final novel

1. 1
THE KITCHEN GOD’S WIFE
By Amy Tan
Amy Tan was born on February 19, 1952, is an American
writer whose works explore mother-daughter relationships
and what it means to grow up as a first generation Asian
American. In 1993, Tan's adaptation of her most popular
fiction work, The Joy Luck Club, became a commercially successful film. She has written
several other books, including The Kitchen God's Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses, and The
Bonesetter's Daughter, and a collection of non-fiction essays entitled The Opposite of Fate:
A Book of Musings. Her most recent book, Saving Fish From Drowning, explores the
tribulations experienced by a group of people who disappear while on an art expedition into
the jungles of Burma. In addition, Tan has written two children's books: The Moon Lady
(1992) and Sagwa, The Chinese Siamese Cat (1994), which was turned into an animated
series airing on PBS. She has also appeared on PBS in a short spot on encouraging children
to write. Currently, she is the literary editor for West, Los Angeles Times' Sunday magazine.
PLOT SUMMARY
The Kitchen God's Wife opens with the narrative voice of Pearl Louie Brandt, the American-born
daughter of a Chinese mother and a Chinese-American father, who is a speech
therapist living in San Jose. Pearl's mother, Winnie Louie, has called Pearl up to request that
Pearl ask her daughters to attend the engagement party of Pearl's cousin Bao-Bao in San
Francisco. Right away, Pearl feels a reluctance to oblige her mother, since she is more
involved in her American identity—perhaps a result of her marriage to Phil, an American—
than her Chinese background. Nevertheless, she feels an obligation to attend her families'
festivity and knows she would feel guilty otherwise. Then, two days before the engagement
party, Pearl receives another call from her mother telling her that Auntie Du has died and
that the funeral will be arranged for the day after the engagement party. So, with all of this
on her shoulders, Pearl sets out toward San Francisco with her young daughters, Tessa and
Cleo, and her husband.
Upon her return to her childhood home, Pearl's Auntie Helen, Bao-Bao's mother,
who co-owns a flower shop with Pearl's mother pulls Pearl aside and makes a request.
Auntie Helen tells Pearl that Pearl must tell her mother Winnie about Pearl's multiple
sclerosis, which everyone in the family knows about, except for Winnie. Helen says that
Pearl must do this because Helen believes that she has a malignant brain tumor and does
not want to die knowing that Winnie does not know this about her daughter. Helen
continues by saying that if Pearl will not tell her mother the truth, Helen will be forced to do
so herself. Later, Helen pulls Pearl's mother aside as well and tells Winnie that she must
unveil the secrets of her past to her daughter because she cannot go to her grave with such
secrets. We find out later that Helen knows her tumor is benign and is simply using the idea
of her own death as a pretext to force mother and daughter to unleash their secrets.
It is at this point that the novel changes narrative voices and begins to be narrated
by Winnie Louie, who begins to tell Pearl the story of Winnie's past. Before she reached the
United States, Winnie experienced much turmoil, strife, and suffering. She was abandoned
by her mother as a young child, never knowing very much about her mother's mysterious
disappearance. Winnie, whose name in China was Weili, is forced to live with her Uncle and
his two wives (New Aunt and Old Aunt). She never feels as loved as her uncle's true
daughter, Weili's cousin, Peanut. Nevertheless, when the time comes, Winnie's aunts

2. arrange a traditional marriage for her, and her father provides a large dowry, since he is an
educated and well-established man. The marriage, however, to a man named Wen Fu, turns
out to be a terrible one. Wen Fu is horribly abusive—physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Winnie manages to suffer through her manage while surviving World War II. She loses
many children along the way, some to early deaths and one that was stillborn. It is during
the War that Winnie becomes friends with Helen, whose name in China was Hulan. By
telling her daughter about this friendship, Winnie is revealing that Helen and Winnie are not
really in-laws as the family in America believes, but only friends who have gone through
much hardship together. Winnie had had to lie and say that Helen was her dead brother's
first wife in order to bring Helen to the United States, after Winnie had already been in the
United States for a while. Winnie lived her new husband Jimmy Louie, the man whom Pearl
had always been told was her father. Jimmie Louie was a good husband, a good father, and a
minister in the Chinese Baptist Church, but he had died when Pearl was a teenager.
Winnie had met Jimmy Louie in China, at an American dance. He was American
born, though his background was Chinese, and he was extremely kind. The two fell in love,
and Winnie escaped with him, after running away from Wen Fu. The biggest secret,
however, that Winnie tells her daughter, is that before Winnie was able to escape her
marriage, Wen Fu raped her and that Wen Fu is Pearl's real father. Winnie tells her
daughter also that it is only now that she feels truly free from Wen Fu's wickedness and his
threats, because she has received news of his death.
After Winnie tells her daughter about her past, Pearl reveals the secret of her own
disease. By the time the wedding of Bao-Bao comes around, mother and daughter know
each other better and are able to appreciate each other's positions, ideas, and beliefs better.
Also, by the end of the novel, Helen reveals the planning of a trip to China—a trip that Helen,
Pearl, and Winnie will take together.
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SETTING
T ime · 1920s-199's
Pl ace · Various cities, country towns, and islands in and off the coast of China as well as
California, U.S.A.
CHARACTER LIST
Winnie Louie - The novel's main narrator. Winnie Louie is a woman who has suffered a
great deal in her life. A Chinese immigrant to America, Winnie, known in China as Weili, lost
her mother at a very young age and entered into an abusive marriage. Her suffering has
made her sometimes cynical and always strong. She is a combination of pessimist and
optimist that has lived her life trying to keep the past out of her present.
Pearl Louie Brandt - Winnie's daughter. Pearl is the child of Chinese immigrants and is a
person who is caught between her American self and her Chinese ancestry and parents. She
is married to an American man and feels more American than she does Chinese. She, like
her mother, harbor's secrets, and she has not told her mother, when the novel opens, about
her multiple sclerosis.
Phil Brandt - Pearl's husband. Phil is a regular American "guy." He is a good father and
husband but often finds himself out of place among Pearl's Chinese family.

3. Auntie Du - Helen's Aunt, Auntie Du is one of the most self-giving characters in the novel.
She loves Winnie very much and is always helping in one way or another. She is kind and
sincere, always shedding light and truth on situations.
Helen Kwong - Winnie's best friend, Helen is stubborn and also strong. She had grown up
in poverty and married into a higher class, survived the war, and, with Winnie's help, had
immigrated to America. She has a selective memory, is an optimist, and is always trying to
repair situations.
Long Jiaguo - Helen's first husband. Jiaguo was a good man who had done a serious wrong
in his life. He marries Helen out of guilt for having wronged her sister, but the two turn out
to have a good marriage. Jiaguo has a high rank in the air force but is humble. He forgives
easily and is also easily swayed by his wife.
Henry Kwong - Helen's second husband. Henry loves his wife very much, and it is
important for him to look good and strong in front of her. He is not as he seems, however,
and is, in some ways weak, as is illustrated by the fact that he takes credit for Auntie Du's
work in getting Winnie out of prison. Nevertheless, he is a good man.
Winnie's Mother - Winnie's mother. She disappears from the novel early on, and yet she
plays a central role since she mysteriously disappeared from Winnie's life and changed it
forever. She had been a modern Shanghai woman who had wanted to marry for love and
was, instead, forced to take on the position of second wife to a man for whom she did not
care. Because she was strong-willed and independent-minded, she escaped her marriage
and her station in life, one way or another.
Jiang Sao-yan - Winnie's father. Jiang Sao-yan is a wealthy and powerful man at the
beginning of the story who forces his daughter to live with his brother and his wives so as
not to be reminded of Winnie's mother. He begins powerful but ends up a weak man with
no memory and a lack of will. It is dubious whether he has the capacity to love, but one
action—the act of giving his daughter the gold ingots—redeems him somewhat.
San Ma - Jiang Sao-yan's senior wife. San Ma is stubborn and sneaky. She carries herself
with arrogance and yet gives the impression of kindness as she shops with Weili for her
dowry. She, like Winnie's father's other wives, is always full of gossip and jealousy—and she
believes that her position in her husband's house gives her power.
New Aunt and Old Aunt - Winnie's Aunts. New Aunt and Old Aunt raised Winnie in
Winnie's father's house. Old Aunt is the more conservative of the two, basing her beliefs on
ancient Chinese customs. New Aunt is younger, yet still conservative. Both treat Winnie as
an outsider of sorts, and yet later, when the war is over, they seem to have real love for her.
Peanut - The bratty daughter of Winnie's Uncle. Peanut is Winnie's cousin. Peanut and
Winnie grow up together, and Peanut proves, in her youth, to be at once, vain, conceited,
selfish, and insecure. Later in life, Peanut leaves her marriage and becomes an adamant
communist, and yet she is still a "follower."
Bao-Bao - Helen's son. Bao-Bao is a silly boy whom Winnie pegs as a loser. He is constantly
making jokes, is on the verge of losing his job when the novel begins (according to Winnie),
and has already been married several times. It is his marriage, ironically, that brings the
family together.
Mary Kwong - Helen's daughter. Mary is married to a physician and is also the daughter of
immigrants. She is married to a doctor who had treated Pearl and, therefore knows about
Winnie's condition. She is careful around Pearl, somewhat too careful. This overly
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4. "sympathetic" behavior deeply irritates Pearl. She is also a person that is very concerned
with appearances.
Tessa Brandt and Cleo Brandt - Pearl and Phil's young daughters. Both girls are being
raised in an American way, and yet they love their grandmother and her stories. Tessa is
older and more confident; Cleo is younger and gentler, more sentimental.
Samuel Louie - Winnie and Jimmy Louie's son. Samuel never appears physically in the
novel. He lives and works in New Jersey.
Wen Fu - Referred to as "that bad man," Wen Fu was Winnie's first husband. He is self -
centered, arrogant, ignorant, and ultimately abusive and cruel. The most despised character
in the novel, Wen Fu is a villain, and throughout the novel he goes on ravages and rampages
that cause Winnie more and more suffering.
Jimmy Louie - Winnie's second husband. Jimmy Louie was madly in love with Winnie. He
was a minister and a truly good man, husband, and father, serving as a foil of Wen Fu.
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THEMES
The Difficulties of Bicultural Life
Hyphenated experiences such as the Chinese-American experience always bring
issues of identity to the fore. The Kitchen God's Wife is very much about the issues that arise
out of the immigrant experience and the generation gap between immigrants and their
children. This struggle is mostly illustrated through the character of Pearl, who is American
born but is raised in a household with Chinese customs and traditions always coming into
play. It is difficult for someone like her to live the space between being fully American and
fully Chinese. It seems that she has tried to abandon her Chinese heritage and tries to avoid
it at all costs; she does not want to go "home," and she feels a distance from her mother.
Throughout the novel, Winnie remembers instances when Pearl had been hesitant
to learn about her Chinese past. For example, when Pearl was studying the Second World
War is school and her mother tried to tell her about World War II in China, Pearl had
complained that what her mother was talking about was "Chinese History" not "American
History." Like this there are many other instances, such as the fact that the pair shares
different ideas of beauty. Winnie had given her daughter a dresser that she thought was
beautiful, just like one she had had a long time ago in China, but Winnie had complained and
hated the dresser. Pearl's father was also American-born Chinese but he died when she was
so young that she did not have the chance to share her experiences with her or for him to
share his similar experiences with her.
Amy Tan, the author of the novel, is giving the reader a version of her own
experience as an Asian-American woman growing up in California, living in a house where
there was a language barrier and where misunderstandings and miscommunications were
common. For example, in the novel, Winnie has a difficult time understanding what her
daughter does for a living. Significantly, Pearl works with language as a speech therapist. All
of the factors that arise out of a "hyphenated experience" are not all negative because once
one learns to accept the mixture and the beauty of living in two cultures on can begin to
reap the benefits of understanding, much like in the "happy" ending of Tan's novel.
The Female Struggle in a Patriarchal Society
The role of women in The Kitchen God's Wife is constantly fluctuating, mostly
because the novel spans a great many decades and two different countries. At the beginning

