A May Night

In Nikolai Gogol's short story "May Night, or the Drowned Maiden," a single night ends up
changing the lives of many. Young Levko is the son of the head of a Ukrainian village and
madly in love with a maiden named Hanna. To Levko's dismay, his father attempts to break off
the romance in secret. What follows is a night during which both the alive and dead seek
vengeance. In this tale wrapped in mysterious folktale, family ties are put to the test and
characters are faced with a lesson or two. The story was adapted into two operas in the late 19th
century and a Soviet film in 1952. Ukrainian-born writer and dramatist Nikolai Gogol (1809-
1852) is considered one of the most prominent figures in Russian literature. His unconventional
works are often touched by folklore or a hint of the unusual, providing the reader with surprising
turns and characters. Gogol has been attached to a range of different literary styles, including
Russian literary realism and even surrealism. His stories include the short story "The Nose" and
the famous satirical novel Dead Souls. Gogol's works have inspired numerous stage, film and
television adaptations including the movie Inspector General (1949), based loosely on his play
with the same name.

In “ A May Night” a man called Levko struggles against his father, who is the headman of the
town, to marry the girl he loves. It tells the story of the love of Levko and Hanna who plan to
marry despite opposition from his father, the governor. Levko tells Hanna the legend of the girl
who drowned herself to escape evil stepmother and became a ‘rusalka’(In Slavic folklore,
the rusalka is a typically feminine entity, often malicious toward mankind and frequently
associated with water).

In this tale, a young Cossack named Levko, the son of the mayor, is in love with Hanna. He
comes to her house to talk about marriage and mentions that his father is not pleased with the
idea, though he doesn't say anything directly and merely ignores him. As they are walking on the
outskirts of the village, Hanna asks about an old hut with a moss-covered roof and overgrown
apple trees surrounding it. He tells her the story of a beautiful young girl whose father took care
of her after her mother died and loved her dearly. Eventually, he married another woman who
she discovered was a witch when she cut the paw of a cat that tried to kill her and her stepmother
appeared soon after with her hand bandaged. The witch had power over her father, however, and
eventually she is thrown out of the house and throws herself into the nearby pond in despair. She
reigns over a group of maidens who also drowned in the pond, but once, when she got a hold of
the witch as she was near the pond, she turned into a maiden and the ghost of the young girl has
been unable to pick her out of the group ever since, asking any young man she comes upon to
guess for her.
As the story progresses Rudy mentions the mayor and a drunk walks into his house thinking it is
his, tricked by local peasants. Then, his son, who is angry at his father for trying to steal Hanna
away, and his friends decide to play tricks on the village and start to parade around causing
havoc. They dress up the mayor's sister-in-law, who is assumed to be having an affair with him,
as a demon with soot all over her face, tricking the mayor. He mistakenly throws her into the
cellar and then finds out it's her, but she gets angry and goes outside, to be captured by the boys
again and thrown into a hut. Meanwhile, the mayor and some of his closest friends decide to find
the hooligans and instead find the sister-in-law again and almost burn her alive in the hut.
Levko goes on his own and falls asleep near the old house and the pond. He becomes enchanted
by the calm night and silvery mist surrounding everything, and then notices in the pond's
reflection that the hut appears to be occupied, and a young girl with beautiful skin pops her head
out of the window. When he turns to look at the hut, it looks as empty as ever, but when he
comes up to the window the maiden comes out and asks him to guess which maiden the witch is
in the group. As he looks at them, he notices one at first that doesn't seem interested in playing
games, but determines her to be normal. One, however, seems to revel in playing the part of a
hawk in their game, and he sees blackness in her form, realising she is the witch. The maiden is
grateful and gives him a note to help him with his father. He wakes up and is soon captured by
his father and his minions, but still has the letter, which he gives to the mayor. The letter seems
to be from the local commissar, who requests the mayor clean up his village (asking several
things to be done) as well as allowing his son to marry Hanna. The mayor agrees and they will be
married in the near future.