Rothschild’s Fiddle

by Anton P. Chekhov (first published 1894, full text available online)

Introduction

Chekhov’s short story Rothschild’s Fiddle is famous for the themes of bitterness and intolerance turning to brotherly concern and tolerance — all on one’s deathbed. It highlights the stupidity of hatred and the loss this causes to all of humanity.

Summary

The protagonist, Yakov, is an elderly coffin maker who wastes his life in sorrow, spite, and scorn. His only joy is derived from playing the fiddle. Instead of seeing possibilities, he sees only losses. And instead of changing his actions to turn losses into gains, he simply sits and counts his losses. He is generally a grumpy, mean-spirited old man. “For no apparent reason Yakov little by little became possessed by hatred and contempt for the Jews, and especially for Rothschild,” a Jewish man in the town who played the flute. He took to verbally berating Rothschild and threatening him with violence.

When Yakov’s wife of 52 years takes ill, he realizes, with some shame that he never showed her affection or kindness. As he builds her coffin, he thinks of the loss of the price of the wood used. As he undertakes her burial, he is pleased that he is ale to accomplish the affair without financial cost. After his wife is buried, he enters a deep depression and wanders to the beautiful river that he hadn’t visited for 40 or 50 years. A memory of happiness and the good of humanity washes over him. He remembers a smiling wife and a baby girl that died — forgotten in his self-absorbed bitterness.

At this lake he receives his epiphany:

“Why do people always do what isn’t needful? Why had Yakov all his life scolded, bellowed, shaken his fists, ill-treated his wife, and, one might ask, what necessity was there for him to frighten and insult the Jew that day? Why did people in general hinder each other from living? What losses were due to it! What terrible losses! If it were not for hatred and malice people would get immense benefit from one another.”

The author shows Yakov’s change as complete when Rothschild approaches the next day. Rothschild is visibly frightened of Yakov and cowers before him due to the years of verbal abuse. But this time, Yakov greets him with a friendly tone and calls Rothschild “brother.” Though Yakov had previously seen only differences he despised, he now saw the humanity of this “brother.” As a final gesture of his deliverance from intolerance and disdain for all, he bequeaths to Rothschild his source of joy — his violin.

Questions and Discussion

Yakov asks, “Why do people in general hinder each other from living?” What are some examples in our society of people hindering each other from living?

If we all lose from hindering each other from living, why do we in societies around the world continue to hinder each other?

Yakov spent his days and nights counting his losses and bemoaning them. Because he filled his time focusing on what he lost, he was never able to make substantial gains. It is not until he allows himself to spend time wandering on the banks of the river and observing his surroundings that he realizes that he could have changed his lot in life.

“He might have gone in fishing and sold the fish to merchants, officials, and the bar-keeper at the station, and then have put money in the bank; he might have sailed in a boat from one house to another, playing the fiddle, and people of all classes would have paid to hear him; he might have tried getting big boats afloat again—that would be better than making coffins; he might have bred geese, killed them and sent them in the winter to Moscow. Why, the feathers alone would very likely mount up to ten roubles in the year. But he had wasted his time, he had done nothing of this. What losses! Ah! What losses! And if he had gone in for all those things at once—catching fish and playing the fiddle, and running boats and killing geese—what a fortune he would have made! But nothing of this had happened, even in his dreams; life had passed uselessly without any pleasure, had been wasted for nothing,”

Likewise, it is those individuals who see their situation with clarity, but instead of lazily complaining of their situation without a plan of action like Yakov, develop multiple ideas and methods to change the status quo, whether it was fighting for civil rights in the United States of America, the end of apartheid in South Africa, emancipation for women in Great Britain, or the improved status of women under Islamic law in Morocco.

What are some issues of injustice or intolerance that need to be seen with clarity in our society? And what are some plans of action to attack this injustice or intolerance?