Redemption and two other plays

In Short

This collection of three Russian plays dramatizes the friction between inner conscience and societal expectations across different social classes. In the first play, a nobleman chooses disappearance over an agonizing divorce, leaving his wife to marry another before a shocking discovery upends their peace. In the second, a scheming peasant farmhand plunges into moral decay through murder and betrayal in a dark rural world. In the third, a clever housemaid uses spiritualist hoaxes to trick her foolish, aristocratic employers into selling land to poor peasants. These works endure through their piercing moral clarity and vivid human drama.

The Story

The volume opens with the drama of Fédya Protosov, a nobleman whose ruinous drinking and marital neglect push his devoted wife, Lisa, toward her aristocratic suitor, Victor Karénin. Unwilling to endure the deceit and public humbug of formal divorce proceedings, Fédya attempts suicide to grant Lisa her freedom. When his courage fails at the trigger, he fakes his death with the help of Masha, a loving Gypsy girl, and vanishes into the urban underworld. Believing her husband dead, Lisa marries Karénin. Years later, an offhand revelation brings Fédya’s survival to light, triggering a legal nightmare. The state accuses Lisa and Karénin of bigamy, bringing them before a callous magistrate who views their heartbreak as mere court business. Driven to a corner by a legal system that demands humiliation, Fédya takes his own life in earnest, purchasing his family's release through ultimate sacrifice.

The focus shifts next to the dark, insular world of a peasant household, where the handsome laborer Nikíta engages in an illicit affair with Anísya, the wife of his sickly master, Peter. Egged on by his calculating mother Matryóna, Nikíta stands by as Anísya poisons her husband to secure his property and money. After Peter dies, Nikíta marries Anísya and takes control of the farm, but quickly grows tired of her and seduces his stepdaughter, Akoulína. When Akoulína gives birth to his child in secret, Matryóna and Anísya coerce the horrified Nikíta into smothering the infant in the cellar. Crushed by unbearable guilt and tormented by the memory of the baby's cries, Nikíta collapses spiritually. At Akoulína’s legal wedding feast, he publicly confesses his crimes before the assembled village and surrenders to the authorities, seeking redemption through punishment.

Finally, the collection turns to satiring the landed gentry. A delegation of poor peasants arrives at a wealthy Moscow estate, desperate to buy land to feed their families. The master of the house, Leoníd Fyódoritch, refuses to sell on credit, obsessed instead with hostings séances, scientific fads, and spirit communication. Noticing his absurd credulity, the quick-witted housemaid Tánya devises a scheme with her fiancé Simon. During a dark séance, Tánya hides under a sofa and manipulates threads, bells, and spooky noises to convince Leoníd that spirits command him to sign the land contract. The trick succeeds, forcing the master to sell the property on terms the peasants can afford.

How It Unfolds

A noble downfall begins Fédya Protosov abandons his home and marriage to wander among Gypsies and tavern companions, leaving his wife Lisa in the company of the respectable Victor Karénin. Despite his mother’s fierce opposition to marrying a woman tied to a living husband, Karénin seeks Lisa’s hand while Fédya struggles with his inability to reform.

A fake tragedy unspools Unable to shoot himself when the moment comes, Fédya accepts help from the Gypsy girl Masha to fake his death and disappear into hiding. Lisa, believing herself a widow, marries Karénin, but an investigation into Fédya’s actual survival eventually brings a charge of bigamy upon the unsuspecting couple.

Sin takes root in the village In a log hut, the laborer Nikíta carries on an affair with his master's wife, Anísya, ignoring his former lover Marína. Guided by his ruthless mother Matryóna, who provides poison packets, Anísya murders her dying husband to steal his hidden fortune and secure Nikíta as master.

Guilt crushes a murderer Nikíta squanders his stolen wealth, turns on Anísya, and fathers a child with his stepdaughter Akoulína. Forced by the women to crush the newborn in a dark cellar, Nikíta is haunted by phantom cries and publicly confesses his atrocities during a festive wedding gathering.

