Sleepy by Anton Chekhov. Short summary

5 seconds

Thirteen-year-old Varka cradles a screaming infant every night and does hard work during the day. All she dreams about is sleep. The girl kills the infant and falls asleep.

1 minute

Varka, a thirteen-year-old nurse, is rocking the baby all night long. He cannot fall asleep and cries all the time. Varya wants to sleep so badly.

She is overcome by slumber and dreams of the past. She sees her father being taken to hospital, where he is dying. Varka runs off into the woods and cries.

She recovers from a slap and scolding from her master.

The girl rocks the cradle again. Once again she is overcome by slumber. Varka sees her and her mother going to town to be hired and on the way she begs for alms.

She is brought back to reality by the cry of the landlady who has come to feed the child.

It is morning. Varka works tirelessly around the house and dreams of nothing more than sleeping in the evening. But again the girl is forced to rock the screaming baby.

Varka realizes that if she kills him, she will be able to sleep. The girl strangles the baby, lies down on the floor, and instantly falls asleep.