The Captain's Daughter

“Telling myself that this was a critical moment and that if I did not get the better of the obstinate old man now I would find it harder than ever to escape his supervision in future, I looked haughtily at Savelich and said, ‘I am your master, and you are my servant. The money is mine. I lost it because I chose to lose it. I advise you not to try to be clever but to do as you’re told.’”

This is a critical moment Pyotr’s development. It is the first time he articulates The Clash of Social Classes and insists on his authority over Savelich as his “master.” Before this moment, Pyotr respected and intermingled with the serfs, including Savelich. It is also the first time Pyotr assumes responsibility for choosing personal desire over duty in stating “I lost it because I chose to lose it.”

“‘Mercy on us, Pyotr Andreich’ said Savelich. ‘Your hareskin coat! He’ll trade it for vodka, the dog, at the first tavern he comes to.’

‘Maybe I will and maybe I won’t,’ said my vagabond, ‘but that’s no concern of yours, old man. His Honour is minded to favour me with a fur coat from off his own back. That is his gentle pleasure, while your duty as a serf is to hold your peace and obey.’”

This exchange between Savelich and Pugachov regarding Pyotr’s gift of the hareskin coat reveals the extent to which Pugachov is already asserting his persona as the late Czar Peter III, a nobleman. This becomes clear when he sides with the nobles in The Clash of Social Classes in asserting to Savelich that his “duty as a serf is to hold [his] peace and obey.” However, this assertion should also be read with a measure of irony, as Pugachov is attempting to liberate the serfs and ultimately sides with them in the clash of social classes.

“Dismal steppe stretched out before me. Almost opposite stood a few huts; some hens were wandering about the street. An old woman was standing by her front door, holding a tub and calling to her pigs, which were grunting affably in reply. And this was where I was condemned to spend my youth! I was overcome by melancholy.”

This passage is representative of how realism is combined with sentimentalism in the structure of The Captain’s Daughter. As is typical of Romantic literature, the landscape (“dismal steppe”) reflects Pyotr’s mood (“melancholy”). This is interspersed with realistic touches that describe a rural Russian village, like the old woman “calling to her pigs.”

“Lord have mercy, Pyotr Andreich! What on earth’s got into you? So you’ve quarrelled with Aleksey Ivanich! What of it? Words don’t break bones. If he curses you—curse him back. If he thumps you on the nose—thump him round the ear. When you’ve both had enough, leave it to us—we can help the two of you to make up. But as for running a sword through your neighbour! What good, may I ask, can come of that?”

Far from glorifying war or conflict as one might expect in a novella about a heroic young captain, The Captain’s Daughter minimizes depictions of violence and contains repeated exhortations about the importance of nonviolence or pacifism as in this quote where Ivan Ignatich asks “what good” can come of “running a sword through your neighbour.” This monologue likewise serves as a reminder to Pyotr about the importance of choosing to act responsibly in The Struggle Between Duty and Personal Desire.

“From songs the conversation turned to poets, and Ivan Kuzmich observed that they were a wayward lot—fearful drunkards, every one of them. He counselled me to give up writing verses, saying this was a pastime that interferes with your military duties and never leads to anything good.”

Alexander Pushkin often uses ironic humor to make fun of social classes or personages, but he is not above making fun of himself as well. It can be assumed that Pushkin is referring to his own dissoluteness in this short discourse from Kuzmich about how poets are “fearful drunkards.” His warning that poetry “never leads to anything good” is a form of a foreshadowing about the duel Pyotr fights with Shvabrin.

“When I awoke I called Savelich, but Maria Ivanovna had taken his place; I was greeted by her angelic voice. I know no words for the feeling of sweetness that came over me. I seized her hand and pressed it against my face, bathing it in tears of love. Masha did not withdraw her hand…and then her lips touched my cheek in a fresh, ardent kiss. Fire ran through me.”

The theme of Romantic Love as a Force of Salvation is most clearly represented in the relationship between Maria and Pyotr, as seen here. Their relationship is often depicted in chivalric terms: Pyotr burns for his fair maiden with an “angelic voice.”

“My life became unbearable to me. I sank into a state of gloomy brooding, exacerbated by loneliness and inactivity. In solitude my love blazed all the more fiercely and became ever more of a torment. I lost the desire to read or write. I felt a broken man. I feared I should either go mad or fall into dissolute ways. But then unexpected events, which were to have a profound effect on my entire life, gave my soul a powerful and salutary shock.”

When Pyotr is deprived of the love of his life, Maria, he is despondent. This passage illustrates the extent to which Pyotr’s emotional state is dependent on his relationship with Maria. However, his personal desire becomes overwhelmed when he finally recognizes his duties in the midst of the “shock” of the rebellion, as he alludes.