5. of the novel, we are introduced to a modern working woman, Pearl, married to a good
husband who shares the responsibilities of house and home with his wife, as is illustrated in
his relationship with his children. However, as the novel progresses, we are taken back to
another kind of society in which women are seen in a different light.
Winnie was born in China’s Confucian ideals, where women were supposed to be
submissive. Strong women are punished and shunned just as Winnie's mother; a "modern
Shanghai woman" had been shunned for her opinions and self- determination. One of the
only pieces of advice her father ever gives Winnie is that her husband, his opinions and
desires, must come before her own. Winnie says over and over again that she wishes she
had understood that she had a choice to say "no" to Wen Fu, to be more assertive about her
own body and about her own destiny. It is not until Winnie finds herself amidst women that
have escaped her husband that she finds herself able to do the same. Winnie struggles
throughout her youth with the ideals she has been taught of how to be a "good wife"
because these "ideals" have only brought her suffering. It is because of all these
contradictions that Winnie says she had been both "weak and strong" at the same time.
Interestingly, upon first meeting Winnie, as Pearl's mother in America, we see her as
strong—perhaps this because she has learned from her past mistakes and perhaps it has
also to do with a shift in time and place. Once she became Jimmy Louie's wife, she was able
to be more of herself, and her life changed from being the mistreated wife of Wen Fu to the
strong woman we meet. Winnie has to re-create her ideas about women, just as she re-creates
the deity that Auntie Du has left behind and transforms "The Kitchen God's Wife"
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from a victim into a goddess, an empowered figure.
The Tension between Fate and Self-Determination
The Kitchen God's Wife plays not only with contemporary issues of self and identity
but also with philosophies. The ideas of luck, fate, and destiny are constantly juxtaposed
against self-determination, free choice, and will. Winnie talks about luck and claims that
Helen, for instance, has been "luckier" than she has been in life. Winnie also talks about a
debate she had once had with Jimmy Louie about whether their being together had been
fated. And yet, there is also much in the novel having to do with free will and self-made
choices. Winnie chooses, for instance, to leave Wen Fu. In fact, Winnie's life is full of choices,
and her strength arises out of these choices and out of the fact that she was able to re-create
her life in America.
To see Winnie as a creator sheds another symbolic shard of light on the idea of self -
determination over the idea of fate. Winnie creates her own deity because she does not feel
that any exist that is appropriate enough for her to give as a gift to her daughter. It can be
said that these two juxtaposed philosophies exist because there are two cultures that are
also juxtaposed in the novel—two cultures that bring with them their own philosophies.
Also, philosophies change as people change and as they move. It is difficult to say whether
Winnie would have created her own deity in China as Weili. But, it is easy to see how Winnie
Louie the Chinese immigrant and mother of Pearl would create her own goddess to bring
her daughter "luck," drawing together her past and her present—her two philosophies.

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SYMBOLS
The Greenhouse
When Winnie lives with her aunts, she uses the greenhouse in the "western part" of the
house as her hiding place. This greenhouse is symbolic for many reasons. First, it is
symbolic of foreign influences on China in the twenties and thirties, because it was where
Winnie's uncle had practiced one of his "English hobbies," which was gardening. Soon after
the novelty of his new hobby has worn off however, the greenhouse is abandoned and used
as a storage room for unwanted possessions. Winnie, while living in her Uncle and Aunts'
house, feels unwanted and so she feels at ease among other "unwanted" things. She is also
out of place much like "English hobbies" in China.
Furthermore, the greenhouse had once been a place for growth and, even if painful, Winnie
does much "growing" of her own in that spot. Also symbolically it is where she can speak to
her mother—it is where she finds a painting of her mother. One can even figuratively say
that it is where her mother (this painting) "raised her." Thus, the greenhouse carries a great
deal of weight and its symbolic power has many branches.
My Secret Treasures Box
My Secret Treasures is the phrase that is written onto the box Winnie gives her daughter as a
gift for her tenth birthday, which she finds full years later while cleaning her daughter's old
room. Winnie had told her it was a place where she could keep her secrets and her
"American" things. In a way, giving her daughter this box is like passing on the tendency to
keep a secret life.
Lady Sorrowfree
The statuette that Winnie creates at the end of the novel is symbolic of her own life and that
of the Kitchen God's Wife. It is also representative of the power that Winnie has and that she
has given to the character of the Kitchen God's Wife.

7. 7
WEEP NOT, CHILD
By Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o was born 5 January 1938, is a Kenyan
writer, formerly working in English and now working
inGikuyu. His work includes novels, plays, short stories, and
essays, ranging from literary and social criticism to
children's literature. He is the founder and editor of the
Gikuyu-language journal Mũtĩiri.
In 1977, Ngũgĩ embarked upon a novel form of theatre in his
native Kenya that sought to liberate the theatrical process from what he held to be "the
general bourgeois education system", by encouraging spontaneity and audience
participation in the performances. His project sought to "demystify" the theatrical process,
and to avoid the "process of alienation [that] produces a gallery of active stars and an
undifferentiated mass of grateful admirers" which, according to Ngũgĩ, encourages passivity
in "ordinary people". AlthoughNgaahika Ndeenda was a commercial success, it was shut
down by the authoritarian Kenyan regime six weeks after its opening. Ngũgĩ was
subsequently imprisoned for over a year.
Adopted as an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience, the artist was released
from prison, and fled Kenya. In the United States, he taught at Yale University for some
years, and has since also taught at New York University, with a dual professorship
in Comparative Literature and Performance Studies, and the University of California, Irvine.
Ngũgĩ has frequently been regarded as a likely candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
His son is the author Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ.
PLOT SUMMARY
Njoroge, a young boy, is urged to attend school by his mother. He is the first one of
his family able to go to school. His family lives on the land of Jacobo, an African made rich by
his dealings with white settlers, namely Mr. Howlands, the most powerful land owner in the
area. Njoroge's brother Kamau works as an apprentice to a carpenter, while Boro, the eldest
living son, is troubled by his experiences while in forced service during World War II,
including witnessing the death of his elder brother. Ngotho, Njoroge's father and a
respected man in the surrounding area, tends Mr. Howlands' crops, but is motivated by his
passion to preserve his ancestral land, rather than for any compensation or loyalty.
One day, black workers call for a strike to obtain higher wages. Ngotho is ambivalent
about participating in the strike because he fears he will lose his job. However, he decides to
go to the gathering, even though his two wives do not agree. At the demonstration, there are
calls for higher wages. Suddenly, the white police inspector brings Jacobo to the gathering to
pacify the native people. Jacobo tries to end to the strike. Ngotho attacks Jacobo, and the
result is a riot where two people are killed. Jacobo survives and swears revenge. Ngotho
loses his job and Njoroge’s family is forced to move. Njoroge’s brothers fund his education
and seem to lose respect for their father.
Mwihaki enters a girls' only boarding school, leaving Njoroge relatively alone. He
reflects upon her leaving, and realizes that he was embarrassed by his father's actions

8. towards Jacobo. For this reason, Njoroge is not upset by her exit and their separation.
Njoroge switches to another school.
For a time, everyone's attention is focused on the upcoming trial of Jomo Kenyatta -
a revered leader of the movement. Many blacks think that he is going to bring forth Kenya’s
independence. But Jomo loses the trial and is imprisoned. This results in further protests
and greater suppression of the black population.
Jacobo and a white landowner, Mr. Howlands, fight against the rising activities of the
Mau Mau, an organization striving for Kenyan economic, political, and cultural
independence. Jacobo accuses Ngotho of being the leader of the Mau Mau and tries to
imprison the whole family. Meanwhile, the situation in the country is deteriorating. Six
black men are taken out of their houses and executed in the woods.
One day Njoroge meets Mwihaki again, who has returned from boarding school.
Although Njoroge had planned to avoid her due to the conflict between their fathers, their
friendship is unaffected. Njoroge passes an important exam that allows him to advance to
High School. His village is proud of him, and collects money to pay Njoroge's High School
tuition.
Several months later, Jacobo is murdered in his office by a member of the Mau Mau.
Mr. Howlands has Njoroge removed from school for questioning. Both father and son are
brutally beaten before release and Ngotho is left barely alive. Although there doesn't seem
to be a connection between Njoroge's family and the murder, it is eventually revealed that
Njoroge's brothers are behind the assassination, and that Boro, is the real leader of the Mau
Mau. Ngotho soon dies from his injuries and Njoroge finds out that his father was protecting
his brothers. Kamau has been imprisoned for life. Only Njoroge and his two mothers remain
free, and Njoroge is left as the sole provider of his two mothers. Njoroge fears that he cannot
make ends meet; he gives up hope of continuing in school and loses faith in God.
Njoroge asks for Mwihaki's support, but she is angry because of her father’s death.
When he finally pledges his love to her, she refuses to leave with him, realizing her
obligation to Kenya and her mother. Njoroge decides to leave town and makes
stake attempt; however, he fails when his mothers find him before he is able to hang
himself. The novel closes with Njoroge feeling hopeless, and ashamed of cowardice.
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SETTING
Setting place: author's native Kenya
Setting time: during the 1950s at a time when the native African population was pressing
for equality and eventual independence from the British colonial overlords.
CHARACTER LIST
Njoroge: the main character of the book whose main goal throughout the book is to become
as educated as possible.
Ngotho: Njoroge's father. He works for Mr.Howlands and is respected by him until he
attacks Jacobo at a workers strike. He is fired and the family is forced to move to another
section of the country. Over the course of the book his position as the central power of the
family weakened, to the point where his self-realization that he has spent his whole life

