Literary Criticism (Marxist Criticism)

“The Ninny”

By Anton Chekkov

Translated by Robert Payne

                Just a few days ago, I invited Yulia Vassilyevna, the governess of my children, to come to my study; I wanted to settle my account with her.

                “Sit down, Yulia Vassilyevna”, I said to her. “Let’s get our accounts settled. I’m sure you need some money, but you keep standing on ceremony and never ask for it. Let me see. We agreed to give you thirty rubles a month, didn’t we? 

                “Forty.”

                “No, thirty. I made a note of it. I always pay the governess thirty. Now let me see, you have been with us for two months?”

                “Two months and five days.”

                “Two months exactly. I made a note of it. So you have sixty rubles coming to you. Subtract nine Sundays. You know you don’t tutor Kolya on Sundays, so you just go out for a walk. And then the three holidays…”

                Yulia Vassilyevna blushed and picked at the trimmings of her dress, but said not a word.

                “Three holidays. So we take off twelve rubles. Kolya was sick for four days-those days you didn’t look after him. You looked after Vanya, only Vanya. Then there were the three days you had toothache, when my wife gave you permission to stay away from the children after dinner. Twelve and seven makes nineteen. Subtract…that leaves…hm…forty-one rubles. Correct?”

                Yulia Vassilyevna’s left eye reddened and filled with tears. Her chin trembled. She began to cough nervously, blew her nose, and said nothing.

                “Then around New Year’s Day, you broke a cup and saucer, subtract two rubles. The cup cost more than that-it was a heirloom, but we won’t bother about that. We’re the ones who pay. Another matter. Due to your carelessness, Kolya climbed a tree and tore his coat. Subtract ten. Also, due to your carelessness, the chambermaid ran off with Vanya’s boots. You ought to have kept your eyes open. You get a good salary. So we dock off five more… on the tenth of January, you took ten rubles from me.”

                “I didn’t.” Yulia Vassilyevna whispered.

                “But I made a note of it.”

                “Well yes…perhaps.”

                “From forty-one, we take twenty-seven. That leaves fourteen.”

                 Her eyes filled with tears, and her thin pretty little nose was shining with perspiration. Poor child!

                “I only took money once,” she said in a trembling voice. “I took three rubles from your wife…never anything more.”

                “Did you now? You see, I never made a note of it. Take three from fourteen. That leaves eleven. Here’s your money my dear. Three, three, three…one and one. Take it my dear.”

                I gave her the eleven rubles. With trembling fingers, she took them and slipped them into her pocket.

                “Merci,” she whispered.

                I jumped up, and began pacing up and down the room. I was in furious temper.

                “Why did you say ‘merci’?” I asked.

                “For the money.”

                “Don’t you realize I’ve been cheating you? I steal your money and all you can say is ‘merci’!”

                “In my other places, they gave me nothing.”

                “They gave you nothing! Well, no wonder! I was playing a trick on you-a dirty trick … I’ll give you your eighty rubles, they are all here in an envelope made out for you. Is it possible for anyone to be such a nitwit? Why didn’t you protest? Why did you keep your mouth shut? Is it possible that there is anyone in this world who is such a spineless? Why are you such a ninny?”

                She gave me a bitter little smile. On her face I read the words: “Yes it is possible.”

                I apologized for having played this cruel trick on her and to her great surprise gave her the eighty rubles. And then she said “merci” again several times, always timidly, and went out. I gazed after her, thinking how very easy it is in this world to be strong.

One of the major political ideas of the last century is the concept of cultural and economic determinism, deriving from the theories of the social philosopher Karl Marx. He emphasized that the primary influence on life was economics and he saw society as an opposition between the capitalists and the working classes. As a result, much literature can be judged from an economic perspective as to what the economic status of the characters is and what happens to them as a result of this status.

I consider “The Ninny” by Anton Chekkov an example of Marxist Criticism because of its characteristic which can be best described as “competing socioeconomic interests such as money and power over socialist interests such as morality and justice”. This is particularly visible in the part of the story where the boss insisted that he noted everything that must be cancelled from the governess’ account while the latter didn’t find the courage to protest.

           

However, the only difference of this story is that at the end, the one who has the power gave justice to the other character and this does not include instances to which the poor and oppressed who spend their lives in endless drudgery and misery, and whose attempts to rise above their disadvantages usually result in renewed suppression. In this, the governess didn’t protest nor do something to be in the same level as the “boss” but accepted whatever the powerful one said.

Nowadays, it would be difficult to encounter people as weak as the governess thus; this literary piece hardly reflects reality. I admire though the honesty of both characters. The governess admitted (whether conscious or not), that she took three rubles from the boss’ wife and the boss’ apology for tricking someone as innocent as the governess.