About the product
Chekhov wrote the story “The Jumper” in 1891. In the work, the author reveals questions of the value and meaning of human life, reflects on the morality of the Russian intelligentsia. The name is associated with the fable of the jumping dragonfly.
The work is based on the motif of a love triangle. The title reflects the image of the main character, who indulges her own whims without thinking about those around her.
On our website you can read online a summary of “The Jumper” chapter by chapter. The retelling will be useful for schoolchildren in preparation for a literature lesson.
The material was prepared jointly with a teacher of the highest category, Kuchmina Nadezhda Vladimirovna.
Experience as a teacher of Russian language and literature - 27 years.
Summary of “Jumper”
Osip Ivanovich Dymov
, titular councilor and physician, thirty-one years old, serves in two hospitals at the same time: as a resident and as a prosector. From nine o'clock in the morning until noon he receives patients, then goes to autopsy the corpses. But his income is barely enough to cover the expenses of his wife, Olga Ivanovna, twenty-two years old, obsessed with talents and celebrities in the artistic and artistic community, whom she receives in the house every day. Her passion for people of art is also fueled by the fact that she herself sings a little, sculpts, draws and has, as her friends say, an underdeveloped talent in all of them at once. Among the guests of the house, the landscape painter and animal painter Ryabovsky stands out - “a blond young man, about twenty-five, who had success at exhibitions and sold his last painting for five hundred rubles” (which is equal to the annual income from Dymov’s private practice).
Dymov adores his wife. They met when he was treating her father, being on duty next to him at night. She loves him too. “There is something in Dymov,” she tells her friends: “So much self-sacrifice, sincere participation!” “...there is something strong, powerful, bearish about him,” she tells the guests, as if explaining why she, an artistic person, married such a “very ordinary and unremarkable person.” Dymov (she does not call her husband other than by his last name, often adding: “Let me shake your honest hand!” - which gives in her an echo of Turgenev’s “emancipe”) finds herself in the position of either a husband or a servant. She calls him that: “My dear head waiter!” Dymov prepares snacks and rushes to get clothes for his wife, who is spending the summer at the dacha with friends. One scene shows the height of Dymov’s male humiliation: having arrived at his wife’s dacha after a hard day and bringing snacks with him, dreaming of having dinner and relaxing, he immediately goes back by train into the night, because Olga intends to take part in the telegraph operator’s wedding the next day and does not can do without a decent hat, dress, flowers, gloves.
Olga Ivanovna
spends the rest of the summer on the Volga with the artists. Dymov remains to work and send money to his wife. On the ship, Ryabovsky confesses his love to Olga, she becomes his mistress. He tries not to think about Dymov. “Really: what about Dymov? why Dymov? What does she care about Dymov? But soon Ryabovsky becomes bored with Olga; he happily sends her to her husband when she gets tired of life in the village - in a dirty hut on the banks of the Volga. Ryabovsky is Chekhov’s type of “bored” artist. He is talented, but lazy. Sometimes it seems to him that he has reached the limit of creative possibilities, but sometimes he works without rest and then creates something significant. He is able to live only through creativity, and women do not mean much to him.
Dymov meets his wife with joy. She does not dare to admit her connection with Ryabovsky. But Ryabovsky arrives, and their romance continues sluggishly, causing boredom in him, and boredom and jealousy in her. Dymov begins to guess about the betrayal, worries, but does not show it and works more than before. One day he says that he defended his dissertation and may be offered a private assistant professorship in general pathology. It is clear from his face that “if Olga Ivanovna had shared his joy and triumph with him, he would have forgiven her everything, […] but she did not understand what privatdocentur and general pathology meant, and besides, she was afraid of being late for the theater and didn’t say anything.” Dymov’s colleague Korostelev, “a small, short-haired man with a rumpled face,” appears in the house; Dymov spends all his free time with him in learned conversations that are incomprehensible to his wife.
Relations with Ryabovsky reach a dead end. One day, in his workshop, Olga Ivanovna finds a woman, obviously his mistress, and decides to break up with him. At this time, the husband becomes infected with diphtheria by sucking out the membranes from the sick boy, which he, as a doctor, is not obliged to do. Korostelev is looking after him. A local luminary, Dr. Shrek, is invited to the patient, but he cannot help: Dymov is hopeless. Olga Ivanovna finally understands the deceit and meanness of her relationship with her husband, curses the past, and prays to God for help. Korostelev tells her about Dymov’s death, cries, and accuses Olga Ivanovna of killing her husband. He could have grown into a major scientist, but lack of time and home peace did not allow him to become what he rightfully should be. Olga Ivanovna understands that she was the cause of her husband’s death, forcing him to engage in private practice and provide her with an idle life. She understands that in the pursuit of celebrities she “missed out” on genuine talent. She runs to Dymov’s body, cries, calls him, realizing that she is late.
