“Woe from Wit” by Griboyedov in brief
Early in the morning, Maid Lisa knocks in the bedroom to the young lady. Sophia does not immediately respond: she talked with her lover, the secretary of Father Molchalin, who lived in the same house all night.
Silently appeared father Sophia, Pavel Afanasevich Famusov, flirts with Lisa, who barely manages to fight back from the master. Fearful that they can hear him, Famusov disappears.
Leaving Sophia, Molchalin in the door collides with Famusov, who is wondering what the secretary is doing here at such an early hour? Famusov, who sets an example of his own “monastic behavior,” somehow calmed down.
Left with Liza alone, Sophia dreamsily reminisces about the so quickly flashed night, when he and Molchalin “forgot music, and time went so smoothly,” and the servant barely restrains laughter.
Lisa reminds the lady of her former heartfelt inclination, Alexander Andreevich Chatsky, who has been traveling in foreign lands for three years.
Unexpectedly, Chatsky himself appears. He falls asleep to Sophia’s questions: what’s new in Moscow? how are their common acquaintances, who seem funny and ridiculous to Chatsky? Without any thought behind it, he unflatteringly speaks about Molchalin, who probably made a career.
Sophia is so offensive that she whispers to herself: “Not a man, a snake!”
Famusov enters, also not too pleased with Chatsky’s visit, and asks where Chatsky disappeared and what he did. Chatsky promises to tell everyone about everything in the evening, since he did not even have time to call home.
In the afternoon Chatsky again appears in the house of Famusov and asks Pavel Afanasyevich about his daughter. Famusov is alarmed, does Chatsky not want to marry? But how would Famousov react to this? – In turn, the young man asks. Famousov avoids a direct answer, advising the guest to first put things in order
“I would be glad to serve, I feel sick to serve,” says Chatsky. Famusov reproaches him with excessive “pride” and sets as an example of his late uncle, who achieved ranks and wealth, servilely serving the empress.
Chatsky this pattern does not suit. He finds that the “age of submission and fear” is a thing of the past, and Famusov is indignant at these “freethinking speeches,” and he does not want to listen to such attacks on the “golden age.”
The servant reports on the arrival of the new guest, Colonel Skalozub, whom Famusov pampered in every possible way, considering him a profitable bridegroom. Skalozub naively boasts of his service achievements, which are not achieved by military exploits.
Famusov utters a lengthy panegyric to the Moscow nobility with his hospitality, conservative old men, nobles, power-loving matrons and able to present themselves as maidens. He recommends Chatsky Skalozub, and Famous’s praises for Chatsky sound almost like an insult. Unable to withstand, Chatsky bursts into a monologue, in which he falls upon those flatterers and serf-owners, who admire the master of the house, denounces them “weak-willedness, reason of poverty.”
Little-understood from the speeches Chatsky Skalozub agrees with him in the assessment of the pompous guards. The army, in the opinion of the gallant campaigner, is no worse than the “Guardians”.
Sophia runs in and rushes to the window with a cry: “Oh, my God, fell, was killed!” It turns out that this Molchalin “cracked” from the horse.
Chatsky thinks: why is Sofya so frightened? Soon comes MOLCHALIN and reassures those present – nothing terrible has happened.
Sophia tries to justify her careless impulse, but only strengthens the suspicions that have arisen with Chatsky.
Left alone with Molchalin, Sophia worries about his health, and he is concerned about her incontinence.
After talking with Sophia Chatsky comes to the conclusion that she can not love such an insignificant person, but nevertheless beats the riddle: who is her lover?
Chatsky is also starting a conversation with Molchalin and is even stronger in his opinion: it is impossible to love someone whose virtues are reduced to “moderation and accuracy”, someone who does not dare to have his own opinion and admires nobility and power.
At the evening, guests continue to visit Famusov. First come the Gorichevs’ spouses, old friends of Chatsky, with whom he talks in a friendly manner, warmly recalling the past.
Other people appear and conduct the most empty conversations. The Countess-granddaughter tries to prick Chatsky, but he easily and wittily parries her attack.
Gorich represents Chatsky Zagoretsky, directly in the eye of characterizing the latter as a “swindler” and “rogue,” but he pretends not to be hurt at all.
Comes Khlestov, an old woman in power and not tolerating any objections. Before her pass Chatsky, Skalozub and Molchalin. The favor of Khlestov expresses only the secretary of Famusov, as he praises her dog. Turning to Sophia, Chatsky ironic about this. Sophia’s sarcastic speech of Chatsky is enraging, and she decides to avenge Molchalin. Moving from one group of guests to another, she gradually hints that Chatsky, it seems, is out of his mind.
This rumor is immediately heard throughout the living room, and Zagoretsky adds new details: “They grabbed us into the yellow house and put him on the chain.” The final verdict is taken by the countess-grandmother, deaf and almost surviving from the mind: Chatsky is a bassurman and a Voltarian. In the general chorus of indignant voices all other freethinkers – professors, chemists, fabulists, get to…
Chatsky, who is wandering about in a crowd of people alien to him in spirit, encounters Sophia and attacks with indignation the Moscow gentry, which admires the nothingness only because it had the good fortune to be born in France. Sam Chatsky is convinced that the “clever” and “vigorous” Russian people and their customs are much higher and better than foreign people, but nobody wants to listen to it. Everyone is in a waltz with the greatest zeal.
The guests are beginning to disperse when another old acquaintance of Chatsky, Repetilov, rushes in. He rushes to Chatsky with open arms, from the bat, begins to repent of various sins and invites Chatsky to visit the “secret alliance” consisting of “resolute people” who fearlessly talk about “the mothers of important”. However, Chatsky, who knows the cost to Repetilov, briefly characterizes the activities of Repetilov and his friends: “You only make noise!”
Repetilov switches to Skalozub, telling him the sad story of his marriage, but there is no mutual understanding either. Only Zagoretsky manages to rehearse Rechpilov in the conversation, and even then Chatsky’s madness becomes the subject of their discussion. Repetilov at first does not believe the rumor, but the rest persistently convince him that Chatsky is a real madman.
Detained in the porter’s room Chatsky heard all this and was indignant at the slanderers. He worries only one thing: does Sophia know about his “madness”? He can not even imagine that it was she who disbanded this rumor.
Liza appears in the vestibule, followed by a sleepy Molchalin. The maid reminds Molchalin that the young lady is waiting for him. MOLCHALIN admits to her that she cares for Sophia, so as not to lose her affection and thereby strengthen her position, but he really likes Lisa.
This heard the quietly approaching Sophia and hiding behind the column Chatsky. An angry Sophia stands forward: “A terrible man, I am ashamed of the walls.” MOLCHALIN tries to get away from what was said, but Sophia is deaf to his words and demands that he leave his benefactor’s house today.
Chatsky, too, gives vent to feelings and denounces the treachery of Sophia. A crowd of servants headed by Famusov runs to the noise. He threatens to send his daughter to his aunt, to Saratov’s wilderness, and Lisa to be identified as a housewife.
Chatsky bitterly laughs at his own blindness, and over Sofya, and over all the like-minded people of Famusov, in whose society it is indeed difficult to keep one’s mind. Exclaiming: “I’ll go look for the light, / Where the insulted there is a feeling of a corner!” – he forever leaves once dear to his house.
The very same Famusov most concerned about “what will speak / Princess Marya Aleksevna!”
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)