A summary of Alexander Ostrovsky’s "The Abyss"

"The Abyss" is a play by Alexander Ostrovsky, written in 1865. Its action spans nearly 17 years, and this vast timeframe allows us to see not just one domestic dispute but the entire story of Kirill Kiselnikov’s slow decline. Ostrovsky leads the hero from a self-assured suitor to a man who loses his money, position, family, and moral support, and the finale brings him face to face with the very father-in-law on whose strength and prosperity he once counted.

Neskuchny Garden

The first scene takes place in Neskuchny Garden, near the Moskva River, and begins as if with an unrelated conversation: merchants and their wives discuss Mochalov’s game and argue about who is ruining a man — bad friends or himself. The play’s central theme is already evident here: temptation comes from without, but man himself is responsible for his downfall if he lacks firmness and common sense.

Then Kirill Filippych Kiselnikov and his friend Anton Antonych Pogulyaev, both still very young, come to the fore. Kiselnikov has already decided to marry Glafira Pudovna, the daughter of the merchant Borovtsov, and speaks of it as an almost sensible matter: he has a small fortune, a small house, and the hope of receiving the money promised in marriage, and he envisions his future family life as a career in the military and a moderate level of well-being. Pogulyaev, on the other hand, immediately sees the weakness in this calculation: Kiselnikov hasn’t yet completed his studies, he has no rank, his salary will be small, and his dependence on his father-in-law will make him dependent from the very beginning.

The friends’ argument also reveals Kiselnikov’s character. He is neither immoral nor evil, but trusting, gentle, ignorant of life, and willing to replace difficult experiences with beautiful hopes, omens of good fortune, and faith in the strength of others. Pogulyaev warns him very bluntly: poverty with a family and children can easily push a person to humiliation, then to destitution, and finally to dishonest means.

When the Borovtsovs and Glafira arrive, Pogulyaev’s warning is clearly confirmed. The bride’s family is rude, speaking simply and tastelessly; Glafira, even as a young woman, seems capricious, smug, and frivolous; and their home conversations almost immediately turn to trivialities, matchmakers, acquaintances, and advantageous matches. Kiselnikov sees this environment as "simplicity" and "innocence," but Pogulyaev sees something else in it — that viscous vulgarity that slowly sucks a person in and prevents them from escaping.

It’s here that the image of the abyss, which gives the play its title, resonates. Pogulyaev tells his friend that ignorance is like a swamp: you can get sucked into it unnoticed, and then never get out. Kiselnikov ignores it, considers the matter settled, and leaves with the confidence of a man who has made a decision before he’s had time to think it through.

Family life

In the second scene, seven years have passed, and everything Pogulyaev feared has become commonplace. Kiselnikov is 29 years old, has a family, a poor apartment, children, a constant shortage of money, and a wife who doesn’t respect him as a husband or a father. The opening of the scene is almost cruel: Glafira, in front of her husband, turns little Lizanka against him, orders her to spit on her father and call him a fool, and then switches from shouting to threats as easily as if it were her usual tone at home.

Kiselnikov is no longer the master of this house, but a man who tolerates everything and tries not to let things escalate to a quarrel. He justifies his wife even when she insults him, reminding himself that today is her name day and therefore "it’s bearable," dusting himself, fussing around the house, and in every small gesture demonstrating the extent to which domestic life has bent him. There’s still a soft side to him, but it’s no longer a virtue, but a sign of impotence.

The family awkwardness then turns into open humiliation. The Borovtsovs arrive, and it turns out Kiselnikov has pawned his wife’s earrings. At the same time, they expect a proper reception, food, and a show of splendor he can’t afford. Acquaintances gather at the house, including Pereyarkov, Turuntayev, and Pogulyayev, and all evening Kiselnikov vacillates between his host’s debt and his complete lack of money.

The most poignant episode of this scene concerns the rum for his father-in-law. Borovtsov demands his usual treat, Glafira mockingly asks her husband where the rum is and whether he even has any money, and Kiselnikov, almost in tears, is forced to ask Pogulyaev for his last money. Here his downfall becomes clear: he’s already living on random loans, afraid of embarrassing himself in front of his family, and consoles himself with a ridiculous superstition about bread, silver, and the moon, which supposedly promises a month of plenty.

Pogulyaev looks at his friend with pity, but also sobriety. He says poverty is terrible not only because of the deprivations, but because it drags a person down into a low circle, where lack is accompanied by superstition, shamelessness, and moral depravity. Kiselnikov is still grateful, still knows how to value friendship, but he is no longer able to change his home, himself, or the order in which he lives.

Poverty and guilt

The third scene shifts the action another five years. Kiselnikov is 34 years old, sitting at night over papers in a shabby room, while his mother, Anna Ustinovna, talks about her sick children, all sick with fever. Glafira is no longer alive, and Kiselnikov reveals that she died because a doctor wasn’t called in time: there was no money, Borovtsov and his wife didn’t give the required amount, and instead sent herbs, a belt, and an old healer.

This death changes much in Kiselnikov himself. In earlier scenes, he endured and justified; now he speaks of what happened directly and with pain: his wife was "killed to death," and his children were left orphans with a living father who failed to protect them. His family misfortune can no longer be attributed to his wife’s bad temper or to bourgeois life — he bears the brunt of years of dependence, weakness, and domestic oppression.

At the same time, it becomes clear that poverty has driven Kiselnikov to crime. The details of the case are not elaborated on in this scene, but the outcome is stated without equivocation: Kiselnikov confesses to his mother that he is a "criminal criminal" and that one step, perhaps even one day, separates him from hard labor. At this point, the play ceases to be a family chronicle in the narrow sense and becomes a story of moral decay, to which the hero was driven by both his environment and his own compliance.

Square

The final scene opens five years later, and here time seems to push all the lines to their limits. Kiselnikov is 39 years old, dressed in an old coat and rough clothes, while Borovtsov, a once-confident merchant, looks almost identical: calico shirts are pinned to his coat, and shirts slung over his shoulders like a market trader’s. Both are sitting in a shabby room with a Russian stove, preparing to go to the square to sell small wares.

This is especially powerful because, at the beginning of the play, Borovtsov seemed like a strong, wealthy man, someone one could rely on. Now he himself is ruined and reduced to the same level as his son-in-law, and his former merchant dignity has been replaced by a miserable existence, where they count their tea coins and prepare for the day’s takings. Kiselnikov’s downfall can no longer be separated from the downfall of the entire Borovtsov household: the family he chose for peace and prosperity has brought the same outcome to all involved.

Anna Ustinovna and Lizanka, now grown and 17 years old, remain by their side. Pogulyaev, the same friend who so many years ago foresaw Kiselnikov’s future almost perfectly, reenters this world. His appearance is needed not for a lecture, but for a final moral test: compared to Kiselnikov and Borovtsov, he remains an honest man, unbroken inside.

Ostrovsky’s ending is harsh and precise. Kiselnikov asks Pogulyaev to take Liza and her mother with him, to protect them and not abandon them, because they are "honest people," while he and his father-in-law consider themselves no longer fit for such a life. After this, he practically condemns himself out loud: honest people must live according to God’s will, while he and Borovtsov are left to go to the square to trade, swear, cheat, and ruin their souls. With these words, he takes the goods, calls the old man to follow him, and leaves, finally accepting the "abyss" Pogulyaev spoke of in the first scene.