An Incident Page #2

"An Incident" by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov is a short story that explores themes of human behavior, social norms, and the complexities of interpersonal relationships. It revolves around a seemingly trivial event—a chance encounter between two individuals—in which the characters grapple with their emotions and moral dilemmas. Chekhov's signature style of acute observation and subtle irony highlights the absurdities of life, capturing the nuances of everyday interactions and the underlying tensions that often go unnoticed. Through this incident, the story invites readers to reflect on the fragility of dignity and the unexpected consequences of seemingly minor actions.

								

anxiety on their faces. Vanya and Nina refuse to recognise the existence
of any world but the box of kittens. Their joy knows no bounds. But they
have to pass through bitter, agonising moments, too.

Just before dinner, Vanya is sitting in his father's study, gazing
dreamily at the table. A kitten is moving about by the lamp, on stamped
note paper. Vanya is watching its movements, and thrusting first a
pencil, then a match into its little mouth. . . . All at once, as though
he has sprung out of the floor, his father is beside the table.

"What's this?" Vanya hears, in an angry voice.

"It's . . . it's the kitty, papa. . . ."

"I'll give it you; look what you have done, you naughty boy! You've
dirtied all my paper!"

To Vanya's great surprise his papa does not share his partiality for the
kittens, and, instead of being moved to enthusiasm and delight, he pulls
Vanya's ear and shouts:

"Stepan, take away this horrid thing."

At dinner, too, there is a scene. . . . During the second course there
is suddenly the sound of a shrill mew. They begin to investigate its
origin, and discover a kitten under Nina's pinafore.

"Nina, leave the table!" cries her father angrily. "Throw the kittens in
the cesspool! I won't have the nasty things in the house! . . ."

Vanya and Nina are horrified. Death in the cesspool, apart from its
cruelty, threatens to rob the cat and the wooden horse of their
children, to lay waste the cat's box, to destroy their plans for the
future, that fair future in which one cat will be a comfort to its old
mother, another will live in the country, while the third will catch
rats in the cellar. The children begin to cry and entreat that the
kittens may be spared. Their father consents, but on the condition that
the children do not go into the kitchen and touch the kittens.

After dinner, Vanya and Nina slouch about the rooms, feeling depressed.
The prohibition of visits to the kitchen has reduced them to dejection.
They refuse sweets, are naughty, and are rude to their mother. When
their uncle Petrusha comes in the evening, they draw him aside, and
complain to him of their father, who wanted to throw the kittens into
the cesspool.

"Uncle Petrusha, tell mamma to have the kittens taken to the nursery,"
the children beg their uncle, "do-o tell her."

"There, there . . . very well," says their uncle, waving them off. "All
right."

Uncle Petrusha does not usually come alone. He is accompanied by Nero, a
big black dog of Danish breed, with drooping ears, and a tail as hard as
a stick. The dog is silent, morose, and full of a sense of his own
dignity. He takes not the slightest notice of the children, and when he
passes them hits them with his tail as though they were chairs. The
children hate him from the bottom of their hearts, but on this occasion,
practical considerations override sentiment.

"I say, Nina," says Vanya, opening his eyes wide. "Let Nero be their
father, instead of the horse! The horse is dead and he is alive, you
see."

They are waiting the whole evening for the moment when papa will sit
down to his cards and it will be possible to take Nero to the kitchen
without being observed. . . . At last, papa sits down to cards, mamma is
busy with the samovar and not noticing the children. . . .

The happy moment arrives.

"Come along!" Vanya whispers to his sister.

But, at that moment, Stepan comes in and, with a snigger, announces:

"Nero has eaten the kittens, madam."

Nina and Vanya turn pale and look at Stepan with horror.

"He really has . . ." laughs the footman, "he went to the box and
gobbled them up."

The children expect that all the people in the house will be aghast and
fall upon the miscreant Nero. But they all sit calmly in their seats,
and only express surprise at the appetite of the huge dog. Papa and
mamma laugh. Nero walks about by the table, wags his tail, and licks his
lips complacently . . . the cat is the only one who is uneasy. With her
tail in the air she walks about the rooms, looking suspiciously at
people and mewing plaintively.

"Children, it's past nine," cries mamma, "it's bedtime."

Vanya and Nina go to bed, shed tears, and spend a long time thinking
about the injured cat, and the cruel, insolent, and unpunished Nero.
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