The story ends with Korostelev’s simple words, emphasizing the senselessness of the situation: “What’s there to ask? You go to the church gatehouse and ask where the almshouses live. They will wash the body and clean it up - they will do everything that needs to be done.”
Summary
Chapter I
“All her friends and good acquaintances were at Olga Ivanovna’s wedding.” Olga’s husband, Osip Stepanych Dymov, “a simple, unremarkable person,” was a doctor and had the rank of “titular councilor” and worked in two hospitals. He earned little - only 500 rubles a year.
Olga’s friends and acquaintances were famous creative people: artists, musicians, performers. Among them was the young and successful artist Ryabovsky. Compared to these people, “Dymov seemed alien, superfluous and small.”
Dymov served with Olga's father in the same hospital. When the girl's father fell ill, Osip Stepanych looked after him. After the death of his father, Dymov proposed to Olga.
Chapter II
Olga was engaged in creative work, went to visit the “famous and great,” and invited representatives of bohemia to her place. Dymov had absolutely no understanding of art.
In the spring and summer, Olga Ivanovna was going to the dacha, and then go with the artists to the Volga.
Chapter III
“On the second day of Trinity, after lunch, Dymov <...> went to his wife’s dacha. He hadn’t seen her for two weeks and missed her a lot,” he took gifts with him. However, Olga was not at the dacha; instead, there were three unknown men there. The woman returned with Ryabovsky only in the evening. Not thinking that her husband was off the road and hungry, Olga sent him back home for a dress, gloves and flowers that she needed for tomorrow.
Chapter IV
“On a quiet, moonlit July night, Olga Ivanovna stood on the deck of a Volga steamship.” She thought that Ryabovsky was “a great man, a genius, God’s chosen one.” The artist confessed his love to her. Olga, remembering Dymov, decided that for him, “an ordinary person, the happiness that he has already received is enough.” Olga kissed Ryabovsky.
Chapter V
All the time Olga was relaxing with the artists, Dymov sent her money and wrote letters about what awaited her. At the beginning of September, Ryabovsky began to regret that he had “tied himself” to Olga. And it began to bother her, and she went home.
Chapter VI
“From the middle of winter, Dymov began to realize that he was being deceived.” He dined more and more often with his friend Doctor Korostelev. Olga continued to communicate with Ryabovsky, often went to his workshop, and invited him to her place. She was very jealous of the artist towards other ladies, and everyone in her circle understood this. Olga said about her husband that he oppresses her with his generosity.
Dymov began to work even more and defended his dissertation. Once he shared with his wife that he might soon be offered a “private assistant professorship in general pathology.” And “if Olga Ivanovna had shared his joy and triumph with him, he would have forgiven her everything,” but the woman did not understand what this meant, “besides, she was afraid of being late for the theater and did not say anything.”
Chapter VII
On one of her visits, Olga found another woman at Ryabovsky’s place. The artist advised her to quit painting and do something else. The upset woman quickly left Ryabovsky, deciding to start a new life.
She returned home late. Through the office door, Dymov told her that “the day before yesterday he contracted diphtheria in the hospital,” and asked her to send for Korostelev.
Chapter VIII
Doctors were constantly on duty at Dymov’s bedside. Korostelev said that Osip Stepanych became infected from a sick boy when he sucked diphtheria films from him through a tube. Olga “thought that God was punishing her for deceiving her husband.”
At night, Korostelev reported that Dymov was dying. The man said that Osip Stepanych was a great man and his death was a loss for science. Unexpectedly, Olga realized that “he was truly an extraordinary, rare and, in comparison with those she knew, a great man.”
Olga rushed into Dymov’s office. “She wanted to explain to him that it was a mistake,” that “she would reverence him all her life, pray and experience sacred fear.” But Dymov was already dead. Korostelev ordered that the almshouses be called, who “will do everything that is needed.”
Read the summary of Chekhov the Jumper
Olga Dymova often has guests. And all of them are people of art, albeit on a local “scale”. All these artists, actors and others like them are glad to have the company of the generous Olga, everyone recognizes her talents in almost all areas of art. But they can’t see any potential behind her husband. The wife even has to apologize for Osip being too boring, because he is “just” a doctor. Of course, he has to earn money for her entertainment and outfits at two jobs, bring food and take care of dinner, because Olya has no time for such trifles, he sometimes needs to return to the city from the dacha without sleep for her dresses and hats. But he loves his wife too much and forgives her everything.
