A summary of "Mad Money" by Alexander Ostrovsky Automatic translate

The comedy was written in 1869. The playwright pits a fading, idle noble elite against a class of pragmatic businessmen. The main conflict revolves around the collapse of romantic illusions about endless resources under the pressure of the harsh laws of capitalist calculation. The play has been performed numerous times. In 1981, director Yevgeny Matveyev made a feature film of the same name, which gained widespread acclaim.

Meeting in Petrovsky Park

In Petrovsky Park, near a coffee shop, a thirty-five-year-old provincial businessman, Savva Gennadych Vasilkov, is having a heart-to-heart with a non-official nobleman, Ivan Petrovich Telyatev. The provincial, with his odd accent, confesses his desire to marry Moscow’s leading beauty, Lidiya Yuryevna Cheboksarova. Telyatev openly mocks his interlocutor’s naivety, explaining that to win such a girl, one needs half a million rubles, a military colonel’s rank, and an innate sense of the world. Vasilkov counters these arguments with the argument that honesty is beneficial in a practical age.

Telyatev and his friend Yegor Dmitrich Glumov decide to play a cruel joke on a stranger. Glumov tells the girl’s mother, Nadezhda Antonovna, fictitious information about Vasilkov owning the richest gold mines. Upon hearing of the uncouth entrepreneur’s fabulous wealth, the mother and daughter immediately change their anger to mercy. They warmly welcome Vasilkov and insistently invite him to visit. Inspired by his unexpected success, Vasilkov makes a three-thousand-ruble bet with Telyatev, Glumov, and the important gentleman Grigory Borisovich Kuchumov. Savva Gennadich publicly vows to win Lidiya’s hand.

Financial ruin and matchmaking

In the Cheboksarovs’ luxurious Moscow apartment, disaster is brewing. Nadezhda Antonovna receives a desperate letter from her husband in the village. The head of the family reports complete ruin and asks for thirty thousand rubles to save their last estate before it is auctioned off. Lydia flatly refuses to believe in the impending poverty. She shudders at the memory of the stingy merchants in the stores and demands that her standard of living be maintained. She is ready to give up her beauty to any rich man for the sake of maintaining her comfort.

Lydia tests her longtime admirer, Telyatev. She reveals her feelings to him and directly proposes marriage. Ivan Petrovich readily accepts her love but categorically rejects the very idea of marriage. Finding herself in a desperate situation, Nadezhda Antonovna directs her daughter’s attention to Vasilkov. Savva Gennadych makes a formal proposal. Lydia frankly admits her complete lack of love for the groom, but agrees to the marriage for the sake of his supposedly enormous fortune. Vasilkov gives the bride earrings and a brooch worth three thousand rubles.

Family budget

After the wedding, the newlyweds live in a luxuriously furnished apartment. Vasilkov is constantly occupied with business papers, newspapers, and dealing with contractors. Nadezhda Antonovna directly accuses her son-in-law of being stingy. Savva Gennadych frankly admits the absence of mythical gold mines. He has ordinary capital, runs a business, and expects to spend no more than seven or eight thousand rubles a year on living expenses. His mother panics.

Lydia is horrified to learn of her husband’s true financial situation. The house fills with clerks from fashionable stores with unpaid bills. The proud beauty contemptuously throws the papers on the floor, and her servant, Vasily, carefully collects them. Fleeing from her creditors, Lydia resorts to feminine charms. She passionately embraces Vasilkov and swears her love to him. The languid husband takes the bills and agrees to pay his wife’s maiden debts, the exact sum of thirty-two thousand, five hundred and forty-seven rubles, ninety-eight kopecks.

Nadezhda Antonovna advises her son-in-law to start stealing public funds, citing her husband as an example. An outraged Vasilkov sets harsh conditions for the family. He demands they immediately move to a tiny, one-story, three-room house, dismiss their expensive servants, and permanently forgo social gatherings. Lydia agrees verbally, but secretly plans a cruel revenge on her husband with the help of the wealthy old man Kuchumov.

Cheating and breakup

In the poor house, Lydia awaits Kuchumov with disgust. The old man arrives late, swears to give her forty thousand rubles, and begs her to move immediately to her former luxurious apartment. He promises to bring the money in a golden salt shaker from Sazikov, calling Lydia a fairy, but claims to be forgetful and refuses to give her a single kopeck in cash. The servant Vasily, on orders from the owners, refuses to let Glumov in. The offended visitor leaves a provocative note and Kuchumov’s forgotten hat on the table.

Telyatev, who appeared shortly afterward, suspects Kuchumov’s presence in Vasilkov’s wife’s private chambers. He leaves a mocking, poetic note in a conspicuous place about his wife’s infidelity. Savva Gennadych, who returned, finds the note and challenges Telyatev to a pistol duel. Ivan Petrovich refuses to duel and forcibly hides the enraged husband behind the stove.

Lidiya and Kuchumov emerge from the bedroom, satisfied. Vasilkov emerges from hiding, throws the old man out, and demands his wife leave his house immediately. Lidiya scornfully abandons her husband, openly rejoicing at the return to her former life of luxury. Vasilkov weeps bitterly over his shattered faith in people and his desecrated kindness.

The triumph of reckoning

In their old apartment, Lidiya and Nadezhda Antonovna are confronted with the harsh truth. Their father sends news of the estate’s sale at auction to Vasilkov’s attorney, Ermolaev. The money promised by Kuchumov vanishes along with the fictitious thief-valet. Telyatev opens Lidiya’s eyes to the real state of affairs. Kuchumov is a penniless old man who long ago transferred all his property to relatives and lives on his wife’s meager handouts.

Telyatev himself admits to a debt of three hundred thousand rubles. He calmly awaits arrest and imprisonment, while all his belongings and carriages have already been seized by creditors. Glumov, too, is unable to help the beautiful woman. He has found himself a lucrative position as a companion to a wealthy, dying old woman and is leaving with her for Paris. To deepen her despair, Telyatev tells Lidiya of her husband’s fabulous fortune in railway construction. Vasilkov allegedly even took a new blonde mistress. Lidiya finds herself completely isolated, with enormous debts, and consumed with envy.

Acceptance of terms and conditions

The only person with real money turns out to be the despised husband. Savva Gennadych arrives at the Cheboksarovs’ apartment accompanied by a bailiff. The authorities begin to seize the furniture and clothing for debts. The husband categorically refuses to pay his flighty wife’s new bills. Lydia begs for help and asks to take her back.

Vasilkov offers the former socialite a position as housekeeper in his mother’s village. The salary will be one thousand rubles a year. Lydia will be expected to adopt her mother-in-law’s experience, learn to pickle mushrooms, make jam, and carry the keys to the cellar. Vasilkov promises to eventually move his submissive and trained wife to a provincial capital, and then to St. Petersburg, where he will establish a respectable social salon for the right connections.

Finding herself on the brink of debt, the proud beauty agrees to her husband’s strict terms. Lydia tearfully bids farewell to her ethereal dreams of easy wealth. She publicly advises all young women to marry rude businessmen and completely submits to the laws of the family budget. Telyatev and Kuchumov set off to seek free dinners from gullible merchants.