The Party (Chekhov)
Short summary
Rural Russia, late 19th century. Olga Mihalovna hosted a name-day party for her husband, but felt exhausted by the constant socializing. Seven months pregnant, she escaped to the garden to rest and think about her unborn child.
While hiding in a garden shanty, she overheard her husband flirting with a young woman. This intensified her feelings of jealousy and alienation. Throughout the day, she observed her husband's theatrical behavior with guests and his conservative political posturing, which she found insincere and irritating.
As the party continued, Olga Mihalovna grew increasingly exhausted and resentful. After the guests departed near midnight, the couple quarreled. In anger, she accused him of marrying her only for her wealth. Hurt by this accusation, Pyotr Dmitritch left their bedroom. When she followed to apologize, she suddenly experienced labor pains.
Her labor was difficult and prolonged. Doctors performed an operation, but the child was stillborn. When Olga Mihalovna regained consciousness, she found her husband standing by the window, devastated.
"Olya," he said, wringing his hands; big tears suddenly dropping from his eyes. "Olya, I don't care about your property qualification, nor the Circuit Courts... nor particular views, nor those visitors, nor your fortune... Why didn't we take care of our child?"
In this moment of shared grief, the couple's petty arguments and social pretensions were revealed as meaningless in the face of their tragic loss.
Detailed summary by chapters
Chapter titles are editorial.
Chapter 1. The name-day celebration and growing tensions
After a festive dinner celebrating her husband's name-day, Olga Mihalovna escaped to the garden, exhausted from the constant smiling, talking, and entertaining guests. She was particularly tired because she was pregnant and had to wear stays to conceal her condition from the visitors. Seeking solitude, she followed a familiar path into the garden where she often thought about her unborn child, due in two months.
She was used to these thoughts coming to her as she turned to the left out of the big avenue into the narrow path... and it began to seem as though it were not the spider's web that tickled her face and neck caressingly, but that little creature.
Olga Mihalovna felt uneasy about abandoning her guests, recalling the political argument at dinner between her husband and her uncle about trial by jury, the press, and women's higher education. Her husband had argued from a Conservative position, mainly to show off to the guests and to disagree with her uncle, while her uncle had contradicted him on every point. Olga Mihalovna herself had joined the debate to defend university education for women, not because she felt strongly about it, but to annoy her husband, whom she felt was being unfair.
While sitting near the beehives, Olga Mihalovna overheard her husband talking with Lubotchka Sheller, a young girl who had recently left boarding school. Hiding in a shanty, she watched as Pyotr Dmitritch lazily raked hay together and chatted with the pretty girl. Though there was nothing inappropriate in their conversation, Olga Mihalovna felt jealous.
Olga Mihalovna knew that her husband was attractive to women, and did not like to see him with them... but yet Olga Mihalovna felt vexed with her husband and frightened and pleased that she could listen to them.
Their conversation revealed that Pyotr Dmitritch was facing trial for political reasons, having offended local liberal officials in an official paper. He spoke of his recent visit to his farm in Poltava, where he had found peace away from the courts and intellectual conversations. When a bee frightened Lubotchka, they walked away together. Olga Mihalovna, now acutely jealous, decided to confront her husband about his behavior with other women.
Chapter 2. Conversations with guests and irritating encounters
Returning to the house, Olga Mihalovna heard applause as a young man finished playing the piano. She complimented his talent while asking if the piano was out of tune. Two schoolboys entered with their tutor, and she learned that their mother, Madame Tchizhevsky, was unwell and had sent her apologies. Though Olga Mihalovna insisted on feeding them, the student repeatedly declined, saying they didn't want to trouble her.
Despite their protests, she took them to the dining room and ordered Vassily to set the table. She chatted with the student about his medical studies, but was soon distracted by thoughts of her other guests. After ensuring the boys would be fed, she checked her watch and was dismayed to find there were still six more hours until midnight when the party would end.
In the garden, Olga Mihalovna encountered her uncle, who was agitated about Pyotr Dmitritch's behavior. He complained about her husband's martinet views, his loud and condescending manner, and how he had alienated many guests who hadn't come to the party. When Olga Mihalovna defended her husband, her uncle was shocked, believing she had abandoned her own convictions under her husband's influence.
Chapter 3. The boat excursion and mounting jealousy
Half an hour later, the guests gathered by the river for a boat excursion. There was confusion when two boats were found locked and the keys missing. Pyotr Dmitritch paced impatiently, shouting that the keys should always be in the hall window. When the keys were finally found, two oars were discovered missing, causing more commotion.
Pyotr Dmitritch took the lead in a narrow canoe he called Penderaklia, while Olga Mihalovna steered another boat filled with guests. As they floated down the river, she observed the other passengers with growing dislike, finding each one false or pretentious. She thought critically about a young man who called himself an "active member of the Zemstvo" but would likely abandon his post within a year, and about a stout gentleman who talked about hard work but mortgaged his land to spend time with his mistress.