9. waiting for the prophecy (that proclaims the blacks will be returned their land) to come
true rather than fighting the power of the British, leads to his depression.
Nyokabi and Njeri: the two wives of Ngotho. Njere is Ngotho's first wife, and mother of
Boro, Kamau, and Kori. Nyokabi is his second wife, and the mother of Njoroge and Mwangi.
Njoroge has four brothers: Boro, Kamau, Kori and Mwangi (who is Njoroge's only full
brother, who died in World War II).
Boro: Son of Njeri who fights for the British in World War II. Upon returning his anger
against the British is compounded by their stealing of the Kenyan's land. Boro's anger and
position as eldest son leads him to question and ridicule Ngotho, which eventually defeats
their father's will (upon realizing his life was wasted waiting and not acting). It is eventually
revealed that Boro is the leader of the Mau Mau (earlier alluded to as "entering politics")
and murders Mr.Howlands. He is caught by police immediately after and is scheduled to be
executed by the book's end. It is highly likely that it is also Boro who kills Jacobo.
Mwihaki: Njoroge's best friend (and later develops into his love interest). Daughter of
Jacobo. When it is revealed that his family killed Jacobo (most likely Boro), Mwihaki
distances herself from Njoroge, asking for time to mourn her father and care for her mother.
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Jacobo: Mwikaki's father and an important landowner. Chief of the village.
Mr. Howlands: A white Englishman who came to Kenya and now owns a farm made up of
land that originally belonged to Ngotho's ancestors. Has three children: Peter who died in
World War II before the book's beginning, a daughter who becomes a missionary, and
Stephen who meets Njoroge in High School.
THEMES
Grief
In some ways, grief is the primary driving force behind the action of Weep Not, Child.
Boro is driven to join the Mau Mau to assuage his grief over his brother Mwangi's death in
World War II. Ngotho's resentments are fueled by grief over losing his family's land to the
British. Similarly, grief drives Njoroge's spiritual evolution. Nothing can undermine his faith
in God until Ngotho dies, at which point Njoroge stops praying. Similarly, Jacobo's death
prevents Njoroge from being with Mwihaki, because she must care for her mother. As the
characters cope with the deaths of their loved ones, their overwhelming grief slowly
dissolves into a sense of duty that allows them to transcend their misery. Although Njoroge
is nearly driven to suicide by Mwihaki's rejection and his father's death, it is the necessity of
caring for his mothers (which he would not have to do if Ngotho were alive) that ultimately
saves him.
Social class
As Ngugi notes on several occasions, race is not the only obstacle that prevents the
characters from pursuing their goals in life. They are arguably even more hampered by their
social class. This applies to poor characters like Kamau, who must persist with the
carpentry apprenticeship he dislikes in order to support his family. However, even upper-class
characters find that their upbringing prevents them from being truly free. For
example, Mwihaki's affection for Njoroge is hampered by her famiy's wealth, and the
expectations that come from that. Similarly, Stephen Howlands must attend boarding school
in England even though he feels more at home in Kenya, and does not want to leave. Njoroge

10. has a great hope that education will help bridge the gap of social class, but circumstances
cede his education before he can test that theory.
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Love
One of the major questions that Weep Not, Child raises is whether love is a strong
enough force to transcend suffering. The pure love between Njoroge and Mwihaki certainly
proves resilient over the course of novel: “Her world and Njoroge’s world stood somewhere
outside petty prejudices, hatreds and class differences," Ngugi writes (97). However, the
novel's ending suggests that love may endure, but that it cannot change a person's
circumstances. Although the two young people want to run away and live together in
Uganda, they are ultimately bound by a stronger sense of duty to their parents and their
country. Part of the story's tragedy is that individuality is helpless before greater forces
beyond anyone's control.
Infighting
Weep Not, Child is full of evidence that infighting between Africans was a major
problem during the Mau Mau uprising. Ngugi suggests that some of it may have been
justified; for instance, Jacobo is a truly villainous character, and we are meant to sympathize
with Ngotho when he attacks him. However, Ngugi is very explicit about the fact that such
infighting ultimately played into the hands of the British, driving wedges between Africans
and making the conflict more violent than was necessary. The difference between the
reputations of Jomo and Dedan Kimathi reveal how significant the ideological differences
amongst Africans had become. When Njoroge and Stephen Howlands discuss the causes of
prejudice, their insights offer a way for Africans to move beyond their differences and fight
for the common good. The tragedy is that individual desires are often useless before larger
social forces that in many ways hurt everyone.
Women's role in society
Certain aspects of Gikuyu society, like polygamy, female circumcision and wife-beating,
may be foreign and even uncomfortable for modern Western readers. But despite
its uncritical portrayal of these realities, Weep Not, Child is thoughtful about the role of
women in a traditional society. Mwihaki's failure to continue to high school is not a
reflection on women's abilities to succeed in general, but it does highlight the difficulties
that bright, motivated young women face if they try to pursue an education. The narrator
suggests that Mwihaki's sense of obligation to her family, and the restrictive convent
atmosphere of her school, prevented her from doing as well as she might in other
circumstances. Njoroge's mothers, Nyokabi and Njeri, are other examples of strong women,
although they occupy more traditional roles in society than Mwihaki or Lucia do. Njeri in
particular shows a strong intellect and courage when she is arrested, and Nyokabi takes
great initiative in arranging for Njoroge to attend school. Together, the mothers show that
women play just as important a role in improving society as men do - provided they live
under a relatively tolerant patriarch like Ngotho.
Family loyalty
Njoroge turns to many different sources of comfort as conditions deteriorate in his
village: school, religion, and his love for Mwihaki are some examples. Yet the only force that
stands between him and suicide at the end of the book is his sense of duty to his mothers,
who will be alone and destitute if he dies. Mwihaki rejects him because she, too, must care
for her mother. For Ngugi, family loyalty is the ultimate bond. One of the primary challenges
his characters face is deciding how to best stay loyal to their family in a time of conflict and

11. contradictions. Boro is a particularly complex example of this question. Ngotho orders him
to stop fighting with the Mau Mau, but Boro feels he must continue in order to avenge his
father's death, and to fight for a better future for his younger siblings. Whether to defend
one's family by immediately providing or by fighting for their progeny (in terms of rebellion
or, in Njoroge's case, education) is a question posed, but not answered, by the novel.
11
SYMBOLS
The land
Ngotho and Mr. Howlands share a fierce dedication to the land. At the center of their
relationship is the central problem of the colonial presence in Kenya, and hence to the
novel's main conflicts. Each has his own deep connection to the land. Land is an important
part of Gikuyu culture, an indicator of a family. Mr. Howlands seems to have embodied some
of this sentiment, despite his racism. However, 'land' does not refer only to the physical
space used for living and farming. By the end of the novel, it has acquired a multi-dimensional
meaning. In addition to Mr. Howlands's shamba, the concept of land has come
to include the people who live on it. (Indeed, Ngugi suggests that dispossessing a people of
their land is not enough to separate them from it; the connection is too strong.) “When the
time for Njoroge to leave [for secondary school] came near," Ngugi writes, "many people
contributed money so that he could go. He was no longer the son of Ngotho but the son of
the land” (115). Land, with all its profundity, is what the Africans lost to the British, and
what they are fighting to regain.

12. 12
THINGS FALL APART
By Chinua Achibe
Chinua Achibe was born on November 16, 1930 was a
Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic. He was best
known for his first novel and magnum opus, Things Fall
Apart (1958), which is the most widely read book in
modern African literature.
Raised by his parents in the Igbo town of Ogidi in
southeastern Nigeria, Achebe excelled at school and won a
scholarship for undergraduate studies. He became fascinated
with world religions and traditional African cultures, and
began writing stories as a university student. After graduation, he worked for the Nigerian
Broadcasting Service (NBS) and soon moved to the metropolis ofLagos. He gained
worldwide attention for Things Fall Apart in the late 1950s; his later novels include No
Longer at Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), A Man of the People (1966), and Anthills of the
Savannah (1987). Achebe wrote his novels in English and defended the use of English, a
"language of colonisers", in African literature. In 1975, his lecture An Image of Africa:
Racism in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" featured a famous criticism of Joseph Conradas "a
thoroughgoing racist"; it was later published in The Massachusetts Review amid some
controversy.
When the region of Biafra broke away from Nigeria in 1967, Achebe became a
supporter of Biafran independence and acted as ambassador for the people of the new
nation. The war ravaged the populace, and as starvation and violence took its toll, he
appealed to the people of Europe and the Americas for aid. When the Nigerian government
retook the region in 1970, he involved himself in political parties but soon resigned due to
frustration over the corruption and elitism he witnessed. He lived in the United States for
several years in the 1970s, and returned to the U.S. in 1990 after a car accident left him
partially disabled.
A titled Igbo chieftain himself, Achebe's novels focus on the traditions of Igbo
society, the effect of Christian influences, and the clash of Western and traditional African
values during and after the colonial era. His style relies heavily on the Igbo oral tradition,
and combines straightforward narration with representations of folk stories, proverbs, and
oratory. He also published a number of short stories, children's books, and essay collections.
From 2009 until his death, he served as a professor at Brown University in the United
States.
PLOT SUMMARY
Okonkwo is a wealthy and respected warrior of the Umuofia clan, a lower Nigerian
tribe that is part of a consortium of nine connected villages. He is haunted by the actions of
Unoka, his cowardly and spendthrift father, who died in disrepute, leaving many village
debts unsettled. In response, Okonkwo became a clansman, warrior, farmer, and family

