov in World Culture." Chekhov Then and Now: The Reception of Chekhov in World Culture. Ed. J. Douglas Clayton. New York: Peter Lang, 1997. 125-136. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Jelena O. Krstovic. Vol. 102. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 11 Dec. 2013.