ROTHSCHILD'S FIDDLE

Rothschild's Fiddle

A man, Yakov Ivanov, who makes a living as an undertaker doesn't get much out of life. He worries about money -- what he earns and might've earned -- but hardly pays attention to his faithful wife of fifty-three years.

His life doesn't know much joy. He makes good coffins and he's proud of that. But he also hates. He hates Rothschild, the Jewish musician who plays flute in the band. He ill treats Rothschild for no apparent reason.

Here we have a man who is miserable and doesn't care for anyone much -- unless they're dying and he thinks he will make a good profit when they croak.

His loyal wife gets sick -- he takes her to the doctor who doesn't treat her well -- and when he realizes his wife is dying -- he starts to look back and begins to sense how poorly he treated her.

She dies. He buries her for next to nothing in a coffin he made and he is immensely satisfied that he was able to make such an elegant coffin at such a cheap price.

Then comes Rothschild to ask him to play with the band and Yakov lashes out at him -- and Rothschild gets bitten by a dog while running away.

Finally, Yakov becomes ill and when he is facing death he has a satori -- going to the river he remembers his infant daughter who died and he understands what a wretched life he created for himself -- how many lost opportunities there were.

Possibly he never got over the death of his daughter -- he shut himself up -- punished himself -- dwelt in death and not life.

He finds redemption in the end by changing his ways. His final act is to give away his beloved fiddle to Rothschild.

I think one can decipher Chekhov's philosophy in this story -- his grand message:

"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."

Amen, brother!

Having read Mire a while back and feeling disappointed in the story's portrayal of a Jewish woman and wondering where Chekhov stood on Antisemitism which appears to be quite rampant at the time -- I feel in this story Chekhov delivers a strong message against hatred and malice and I want to believe that Chekhov learned that the best way for all of us to make the most out of life is not to go against each other-- to look beyond nationality -- religion -- class -- gender -- race --  and to stand up for each other.

I also see parallels with Shakespeare's King Lear -- men in their old age who come to see the truth.

Maybe too little but never too late.