13. provider extraordinaire. He has a twelve-year-old son named Nwoye whom he finds lazy;
Okonkwo worries that Nwoye will end up a failure like Unoka.
In a settlement with a neighboring tribe, Umuofia wins a virgin and a fifteen-year-old
boy. Okonkwo takes charge of the boy, Ikemefuna, and finds an ideal son in him. Nwoye
likewise forms a strong attachment to the newcomer. Despite his fondness for Ikemefuna
and despite the fact that the boy begins to call him “father,” Okonkwo does not let himself
show any affection for him.
During the Week of Peace, Okonkwo accuses his youngest wife, Ojiugo, of
negligence. He severely beats her, breaking the peace of the sacred week. He makes some
sacrifices to show his repentance, but he has shocked his community irreparably.
Ikemefuna stays with Okonkwo’s family for three years. Nwoye looks up to him as
an older brother and, much to Okonkwo’s pleasure, develops a more masculine attitude.
One day, the locusts come to Umuofia—they will come every year for seven years before
disappearing for another generation. The village excitedly collects them because they are
good to eat when cooked.
Ogbuefi Ezeudu, a respected village elder, informs Okonkwo in private that the
Oracle has said that Ikemefuna must be killed. He tells Okonkwo that because Ikemefuna
calls him “father,” Okonkwo should not take part in the boy’s death. Okonkwo lies to
Ikemefuna, telling him that they must return him to his home village. Nwoye bursts into
tears.
As he walks with the men of Umuofia, Ikemefuna thinks about seeing his mother.
After several hours of walking, some of Okonkwo’s clansmen attack the boy with machetes.
Ikemefuna runs to Okonkwo for help. But Okonkwo, who doesn’t wish to look weak in front
of his fellow tribesmen, cuts the boy down despite the Oracle’s admonishment. When
Okonkwo returns home, Nwoye deduces that his friend is dead.
Okonkwo sinks into a depression, neither able to sleep nor eat. He visits his friend
Obierika and begins to feel revived a bit. Okonkwo’s daughter Ezinma falls ill, but she
recovers after Okonkwo gathers leaves for her medicine.
The death of Ogbuefi Ezeudu is announced to the surrounding villages by means of
the ekwe, a musical instrument. Okonkwo feels guilty because the last time Ezeudu visited
him was to warn him against taking part in Ikemefuna’s death. At Ogbuefi Ezeudu’s large
and elaborate funeral, the men beat drums and fire their guns. Tragedy compounds upon
itself when Okonkwo’s gun explodes and kills Ogbuefi Ezeudu’s sixteen-year-old son.
Because killing a clansman is a crime against the earth goddess, Okonkwo must take
his family into exile for seven years in order to atone. He gathers his most valuable
belongings and takes his family to his mother’s natal village, Mbanta. The men from Ogbuefi
Ezeudu’s quarter burn Okonkwo’s buildings and kill his animals to cleanse the village of his
sin.
Okonkwo’s kinsmen, especially his uncle, Uchendu, receive him warmly. They help
him build a new compound of huts and lend him yam seeds to start a farm. Although he is
bitterly disappointed at his misfortune, Okonkwo reconciles himself to life in his
motherland.
During the second year of Okonkwo’s exile, Obierika brings several bags of cowries
(shells used as currency) that he has made by selling Okonkwo’s yams. Obierika plans to
continue to do so until Okonkwo returns to the village. Obierika also brings the bad news
that Abame, another village, has been destroyed by the white man.
13

14. Soon afterward, six missionaries travel to Mbanta. Through an interpreter named
Mr. Kiaga, the missionaries’ leader, Mr. Brown, speaks to the villagers. He tells them that
their gods are false and that worshipping more than one God is idolatrous. But the villagers
do not understand how the Holy Trinity can be accepted as one God. Although his aim is to
convert the residents of Umuofia to Christianity, Mr. Brown does not allow his followers to
antagonize the clan.
Mr. Brown grows ill and is soon replaced by Reverend James Smith, an intolerant
and strict man. The more zealous converts are relieved to be free of Mr. Brown’s policy of
restraint. One such convert, Enoch, dares to unmask an egwugwu during the annual
ceremony to honor the earth deity, an act equivalent to killing an ancestral spirit. The next
day, the egwugwu burn Enoch’s compound and Reverend Smith’s church to the ground.
The District Commissioner is upset by the burning of the church and requests that
the leaders of Umuofia meet with him. Once they are gathered, however, the leaders are
handcuffed and thrown in jail, where they suffer insults and physical abuse.
After the prisoners are released, the clansmen hold a meeting, during which five
court messengers approach and order the clansmen to desist. Expecting his fellow clan
members to join him in uprising, Okonkwo kills their leader with his machete. When the
crowd allows the other messengers to escape, Okonkwo realizes that his clan is not willing
to go to war.
When the District Commissioner arrives at Okonkwo’s compound, he finds that
Okonkwo has hanged himself. Obierika and his friends lead the commissioner to the body.
Obierika explains that suicide is a grave sin; thus, according to custom, none of Okonkwo’s
clansmen may touch his body. The commissioner, who is writing a book about Africa,
believes that the story of Okonkwo’s rebellion and death will make for an interesting
paragraph or two. He has already chosen the book’s title: The Pacification of the Primitive
Tribes of the Lower Niger.
14
SETTING
The story is set in The Umuofia and Mbanta villages of the Igbo tribe in Nigeria in the
1890s. Things Fall Apart highlights the clash between colonialism and traditional culture.
CHARACTER LIST
Okonkwo - An influential clan leader in Umuofia. Since early childhood, Okonkwo’s
embarrassment about his lazy, squandering, and effeminate father, Unoka, has driven him
to succeed. Okonkwo’s hard work and prowess in war have earned him a position of high
status in his clan, and he attains wealth sufficient to support three wives and their children.
Okonkwo’s tragic flaw is that he is terrified of looking weak like his father. As a result, he
behaves rashly, bringing a great deal of trouble and sorrow upon himself and his family.
Nwoye - Okonkwo’s oldest son, whom Okonkwo believes is weak and lazy. Okonkwo
continually beats Nwoye, hoping to correct the faults that he perceives in him. Influenced by
Ikemefuna, Nwoye begins to exhibit more masculine behavior, which pleases Okonkwo.
However, he maintains doubts about some of the laws and rules of his tribe and eventually
converts to Christianity, an act that Okonkwo criticizes as “effeminate.” Okonkwo believes
that Nwoye is afflicted with the same weaknesses that his father, Unoka, possessed in
abundance.

15. Ezinma - The only child of Okonkwo’s second wife, Ekwefi. As the only one of Ekwefi’s ten
children to survive past infancy, Ezinma is the center of her mother’s world. Their
relationship is atypical—Ezinma calls Ekwefi by her name and is treated by her as an equal.
Ezinma is also Okonkwo’s favorite child, for she understands him better than any of his
other children and reminds him of Ekwefi when Ekwefi was the village beauty. Okonkwo
rarely demonstrates his affection, however, because he fears that doing so would make him
look weak. Furthermore, he wishes that Ezinma were a boy because she would have been
the perfect son.
Ikemefuna - A boy given to Okonkwo by a neighboring village. Ikemefuna lives in the hut of
Okonkwo’s first wife and quickly becomes popular with Okonkwo’s children. He develops
an especially close relationship with Nwoye, Okonkwo’s oldest son, who looks up to him.
Okonkwo too becomes very fond of Ikemefuna, who calls him “father” and is a perfect
clansman, but Okonkwo does not demonstrate his affection because he fears that doing so
would make him look weak.
Mr. Brown - The first white missionary to travel to Umuofia. Mr. Brown institutes a policy
of compromise, understanding, and non-aggression between his flock and the clan. He even
becomes friends with prominent clansmen and builds a school and a hospital in Umuofia.
Unlike Reverend Smith, he attempts to appeal respectfully to the tribe’s value system rather
than harshly impose his religion on it.
Reverend James Smith - The missionary who replaces Mr. Brown. Unlike Mr. Brown,
Reverend Smith is uncompromising and strict. He demands that his converts reject all of
their indigenous beliefs, and he shows no respect for indigenous customs or culture. He is
the stereotypical white colonialist, and his behavior epitomizes the problems of colonialism.
He intentionally provokes his congregation, inciting it to anger and even indirectly, through
Enoch, encouraging some fairly serious transgressions.
Uchendu - The younger brother of Okonkwo’s mother. Uchendu receives Okonkwo and his
family warmly when they travel to Mbanta, and he advises Okonkwo to be grateful for the
comfort that his motherland offers him lest he anger the dead—especially his mother, who
is buried there. Uchendu himself has suffered—all but one of his six wives are dead and he
has buried twenty-two children. He is a peaceful, compromising man and functions as a foil
(a character whose emotions or actions highlight, by means of contrast, the emotions or
actions of another character) to Okonkwo, who acts impetuously and without thinking.
The District Commissioner - An authority figure in the white colonial government in
Nigeria. The prototypical racist colonialist, the District Commissioner thinks that he
understands everything about native African customs and cultures and he has no respect
for them. He plans to work his experiences into an ethnographic study on local African
tribes, the idea of which embodies his dehumanizing and reductive attitude toward race
relations.
Unoka - Okonkwo’s father, of whom Okonkwo has been ashamed since childhood. By the
standards of the clan, Unoka was a coward and a spendthrift. He never took a title in his life,
he borrowed money from his clansmen, and he rarely repaid his debts. He never became a
warrior because he feared the sight of blood. Moreover, he died of an abominable illness. On
the positive side, Unoka appears to have been a talented musician and gentle, if idle. He may
well have been a dreamer, ill-suited to the chauvinistic culture into which he was born. The
novel opens ten years after his death.
Obierika - Okonkwo’s close friend, whose daughter’s wedding provides cause for festivity
early in the novel. Obierika looks out for his friend, selling Okonkwo’s yams to ensure that
15

