Woe from Wit

The play is set in Russia in the 1820s. In the house of the old Moscow gentleman Pavel Afanasyevich Famusov, the manager in a government post, a convinced serf owner and a fierce opponent of education, his former ward unexpectedly returns—Alexander Andreyich Chatsky. He has long been in love with Famusov’s daughter Sophia and is eagerly awaiting their meeting. Three years before the events described in the comedy, Chatsky—who wanted to fulfill his duty to the Fatherland and serve it honestly—"saying goodbye while shedding tears"—broke up with Sophia and went first to St. Petersburg, and then abroad to study. Returning from troubled Europe, gripped by a revolutionary movement and national liberation struggle, Chatsky is full of thoughts about the freedom of the individual, equality, and fraternity. He is very intelligent, and despite being still very young, he already has a sufficiently rich life experience and perfectly understands what is happening in the country. He sees that in Moscow not much has changed—"new houses, but old prejudices"; everything is the same...