Marriage (play)

Two-act play by Nikolai Gogol Cover page of the first edition Marriage (Russian: «Женитьба», Zhenit'ba) is a two-act play by the Russian writer Nikolai Gogol, which was written in 1832 and first published in 1842. Plot summary In the opening scene, a civil servant named Ivan Kuzmich Podkolyosin sits alone in his room smoking a pipe and contemplating marriage. He has hired a matchmaker (Fyokla Ivanovna), as was the custom in Russia at the time, to help find him a bride. As the two converse, the audience discovers that Podkolyosin has been in search of a bride for quite some time. The reason for his not being yet married, however, is his own indecisiveness rather than the lack of a suitable partner. In fact, Fyokla has found him a nice young woman named Agafya Tikhonovna. When Podkolyosin's friend Kochkaryov unexpectedly pays a visit and finds Fyokla at Podkolyosin's home, he learns for the first time of his friend's search for a bride. The fact that Podkolyosin has not mentioned it to his friend provides further proof of his indecision. Kochkaryov becomes outraged at Fyokla because she also arranged his marriage, and he and his wife are unhappy in it. Kochkaryov, after cle