The Student (Chekhov)
Short summary
Russia, late 19th century. On a cold Good Friday evening, Ivan Velikopolsky was returning home from shooting through a forest. The sudden cold weather made him feel that nature itself was out of harmony.
Reluctant to return to his impoverished home, Ivan stopped at a campfire where two widows, Vasilisa and her daughter Lukerya, were working. He began telling them the biblical story of Peter's denial of Christ on the night before the Crucifixion, describing how Peter wept bitterly after realizing what he had done.
As Ivan told the story, Vasilisa began to weep, and Lukerya's face showed signs of emotional distress. Their reaction moved Ivan deeply. Walking away, he realized that their emotional response meant the ancient story still resonated in the present day, connecting people across centuries through shared human experience.
"The past," he thought, "is linked with the present by an unbroken chain of events flowing one out of another." And it seemed to him that he had just seen both ends of that chain; that when he touched one end the other quivered.
This realization transformed Ivan's mood completely. Despite the cold and his earlier despair about unchanging human suffering, he now felt that truth and beauty had always been the essential elements of human existence. Filled with a sense of youth and vigor, he suddenly saw life as enchanting and full of meaning.
Detailed summary
Division into chapters is editorial.
The cold evening and the students melancholy thoughts
The story began on a fine spring day that suddenly turned cold and cheerless as evening approached. A penetrating wind blew from the east, creating an atmosphere of desolation and loneliness in the forest. Ivan Velikopolsky, a student of the clerical academy, was returning home from shooting when he felt the sudden cold had disrupted the natural harmony of things.
It seemed to him that the cold that had suddenly come on had destroyed the order and harmony of things, that nature itself felt ill at ease, and that was why the evening darkness was falling more rapidly than usual.
As Ivan walked through the waterside meadow, he recalled that his mother was sitting barefoot cleaning the samovar and his father was coughing on the stove. Being Good Friday, no food had been cooked, and he was terribly hungry. The student reflected gloomily that the same poverty, ignorance, and misery that existed now had existed for centuries and would continue to exist for a thousand years more, with no improvement in sight. This depressing thought made him reluctant to return home.
The student meets Vasilisa and Lukerya by the fire
In the distance, Ivan noticed a light coming from the widows' gardens near the river. As he approached, he saw a campfire burning brightly. Two women were there - Vasilisa, a tall, fat old woman in a man's coat, and her daughter Lukerya, who was sitting on the ground washing a cauldron and spoons.
Ivan greeted the women, commenting on the return of winter. Vasilisa recognized him and smiled cordially. The student noticed that Vasilisa, who had worked for the gentry as a wet-nurse and children's nurse, spoke with refinement, while her daughter Lukerya, who had been beaten by her husband, simply stared at him without speaking, with an expression like that of a deaf-mute.
The student tells the biblical story of Peters denial
Standing by the fire and warming his hands, Ivan remarked that the Apostle Peter must have warmed himself by just such a fire on that cold night before the Crucifixion. He asked Vasilisa if she had been at the reading of the Twelve Gospels, and she confirmed that she had.
"At just such a fire the Apostle Peter warmed himself," said the student, stretching out his hands to the fire, "so it must have been cold then, too. Ah, what a terrible night it must have been, granny!"
Ivan then began to recount the biblical story of Peter's denial of Jesus. He described how at the Last Supper, Peter had promised to follow Jesus into darkness and death, but Jesus had predicted that Peter would deny him three times before the cock crowed. After the supper, while Jesus prayed in the garden, Peter fell asleep from exhaustion. Later, Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss, and He was taken to the high priest and beaten.
Ivan continued his story, explaining how Peter followed behind and stood warming himself by a fire in the high priest's yard. There, he was recognized three times as one of Jesus's disciples, and each time Peter denied knowing Him. After the third denial, the cock crowed, and Peter, remembering Jesus's words, went out and wept bitterly. As Ivan told this part of the story, Lukerya stopped her work and fixed an immovable stare upon him.
"I imagine it: the still, still, dark, dark garden, and in the stillness, faintly audible, smothered sobbing..." The student sighed and sank into thought.
The widows emotional reaction to the story
After Ivan finished his story, he noticed a profound emotional reaction from both women. Vasilisa, who had been smiling throughout, suddenly gave a gulp and began to cry, with tears flowing freely down her cheeks. She tried to hide her face from the fire with her sleeve, as though ashamed of her tears.
Vasilisa suddenly gave a gulp, big tears flowed freely down her cheeks... and Lukerya, staring immovably at the student, flushed crimson, and her expression became strained and heavy like that of someone enduring intense pain.
Meanwhile, Lukerya's face flushed crimson, and her expression became strained and heavy, like someone enduring intense pain. The laborers returned from the river, and one of them rode close by on a horse, the firelight quivering upon him. Ivan said goodnight to the widows and continued on his way, once again feeling the cold wind and thinking that Easter seemed far away despite being the next day.
The students revelation about the connection between past and present
As Ivan walked away, he reflected on Vasilisa's tears. He realized that her emotional response meant that the events he had described, though they had happened nineteen centuries ago, had a profound connection to her life in the present. She had not wept because he told the story well, but because she felt personally connected to Peter and was deeply invested in what had happened in Peter's soul.
The old woman had wept, not because he could tell the story touchingly, but because Peter was near to her, because her whole being was interested in what was passing in Peter's soul.
This realization filled Ivan with sudden joy. He stopped for a moment to catch his breath, understanding that the past was linked to the present by an unbroken chain of events flowing from one to another. He felt as though he had just seen both ends of that chain, and that touching one end made the other quiver in response.
As Ivan crossed the river by ferry and climbed the hill toward his village, he gazed at the crimson sunset in the west. He thought about how the truth and beauty that had guided human life in the biblical garden and in the high priest's yard had continued without interruption to the present day. These values had always been the most important aspects of human existence. Filled with the vitality of his youth and health, and with an inexpressible expectation of mysterious happiness, Ivan suddenly found life enchanting and full of profound meaning.
The feeling of youth, health, vigour... and the inexpressible sweet expectation of happiness, of unknown mysterious happiness, took possession of him little by little, and life seemed to him enchanting, marvellous, and full of lofty meaning.