16. Okonkwo won’t suffer financial ruin while in exile and comforting Okonkwo when he is
depressed. Like Nwoye, Obierika questions some of the tribe’s traditional strictures.
Ekwefi - Okonkwo’s second wife, once the village beauty. Ekwefi ran away from her first
husband to live with Okonkwo. Ezinma is her only surviving child, her other nine having
died in infancy, and Ekwefi constantly fears that she will lose Ezinma as well. Ekwefi is good
friends with Chielo, the priestess of the goddess Agbala.
Ogbuefi Ezeudu - The oldest man in the village and one of the most important clan elders
and leaders. Ogbuefi Ezeudu was a great warrior in his youth and now delivers messages
from the Oracle.
Akunna - A clan leader of Umuofia. Akunna and Mr. Brown discuss their religious beliefs
peacefully, and Akunna’s influence on the missionary advances Mr. Brown’s strategy for
converting the largest number of clansmen by working with, rather than against, their belief
system. In so doing, however, Akunna formulates an articulate and rational defense of his
religious system and draws some striking parallels between his style of worship and that of
the Christian missionaries.
Nwakibie - A wealthy clansmen who takes a chance on Okonkwo by lending him 800 seed
yams—twice the number for which Okonkwo asks. Nwakibie thereby helps Okonkwo build
up the beginnings of his personal wealth, status, and independence.
Mr. Kiaga - The native-turned-Christian missionary who arrives in Mbanta and converts
Nwoye and many others.
Okagbue Uyanwa - A famous medicine man whom Okonkwo summons for help in dealing
with Ezinma’s health problems.
Maduka - Obierika’s son. Maduka wins a wrestling contest in his mid-teens. Okonkwo
wishes he had promising, manly sons like Maduka.
Obiageli - The daughter of Okonkwo’s first wife. Although Obiageli is close to Ezinma in
age, Ezinma has a great deal of influence over her.
Ojiugo - Okonkwo’s third and youngest wife, and the mother of Nkechi. Okonkwo beats
Ojiugo during the Week of Peace.
16
Themes
The Struggle Between Change and Tradition
As a story about a culture on the verge of change, Things Fall Apart deals with how
the prospect and reality of change affect various characters. The tension about whether
change should be privileged over tradition often involves questions of personal status.
Okonkwo, for example, resists the new political and religious orders because he feels that
they are not manly and that he himself will not be manly if he consents to join or even
tolerate them. To some extent, Okonkwo’s resistance of cultural change is also due to his
fear of losing societal status. His sense of self-worth is dependent upon the traditional
standards by which society judges him. This system of evaluating the self inspires many of
the clan’s outcasts to embrace Christianity. Long scorned, these outcasts find in the
Christian value system a refuge from the Igbo cultural values that place them below
everyone else. In their new community, these converts enjoy a more elevated status.
The villagers in general are caught between resisting and embracing change and
they face the dilemma of trying to determine how best to adapt to the reality of change.

17. Many of the villagers are excited about the new opportunities and techniques that the
missionaries bring. This European influence, however, threatens to extinguish the need for
the mastery of traditional methods of farming, harvesting, building, and cooking. These
traditional methods, once crucial for survival, are now, to varying degrees, dispensable.
Throughout the novel, Achebe shows how dependent such traditions are upon storytelling
and language and thus how quickly the abandonment of the Igbo language for English could
lead to the eradication of these traditions.
17
Varying Interpretations of Masculinity
Okonkwo’s relationship with his late father shapes much of his violent and
ambitious demeanor. He wants to rise above his father’s legacy of spendthrift, indolent
behavior, which he views as weak and therefore effeminate. This association is inherent in
the clan’s language—the narrator mentions that the word for a man who has not taken any
of the expensive, prestige-indicating titles is agbala, which also means “woman.” But, for the
most part, Okonkwo’s idea of manliness is not the clan’s. He associates masculinity with
aggression and feels that anger is the only emotion that he should display. For this reason,
he frequently beats his wives, even threatening to kill them from time to time. We are told
that he does not think about things, and we see him act rashly and impetuously. Yet others
who are in no way effeminate do not behave in this way. Obierika, unlike Okonkwo, “was a
man who thought about things.” Whereas Obierika refuses to accompany the men on the
trip to kill Ikemefuna, Okonkwo not only volunteers to join the party that will execute his
surrogate son but also violently stabs him with his machete simply because he is afraid of
appearing weak.
Okonkwo’s seven-year exile from his village only reinforces his notion that men are
stronger than women. While in exile, he lives among the kinsmen of his motherland but
resents the period in its entirety. The exile is his opportunity to get in touch with his
feminine side and to acknowledge his maternal ancestors, but he keeps reminding himself
that his maternal kinsmen are not as warlike and fierce as he remembers the villagers of
Umuofia to be. He faults them for their preference of negotiation, compliance, and avoidance
over anger and bloodshed. In Okonkwo’s understanding, his uncle Uchendu exemplifies this
pacifist (and therefore somewhat effeminate) mode.
Language as a Sign of Cultural Difference
Language is an important theme in Things Fall Apart on several levels. In
demonstrating the imaginative, often formal language of the Igbo, Achebe emphasizes that
Africa is not the silent or incomprehensible continent that books such as Heart of
Darkness made it out to be. Rather, by peppering the novel with Igbo words, Achebe shows
that the Igbo language is too complex for direct translation into English. Similarly, Igbo
culture cannot be understood within the framework of European colonialist values. Achebe
also points out that Africa has many different languages: the villagers of Umuofia, for
example, make fun of Mr. Brown’s translator because his language is slightly different from
their own.
On a macroscopic level, it is extremely significant that Achebe chose to write Things
Fall Apart in English—he clearly intended it to be read by the West at least as much, if not
more, than by his fellow Nigerians. His goal was to critique and emend the portrait of Africa
that was painted by so many writers of the colonial period. Doing so required the use of
English, the language of those colonial writers. Through his inclusion of proverbs, folktales,
and songs translated from the Igbo language, Achebe managed to capture and convey the
rhythms, structures, cadences, and beauty of the Igbo language.

18. 18
SYMBOLS
Locusts
Achebe depicts the locusts that descend upon the village in highly allegorical terms
that prefigure the arrival of the white settlers, who will feast on and exploit the resources of
the Igbo. The fact that the Igbo eat these locusts highlights how innocuous they take them to
be. Similarly, those who convert to Christianity fail to realize the damage that the culture of
the colonizer does to the culture of the colonized.
The language that Achebe uses to describe the locusts indicates their symbolic
status. The repetition of words like “settled” and “every” emphasizes the suddenly
ubiquitous presence of these insects and hints at the way in which the arrival of the white
settlers takes the Igbo off guard. Furthermore, the locusts are so heavy they break the tree
branches, which symbolizes the fracturing of Igbo traditions and culture under the
onslaught of colonialism and white settlement.
Fire
Okonkwo is associated with burning, fire, and flame throughout the novel, alluding to his
intense and dangerous anger—the only emotion that he allows himself to display. Yet the
problem with fire, as Okonkwo acknowledges in Chapters 17 and 24, is that it destroys
everything it consumes. Okonkwo is both physically destructive—he kills Ikemefuna and
Ogbuefi Ezeudu’s son—and emotionally destructive—he suppresses his fondness for
Ikemefuna and Ezinma in favor of a colder, more masculine aura. Just as fire feeds on itself
until all that is left is a pile of ash, Okonkwo eventually succumbs to his intense rage,
allowing it to rule his actions until it destroys him.

19. 19
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
By Fyodor Dostoevsky
(also spelled Dostoyevsky) is renowned as one of the
world’s greatest novelists and literary psychologists. His
works grapple with deep political, social, and religious
issues while delving into the often tortured psychology of
characters whose lives are shaped by these issues. Born in
Moscow in 1821, the son of a doctor, he was educated first
at home and then at a boarding school. His father sent him
to the St. Petersburg Academy of Military Engineering, from
which he graduated in 1843. But, as he had long set his
sights on literature, Dostoevsky immediately resigned his
position as a sub lieutenant in exchange for the much less
stable life of a fiction writer. His first book, Poor Folk, was published to critical acclaim in
1846.
In 1847, Dostoevsky became active in socialist circles, largely because of his
opposition to the institution of serfdom. On April 23, 1849, he was arrested for his
participation in a group that illegally printed and distributed socialist propaganda. After
spending eight months in prison, he was sentenced to death for membership in the group
and led, with other members of the group, to be shot. But the execution turned out to be a
mere show, meant to punish the prisoners psychologically. Dostoevsky then spent four
years at a labor camp in Siberia, followed by four years of military service. Raskolnikov’s
time in a Siberian prison, described in the Epilogue of Crime and Punishment, is based on
Dostoevsky’s own experiences at a similar prison.
Dostoevsky’s novels and other writings were major influences on twentieth-century
literature and philosophy. Some people saw the political themes of his novels as prescient
depictions of life under the Soviet regime. The existentialist movement that took shape in
the middle of the twentieth century looked to him for his descriptions of human beings
confronting mortality, despair, and the anxiety of choice. Writers such as Albert Camus and
Jean-Paul Sartre valued Dostoevsky’s writing for his profound insights into human
dilemmas, which, along with his style, themes, and unforgettable characters, continue to
influence writers more than a century after his death.
PLOT SUMMARY
Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, a former student, lives in a tiny garret on the top
floor of a run-down apartment building in St. Petersburg. He is sickly, dressed in rags, short
on money, and talks to himself, but he is also handsome, proud, and intelligent. He is
contemplating committing an awful crime, but the nature of the crime is not yet clear. He
goes to the apartment of an old pawnbroker, Alyona Ivanovna, to get money for a watch and
to plan the crime. Afterward, he stops for a drink at a tavern, where he meets a man named

