The Caucasian Chalk Circle: Act 3 Summary & Analysis

Arkadi sings of Grusha’s journey across the glacier. She traverses its icy surface and makes her way down the slopes that surround it for a week, comforting herself all the while with the thought of how, when she reaches her brother’s house, she and Michael will be embraced and welcomed.

When she finally arrives at her brother Lavrenti’s house, Grusha is so pale and weak that she has to be held up by a servant as she enters her brother’s home. Lavrenti introduces Grusha to his wife, Aniko. They are in the middle of eating dinner. They ask Grusha why she has left Nuka, and she tells them of the unrest there. Lavrenti asks Grusha if her baby has a father, and Grusha, weakened, can only shake her head “no.” Lavrenti tells Grusha quietly that the two of them will soon have to make up a story, as his wife is religious and will not have a fatherless child in her house.

Grusha nearly faints, and Lavrenti rushes to her side. He tells his wife that she is on her way to her husband’s house. Grusha asks if she can lie down, and Aniko worries that Grusha is sick with consumption. Aniko asks if Grusha’s husband has a farm, and Grusha tells her that he is a soldier. Lavrenti, expanding upon the lie, adds that Grusha’s husband is about to inherit a small farm from his father. Aniko, confused, asks why Grusha is going to her husband’s house if he is away fighting in the war, but Lavrenti assures Aniko that Grusha plans to wait for her husband at his house on the other side of the mountain. While Grusha murmurs feverishly, trying to keep up with her brother’s lies, Aniko worries that Grusha has been stricken with scarlet fever.

When Aniko leaves the room to check on dessert, Grusha hands Michael to her brother. Lavrenti holds the child, but tells Grusha that she cannot stay for long—he reiterates that his wife is a religious woman. Grusha collapses, overcome by weakness.

Time passes. Grusha and Michael stay with Lavrenti and his wife through the winter. One day, while weaving in the basement, Grusha sings a song to Michael about a pair of lovers separated by war. Grusha tells Michael that the two of them must make themselves “as small as cockroaches,” so that Aniko will practically forget they are in the house. 

Lavrenti enters the basement, and, after checking to make sure that Grusha and Michael are not too cold, begins to tell Grusha that Aniko is very concerned about Grusha’s “husband.” Grusha and Michael have been in Lavrenti’s house for six months. Lavrenti tells Grusha that she and Michael must leave once the snow melts and spring arrives, and that Aniko has begun to wonder whether Michael is an illegitimate child. All throughout their conversation, raindrops have been falling steadily on the roof, but suddenly they become very loud, and Lavrenti warns Grusha that spring has already come.

Lavrenti tells Grusha that he has made some inquiries, and has found a man who can be her husband. Grusha protests—she wants to wait for Simon, her betrothed—but Lavrenti insists that Grusha needs a “man on paper.” He has found the son of a peasant woman who owns a nearby farm to pose as Grusha’s husband. The man, Lavrenti says, is about to die; he is practically “at his last gasp.” Grusha admits that she needs a “father” for Michael, at least on paper, and agrees to the arrangement. Lavrenti leaves the basement, and Grusha tenderly but bitterly tells Michael that her life would be easier if she had just left him alone in the palace courtyard on that fateful Easter Sunday.

Arkadi changes the scene to the cottage of a peasant woman and her dying son. Grusha’s new mother-in-law pulls Grusha into the cabin quickly, afraid her son will die before they can marry him to Grusha. When she sees Michael, though, she hesitates, worried that bringing a woman who already has a child into her family will bring her great shame. Lavrenti offers to pay the woman extra for Grusha’s dowry, and promises that the woman (and not Grusha) will inherit her son’s farm when he dies—Grusha simply needs a place to stay for a couple of years. The peasant woman goes off to find the monk she has hired to perform the marriage.

Grusha asks Lavrenti to promise her that he will send Simon right to her, if Lavrenti should find him. Lavrenti agrees to do so. The peasant woman returns with the monk, and finds that some curious neighbors have gathered outside her cottage. She shoos them away, and the marriage ceremony begins. Although the dying man cannot answer his marriage vows, his mother assures the monk that he said “I do” very quietly. Once the marriage is official, Lavrenti departs. Grusha’s new mother-in-law introduces her to all the neighbors, who have already begun to gossip about Grusha’s origins and the presence of her illegitimate son.

