The Schoolmistress Flashcards
by Anton Chekhov — tap or click to flip
Flashcard Review
Flashcards: The Schoolmistress
Where is Marya Vassilyevna traveling from and to at the start of the story?
She is traveling from town, where she collected her salary, back to her village school in Vyazovye.
How long has Marya Vassilyevna been a schoolmistress?
She has been a schoolmistress for thirteen years.
Who is driving Marya Vassilyevna's cart?
Old Semyon is driving the cart.
What happens when the cart crosses the river?
Marya Vassilyevna's feet get soaked in icy water, and her sugar, flour, dress, and coat all get wet from the spring-flooded river.
What complaint has Marya Vassilyevna been making to the Zemstvo board for two years?
She has been asking them to dismiss the school watchman, who does nothing, is rude to her, and hits the schoolboys.
What does Marya Vassilyevna see from the railway crossing that triggers her vision of the past?
She sees a lady standing on a first-class carriage platform who resembles her mother, with the same luxuriant hair, brow, and bend of the head.
What happens to Marya Vassilyevna's moment of ecstasy at the railway crossing?
It vanishes instantly when Semyon calls her to get back in the cart. She returns to her cold, numb reality as the barrier rises.
What news does Semyon share at the beginning of the journey?
He tells Marya Vassilyevna that a government clerk was arrested in town for allegedly killing Alexeyev, the Mayor of Moscow, along with some Germans.
What kind of life did Marya Vassilyevna have before becoming a schoolmistress?
She lived in Moscow with her father and mother in a big flat near the Red Gate. Her father died when she was ten, and her mother died soon after.
How is Hanov described physically and socially?
He is about forty, still handsome and admired by women, but showing signs of wear. He is a wealthy landowner who lives alone, does nothing, and is rumored to drink heavily.
What was Hanov's role when he visited Marya Vassilyevna's school?
He served as an examiner the year before, though he did not know a single prayer or what questions to ask, and gave only the highest marks.
How do the peasants view Marya Vassilyevna's salary and honesty?
They believe her salary of twenty-one roubles a month is too high and suspect she keeps most of the money she collects from children for firewood and the watchman.
What does Semyon represent in the story?
Semyon represents the practical, blunt peasant class. He is suspicious of authority, mistrustful of the schoolmistress, and focused purely on navigating the difficult road.
What brief fantasy does Marya Vassilyevna have about Hanov?
She imagines that if she were his wife or sister, she would devote her whole life to saving him from ruin, but then reflects that such closeness between them seems impossible given the rigid social order.
How does the story convey the theme of class barriers and social isolation?
Marya Vassilyevna recognizes that she and Hanov endure the same miserable road, yet their social positions make any real connection seem impossible and absurd.
What does the story suggest about vocation and idealism versus daily survival?
Chekhov argues that poorly paid teachers and doctors cannot afford to think about serving ideals because their minds are consumed by daily concerns like bread, firewood, and bad roads.
How does the theme of nostalgia and lost happiness appear in the story?
Marya Vassilyevna's sudden, vivid memory of her childhood in Moscow -- the piano, her father's voice, the warm room -- represents a lost world of comfort and belonging that contrasts sharply with her present isolation.
What does the story say about the corrosive effect of routine on the human spirit?
Thirteen years of the same journey have made Marya Vassilyevna old, coarse, ugly, and angular, erasing her capacity for new experience. Her life has narrowed to school, road, town, and back again.
How does Chekhov use the muddy road as a literary device?
The terrible road functions as a metaphor for the grinding difficulty of rural Russian life, physically dragging down everyone -- peasant, schoolmistress, and landowner alike.
What is the effect of the story's circular structure?
The story begins and ends with the journey, mirroring the repetitive, cyclical nature of Marya Vassilyevna's life where nothing changes and she can imagine no future beyond the same route.
How does Chekhov use the passing train as a literary device?
The gleaming first-class train passing through Vyazovye represents the wider world of privilege and possibility that literally crosses Marya Vassilyevna's path but never stops for her.
What narrative technique does Chekhov use to reveal Marya Vassilyevna's inner life?
He uses free indirect discourse, blending the narrator's voice with Marya Vassilyevna's thoughts so readers experience her reflections, frustrations, and fantasies from within her perspective.
What does the word 'languid' mean as used to describe the spring woods?
Languid means having a relaxed, unhurried quality lacking in energy. Chekhov uses it to describe the gentle, drowsy warmth of the transparent spring woods.
What does the word 'Zemstvo' refer to in the story?
The Zemstvo was a system of local self-government in Imperial Russia that managed rural affairs including schools, roads, and public health.
What does 'deferential' mean in the context of Marya Vassilyevna's speech?
Deferential means showing respectful submission to someone of higher status. Marya Vassilyevna uses formal, deferential expressions when speaking to any official, reflecting her diminished self-worth.
What is revealed by the line: 'And it is beyond all understanding why God gives beauty, this graciousness, and sad, sweet eyes to weak, unlucky, useless people'?
This reflects Marya Vassilyevna's conflicted feelings about Hanov -- she finds him attractive but recognizes he is wasting his gifts, mirroring how she feels her own potential has been wasted.
What does the single word 'Mother!' reveal when Marya Vassilyevna cries it out at the railway crossing?
It reveals the depth of her suppressed grief and longing. Thirteen years of emotional numbness break open in one word as her childhood memories flood back with overwhelming vividness.
What is the significance of the line: 'It was a long, tedious, strange dream, and now she had awakened'?
In her moment of ecstasy, Marya Vassilyevna reimagines her entire schoolmistress life as merely a bad dream. The cruel irony is that this awakening itself is the fleeting dream, and harsh reality returns seconds later.