20. Marmeladov, who, in a fit of drunkenness, has abandoned his job and proceeded on a five-day
drinking binge, afraid to return home to his family. Marmeladov tells Raskolnikov about
his sickly wife, Katerina Ivanovna, and his daughter, Sonya, who has been forced into
prostitution to support the family. Raskolnikov walks with Marmeladov to Marmeladov’s
apartment, where he meets Katerina and sees firsthand the squalid conditions in which they
live.
The next day, Raskolnikov receives a letter from his mother, Pulcheria
Alexandrovna, informing him that his sister, Dunya, is engaged to be married to a
government official named Luzhin and that they are all moving to St. Petersburg. He goes to
another tavern, where he overhears a student talking about how society would be better off
if the old pawnbroker Alyona Ivanovna were dead. Later, in the streets, Raskolnikov hears
that the pawnbroker will be alone in her apartment the next evening. He sleeps fitfully and
wakes up the next day, finds an ax, and fashions a fake item to pawn to distract the
pawnbroker. That night, he goes to her apartment and kills her. While he is rummaging
through her bedroom, looking for money, her sister, Lizaveta, walks in, and Raskolnikov
kills her as well. He barely escapes from the apartment without being seen, then returns to
his apartment and collapses on the sofa.
Waking up the next day, Raskolnikov frantically searches his clothing for traces of
blood. He receives a summons from the police, but it seems to be unrelated to the murders.
At the police station, he learns that his landlady is trying to collect money that he owes her.
During a conversation about the murders, Raskolnikov faints, and the police begin to
suspect him. Raskolnikov returns to his room, collects the goods that he stole from the
pawnbroker, and buries them under a rock in an out-of-the-way courtyard. He visits his
friend Razumikhin and refuses his offer of work. Returning to his apartment, Raskolnikov
falls into a fitful, nightmare-ridden sleep. After four days of fever and delirium, he wakes up
to find out that his housekeeper, Nastasya, and Razumikhin have been taking care of him. He
learns that Zossimov, a doctor, and Zamyotov, a young police detective, have also been
visiting him. They have all noticed that Raskolnikov becomes extremely uncomfortable
whenever the murders of the pawnbroker and her sister are mentioned. Luzhin, Dunya’s
fiancé, also makes a visit. After a confrontation with Luzhin, Raskolnikov goes to a café,
where he almost confesses to Zamyotov that he is the murderer. Afterward, he impulsively
goes to the apartment of the pawnbroker. On his way back home, he discovers that
Marmeladov has been run over by a carriage. Raskolnikov helps to carry him back to his
apartment, where Marmeladov dies. At the apartment, he meets Sonya and gives the family
twenty rubles that he received from his mother. Returning with Razumikhin to his own
apartment, Raskolnikov faints when he discovers that his sister and mother are there
waiting for him.
Raskolnikov becomes annoyed with Pulcheria Alexandrovna and Dunya and orders
them out of the room. He also commands Dunya to break her engagement with Luzhin.
Razumikhin, meanwhile, falls in love with Dunya. The next morning, Razumikhin tries to
explain Raskolnikov’s character to Dunya and Pulcheria Alexandrovna, and then the three
return to Raskolnikov’s apartment. There, Zossimov greets them and tells them that
Raskolnikov’s condition is much improved. Raskolnikov apologizes for his behavior the
night before and confesses to giving all his money to the Marmeladovs. But he soon grows
angry and irritable again and demands that Dunya not marry Luzhin. Dunya tells him that
she is meeting with Luzhin that evening, and that although Luzhin has requested specifically
that Raskolnikov not be there, she would like him to come nevertheless. Raskolnikov agrees.
At that moment, Sonya enters the room, greatly embarrassed to be in the presence of
Raskolnikov’s family. She invites Raskolnikov to her father’s funeral, and he accepts. On her
way back to her apartment, Sonya is followed by a strange man, who we later learn is
Svidrigailov—Dunya’s lecherous former employer who is obsessively attracted to her.
20

21. Under the pretense of trying to recover a watch he pawned, Raskolnikov visits the
magistrate in charge of the murder investigation, Porfiry Petrovich, a relative of
Razumikhin’s. Zamyotov is at the detective’s house when Raskolnikov arrives. Raskolnikov
and Porfiry have a tense conversation about the murders. Raskolnikov starts to believe that
Porfiry suspects him and is trying to lead him into a trap. Afterward, Raskolnikov and
Razumikhin discuss the conversation, trying to figure out if Porfiry suspects him. When
Raskolnikov returns to his apartment, he learns that a man had come there looking for him.
When he catches up to the man in the street, the man calls him a murderer. That night
Raskolnikov dreams about the pawnbroker’s murder. When he wakes up, there is a stranger
in the room.
The stranger is Svidrigailov. He explains that he would like Dunya to break her
engagement with Luzhin, whom he esteems unworthy of her. He offers to give Dunya the
enormous sum of ten thousand rubles. He also tells Raskolnikov that his late wife, Marfa
Petrovna, left Dunya three thousand rubles in her will. Raskolnikov rejects Svidrigailov’s
offer of money and, after hearing him talk about seeing the ghost of Marfa, suspects that he
is insane. After Svidrigailov leaves, Raskolnikov and Razumikhin walk to a restaurant to
meet Dunya, Pulcheria Alexandrovna, and Luzhin. Razumikhin tells Raskolnikov that he is
certain that the police suspect Raskolnikov. Luzhin is insulted to find that Raskolnikov,
contrary to his wishes, is in attendance at the meal. They discuss Svidrigailov’s arrival in the
city and the money that has been offered to Dunya. Luzhin and Raskolnikov get into an
argument, during the course of which Luzhin offends everyone in the room, including his
fiancée and prospective mother-in-law. Dunya breaks the engagement and forces him to
leave. Everyone is overjoyed at his departure. Razumikhin starts to talk about plans to go
into the publishing business as a family, but Raskolnikov ruins the mood by telling them
that he does not want to see them anymore. When Raskolnikov leaves the room,
Razumikhin chases him down the stairs. They stop, face-to-face, and Razumikhin realizes,
without a word being spoken, that Raskolnikov is guilty of the murders. He rushes back to
Dunya and Pulcheria Alexandrovna to reassure them that he will help them through
whatever difficulties they encounter.
Raskolnikov goes to the apartment of Sonya Marmeladov. During their conversation,
he learns that Sonya was a friend of one of his victims, Lizaveta. He forces Sonya to read to
him the biblical story of Lazarus, who was resurrected by Jesus. Meanwhile, Svidrigailov
eavesdrops from the apartment next door.
The following morning, Raskolnikov visits Porfiry Petrovich at the police
department, supposedly in order to turn in a formal request for his pawned watch. As they
converse, Raskolnikov starts to feel again that Porfiry is trying to lead him into a trap.
Eventually, he breaks under the pressure and accuses Porfiry of playing psychological
games with him. At the height of tension between them, Nikolai, a workman who is being
held under suspicion for the murders, bursts into the room and confesses to the murders.
On the way to Katerina Ivanovna’s memorial dinner for Marmeladov, Raskolnikov meets the
mysterious man who called him a murderer and learns that the man actually knows very
little about the case.
The scene shifts to the apartment of Luzhin and his roommate, Lebezyatnikov,
where Luzhin is nursing his hatred for Raskolnikov, whom he blames for the breaking of his
engagement to Dunya. Although Luzhin has been invited to Marmeladov’s memorial dinner,
he refuses to go. He invites Sonya to his room and gives her a ten-ruble bill. Katerina’s
memorial dinner goes poorly. The widow is extremely fussy and proud, but few guests have
shown up, and, except for Raskolnikov, those that have are drunk and crude. Luzhin then
enters the room and accuses Sonya of stealing a one-hundred-ruble bill. Sonya denies his
claim, but the bill is discovered in one of her pockets. Just as everyone is about to label
21

22. Sonya a thief, however, Lebezyatnikov enters and tells the room that he saw Luzhin slip the
bill into Sonya’s pocket as she was leaving his room. Raskolnikov explains that Luzhin was
probably trying to embarrass him by discrediting Sonya. Luzhin leaves, and a fight breaks
out between Katerina and her landlady.
After the dinner, Raskolnikov goes to Sonya’s room and confesses the murders to her. They
have a long conversation about his confused motives. Sonya tries to convince him to confess
to the authorities. Lebezyatnikov then enters and informs them that Katerina Ivanovna
seems to have gone mad—she is parading the children in the streets, begging for money.
Sonya rushes out to find them while Raskolnikov goes back to his room and talks to Dunya.
He soon returns to the street and sees Katerina dancing and singing wildly. She collapses
after a confrontation with a policeman and, soon after being brought back to her room, dies.
Svidrigailov appears and offers to pay for the funeral and the care of the children. He reveals
to Raskolnikov that he knows Raskolnikov is the murderer.
Raskolnikov wanders around in a haze after his confession to Sonya and the death of
Katerina. Razumikhin confronts him in his room, asking him whether he has gone mad and
telling him of the pain that he has caused his mother and sister. After their conversation,
Porfiry Petrovich appears and apologizes for his treatment of Raskolnikov in the police
station. Nonetheless, he does not believe Nikolai’s confession. He accuses Raskolnikov of the
murders but admits that he does not have enough evidence to arrest him. Finally, he urges
him to confess, telling him that he will receive a lighter sentence if he does so. Raskolnikov
goes looking for Svidrigailov, eventually finding him in a café. Svidrigailov tells him that
though he is still attracted to Dunya, he has gotten engaged to a sixteen-year-old girl.
Svidrigailov parts from Raskolnikov and manages to bring Dunya to his room, where he
threatens to rape her after she refuses to marry him. She fires several shots at him with a
revolver and misses, but when he sees how strongly she dislikes him, he allows her to leave.
He takes her revolver and wanders aimlessly around St. Petersburg. He gives three
thousand rubles to Dunya, fifteen thousand rubles to the family of his fiancée, and then
books a room in a hotel. He sleeps fitfully and dreams of a flood and a seductive five-year-old
22
girl. In the morning, he kills himself.
Raskolnikov, who is visiting his mother, tells her that he will always love her and then
returns to his room, where he tells Dunya that he is planning to confess. After she leaves, he
goes to visit Sonya, who gives him a cross to wear. On the way to the police station, he stops
in a marketplace and kisses the ground. He almost pulls back from confessing when he
reaches the police station and learns of Svidrigailov’s suicide. The sight of Sonya, however,
convinces him to go through with it, and he confesses to one of the police officials, Ilya
Petrovich.
A year and a half later, Raskolnikov is in prison in Siberia, where he has been for
nine months. Sonya has moved to the town outside the prison, and she visits Raskolnikov
regularly and tries to ease his burden. Because of his confession, his mental confusion
surrounding the murders, and testimony about his past good deeds, he has received, instead
of a death sentence, a reduced sentence of eight years of hard labor in Siberia. After
Raskolnikov’s arrest, his mother became delirious and died. Razumikhin and Dunya were
married. For a short while, Raskolnikov remains as proud and alienated from humanity as
he was before his confession, but he eventually realizes that he truly loves Sonya and
expresses remorse for his crime.

