The Lament
by Anton Chekhov
Rapid Learn 2-Minute Revision
Perfect for last-minute revision
2-Minute Revision Video
Video coming soon
On a cold, snowy evening in a Russian town, the old cabdriver Iona Potapov sits motionless on his sleigh, white with snow, his little horse equally still. His son has died that week and Iona is desperate to share his grief. Through the evening he carries several fares, an officer, three rowdy young men, and even tries to speak to a hall porter and a young cabdriver at the stables, but no one is willing to listen. Everyone is too busy, indifferent or asleep. His 'immense, illimitable grief' can find no human ear. At last, alone in the stable, Iona pours out the whole story of his son's illness and death to his little horse, which quietly munches its hay and breathes over its master's hand. The story is a moving study of loneliness and the failure of human beings to communicate with one another.
Detailed Summary
Detailed Summary Video
Video coming soon
Chekhov's story focuses less on incident than on a single emotional revelation, the deep sorrow of a bereaved father who cannot find anyone to share his grief. Nothing 'happens' except encounters and conversations, yet the story becomes a powerful study of human indifference and isolation.
The snow-covered cabman
It is twilight and thick wet snow falls over the town. Iona Potapov, the cabdriver, sits bent double and motionless on his box, 'quite white' like a phantom, his little horse equally still and wooden-looking. They have not had a single fare since before dinner. The bleak, frozen setting mirrors Iona's frozen, silent grief.
The officer and the three young men
An officer hires the sleigh for Viborg. Iona tries to tell him that his son died that week, but the officer, harassed by the traffic and eager to arrive, pays no real attention. Later three rowdy young men, two lanky and one humpbacked, pile in for a cheap fare, abusing and jostling Iona. He again murmurs that his son has died; the humpback merely says 'We must all die' and hurries him on. To be insulted at least ends his loneliness for a while.
The search for a listener
Left alone, Iona's grief returns and 'rends his heart with greater force'. He longs for just one person who will listen. He tries to speak to a hall porter, who only tells him to move on, and at the stable to a young cabdriver, who has a drink and falls asleep mid-sentence. The whole town hurries by without noticing his immense, illimitable grief.
Confiding in the horse
Finally Iona goes to his little horse. He asks it if it is eating, then begins to talk, of his son Kuzma Ionitch who was a first-rate cabdriver, of how death 'mistook the door' and took the son instead of the old father. The horse munches, listens and breathes over its master's hand, and Iona's feelings overflow as he tells the little animal the whole story that no human being would hear.