The monk makes a speech in which he proclaims that all the wedding guests also stand before a funeral bed. Grusha’s mother-in-law laments having hired such a cheap and tactless priest. Meanwhile, Grusha’s new husband sits up in bed for a minute to stare at his mother and his bride before sinking back down into unconsciousness. Three musicians arrive, and tell Grusha’s mother-in-law that the monk has sent for them. The peasant woman, infuriated, asks the monk how he could have possibly brought a band to a funeral, but then calms down and tells the musicians they might as well play.

The musicians play for a while and then stop. When the music ends, the guests at the wedding are gossiping loudly about some news: the Grand Duke has returned, but the Princes remain against him. Apparently, the Grand Duke has been lent a large Persian regiment to help him restore order and reclaim his dominion over Grusinia. Thus, the war is over, and all the soldiers will soon return home. Grusha, overhearing the news, drops a cake pan on the ground.

Grusha, stunned, sits down and asks weakly if the news is true. A guest assures her that it is. Grusha kneels and begins to pray, kissing the silver cross she wears around her neck. The wedding guests continue to discuss the war, and Grusha’s new husband sits upright once again. He begins berating his mother for serving so many cakes, and asks her if she thinks he’s made of money—while his mother looks at him “aghast,” the man demands to meet the woman to whom he has just been married off. He climbs out of bed and begins staggering through the house. The guests, all alarmed, begin to leave, and the man—named Jussup—urges them to go, telling them they won’t get any more free food from his house.

While Jussup eats cake, Arkadi sings about the awkwardness of the situation. Grusha is newly married, even as her lover, the soldier Simon, is on his way home to her.

Some time has passed. Jussup takes a bath, aided by his mother, but he calls for Grusha, stating that the task of bathing him is now his wife’s work. He demands that Grusha scrub his back, and asks her where her child came from. He has more or less ignored Michael for a while, but now his patience has run out. He berates and belittles Grusha, whom he claims is both his wife and not his wife. He tells her that Simon is never coming for her, and expresses his disgust for the fact that Grusha is “cheating” him out of sex and intimacy.

Arkadi, signaling the passage of even more time, sings a song in which he describes Grusha waiting and waiting for Simon to come for her, but he never does, and with each “passing moon” his face and voice grow dimmer in her mind.

Grusha washes linens in a stream while, nearby, an older and more grown-up Michael plays with some other children his age. The children play a game in which the Fat Prince cuts off the Governor’s head. In the game, Michael is the Governor, but he longs to be the Fat Prince. The children allow Michael to switch parts, and Michael mimes cutting off another boy’s head. Grusha watches the children’s violent game, and when they all scatter and begin to chase each other, she notices Simon standing on the opposite bank of the river.

Simon and Grusha greet each other happily but with a stiff formality. Grusha thanks God that Simon has returned from the war in good health. Simon and Grusha warm up to one another and begin to flirt a little bit as Simon asks Grusha if she has forgotten their love, and Grusha assures him that she has not. She tells him, however, that she can never return to Nuka, since she assaulted an Ironshirt and has since been married. She asks Simon to cross the bridge between them so that she can better explain all that has come to pass, but Simon is despondent, and realizes aloud that he has come for her too late.

Arkadi sings the things that Simon and Grusha cannot say out loud to one another. He sings the story of Simon’s time in the war, witnessing bloody battles and the deaths of his comrades. Simon notes that there is a small hat in the grass, and asks if there is already a child. Grusha admits that there is, but that it is not hers. Arkadi then sings Grusha’s private thoughts. He sings of how Grusha found Michael while Simon was away at war, and did not have the heart to abandon him, though in order to raise him she has had to “break [her]self for that which was not [hers.]”

Simon tells Grusha to give him back the cross he gave her on the day of their engagement. Then he changes his mind, and tells her to throw it into the river. Grusha begs Simon not to leave, again imploring him to believe that the child is not hers. She hears the sound of Michael and the other children calling in the distance. In reply, she asks what the matter is, and the children’s voices cry that soldiers have come to take Michael away.

Two Ironshirts appear, with Michael held captive between them. The soldiers ask Grusha if Michael is her child, and she tells them that he is. At this, Simon turns and leaves. Grusha calls out for him to stay. The soldiers tell Grusha that they have orders to take the child back to the city, and that they know his true identity. They hand Grusha a sealed warrant, and lead Michael away. Grusha runs after them.

Arkadi sings again, narrating that, as the Ironshirts take the child back to the city, Grusha follows them back to the “dreaded” Nuka to fight against Natella for custody of the child. Arkadi wonders whether a good judge or a bad one will be assigned to the case, noting that the city is “in flames,” or in great ruin. A man name Azdak, Arkadi says, will be in the judge’s seat.