She pays less and less attention to this submissive man: either she has an important meeting, or an invitation to a wedding. And especially since in her society there is such an interesting man - the artist Ryabovsky. The talented blond confessed his love to Olga... And she couldn’t resist. After all, he is so talented! However, as a man of art, Ryabovsky is prone to changes in mood (he considers himself either a genius or mediocrity), changes in feelings (he quickly loses interest in Olga, finds the next one).
Dymova is tormented by jealousy of her lover, feels unhappy and rejected. The husband cannot help but notice this, he understands everything, but he justifies his wife. Trying to distract himself, he works even harder. He has already defended his dissertation, and soon he may be offered a private docent. But his wife does not understand his pride, does not share it; for Olga, her problems (she found another woman with her lover) are much more important. The husband did not receive the slightest response, so, trying to forget himself, he threw himself into dangerous work - he saves infectious patients. Osip himself becomes infected, and there is no hope for him. His friends are saddened - science is losing an outstanding scientist. Only at the last moment does Olga Dymova realize how wrong she was. But it's too late.
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Other characters
Ryabovsky
– artist, “genre painter, animal painter and landscape painter” for 25 years.
Korostelev
- doctor, friend of Dymov.
Chapter I
“All her friends and good acquaintances were at Olga Ivanovna’s wedding.” Olga’s husband, Osip Stepanych Dymov, “a simple, unremarkable person,” was a doctor and had the rank of “titular adviser,” and worked in two hospitals. He earned little - only 500 rubles a year.
Olga’s friends and acquaintances were famous creative people: artists, musicians, performers. Among them was the young and successful artist Ryabovsky. Compared to these people, “Dymov seemed alien, superfluous and small.”
Dymov served with Olga's father in the same hospital. When the woman's father fell ill, Osip Stepanych looked after him. After the death of his father, Dymov proposed to Olga.
Chapter II
Olga was engaged in creativity, went to visit the “famous and great,” and invited representatives of bohemia to her place. Dymov had absolutely no understanding of art.
In the spring and summer, Olga Ivanovna was going to the dacha, and then go with the artists to the Volga.
Chapter III
“On the second day of Trinity, after lunch, Dymov went to his wife’s dacha. He hadn’t seen her for two weeks and missed her a lot,” and took gifts with him. However, Olga was not at the dacha; instead, there were three unknown men there. The woman returned with Ryabovsky only in the evening. Not thinking that her husband was off the road and hungry, Olga sent him back home for a dress, gloves and flowers that she needed for tomorrow.
Chapter IV
“On a quiet, moonlit July night, Olga Ivanovna stood on the deck of a Volga steamship.” The woman thought about Ryabovsky “a great man, a genius, God’s chosen one.” The artist confessed his love to her. Olga, remembering Dymov, decided that for him, “an ordinary person, the happiness that he has already received is enough.” Olga kissed Ryabovsky.
Chapter V
All the time Olga was relaxing with the artists, Dymov sent her money and wrote letters about what awaited her. At the beginning of September, Ryabovsky began to regret that he had “tied himself” to Olga. The woman began to feel burdened by this and went home.
Chapter VI
“From the middle of winter, Dymov began to realize that he was being deceived.” He dined more and more often with his friend Doctor Korostelev. Olga continued to communicate with Ryabovsky, often went to his workshop, and invited him to her place. She was very jealous of the artist towards other ladies, and everyone in her circle understood this. Olga said about her husband that he oppresses her with his generosity.
Dymov began to work even more and defended his dissertation. Once he shared with his wife that he might soon be offered a “private assistant professorship in general pathology.” And “if Olga Ivanovna had shared his joy and triumph with him, he would have forgiven her everything,” but the woman did not understand what this meant, “besides, she was afraid of being late for the theater and did not say anything.”
Chapter VII
On one of her visits, Olga found another woman at Ryabovsky’s place. The artist advised her to quit painting and do something else. The upset woman quickly left Ryabovsky, deciding to start a new life.
She returned home late. Through the office door, Dymov told her that “the day before yesterday he contracted diphtheria in the hospital,” and asked her to send for Korostelev.
Chapter VIII
Doctors were constantly on duty at Dymov’s bedside. Korostelev said that Osip Stepanych became infected from a sick boy when he sucked diphtheria films from him through a tube. Olga “thought that God was punishing her for deceiving her husband.”
At night, Korostelev reported that Dymov was dying. The man said that Osip Stepanych was a great man and his death was a loss for science. Unexpectedly, Olga realized that “he was truly extraordinary, rare and, in comparison with those she knew, a great man.”
Olga rushed into Dymov’s office. “She wanted to explain to him that it was a mistake,” that “she would reverence him all her life, pray and experience sacred fear.” But Dymov was already dead. Korostelev ordered that the almshouses be called, who “will do everything that is needed.”
