Anton Chekov on Marriage
Murashkin: Now that's enough! You're acting like a crybaby! Listen to yourself! A man like you, a married man, with a good steady job... You ought to be ashamed of yourself.
Tolkachov: A married man! That's the whole problem! You know what it means, being a married man? It means a I suffer. It means I am a pack animal, a garbage collector. I am a slave, a serf; I am a coward who sits quietly waiting for the next disaster and hasn't got the brains to blow his brains out. I am a fool and an idiot. Why am I still alive? (Jumps to his feet) Well? Tell me, why am I alive! Oh, what is the point of it all, this uninterrupted concatenation of mental and physical punishments? Hm? Look, I can understand sacrifice, I could suffer for ideas, or ideals, but to suffer for ladies' dresses and lightbulbs, no! A thousand times no! No, no, and no! This is the end It's all over! I can't stand it anymore!
Tolkachov: A married man! That's the whole problem! You know what it means, being a married man? It means a I suffer. It means I am a pack animal, a garbage collector. I am a slave, a serf; I am a coward who sits quietly waiting for the next disaster and hasn't got the brains to blow his brains out. I am a fool and an idiot. Why am I still alive? (Jumps to his feet) Well? Tell me, why am I alive! Oh, what is the point of it all, this uninterrupted concatenation of mental and physical punishments? Hm? Look, I can understand sacrifice, I could suffer for ideas, or ideals, but to suffer for ladies' dresses and lightbulbs, no! A thousand times no! No, no, and no! This is the end It's all over! I can't stand it anymore!
posted by Iceman at 3:42 PM
4 Comments:
Anton, like Kafka, never married and also like Kafka, died at the age of 40. Hmmmm. Also, they were literary contemperaries who knew nothing of one another.
Congrats on all you average dudes who have made it past 40.
"By all means I will be married if you wish it. But on these conditions: everything must be as it has been hitherto—that is, she must live in Moscow while I live in the country, and I will come and see her… give me a wife who, like the moon, won't appear in my sky every day."
chekhov
oh..anton married olga.
I have a wife at home,
I have a wife at home.
I have a wife,
She's the apple of my life.
But I wish she would leave me alone.
Frankie Yankovich
Father of Cleveland Style Polka
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