Women’s Good Fortune by Anton Chekhov. Short summary

5 seconds

Officials and their wives come to the general’s funeral. The women are allowed to watch the procession, but their husbands are not. One of the officials discusses how easy everything in life is for women.

1 minute

At the funeral of Lieutenant-General Zapupyrin comes officials Probkin and Svistkov with wives. Many people have gathered outside the dead man’s house, and a policeman lets the women through the crowd and asks the officials to stay where they are.

Probkin looks with hatred at the departing ladies and begins to argue about the happiness of being a woman.

Unlike men, the ladies are always treated more favourably than men: they are not drafted into the army, they are not subjected to physical punishment, and they are allowed to go dancing for free.

Men have to serve many years to achieve rank, while a woman can simply marry a high-ranking official.

Probkin tells how he once put the housekeeper in her place when she insulted his superior. He slapped her in the face. The official did not know that she was the executive’s roommate.

The general is taken out and the officials look on in procession.