Summary of “Mumu”
IS Turgenev wrote the story “Mumu” in 1852. For the first time the work was published in 1854 in the journal Sovremennik. The story was created within the literary direction of critical realism. “Mumu” is the first work in which Turgenev shows the vices of serfdom, denounces and condemns this social order.
Main characters
Gerasim – a janitor, “a man of twelve heights of growth, built by a hero and deaf and dumb from birth,” loved Tatiana. By order of the lady, Mumu killed his dog.
Lady is an advanced woman, a widow with a bad temper. Her children had long since left, and the old lady met her alone.
Other characters
Tatyana is a washerwoman, “a woman of about twenty, a little, thin, blond,” the beloved of Gerasim, who became the wife of Klimov.
Kapiton Klimov is a bitter drunk, Tatyana’s husband.
Gavrila is the chief butler of the lady.
Stepan is a footman, a “hefty
Summary
On one of the remote streets of Moscow in a gray house with white columns lived a widowed lady, surrounded by numerous servants. Among her servants, the janitor Gerasim, who was deaf and dumb from birth, stood out. He was gifted with an extraordinary, heroic force, he worked for four, and any case “bickered in his hands.” Once the lady brought Gerasim from the village. At first he yearned for his native places, but soon got used to city life. Yard people respected and were afraid of Gerasim. The man lived in a private room reserved for him over the kitchen, which he arranged in his own way and always locked it.
A year later, the old lady decided to marry the bitter drunkard of Capito on the laundress Tatiana, hoping that the marriage could fix it.
Tatyana was the girl of an unfortunate fate, she had worked very hard for pennies since the early years, and she was afraid of everyone. Especially Tatiana was frightened by the “huge” Gerasim. Laughing at her shyness, the man soon fell in love with the girl. Since then, Gerasim has always tried
The butler Gavril, who was commissioned by the lady to arrange the wedding of Tatyana and Kapiton, was afraid that after learning about the upcoming wedding, Gerasim, in a fit of anger, could destroy the whole house. After consulting with the servants, the butler decided to deceive the deaf-mute. Knowing that Gerasim does not tolerate drunkards, Gavrila persuaded Tatiana to walk past him, portraying “drunk”. Seeing the girl drunk, Gerasim immediately took her to Kapiton, and he went into his closet and did not leave there for a whole day, becoming after that even more morose.
A year after the wedding, Kapiton finally drank, and the lady sent him along with his wife to a distant village. At parting Gerasim gave Tatiana a red paper handkerchief. The woman shed tears and kissed the man three times.
Gerasim accompanied them to the Crimean Brod and, already returning home, noticed a puppy floundering in the water. The man took the dog with him, made a straw couch for her in his closet and fed him milk. As it turned out, it was a dog of Spanish breed with long ears and expressive eyes. The man became very attached to her and called her Mumu. The dog was loved by all the people in the house, but Gerasim tried not to let anyone in to her, apparently jealous.
Somehow the lady noticed lying under the bush Mumu and ordered to bring the dog to her. Mumu was very frightened by the new situation, so when the woman tried to pat her, she bared her teeth. The mood of the mistress immediately worsened, and she ordered Gavrila to get rid of the animal as soon as possible. While Gerasim was busy, the footman Stepan, at the order of the butler, drove Mumu to the Hunting Row, where he sold it to the buyer, asking him to keep the dog on his leash for a week. After the disappearance of the dog, the face of Gerasim “already lifeless, like all deaf mutes, is now petrified.” However, one night Mumu ran to him with a scrap of rope around her neck.
From that moment Gerasim began to hide the dog in his closet. Everyone heard sounds from his room, but out of pity they did not report about Mumu’s appearance to the lady. However, somehow, at night the dog began to bark loudly at a drunkard who had come to a get-up. The lady waking up from barking was outraged by what was happening and again demanded to get rid of the dog.
Sensing danger, Gerasim closed with Mumu in the closet and only in the morning opened the door to the butler. Gavril passed the order of the lady to the signs. Gerasim, realizing that he was required, in response, made it clear that he himself would solve the issue with Mumu.
An hour later, Gerasim, dressed in a festive caftan, took the dog to the tavern, where he fed her with meat soup. While Mumu ate, “two heavy tears rolled out suddenly from his eyes.” After this, Gerasim took the dog to the Crimean ford, took two bricks and sat down with Mumu in one of the boats standing on the shore. Sailing away from the shore, he “with some painful bitterness on his face” wrapped rope bricks, attached a loop and tied it around the neck of the dog. Unsuspecting Mumu looked at him trustingly. “He turned away, screwed up his eyes and unclasped his hands… Gerasim did not hear anything, neither the quick squeal of Mumu falling, nor a heavy splash of water.”
After that Gerasim left the yard, returned to his native village. Upon learning of the loss of the man, the lady first became angry and ordered him to be found, but when she was told that the deaf-mute returned to her native village, “she declared that such an ungrateful person does not need her at all.”
“And still lives Gerasim bobyl in his lonely hut.” Since his return from Moscow, he has completely ceased to deal with women, does not even look at them, and does not keep a single dog. “
Conclusion
The protagonist of the story “Mumu” – the deaf-mute serf Gerasim is the embodiment in the work of Turgenev’s views of the freedom-loving, brave Russian people. At the behest of the lady Gerasim first lost his homeland, then Tatiana’s beloved and even the beloved Mumu – all this led to an inner rebellion within the hero. At the end of the work the man breaks the serf ties. He returns home and becomes a man of his own free will.
A brief retelling of “Mumu” allows you to get acquainted with the plot of the work, but for a better understanding of the work, we recommend to read it completely.
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