“When I remember that this happened in my own lifetime and that I have lived to see the mild rule of Tsar Aleksandr, I cannot but feel astonished at the success of enlightenment and the rapid spread of the principles of respect and love for humankind. Dear young reader, if these notes of mine have fallen into your hands, remember that the best and most enduring changes are those that come about as a result of an improvement in morals, without any violent upheavals.”

Pushkin was an advocate for Enlightenment values, and he directly encourages the reader to embrace them in this passage. He specifically cites “the mild rule of Tsar Aleksandr.” Tsar Aleksandr, who reigned from 1801-1825, was known for his frequent use of liberal rhetoric, although this rhetoric was rarely reflected in his policies, particularly after a number of conspiracies against him came to light. Given this history, it is likely that this reference to Aleksandr’s “mild rule” is somewhat ironic.

“Why should we part in our old age? I don’t want to go looking for a lonely grave far from home. Live together—die together.”

Although Pyotr and Maria are the central focus of the theme of Romantic Love as a Force of Salvation, the marriage of Ivan Kuzmich and Vasilia Yegorovna is also presented as a model. This is most clearly articulated here where Vasilia Yegorovna romantically insists on staying at her husband’s side during the rebellion. Although they both die in the battle, they get their wish in that they die together.

“Well, my lads, today we must stand our ground. Yes, we must stand firm for our dear mother the Empress and show the whole world that we are brave men and true.”

At the outset of the battle against the rebels, Captain Ivan Kuzmich reminds the troops of their duty to the Empire in an abbreviated speech that recalls the major themes of the St. Crispin’s Day Speech from Shakespeare’s Henry V. In it, he suggests that fighting against the rebels is the most honorable course of action. However, later in the novella, Pyotr somewhat contradicts this view when he describes such skirmishes as “dismal.”

“My heart was on fire. I imagined myself as her knight. Longing to prove myself worthy of her trust, I waited impatiently for the decisive moment.”

Pyotr sees himself as a chivalric “knight” who can “prove himself worthy” through battle to his fair maiden, Maria. The novella plays into this self-conception through its chivalric narrative structures even as it lightly mocks Pyotr, as here, for his sentimentality and overactive imagination.

“‘Murderers!’ she screamed frenziedly. ‘What have you done to him? Ivan Kuzmich, light of my life, soldier brave and true! Neither Prussian bayonets nor Turkish bullets could harm you—and now, instead of laying down your life in honourable battle, you have been hanged by a runaway convict!’”

In her final words, Vasilia Yegorovna gives a snapshot of Russian imperial history in the 18th century in her references to her husband’s battles in the Seven Years War against Prussia (1756-1763) and the Russo-Turkish War (1768-1774). She laments that he is dying ignobly in fighting not against a foreign imperial power but in a civil uprising at the hand of “a runaway convict,” referring to Pugachov, who escaped arrest many times.

“The similarity between Pugachov and our guide was indeed striking. I had no doubt that they were one and the same person. This, I realised, was why my life had been spared. I could not but marvel at the strange links between one event and another. A child’s coat, given as a gift to a tramp, had saved me from the hangman’s noose; a drunkard who had wandered from inn to inn was laying siege to fortresses and shaking the foundations of the state.”

This passage articulates how fairy-tale logic interacts with the historical details at the heart of The Captain’s Daughter. The strange, mythic tale—the parable of the hareskin coat—is directly compared to the historical facts of Pugachov’s rebellion. They are merged in the figure of Pugachov who, as Pyotr reflects here, was both the historic figure and the folkloric wanderer they had come across in the forest.

“In the end—and I still remember the moment with pride—the sense of duty in me got the better of my human weakness. ‘Listen, I replied, ‘I shall tell you the whole truth. Judge for yourself: how can I acknowledge you as my sovereign? You’re no fool—you’d see straight through me.’

‘Who am I then, in your judgment?’

‘God alone knows. But whoever you may be, you’re playing a dangerous game.’”

Pyotr embodies the theme of The Struggle Between Duty and Personal Desire as shown in this exchange with Pugachov where his sense of duty to the Russian Empire outweighs his desire for safety or even his feeling of empathy for Pugachov. His warning to Pugachov that he is “playing a dangerous game” foreshadows Pugachov’s tragic ending.

“Above all, I was tormented by the thought of Shvabrin. Put in charge of the fortress, invested with power by the impostor, Shvabrin might do anything to the innocent object of his hatred. What could I do? How could I help, how could I rescue her? There was only one possible course of action: I must go to Orenburg at once and do all I could to expedite the liberation of Belogorsk—and, if possible, play a part in this myself.”