23. 23
SETTING
SETTINGS (TIME) · 1860s
SETTINGS (PLACE) · St. Petersburg and a prison in Siberia
CHARACTER LIST
Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov (“Rodya,” “Rodka”) - The protagonist of the novel. A
former student, Raskolnikov is now destitute, living in a cramped garret at the top of an
apartment building. The main drama of the novel centers on his interior conflict, first over
whether to kill the pawnbroker and later over whether to confess and rejoin humanity.
Raskolnikov is ill throughout the novel, overwhelmed by his feelings of alienation and self -
loathing.
Sofya Semyonovna Marmeladov (“Sonya,” “Sonechka”) - Raskolnikov’s love and
Marmeladov’s daughter. Sonya is forced to prostitute herself to support herself and the rest
of her family. She is meek and easily embarrassed, but she maintains a strong religious faith.
She is the only person with whom Raskolnikov shares a meaningful relationship.
Avdotya Romanovna Raskolnikov (“Dunya,” “Dunechka”) - Raskolnikov’s sister. Dunya
is as intelligent, proud, and good-looking as her brother, but she is also moral and
compassionate. She is decisive and brave, ending her engagement with Luzhin when he
insults her family and fending off Svidrigailov with gunfire.
Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigailov - Dunya’s depraved former employer. Svidrigailov appears
to believe, almost until the end of the novel, that he can make Dunya love him. The death of
his wife, Marfa Petrovna, has made him generous, but he is generally a threatening presence
to both Dunya and Raskolnikov.
Dmitri Prokofych Razumikhin - Raskolnikov’s friend. A poor ex-student, he responds to
his poverty not by taking from others but by working even harder. Razumikhin is
Raskolnikov’s foil, illustrating through his kindness and amicability the extent to which
Raskolnikov has alienated himself from society. To some extent, he even serves as
Raskolnikov’s replacement, stepping in to advise and protect Pulcheria Alexandrovna and
Dunya. His name comes from the Russian word razum, which means “reason” or
“intelligence.”
Katerina Ivanovna Marmeladov - The consumptive wife of Marmeladov. Katerina
Ivanovna’s serious illness gives her flushed cheeks and a persistent, bloody cough. She is
very proud and repeatedly declares her aristocratic heritage.
Porfiry Petrovich - The magistrate in charge of investigating the murders. Porfiry
Petrovich has a shrewd understanding of criminal psychology and is exquisitely aware of
Raskolnikov’s mental state at every step along the way from the crime to the confession. He
is Raskolnikov’s primary antagonist, and, though he appears only occasionally in the novel,
his presence is constantly felt.
Semyon Zakharovich Marmeladov - An alcoholic public official whom Raskolnikov meets
at a tavern. Marmeladov is fully aware that his drinking is ruining himself and his family,
but he is unable to stop. It is unclear whether his death by falling under the wheels of a
carriage was a drunken accident or intentional.

24. Pulcheria Alexandrovna Raskolnikov - Raskolnikov’s mother. Pulcheria Alexandrovna is
deeply devoted to her son and willing to sacrifice everything, even her own and her
daughter’s happiness, so that he might be successful. Even after Raskolnikov has confessed,
she is unwilling to admit to herself that her son is a murderer.
Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin - Dunya’s fiancé. Luzhin is stingy, narrow-minded, and self-absorbed.
His deepest wish is to marry a beautiful, intelligent, but desperately poor girl like
24
Dunya so that she will be indebted to him.
Andrei Semyonovich Lebezyatnikov - Luzhin’s grudging roommate. Lebezyatnikov is a
young man who is convinced of the rightness of the “new philosophies” such as nihilism that
are currently raging through St. Petersburg. Although he is self-centered, confused, and
immature, he nonetheless seems to possess basic scruples.
Alyona Ivanovna - An old, withered pawnbroker whom Raskolnikov kills. Raskolnikov
calls Alyona Ivanovna a “louse” and despises her for cheating the poor out of their money
and enslaving her own sister, Lizaveta.
Lizaveta Ivanovna - Alyona Ivanovna’s sister. Lizaveta is simple, almost “idiotic,” and a
virtual servant to her sister. Sonya later reveals to Raskolnikov that she and Lizaveta were
friends.
Zossimov - Raskolnikov’s doctor and a friend of Razumikhin. Zossimov is a young, self-congratulating
man who has little insight into his patient’s condition. He suspects that
Raskolnikov is mentally ill.
Nastasya Petrovna (“Nastenka,” “Nastasyushka”) - A servant in the house where
Raskolnikov rents his “closet.” Nastasya brings him tea and food when he requests it and
helps care for him in his illness after the murders.
Ilya Petrovich (“Gunpowder”) - The police official whom Raskolnikov encounters after
committing the murder and to whom he confesses at the end of the novel. Unlike Porfiry
Petrovich, Ilya Petrovich is rather oblivious and prone to sudden bouts of temper (thus the
nickname “Gunpowder”).
Alexander Grigorievich Zamyotov - A junior official in the police station who suspects
that Raskolnikov is the killer of Alyona Ivanovna and Lizaveta.
Nikolai Dementiev (“Mikolka”) - A painter working in an empty apartment next to Alyona
Ivanovna’s on the day of the murders. Suspected of the murders and held in prison, Nikolai
eventually makes a false confession.
Polina Mikhailovna Marmeladov (“Polya,” “Polenka,” “Polechka”) - The oldest
daughter of Katerina Ivanovna from her former marriage.
THEMES
Alienation from Society
Alienation is the primary theme of Crime and Punishment. At first, Raskolnikov’s
pride separates him from society. He sees himself as superior to all other people and so
cannot relate to anyone. Within his personal philosophy, he sees other people as tools and
uses them for his own ends. After committing the murders, his isolation grows because of
his intense guilt and the half-delirium into which his guilt throws him. Over and over again,
Raskolnikov pushes away the people who are trying to help him, including Sonya, Dunya,

25. Pulcheria Alexandrovna, Razumikhin, and even Porfiry Petrovich, and then suffers the
consequences. In the end, he finds the total alienation that he has brought upon himself
intolerable. Only in the Epilogue, when he finally realizes that he loves Sonya, does
Raskolnikov break through the wall of pride and self-centeredness that has separated him
from society.
25
The Psychology of Crime and Punishment
The manner in which the novel addresses crime and punishment is not exactly what
one would expect. The crime is committed in Part I and the punishment comes hundreds of
pages later, in the Epilogue. The real focus of the novel is not on those two endpoints but on
what lies between them—an in-depth exploration of the psychology of a criminal. The inner
world of Raskolnikov, with all of its doubts, deliria, second-guessing, fear, and despair, is the
heart of the story. Dostoevsky concerns himself not with the actual repercussions of the
murder but with the way the murder forces Raskolnikov to deal with tormenting guilt.
Indeed, by focusing so little on Raskolnikov’s imprisonment, Dostoevsky seems to suggest
that actual punishment is much less terrible than the stress and anxiety of trying to avoid
punishment. Porfiry Petrovich emphasizes the psychological angle of the novel, as he
shrewdly realizes that Raskolnikov is the killer and makes several speeches in which he
details the workings of Raskolnikov’s mind after the killing. Because he understands that a
guilt-ridden criminal must necessarily experience mental torture, he is certain that
Raskolnikov will eventually confess or go mad. The expert mind games that he plays with
Raskolnikov strengthen the sense that the novel’s outcome is inevitable because of the
nature of the human psyche.
The Idea of the Superman
At the beginning of the novel, Raskolnikov sees himself as a “superman,” a person
who is extraordinary and thus above the moral rules that govern the rest of humanity. His
vaunted estimation of himself compels him to separate himself from society. His murder of
the pawnbroker is, in part, a consequence of his belief that he is above the law and an
attempt to establish the truth of his superiority. Raskolnikov’s inability to quell his
subsequent feelings of guilt, however, proves to him that he is not a “superman.” Although
he realizes his failure to live up to what he has envisioned for himself, he is nevertheless
unwilling to accept the total deconstruction of this identity. He continues to resist the idea
that he is as mediocre as the rest of humanity by maintaining to himself that the murder
was justified. It is only in his final surrender to his love for Sonya, and his realization of the
joys in such surrender, that he can finally escape his conception of himself as a superman
and the terrible isolation such a belief brought upon him.
Nihilism
Nihilism was a philosophical position developed in Russia in the 1850s and 1860s,
known for “negating more,” in the words of Lebezyatnikov. It rejected family and societal
bonds and emotional and aesthetic concerns in favor of a strict materialism, or the idea that
there is no “mind” or “soul” outside of the physical world. Linked to nihilism is
utilitarianism, or the idea that moral decisions should be based on the rule of the greatest
happiness for the largest number of people. Raskolnikov originally justifies the murder of
Alyona on utilitarian grounds, claiming that a “louse” has been removed from society.
Whether or not the murder is actually a utilitarian act, Raskolnikov is certainly a nihilist;
completely unsentimental for most of the novel, he cares nothing about the emotions of
others. Similarly, he utterly disregards social conventions that run counter to the austere
interactions that he desires with the world. However, at the end of the novel, as Raskolnikov
discovers love, he throws off his nihilism. Through this action, the novel condemns nihilism
as empty.

26. 26
SYMBOLS
The City
The city of St. Petersburg as represented in Dostoevsky’s novel is dirty and crowded.
Drunks are sprawled on the street in broad daylight, consumptive women beat their
children and beg for money, and everyone is crowded into tiny, noisy apartments. The
clutter and chaos of St. Petersburg is a twofold symbol. It represents the state of society,
with all of its inequalities, prejudices, and deficits. But it also represents Raskolnikov’s
delirious, agitated state as he spirals through the novel toward the point of his confession
and redemption. He can escape neither the city nor his warped mind. From the very
beginning, the narrator describes the heat and “the odor” coming off the city, the crowds,
and the disorder, and says they “all contributed to irritate the young man’s already excited
nerves.” Indeed, it is only when Raskolnikov is forcefully removed from the city to a prison
in a small town in Siberia that he is able to regain compassion and balance.
The Cross
The cross that Sonya gives to Raskolnikov before he goes to the police station to
confess is an important symbol of redemption for him. Throughout Christendom, of course,
the cross symbolizes Jesus’ self-sacrifice for the sins of humanity. Raskolnikov denies any
feeling of sin or devoutness even after he receives the cross; the cross symbolizes not that
he has achieved redemption or even understood what Sonya believes religion can offer him,
but that he has begun on the path toward recognition of the sins that he has committed.
That Sonya is the one who gives him the cross has special significance: she gives of herself
to bring him back to humanity, and her love and concern for him, like that of Jesus,
according to Christianity, will ultimately save and renew him.