Desperate peasants seek relief Three poor villagers arrive at a grand Moscow home hoping to buy land, but the master, Leoníd Fyódoritch, refuses them while hosting extravagant gatherings. Meanwhile, the estate servants mock the upper classes' endless eating, drinking, and obsession with spiritualism.

Spirits alter the deed The housemaid Tánya hides under a couch during a glowing séance to trick her gullible master into believing spirits demand he grant the land to the peasants. The trick succeeds, the contract is signed, and the joyous villagers return home with their future secured.

The People

• Fédya Protosov: A charismatic nobleman torn between his warm heart and weak will. He wants to free his wife Lisa without dragging her through a degrading legal divorce, but his cowardice and alcoholism lead to a tragic, real sacrifice.
• Lisa Protosova: Fédya’s long-suffering wife who seeks stability and respectability. Blocked by social conventions and her mother-in-law's rigid views, she marries Karénin in good faith, only to be dragged into court for bigamy.
• Nikíta: A handsome, vain farmhand driven by immediate desires. Hindered by his lack of moral backbone and manipulated by his mother, he drifts from adultery to murder, ultimately changing through a public, soul-cleansing confession.
• Anísya: A desperate peasant wife driven by passion and greed. Blocked by her husband's stinginess, she poisons him to keep his wealth, only to end up betrayed and embittered by the very man she sinned to win.
• Matryóna: Nikíta’s cunning mother who wants material security for her son. Unchecked by conscience, she orchestrates poisonings and infanticide, remaining cold while her son breaks under conviction.
• Tánya: A clever, resourceful housemaid who wants to marry her fiancé Simon and help his impoverished village family. Blocked by her master's refusal to sell land, she uses her wits and fake séances to trick him into signing the papers.

In Its Own Voice

"There has always been so much lacking between what I felt and what I could do." Fédya expresses the deep internal friction between his moral desires and his personal weakness before attempting to flee his past.

"Don't bury it, it's alive? Don't you hear? Alive! There--it's whimpering! There ... quite plain!" Nikíta unravels from severe guilt as he imagines the cries of the newborn child he was forced to destroy in the cellar.

"In course gentlefolks' food is of an airial kind." A peasant delegate remarks on the extravagant, endless dining habits of the wealthy landowners while waiting in their hall.

What It's Really About

These plays attack the rigid institutions that stifle human integrity, contrasting legalist morality with genuine spiritual rebirth. The narrative argues that state courts, religious dogmas, and social conventions often crush the human heart rather than heal it. Through Fédya’s tragic arc, the writing exposes how high-society divorce laws force decent people into deceit or destruction. In the rural village scenes, the text explores how greed, lust, and ignorance can transform ordinary laborers into monsters, while asserting that true redemption comes only through unreserved confession and willingness to suffer for one's sins. Finally, the satire mocks the foolish idle class, contrasting their absurd fascination with séances against the raw, practical survival needs of the working poor.

Why Read It Today

Readers drawn to intense moral drama, sharp social critique, and authentic historical detail will find this collection compelling. The dramatic pace moves swiftly, balancing deep tragedy with sharp satire. The language shifts seamlessly between the polished, polite dialogue of Moscow drawing rooms and the coarse, idiomatic speech of nineteenth-century Russian peasants.

The primary difficulty for modern readers lies in navigating the heavy atmosphere of rural squalor, dark themes like infanticide, and the dense web of patronymics and local terms. Additionally, the period attitudes toward marriage, social class, and gender roles reflect their era directly. Yet these challenges are far outweighed by the psychological force of the characters. Fédya’s painful self-awareness, Nikíta’s agonizing moral breakdown, and Tánya’s lively intelligence feel strikingly immediate. The plays linger in the mind because they refuse easy comfort, insisting that true transformation costs everything a person has to give.