# The Petchenyeg explained — Short Fiction

> Chapter companion for Short Fiction by Anton Chekhov.

## What happens

Ivan Abramitch Zhmuhin, a retired Cossack officer, returns home after making his will and receiving absolution, haunted by thoughts of death. On the train he meets a lawyer and invites him to stay at his farm. At home, his sons shoot a hen for sport. Zhmuhin holds forth on the unchanging brutality of human nature, recounting stories of a princess beaten for weeping at a grave, a foreman beaten by workers, and his own sons digging up a dead horse for its hide. The lawyer, a vegetarian, is disturbed by Zhmuhin's cynicism. During a stormy night, Zhmuhin continues his monologue, dismissing women and lamenting his inability to educate his sons. The lawyer, exhausted and horrified, insists on leaving at dawn.

## Themes in this chapter

### Mortality and Legacy

Zhmuhin is consumed by thoughts of approaching death, having made his will after a stroke, and meditates on the vanity of life and the legacy of his sons.

### Hypocrisy and Moral Failure

Zhmuhin preaches about the unchanging brutality of people while recounting his own sons' cruel acts and his complicity in exploitative labor practices.

### Isolation and Loneliness

The farm is isolated in the steppe, with no water or trees; Zhmuhin's wife weeps for twenty years, and the lawyer is a solitary figure disturbed by the environment.

### Suffering and Compassion

The lawyer's vegetarianism and gentle nature contrast with Zhmuhin's tales of cruelty; the princess's weeping and the foreman's beatings illustrate suffering without compassion.

## Character check-ins

### Ivan Abramitch Zhmuhin

Retired Cossack officer, old and bent, haunted by mortality and cynical about human nature.

### The Stranger

A fair-haired, plump, middle-aged lawyer, gentle and modest, a vegetarian, disturbed by Zhmuhin's stories.

### Lyubov Osipovna

Zhmuhin's wife, thin and pale, still young and beautiful, prays nightly for her children's education.

### Zhmuhin's Sons

Two boys, one nineteen and one younger, barefoot and bareheaded, shoot a hen for sport and dig up a dead horse for its hide.

## Key lines

> Everyone is soon tired of his wife, but not everyone tells the truth, because, you know, people are ashamed of an unhappy home life and conceal it.

Most men grow weary of their wives but hide their dissatisfaction out of shame.

_Zhmuhin expresses his cynical view of marriage to the lawyer._

> We took that princess and gave her a good thrashing, and she gave up coming.

We beat the princess to stop her nightly visits to her husband's grave.

_Zhmuhin recounts a brutal story from his military service in the Caucasus._

> The master gives orders for cold water to be poured on the foreman, then flings ten roubles in his face. And he takes it and is pleased too, for indeed he'd be ready to be hanged for three roubles, let alone ten.

The landowner revives the beaten foreman with cold water and pays him, which the foreman accepts gladly due to his desperation.

_Zhmuhin describes the exploitative labor system on a neighboring estate._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_5_se/chapters/the-petchenyeg
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- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_5_se/chapters