a false spoken statement

intended to damage the good

opinion people have of somebody

“A Slander”
 1. Where? What are they doing?

• They are at Ahineev’s house

• They are celebrating Ahineev’s daughter’s

marriage to the teacher of history and geography.
Sergei Kapitonich Ahineev, the writing master, was
marrying his daughter to the teacher of history and
geography. The wedding festivities were going off
most successfully.

page 14
2. Where does Ahineev go at midnight?

What doesAhineev
• At midnight, he want to see?
goes into the kitchen because he
wants to check whether everything was ready for
supper.

His reaction?

• He smacks his lips

as he sees the fish.
Ahineev gazed at the sturgeon and gasped. His face
beamed, he turned his eyes up. He bent down and
with his lips emitted the sound of an ungreased
wheel.

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3. What Vankin misunderstands
about?

-- Vankin believes Ahineev

had been kissing Marfa,

the cook, before he

entered the kitchen.

4. Does Vankin believe Ahineev’s
explanation?
-- Vankin probably didn’t believe Ahineev’s

explanation as he says, “Tell that to the marines!”

5. What is Ahineev worried
about?
He is worried than Vankin will tell other people that

Ahineev had been kissing Marfa, the cook.

“Hang it!” he thought, “the beast will go now and
talk scandal. He’ll disgrace me to all the town, the
brute.”

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6. What does Ahineev do to solve
the problem he thinks he has?
-- He tells everyone how Vankin misunderstands the

situation and makes a joke about Vankin.

“Talking about me!” thought Ahineev. “About me,
blast him! And she believes it… believe it! She
laughs! Mercy on us! No, I can’t let it pass… I can’t. I
must do something to prevent his being believed…
I’ll speak to them all, and he’ll be shown up for a fool
and a gossip.”

page 147
But, alas! man proposes, but God disposes. An evil
tongue did its evil work, and Ahineev’s strategy was
of no avail.

page 148
7. What happens to Ahineev at
school and at home?
-- At school, the headmaster tells him to keep his

relationship with Marfa a secret.

Ahineev turned cold and faint. He went home
like a man stung by a whole swarm of bees, like
a man scalded with boiling water. As he walked
home, it seemed to him that the whole town
was looking at him as though he were smeared
with pitch.

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-- At home, his wife is angry with him and slaps him
in the face because she believes he is having an affair
with Marfa.
8. What does Ahineev find out at
Vankin’s house?

He finds out that Vankin is not the one spreading the

rumor about him and Marfa.

“God blast me! Strike me blind and lay me out, if I
said a single word about you! May I be left without
house and home, may I be stricken with worse than
cholera!” Vankin’s sincerity did not admit of doubt.
It was evidently not he who was the author of the
slander.

page 149
“‘But who, then, who?’ Ahineev wondered, going
over all his acquaintances in his mind and beating
himself on the breast. ‘Who, then’”

page 149
9. How is “the rumor” spread?
-- Ahineev himself is the one
who spread the rumor when
he told all the guests about
Vankin’s “misunderstanding.”
It made him look like
someone who was guilty
trying to cover up his crime.
Question?