Short Fiction · Chapter
A Very Short Romance explained
The narrator, a young man who has lost a leg in war, walks along the frozen Neva quay on a January night, reflecting on his lost love Masha.
What happens
The narrator, a young man who has lost a leg in war, walks along the frozen Neva quay on a January night, reflecting on his lost love Masha. He recalls meeting her in the spring, their romance, her insistence that he prove his honor by fighting in the war, and his subsequent injury. Upon returning to St. Petersburg with a wooden leg, he discovers Masha has fallen in love with another man. He selflessly steps aside, serves as best man at their wedding, and now wanders the desolate winter streets, haunted by grief and loneliness.
Themes in this chapter
Love and Sacrifice
The narrator sacrifices his own happiness by stepping aside so Masha can marry her new love, even serving as best man at their wedding.
Suffering and Redemption
The narrator endures physical amputation, emotional betrayal, and lonely winter nights, seeking meaning in his pain.
Death and Mortality
The narrator's wooden leg, the chimes marking time, and his reflections on death and the fragility of life underscore the theme of mortality.
Characters to notice
- Masha
The narrator's beloved; a Lutheran who urged him to fight in the war, promised to marry him upon his return, but ultimately married another man while he was away.
- Masha
The narrator's beloved; a Lutheran who urged him to fight in the war, promised to marry him upon his return, but ultimately married another man while he was away.
Key passages
“Frost and cold. January is approaching, and is making its coming known to every unfortunate being— dvorniks and gorodovois —unable to hide their noses in some warm place.”
The bitter January cold affects everyone, especially the poor and those who work outdoors, who cannot find shelter from the freezing weather.
The narrator sets a bleak winter scene, emphasizing the harshness of the season and the suffering of common people.
“I am a young man with a wooden leg. Perhaps you will say I am imitating Dickens. You remember Silas Wegg, the literary gent with the wooden leg (in Our Mutual Friend)? No, I am not copying him. I really am a young man with a wooden leg.”
The narrator acknowledges that his wooden leg might seem like a literary device borrowed from Dickens, but insists it is a real consequence of his war injury.
The narrator directly addresses the reader, blending self-awareness with a claim to authenticity.
“Very well, Masha ordered me to be a hero, and therefore I had to join the army. The times of the Crusades have passed, and knights are extinct; but if she whom you love were to say to you, 'I am this ring,' and throw it into a fire, even were it the greatest possible conflagration, would you not throw yourself into the flames to get that ring?”
Masha commanded the narrator to prove his love by enlisting in the war, and he compares his willingness to sacrifice himself for her to a knight diving into fire to retrieve a precious ring.
The narrator justifies his decision to fight not out of patriotism but out of devotion to Masha, using a romantic metaphor.
“I went to fight for Masha's sake, but I did my duty by my country honourably. I marched bravely through Romania amidst rain and dust, heat and cold. Self-sacrificingly I gnawed the ration biscuit.”
Although his primary motivation was love, the narrator served his country with honor, enduring harsh conditions and privations during the campaign.
The narrator emphasizes his dual loyalty: to Masha and to his military duty.
“Within a quarter of an hour I understood all. I did not wish to stand in the way of their happiness. The intelligent reader smiles sceptically. Surely you do not want me to believe all this? Who would gratuitously surrender the girl he loves to any good-for-nothing fellow?”
The narrator quickly realizes Masha has fallen for another man and decides to step aside, anticipating the reader's disbelief at such selflessness.
The narrator challenges the reader's cynicism, insisting on the possibility of genuine altruism.
“The wedding took place two days ago, and I was best man. I performed my duties at the ceremony with dignity, and gave to another what I most prize in this world.”
The narrator served as best man at Masha's wedding to another man, gracefully handing over the woman he loves.
This act of self-sacrifice is the climax of the narrator's emotional ordeal.
