Short Fiction · Chapter
II: Christmas Morning explained
Anna Akimovna wakes late on Christmas morning, dresses in a splendid new gown, and receives holiday greetings from her household, including the footman Mishenka and the lovestruck maid Masha.
What happens
Anna Akimovna wakes late on Christmas morning, dresses in a splendid new gown, and receives holiday greetings from her household, including the footman Mishenka and the lovestruck maid Masha. She distributes money and forgiveness downstairs among servants and relatives, but soon grows weary of the festive routine, feeling lonely and questioning the value of her beauty and wealth. She urges Mishenka to marry Masha, but he refuses due to his disdain for her perceived lack of propriety. The chapter closes with Anna Akimovna dismissing a clerk and preparing to receive the parish priests.
Themes in this chapter
Social Class and Inequality
The stark divide between rich and poor is highlighted through Mishenka's reverence for wealth, the servants' deference, and Anna Akimovna's uneasy awareness of her privilege.
Isolation and Loneliness
Despite being surrounded by people, Anna Akimovna feels unwanted and unloved, reflecting her deep loneliness.
Love and Marriage
Masha's unrequited love for Mishenka and Anna Akimovna's matchmaking efforts explore the tensions between romantic desire and social expectations.
Characters to notice
- Anna Akimovna
The wealthy young mistress of the house, who feels both festive and isolated on Christmas morning.
- Masha
The red-haired maid, hopelessly in love with Mishenka, who serves Anna Akimovna and receives her confidences.
- Mishenka
The handsome, prudent footman who rejects Masha's love and values propriety and wealth above all.
- Panteley
The dismissed coachman, drunk since November, who kneels in the kitchen begging forgiveness.
- Varvarushka
A tall, thin woman in black, who crosses herself before icons and has prepared her shroud.
Key passages
“Anna Akimovna gave him five roubles, while poor Masha was numb with ecstasy.”
Anna Akimovna handed Mishenka five roubles, and Masha was overwhelmed with joy.
Illustrates Masha's intense admiration for Mishenka and the power of small gestures in the household.
“She did not know for whom and for what she had put on this expensive dress, too, and, as always happened on all holidays, she began to be fretted by loneliness and the persistent thought that her beauty, her health, and her wealth, were a mere cheat, since she was not wanted, was of no use to anyone, and nobody loved her.”
She wondered why she had dressed up, and as on every holiday, she was troubled by loneliness and the feeling that her beauty, health, and wealth were meaningless because no one needed or loved her.
Captures Anna Akimovna's existential despair despite her material abundance.
“Mishenka could not picture his future spouse in his imagination except as a tall, plump, substantial, pious woman, stepping like a peacock, and, for some reason, with a long shawl over her shoulders; while Masha was thin, slender, tightly laced, and walked with little steps, and, worst of all, she was too fascinating and at times extremely attractive to Mishenka, and that, in his opinion, was incongruous with matrimony and only in keeping with loose behaviour.”
Mishenka imagined his ideal wife as tall, plump, and pious, while Masha's slender, attractive appearance seemed to him unsuitable for marriage and more appropriate for immoral behavior.
Reveals Mishenka's rigid and hypocritical views on female propriety and marriage.