Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District by Nikolai Leskov
"Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" is a novella by Russian author Nikolai Leskov, set in a provincial merchant household in 19th-century Russia. The story centers around Katerina Izmaylova, a young wife struggling with the oppressive monotony of her life and her inability to bear children. Feeling trapped and unfulfilled, Katerina embarks on a passionate affair with Sergey, a handsome clerk. Their relationship quickly escalates into a series of drastic actions, including the murders of her husband and her young nephew, as Katerina seeks to claim control over her circumstances.
The narrative explores themes of desire, ambition, and the consequences of unchecked passion within a rigid societal structure. As Katerina and Sergey attempt to navigate their newfound freedom, their relationship deteriorates, revealing the complexities of love and loyalty. The story culminates in a dramatic conclusion, highlighting Katerina's ultimate defiance against the societal constraints that bind her. Leskov’s work raises questions about morality, the nature of power, and the struggles faced by women in a male-dominated society, making it a poignant reflection on human desire and tragedy.
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Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District by Nikolai Leskov
First published: "Ledi Makbet Mtsenskogo uezda," 1865 (English translation, 1922)
Type of plot: Realism
Time of work: The mid-nineteenth century
Locale: Mtsensk District, Russia
Principal Characters:
Katerina Izmaylova , the protagonist, a merchant's wifeZinovy Borisovich Izmaylov , her husbandSergey , her loverBoris Timofeyevich , her father-in-lawFedya Lyamin , her nephewSonetka , a convict
The Story
Nikolai Leskov's storyteller begins his tale with a description of the oppressive boredom of the provincial Russian merchant household, where the men leave to conduct their business and the women are left in a latter-day harem, to look after the children—if there are any—and the larders. Katerina Izmaylova, the young wife of Zinovy Borisovich Izmaylov, is attractive, spirited, and quite unprepared by her poor but free and simple childhood for the stultifying narrowness of her husband's way of life. Her five-year marriage has brought no children, and despite the fact that Zinovy Borisovich's first wife bore no children either, Katerina is reproached for her barrenness, for "ruining her husband's life." Passive, languid, Katerina wanders the silent house, sleeps, watches the servants from her attic window.
It is from that attic window, her bedroom window, that Katerina looks out on the spring garden in the sixth year of her marriage and decides to go for a stroll. She hears laughter near the barns and finds her father-in-law's clerks teasing the fat cook by hoisting her into a flour vat to weigh her. The chief culprit is Sergey—young, handsome, insolent, and more than ready to test Katerina's boast of her strength. In doing so, he embraces her—and a flustered Katerina leaves but not without finding out that Sergey is a newcomer, fired by his last employer for carrying on with the mistress.
That evening, Sergey appears at Katerina's door, complaining of loneliness and boredom. He has little trouble sweeping Katerina off her feet and into bed, and the two lovers spend every night together for the week thereafter. Then Boris Timofeyevich, Katerina's father-in-law, catches Sergey sliding down a pillar beneath the attic window and takes the unrepentant sinner to the storeroom, flogs him brutally, and locks him in. He sends for his absent son, and in the face of Katerina's pleas and brazen lack of shame, decides to send Sergey to prison.
On the day of his decision, however, Boris Timofeyevich falls ill after eating his porridge and mushrooms, and toward evening dies "just like the rats in his granaries." No one is particularly suspicious, because mushrooms are a tricky thing, and Boris Timofeyevich is an old man—and the mistress's affair is the mistress's business. Zinovy is delayed, Sergey recovers in the master's bed, and all appears to be going well. Katerina and Sergey make love and go through rituals of jealousy and reassurance. One night, however, Katerina dreams twice of a huge cat, and the cat speaks with the voice of her murdered father-in-law. She awakes from the nightmare to hear her husband's key turning in the locked gate outside.
Sergey hides, and Zinovy confronts his wife. She at first denies everything but then loses her temper and calls Sergey out of hiding to taunt Zinovy. Enraged, he strikes her, and at this point Katerina's vaunted girlhood strength returns. She throws her husband to the floor, and she and Sergey, hands entwined, strangle him. To make sure, Katerina finishes him off with a heavy candlestick and then carefully wipes the cherry-sized drops of blood from the floor. Sergey buries Zinovy in the cellar, and no one is the wiser. Everyone assumes that the master has mysteriously disappeared before reaching home.
Katerina, pregnant, is about to assume control of her husband's properties, but another heir appears on the scene, Zinovy's young nephew Fedya Lyamin. Now it is Sergey who is uneasy, the "unhappiest of men," and he constantly hints, insinuates, and suggests to Katerina that Fedya's continued existence is an obstacle to their happiness. Fedya falls ill and is forced to stay home from an evening holiday church service. With the entire household gone, Katerina sees her chance. She and Sergey smother the child with a pillow. This time, however, there are witnesses. A group of young men returning from the church service, curious about the mistress's "amours," decide to peep through the window to catch the lovers in the act—but the act they catch them in is murder.
The two are tried, flogged, and sentenced to hard labor and exile in Siberia. They begin the long trek together, in the same gang of convicts. Katerina's baby, still the legal heir, is given to Zinovy's relatives to rear, but as long as Katerina can be near Sergey, she has no thought for anything else. Sergey, however, tires of her passion and her devotion now that she is no longer a wealthy merchant's wife, and he takes up first with one female convict, then another. He and Sonetka, his new love, humiliate and taunt Katerina, finally tricking her into giving Sergey her last pair of warm stockings—which end up on the devious Sonetka's feet.
As the gang is herded onto a barge to ferry across a turbulent river, Katerina seems numb to the jibes and laughter of her tormentors, but as the ferry reaches midriver, she acts. She leaps into the water, taking Sonetka with her. Sonetka emerges from the waves to grasp for the boat hook, but Katerina, in her last show of strength, pulls her down, and both disappear for good.