27. 27
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
by William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was born in 1564 to a successful
middle-class glove-maker in Stratford-upon-Avon,
England. Shakespeare attended grammar school, but his
formal education proceeded no further. In 1582 he
married an older woman, Anne Hathaway, and had three
children with her. Around 1590 he left his family behind
and travelled to London to work as an actor and
playwright. Public and critical success quickly followed,
and Shakespeare eventually became the most popular
playwright in England and part-owner of the Globe Theater. His career bridged the reigns of
Elizabeth I (ruled 1558–1603) and James I (ruled 1603–1625), and he was a favorite of both
monarchs. Indeed, James granted Shakespeare’s company the greatest possible compliment
by bestowing upon its members the title of King’s Men. Wealthy and renowned,
Shakespeare retired to Stratford and died in 1616 at the age of fifty-two. At the time of
Shakespeare’s death, literary luminaries such as Ben Jonson hailed his works as timeless.
Written in the mid-1590s, probably shortly before Shakespeare turned to Romeo and
Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of his strangest and most delightful creations, and
it marks a departure from his earlier works and from others of the English Renaissance. The
play demonstrates both the extent of Shakespeare’s learning and the expansiveness of his
imagination. The range of references in the play is among its most extraordinary attributes:
Shakespeare draws on sources as various as Greek mythology (Theseus, for instance, is
loosely based on the Greek hero of the same name, and the play is peppered with references
to Greek gods and goddesses); English country fairy lore (the character of Puck, or Robin
Goodfellow, was a popular figure in sixteenth-century stories); and the theatrical practices
of Shakespeare’s London (the craftsmen’s play refers to and parodies many conventions of
English Renaissance theater, such as men playing the roles of women). Further, many of the
characters are drawn from diverse texts: Titania comes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and
Oberon may have been taken from the medieval romance Huan of Bordeaux, translated by
Lord Berners in the mid-1530s. Unlike the plots of many of Shakespeare’s plays, however,
the story in A Midsummer Night’s Dream seems not to have been drawn from any particular
source but rather to be the original product of the playwright’s imagination.
PLOT SUMMARY
Theseus, duke of Athens, is preparing for his marriage to Hippolyta, queen of the
Amazons, with a four-day festival of pomp and entertainment. He commissions his Master
of the Revels, Philostrate, to find suitable amusements for the occasion. Egeus, an Athenian
nobleman, marches into Theseus’s court with his daughter, Hermia, and two young men,
Demetrius and Lysander. Egeus wishes Hermia to marry Demetrius (who loves Hermia), but
Hermia is in love with Lysander and refuses to comply. Egeus asks for the full penalty of law
to fall on Hermia’s head if she flouts her father’s will. Theseus gives Hermia until his
wedding to consider her options, warning her that disobeying her father’s wishes could
result in her being sent to a convent or even executed. Nonetheless, Hermia and Lysander
plan to escape Athens the following night and marry in the house of Lysander’s aunt, some

28. seven leagues distant from the city. They make their intentions known to Hermia’s friend
Helena, who was once engaged to Demetrius and still loves him even though he jilted her
after meeting Hermia. Hoping to regain his love, Helena tells Demetrius of the elopement
that Hermia and Lysander have planned. At the appointed time, Demetrius stalks into the
woods after his intended bride and her lover; Helena follows behind him.
In these same woods are two very different groups of characters. The first is a band
of fairies, including Oberon, the fairy king, and Titania, his queen, who has recently returned
from India to bless the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. The second is a band of Athenian
craftsmen rehearsing a play that they hope to perform for the duke and his bride. Oberon
and Titania are at odds over a young Indian prince given to Titania by the prince’s mother;
the boy is so beautiful that Oberon wishes to make him a knight, but Titania refuses. Seeking
revenge, Oberon sends his merry servant, Puck, to acquire a magical flower, the juice of
which can be spread over a sleeping person’s eyelids to make that person fall in love with
the first thing he or she sees upon waking. Puck obtains the flower, and Oberon tells him of
his plan to spread its juice on the sleeping Titania’s eyelids. Having seen Demetrius act
cruelly toward Helena, he orders Puck to spread some of the juice on the eyelids of the
young Athenian man. Puck encounters Lysander and Hermia; thinking that Lysander is the
Athenian of whom Oberon spoke, Puck afflicts him with the love potion. Lysander happens
to see Helena upon awaking and falls deeply in love with her, abandoning Hermia. As the
night progresses and Puck attempts to undo his mistake, both Lysander and Demetrius end
up in love with Helena, who believes that they are mocking her. Hermia becomes so jealous
that she tries to challenge Helena to a fight. Demetrius and Lysander nearly do fight over
Helena’s love, but Puck confuses them by mimicking their voices, leading them apart until
they are lost separately in the forest.
When Titania wakes, the first creature she sees is Bottom, the most ridiculous of the
Athenian craftsmen, whose head Puck has mockingly transformed into that of an ass.
Titania passes a ludicrous interlude doting on the ass-headed weaver. Eventually, Oberon
obtains the Indian boy, Puck spreads the love potion on Lysander’s eyelids, and by morning
all is well. Theseus and Hippolyta discover the sleeping lovers in the forest and take them
back to Athens to be married—Demetrius now loves Helena, and Lysander now loves
Hermia. After the group wedding, the lovers watch Bottom and his fellow craftsmen
perform their play, a fumbling, hilarious version of the story of Pyramus and Thisbe. When
the play is completed, the lovers go to bed; the fairies briefly emerge to bless the sleeping
couples with a protective charm and then disappear. Only Puck remains, to ask the audience
for its forgiveness and approval and to urge it to remember the play as though it had all
been a dream.
28

29. 29
SETTING
S ET TINGS (T IME ) · Combines elements of Ancient Greece with elements of Renaissance
England
S ET T INGS (PLAC E ) · Athens and the forest outside its walls
CHARACTER LIST
Puck - Also known as Robin Goodfellow, Puck is Oberon’s jester, a mischievous fairy who
delights in playing pranks on mortals. Though A Midsummer Night’s Dream divides its action
between several groups of characters, Puck is the closest thing the play has to a protagonist.
His enchanting, mischievous spirit pervades the atmosphere, and his antics are responsible
for many of the complications that propel the other main plots: he mistakes the young
Athenians, applying the love potion to Lysander instead of Demetrius, thereby causing
chaos within the group of young lovers; he also transforms Bottom’s head into that of an
ass.
Oberon - The king of the fairies, Oberon is initially at odds with his wife, Titania, because
she refuses to relinquish control of a young Indian prince whom he wants for a knight.
Oberon’s desire for revenge on Titania leads him to send Puck to obtain the love-potion
flower that creates so much of the play’s confusion and farce.
Titania - The beautiful queen of the fairies, Titania resists the attempts of her husband,
Oberon, to make a knight of the young Indian prince that she has been given. Titania’s brief,
potion-induced love for Nick Bottom, whose head Puck has transformed into that of an ass,
yields the play’s foremost example of the contrast motif.
Lysander - A young man of Athens, in love with Hermia. Lysander’s relationship with
Hermia invokes the theme of love’s difficulty: he cannot marry her openly because Egeus,
her father, wishes her to wed Demetrius; when Lysander and Hermia run away into the
forest, Lysander becomes the victim of misapplied magic and wakes up in love with Helena.
Demetrius - A young man of Athens, initially in love with Hermia and ultimately in love
with Helena. Demetrius’s obstinate pursuit of Hermia throws love out of balance among the
quartet of Athenian youths and precludes a symmetrical two-couple arrangement.
Hermia - Egeus’s daughter, a young woman of Athens. Hermia is in love with Lysander and
is a childhood friend of Helena. As a result of the fairies’ mischief with Oberon’s love potion,
both Lysander and Demetrius suddenly fall in love with Helena. Self-conscious about her
short stature, Hermia suspects that Helena has wooed the men with her height. By morning,
however, Puck has sorted matters out with the love potion, and Lysander’s love for Hermia
is restored.
Helena - A young woman of Athens, in love with Demetrius. Demetrius and Helena were
once betrothed, but when Demetrius met Helena’s friend Hermia, he fell in love with her
and abandoned Helena. Lacking confidence in her looks, Helena thinks that Demetrius and
Lysander are mocking her when the fairies’ mischief causes them to fall in love with her.
Egeus - Hermia’s father, who brings a complaint against his daughter to Theseus: Egeus has
given Demetrius permission to marry Hermia, but Hermia, in love with Lysander, refuses to
marry Demetrius. Egeus’s severe insistence that Hermia either respect his wishes or be held

30. accountable to Athenian law places him squarely outside the whimsical dream realm of the
forest.
Theseus - The heroic duke of Athens, engaged to Hippolyta. Theseus represents power and
order throughout the play. He appears only at the beginning and end of the story, removed
from the dreamlike events of the forest.
Hippolyta - The legendary queen of the Amazons, engaged to Theseus. Like Theseus, she
symbolizes order.
Nick Bottom - The overconfident weaver chosen to play Pyramus in the craftsmen’s play
for Theseus’s marriage celebration. Bottom is full of advice and self-confidence but
frequently makes silly mistakes and misuses language. His simultaneous nonchalance about
the beautiful Titania’s sudden love for him and unawareness of the fact that Puck has
transformed his head into that of an ass mark the pinnacle of his foolish arrogance.
Peter Quince - A carpenter and the nominal leader of the craftsmen’s attempt to put on a
play for Theseus’s marriage celebration. Quince is often shoved aside by the abundantly
confident Bottom. During the craftsmen’s play, Quince plays the Prologue.
Francis Flute - The bellows-mender chosen to play Thisbe in the craftsmen’s play for
Theseus’s marriage celebration. Forced to play a young girl in love, the bearded craftsman
determines to speak his lines in a high, squeaky voice.
Robin Starveling - The tailor chosen to play Thisbe’s mother in the craftsmen’s play for
Theseus’s marriage celebration. He ends up playing the part of Moonshine.
Tom Snout - The tinker chosen to play Pyramus’s father in the craftsmen’s play for
Theseus’s marriage celebration. He ends up playing the part of Wall, dividing the two lovers.
Snug - The joiner chosen to play the lion in the craftsmen’s play for Theseus’s marriage
celebration. Snug worries that his roaring will frighten the ladies in the audience.
Philostrate - Theseus’s Master of the Revels, responsible for organizing the entertainment
for the duke’s marriage celebration.
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Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Mote, and Mustardseed - The fairies ordered by Titania to
attend to Bottom after she falls in love with him.
THEMES
Love’s Difficulty
`“The course of true love never did run smooth,” comments Lysander, articulating
one of A Midsummer Night’s Dream’s most important themes—that of the difficulty of love
(I.i.134). Though most of the conflict in the play stems from the troubles of romance, and
though the play involves a number of romantic elements, it is not truly a love story; it
distances the audience from the emotions of the characters in order to poke fun at the
torments and afflictions that those in love suffer. The tone of the play is so light-hearted that
the audience never doubts that things will end happily, and it is therefore free to enjoy the
comedy without being caught up in the tension of an uncertain outcome.
The theme of love’s difficulty is often explored through the motif of love out of balance—
that is, romantic situations in which a disparity or inequality interferes with the harmony of
a relationship. The prime instance of this imbalance is the asymmetrical love among the
four young Athenians: Hermia loves Lysander, Lysander loves Hermia, Helena loves