#132 The Huntsman- Anton Chekhov
A man, the huntsman comes across his wife,
estranged for the past decade. He was tricked into marriage, he says, by drink
and an over zealous Count.
“…and a drunk man can not only be married off, but
can even be seduced into a different faith.”
She seems self-sufficient and somewhat indifferent to her wayward
husband. She “sits down a bit further away in a patch of sun and, ashamed of
her joy, covers her smiling mouth with her hand.”
They talk for a bit, they part ways, he feels slightly
guilty, she feels slightly resentful. In the end, I believe this is a story
about class and social standing:
“In your eyes I am a wild man, and in mine you are
a simple peasant woman with no understanding. Are we well matched? I am a free,
pampered, profligate man, while you are a working woman, going in bark shoes
and never straightening your back. The way I think of myself is that I am the
foremost man in every kind of sport, and you look at me with pity.”
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