It is notable that Pyotr seemingly feels more motivated to rescue Maria from Shvabrin than he is to defend the Russian Empire. This illustrates how Pyotr, a young man, is overwhelmingly driven by his personal desire rather than a sense of duty, even as that sense of duty grows over the course of The Captain’s Daughter.

“What I felt at that moment is not difficult to imagine. Within a few hours I would be seeing the woman I had thought lost to me forever. I tried to picture the moment of our reunion. | also thought about the man in whose hands my destiny lay and to whom, by a strange confluence of events, I had become so mysteriously bound. I recalled the wanton, bloodthirsty cruelty of this Cossack who had volunteered to rescue my beloved.”

Pyotr struggles with his feelings about Pugachov throughout and is unsure how to reconcile them with his understanding of The Clash of Social Classes. Pyotr’s noble status leads him to characterize Pugachov as a “wanton, bloodthirsty” Cossack even as this comes up against Pugachov’s repeated assistance of Pyotr.

“At that moment my feelings of hatred and fury were swallowed up by contempt. The sight of a nobleman at the feet of a renegade Cossack filled me with loathing.”

Pyotr’s feelings of “contempt” at seeing Shvabrin at the feet of Pugachov illustrate that, despite his feelings of kinship with Pugachov, he is still firmly on the side of the nobility in The Clash of Social Classes. It is particularly notable that, although Pugachov is the putative antagonist, Shvabrin is Pyotr’s true rival. However, in this moment when the “natural” order of things is in flux, Pyotr sides with his class, the nobility, over Pugachov, despite his personal hatred of Shvabrin.

“I knew that my father would see it as both a joy and a duty to take in the daughter of an honourable soldier who had given his life for the fatherland. ‘Darling Maria Ivanovna, I said. ‘I look upon you as my wife. Miraculous circumstances have united us. Nothing in the world can separate us.’”

This quote represents the clearest articulation of the theme of Romantic Love as a Force of Salvation. Pyotr expresses an ideal bond with Maria that has been consummated by both fate (“miraculous circumstances”) and his own personal heroic decisions. It is an echo of Vasilia Yegorovna’s final words to her husband in Quote 10.

“Maria lvanovna began to cry. ‘Farewell, Pyotr Andreich!’ she said softly. ‘Only God knows if we shall see each other again, but I shall never forget you. Until my dying day you—and you alone—will live in my heart.’”

Until this point in the novella, Maria has been fairly chaste in expressing her feelings about Pyotr in dialogue. Here, at their parting, she clearly states her undying devotion to him in a model of chivalric romantic language.

“God spare us from Russian revolt, senseless Russian revolt.”

As noted elsewhere, Pushkin is a liberal who felt conflict could be resolved through recourse to Enlightenment values of tolerance and liberty. This statement bemoaning “senseless Russian revolt” can be seen as his articulation of an anti-war stance. Although this line in The Captain’s Daughter is literally about the Pugachov Rebellion, it can also be read in reference to a revolt that took place during Pushkin’s lifetime, the Decembrist Revolt of 1825.

“Nevertheless, I lost neither courage nor hope. I had recourse to the consolation of all who suffer and, after tasting for the first time the sweetness of prayer poured out from a guiltless but anguished heart, fell into a quiet sleep, no longer worrying about what might become of me.”

This is the only moment in the novella where Pyotr actively prays. It serves to emphasize his innocence of the charges that he is a turncoat, or a supporter of Pugachov. This heightens the pathos when he is wrongfully convicted of the crime.

“The Guards captain requested that I be confronted with the main informer. The general ordered ‘yesterday’s villain’ to be brought in. I turned quickly towards the door, waiting for my accuser to appear. A few minutes later there was a clanking of chains, the door opened—and in came Shvabrin. I was astonished at how he had changed.”

In this scene, Shvabrin makes a surprise comeback as the key informer against Pyotr. This shocking reveal creates suspense and reinforces the image of Shvabrin as an antagonist whose only role in the plot is to create conflicts for Pyotr. As alluded to here, his haggard appearance reflects his cruelty and villainy.

“Maria Ivanovna took the letter with a trembling hand and fell weeping at the Empress’ feet. The Empress raised her up, kissed her and spoke to her at some length, ending with the words: ‘I know you are not rich,’ the Empress continued, ‘but I am indebted to the daughter of Captain Mironov. Do not worry about the future. I take it upon myself to arrange your dowry.’”

This quote is more of a piece with a fairy tale than a work of historical fiction. As discussed in the Analysis of Chapters 11-13, it creates an idealized image of the figure of Catherine the Great as a benevolent fairy godmother who grants Maria her wish.