Tevye the Dairyman: Analysis of Setting
"Tevye the Dairyman: Analysis of Setting" explores the contrasting locales depicted within the narrative, focusing on three significant places that shape the experiences of the characters. Boiberik, a small town inspired by Boyarka near Kiev, serves as a summer retreat for the wealthy, where Tevye sells dairy products while dreaming of business aspirations. This affluent area starkly contrasts with the impoverished community where Tevye and his family reside, highlighting economic disparities. Yehupetz, a fictional representation of Kiev, further illustrates the divide between the rich and the poor, showcasing opulent lifestyles insulated from the struggles faced by lower-class Jews. Anatevka is portrayed as a cohesive Jewish village deeply rooted in tradition, where even the wealthiest, like Lazar Wolf, face challenges in personal relationships. The settings not only provide a backdrop for Tevye's aspirations and conflicts but also reflect broader themes of social class, cultural identity, and economic hardship within Jewish communities in early 20th-century Russia. This analysis invites readers to consider how the interplay of these settings informs character motivations and societal dynamics within the story.
Tevye the Dairyman: Analysis of Setting
First published:Tevye der Milkhiger, 1894-1914 (English translation, 1949, 1987)
Type of work: Short fiction
Places Discussed
Boiberik
Boiberik. Small Russian town, modeled on Boyarka near Kiev, where Tevye travels in his horse-drawn wagon to sell cheese, cream, and butter to the wealthy who eat, drink, and enjoy their leisure in luxury. This is where the rich migrate to relax in their summer dachas. Boiberik forms a contrast to the impoverished, unnamed community nearby where Tevye lives with Golde and their unmarried daughters.
In “Tevye Strikes It Rich,” which first appeared in 1894 and was revised in 1897, Tevye transports two women to a dacha by a pond at the far end of the woods. Tevye fantasizes about starting a grocery store in Boiberik, which he hopes will lead to a dry-goods store, a woodlot, and a tax concession. At the end, he simply buys a milch cow.
Yehupetz
Yehupetz. Russian city that is a fictional representation of Kiev and supposedly a place where fortunes thrive. The rich live in mansions with walls to keep out beggars. When not traveling to German health resorts when their wives have even so trivial a complaint as a stomachache, they ride around town in rubber-wheeled droshkies. The most famous rich person ironically happens to be Brodsky, a Jew, but his name is invoked simply to demarcate the separation of rich Jews, who are immune to suffering, from poor ones, who experience great dangers inside and outside the Pale of Settlement.
Anatevka
Anatevka. One of the small Russian towns, declared a village, in “Today’s Children,” so that Jews could be more easily expelled from it. A place unified by Jewish religion and tradition. The richest man is Lazar Wolf, the widower-butcher who asks for Tsaytl’s hand in marriage. His house has a cupboard full of copper, two samovars, a brass tray, a set of gilt-edged cups, a pair of silver candlesticks, a cast-iron menorah, a chest for cash, and an attic filled with hides. However, even these emblems of prosperity are not enough for him to win Tsaytl, who goes, instead, to Motl the tailor.
Bibliography
Gittleman, Sol. From Shtetl to Suburbia: The Family in Jewish Literary Imagination. Boston: Beacon Press, 1978. Discusses Aleichem and others as pioneers of the tradition. The extended chapter on Aleichem examines the crisis of contemporary family life as conveyed through the Tevye stories.
Liptzin, Solomon. The Flowering of Yiddish Literature. New York: T. Yoseloff, 1963. Offers an exhaustive historical narrative of Yiddish literature from the 1860’s to World War I. The chapter on Aleichem examines the historical, literary, and social values of his work.
Samuel, Maurice. The World of Sholom Aleichem. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1943. Samuel re-creates Aleichem’s milieu, with explorations of Tevye’s personality, landscape, philosophy, and family life. A very anecdotal volume that includes warm retellings of the Tevye stories.
Waife-Goldberg, Marie. My Father, Sholom Aleichem. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1968. An interesting and revealing memoir by Aleichem’s daughter, full of anecdotes about Aleichem and examining the parallels between him and his fictional persona, Tevye.
Wisse, Ruth R. The Schlemiel as Modern Hero. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971. This slim book includes a chapter on Aleichem entitled “Ironic Balance for Psychic Survival,” in which Wisse discusses the uses of irony and satire and the polarization of faith and fact as reflected in Tevye’s philosophical dialogues.