Olga Mihalovna's irritation grew as she steered the boat. She was worried about her husband's safety in the unstable canoe and jealous of the women in her own boat. When someone suggested taking Pyotr Dmitritch in tow, he jumped into the already crowded boat rather than be towed, causing it to lurch dangerously. Olga Mihalovna's hands and feet began trembling from what she assumed was boredom and vexation.
Chapter 4. The evening confrontation and premature labor
The party broke up after supper around quarter past twelve. Olga Mihalovna stood at the door seeing off her guests, urging them to take shawls against the night chill. Pyotr Dmitritch helped the ladies into their carriages and gave directions to their coachmen. When the last visitor had gone, Olga Mihalovna went to her bedroom, undressed, and got into bed, expecting to fall asleep immediately.
Despite her exhaustion, sleep eluded her. She heard her husband's voice in the drawing room, speaking loudly to someone who was staying the night. Pyotr Dmitritch was venting his frustration about Count Alexey Petrovitch and other guests. When he came to bed, he lit a cigarette and lay silently watching a fly on the ceiling. Olga Mihalovna asked what he was thinking about, but he replied vaguely that everyone has their personal life and secrets.
Feeling wounded, Olga Mihalovna revealed that she had overheard his conversation with Lubotchka by the beehive. She accused him of preferring to open his heart to women who meant nothing to him rather than to his wife. Her anger, which had been building all day, finally erupted as she told him she had been hating him all day and found everything about him loathsome.
Long ago she had been sickened by his lying: he was forever posing, flirting, saying what he did not think, and trying to seem different from what he was and what he ought to be. Why this falsity?
In response, Pyotr Dmitritch calmly took his pillow and left to sleep in his study. Olga Mihalovna was stunned, unsure whether this was a calculated insult or a genuine response to her nagging. She decided to dress and leave the house forever, stopping first at his study to deliver some final sarcastic remarks.
In the study, she found him pretending to read a newspaper. When she demanded an explanation, he mimicked her tone and said he was too exhausted to quarrel. Her anger intensified, and she accused him of marrying her only for her property and wealth. This unexpected insult overwhelmed him; with a childishly helpless smile, he whispered her name. Seeing his reaction, Olga Mihalovna suddenly remembered her passionate love for him and ran back to the bedroom in tears.
Hysterical sobs overcame her as she realized the damage her false accusation had done to their relationship. She believed everything was lost and that her husband would never forgive her for the insult she had hurled at him.
She thought that everything was lost, that the falsehood she had told to wound her husband had shattered her life into fragments. Her husband would not forgive her. The insult she had hurled at him was not one that could be effaced.
Suddenly, Olga Mihalovna felt a sharp pain in her lower body. Pyotr Dmitritch came in with a candle, begging her to calm down and explaining he had only left the room because he felt depressed. He assured her he had married her for love, not for her fortune. As they reconciled, she was struck by another wave of pain and clutched his sleeve, saying she was in pain.
Realizing she was in labor, Pyotr Dmitritch cursed the visitors and blamed himself for not preventing her from going to the island. He left to summon help while Olga Mihalovna endured increasingly severe contractions. Varvara, the gardener's wife, arrived and began unlocking boxes and preparing for the birth. She told Pyotr Dmitritch to send for Father Mihail to unlock the holy gates.
Through her pain, Olga Mihalovna realized she was giving birth prematurely. Varvara reassured her that the baby would live. As the labor progressed, Olga Mihalovna lost track of time. The pain and constant screaming stupefied her, making everything seem distant and prolonged.
It seemed to her that the name-day party had been long, long ago—not yesterday, but a year ago perhaps; and that her new life of agony had lasted longer than her childhood, her school days, her time at the University, and her marriage.
In the evening, two doctors performed an operation on Olga Mihalovna under chloroform. When she regained consciousness, the pain continued. By morning, she was indifferent to everything around her, having lost all sense of shame and will.
By now she had no feeling of shame, no will, and anyone might do what he would with her. If anyone had rushed at her with a knife, or had insulted Pyotr Dmitritch, or had robbed her of her right to the little creature, she would not have said a word.
Chapter 5. The tragic aftermath
When Olga Mihalovna fully regained consciousness, she realized she was still alive. Bright sunlight streamed through the open windows, and sparrows and magpies chattered in the garden below. The room was quiet and orderly, with only her husband standing by the window looking into the garden.
There was no sound of a child crying, and no one was congratulating her, making it evident that the baby had not been born alive. She called to her husband, who turned to face her. He looked noticeably thinner and hollow-eyed since the previous day.
When she asked if it was all over, Pyotr Dmitritch tried to speak but his lips quivered and his mouth worked like that of a toothless old man. With tears in his eyes, he told her that he no longer cared about property qualifications, Circuit Courts, or her fortune. "Why didn't we take care of our child?" he asked before leaving the room with a despairing gesture.
Olga Mihalovna lay indifferent to everything, feeling empty inside. The chloroform had left a mistiness in her brain, and she felt a dull indifference to life that had overcome her during the operation.
The dull indifference to life which had overcome her when the two doctors were performing the operation still had possession of her... But nothing mattered to Olga Mihalovna now, there was a mistiness in her brain from the chloroform, an emptiness in her soul.