Woe from Wit

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Title page of Griboyedov's manuscript.
Title page of Griboyedov's manuscript.

Woe from Wit (Russian: Горе от ума, also translated as "The Woes of Wit", "Wit Works Woe", and so forth) is Aleksandr Griboyedov's comedy in verse, satirizing the society of post-Napoleonic Moscow, or, as a high official in the play styled it, "a pasquinade on Moscow."

The play, written in 1823 in the countryside and in Tiflis, was not passed by the censorship for the stage, and only portions of it were allowed to appear in an almanac for 1825. But it was read out by the author to "all Moscow" and to "all Petersburg" and circulated in innumerable copies, so it was as good as published in 1825.

The play was a compulsory work in Russian literature lessons in Soviet schools, and is still considered a golden classic in modern Russia and other Russian-speaking countries.

The play gave rise to numerous catch phrases in the Russian language, including the title itself. Many of them sound rather comic today because of their somewhat archaic language.

Contents

[edit] Language

The play belongs to the classical school of comedy, with principal antecedents in Molière. Like Denis Fonvizin before him and like the founders of the Russian realistic tradition after him, Griboedov lays far greater stress on the characters and their dialogue than on his plot. The comedy is loosely constructured, but in the dialogue and in the character drawing Griboedov is supreme and unique.

The dialogue is in rhymed verse, in iambic lines of variable length, a meter that was introduced into Russia by the fabulists as the equivalent of La Fontaine's vers libre and that had reached a high degree of perfection in the hands of Ivan Krylov. Griboyedov's dialogue is a continuous tour de force. It always attempts and achieves the impossible: the squeezing of everyday conversation into a rebellious metrical form.

Griboyedov seemed to multiply his difficulties on purpose. He was, for instance, alone in his age to use unexpected, sonorous, punning rhymes. There is just enough toughness and angularity in his verse to constantly remind the reader of the pains undergone and the difficulties triumphantly overcome by the poet. Despite the fetters of the metrical form, Griboyedov's dialogue has the natural rhythm of conversation and is more easily colloquial than any prose. It is full of wit, variety, and character, and is a veritable store book of the best spoken Russian of a period. Almost every other line of the comedy has become part of the language, and proverbs from Groboyedov are as numerous as proverbs from Krylov. For epigram, repartee, terse and concise wit, Griboyedov has no rivals in Russian.

[edit] Characters

Griboyedov's characters, while typical of the period, are stamped in the really common clay of humanity. They all, down to the most episodic characters, have the same perfection of finish and clearness of outline.

  • Pavel Afanasyevich Famusov, the father, the head of an important department, the born conservative of all time, the cynical and placid philosopher of good digestion, the pillar of stable society;
  • Sofia Pavlovna, his daughter, the heroine neither idealized nor caricatured, with a strange, drily romantic flavour. With her fixity of purpose, her ready wit, and her deep, but reticent, passionateness, she is the principal active force in the play and the plot is advanced mainly by her actions.
  • Liza, her maid;
  • Alexey Stepanovich Molchalin, Famusov's secretary living in his house, the sneak who plays whist with old ladies, pets their dogs, and acts the lover to his patron's daughter;
  • Alexandr Andreyevich Chatsky, the protagonist. Sometimes irrelevantly eloquent, he leads a generous, if vague, revolt against the vegetably selfish world of Famusovs and Molchalins. His exhilarating, youthful idealism, his go, his élan is of the family of Romeo. Tradition tells that the character is modeled after Pyotr Chaadaev, an original and controversial Russian writer and philosopher, with whom Griboedov was acquainted. It is significant that, in spite of all his apparent lack of clear-cut personality, his part is the traditional touchstone for a Russian actor. Great Chatskys are as rare and as highly valued in Russia as are great Hamlets in Britain.
  • Colonel Skalozub, Sergey Sergeyevich
  • The Goriches:
    • Natalia Dmitriyevna, young lady
    • Platon Mikhailovich, her husband
  • Count Tugoukhovsky
  • Countess, his wife, and six daughters
  • The Khryuminas:
    • Countess Khryumina, the grandmother
    • Countess Khryumina, the granddaughter
  • Anton Antonovich Zagoretsky
  • Old woman Khlyostova, Famusov's sister-in-law
  • Mr. N.
  • Mr. D.
  • Repetilov, the Anglomaniac orator of the coffee room and of the club, burning for freedom and stinking of liquor, the witless admirer of wit, and the bosom friend of all his acquaintances;
  • Petrushka and several speaking footmen;
  • A large number of guests of all ranks and their footmen engaged during their departure;
  • Famusov's waiters.

A number of the characters have names that go a long way toward describing their personality in Russian. Molchalin's name comes from the root "molchat'," to be silent, and he is a character of few words. Tugoukhovsky's name comes from roots meaning "difficult" (tugo) and "ear" (ukho), implying that he is hard of hearing. Skalozub's name is an inversion of the Russian "zuboskal", either a dim-witted man, or a man with primitive social graces (literally, "that, who grins a lot"). Famusov's name may have been derived the Latin root "fama," meaning public opinion or repute, which is a matter of great importance to that character, or from closely related Latin word "famosus", meaning popular, much spoken of or notorious.

[edit] References

  • This article incorporates text from D.S. Mirsky's "A History of Russian Literature" (1926-27), a publication now in the public domain.

[edit] External links

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