The Examining Magistrate Page #2

"The Examining Magistrate" is a short story by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov that explores themes of bureaucracy, human nature, and moral ambiguity. The narrative follows an examining magistrate who arrives in a provincial town to investigate a case involving a local peasant. As he interacts with the town's officials and citizens, Chekhov illuminates the absurdities and contradictions of the judicial system, revealing the often-comical and tragic underpinnings of authority and justice. Through sharp observations and a blend of humor and pathos, the story critiques the inefficiencies of bureaucracy and the complexities of human behavior.

								

of death. Yes, yes."

"Well, there, do you see? . . . In all probability it was at that time
that she made up her mind to poison herself, but, as most likely she did
not want to kill her child also, she put it off till after her
confinement."

"Not likely, not likely! . . . it's impossible. She forgave him at the
time."

"That she forgave it quickly means that she had something bad in her
mind. Young wives do not forgive quickly."

The examining magistrate gave a forced smile, and, to conceal his too
noticeable agitation, began lighting a cigarette.

"Not likely, not likely," he went on. "No notion of anything of the sort
being possible ever entered into my head. . . . And besides . . . he was
not so much to blame as it seems. . . . He was unfaithful to her in
rather a queer way, with no desire to be; he came home at night somewhat
elevated, wanted to make love to somebody, his wife was in an
interesting condition . . . then he came across a lady who had come to
stay for three days--damnation take her-- an empty-headed creature, silly
and not good-looking. It couldn't be reckoned as an infidelity. His wife
looked at it in that way herself and soon . . . forgave it. Nothing more
was said about it. . . ."

"People don't die without a reason," said the doctor.

"That is so, of course, but all the same . . . I cannot admit that she
poisoned herself. But it is strange that the idea has never struck me
before! And no one thought of it! Everyone was astonished that her
prediction had come to pass, and the idea . . . of such a death was far
from their mind. And indeed, it cannot be that she poisoned herself!
No!"

The examining magistrate pondered. The thought of the woman who had died
so strangely haunted him all through the inquest. As he noted down what
the doctor dictated to him he moved his eyebrows gloomily and rubbed his
forehead.

"And are there really poisons that kill one in a quarter of an hour,
gradually, without any pain?" he asked the doctor while the latter was
opening the skull.

"Yes, there are. Morphia for instance."

"H'm, strange. I remember she used to keep something of the sort . . . .
But it could hardly be."

On the way back the examining magistrate looked exhausted, he kept
nervously biting his moustache, and was unwilling to talk.

"Let us go a little way on foot," he said to the doctor. "I am tired of
sitting."

After walking about a hundred paces, the examining magistrate seemed to
the doctor to be overcome with fatigue, as though he had been climbing
up a high mountain. He stopped and, looking at the doctor with a strange
look in his eyes, as though he were drunk, said:

"My God, if your theory is correct, why it's. . . it was cruel, inhuman!
She poisoned herself to punish some one else! Why, was the sin so great?
Oh, my God! And why did you make me a present of this damnable idea,
doctor!"

The examining magistrate clutched at his head in despair, and went on:

"What I have told you was about my own wife, about myself. Oh, my God! I
was to blame, I wounded her, but can it have been easier to die than to
forgive? That's typical feminine logic--cruel, merciless logic. Oh, even
then when she was living she was cruel! I recall it all now! It's all
clear to me now!"

As the examining magistrate talked he shrugged his shoulders, then
clutched at his head. He got back into the carriage, then walked again.
The new idea the doctor had imparted to him seemed to have overwhelmed
him, to have poisoned him; he was distracted, shattered in body and
soul, and when he got back to the town he said good-bye to the doctor,
declining to stay to dinner though he had promised the doctor the
evening before to dine with him.
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