Fiddler on the Roof (Criticism)

Criticism

A. Petrusso

In this essay, Petrusso discusses the breakdown of tradition in Fiddler on the Roof.

In Fiddler on the Roof, tradition is an important theme, defining the lifestyle of Jews living in Anatevka, Russia, in 1905. As the dairyman Tevye says to the audience in the prologue to Act I, “Because of our traditions, we’ve kept our balance for many, many years. Because of our traditions, everyone knows who he is and what God expects him to do.” Such traditions define every facet of

Jewish life, including how young girls find husbands. But traditions that have not changed for many years are challenged in Fiddler on the Roof Tevye, especially, is forced to accept change — as well as force change himself. Most of these changes are related to marrying off his daughters but not all. Tradition is challenged in Fiddler on the Roof, primarily through Tevye and his daughters.

Though Tevye claims to embrace tradition in the prologue to the first act, he regularly cuts corners. He invites change into his house in the form of Perchik, a former student from Kiev who is an outsider in the village. In Act I, scene two, the other villagers are suspicious of Perchik’s warnings about the changes taking place in the world at large. While they think that Tevye’s inability to make his deliveries is “bigger news than the plague in Odessa.” Perchik tells them: “You should know what’s going on in the outside world.” Despite the villagers distrust, Tevye invites Perchik in for Sabbath supper. Further, Tevye hires him to teach his daughters, though a villager calls the thought of educating girls “radical.”

There are conservative forces in Tevye’s household. Golde, Tevye’s wife, does not believe in women’s education. When she catches Chava with a book in the first scene of Act I, she says “You were reading again? Why does a girl have to read? Will it get her a better husband?” Later, in Act I, scene six, Golde interrupts her daughters’ lessons with Perchik to have them help finish their father’s work when he oversleeps.

While Tevye is a poor man who cannot afford dowries for his daughters, he wants learned men for their husbands. He agrees to Lazar’s match, mostly because Lazar is a good man and relatively wealthy. However, when Tevye tells Tzeitel about the match in Act I, scene six, she begs him not make her marry Lazar. She tells her father, “Papa, I will be unhappy with him. All my life will be unhappy. I’ll dig ditches, I’ll haul rocks.” This argument does not phase him, but when she says “Is that [an agreement] more important than I am, Papa? Papa, don’t force me. I’ll be unhappy all my days.” His daughter’s impassioned plea reaches his heart, and he agrees to dissolve his agreement with Lazar. Tevye’s fondness for his daughters forces his second abandonment of tradition.

Tevye’s daughters serve as some of the greatest agents of change in Stein’s play. When Tzeitel believes that a match might have been made for her in Act I, scene three, she tells the man she really loves, Motel, that he must ask her father for her hand. Motel is afraid of Tevye and apprehensive because he is a poor tailor. He says that he does not feel adequate enough to ask for her hand — at least not until he gets his new sewing machine. Though Motel does not work up enough courage in this scene, he is forced to do so in Act I, scene six, when Tevye tells Tzeitel about the match with Lazar.

Tevye does not abandon tradition without an argument, however. When Motel offers himself as a prospective husband for Tzeitel, Tevye says “Either you’re completely out of your mind or you’re crazy. Arranging a match for yourself. What are you, everything? The bridegroom, the matchmaker, the guests all rolled into one?” When Tevye finds out that Motel and Tzeitel gave a pledge to each other over a year ago, he is outraged. In a reprise of the song “Tradition,” Tevye sings incredulously “They gave each other a pledge / Unheard of, absurd /Where do you think you are? / In Moscow? / In Paris? / This isn’t the way it’s done / Not here, not now / Some things I will not, I cannot, allow.” Despite these misgivings, Tevye sees that his daughter is happy with the poor tailor and eventually relents. In fact, Tevye goes as far as to deceive his wife in Act I, scene seven, describing a horrific dream so that this wedding can occur.

Tevye’s second daughter Hodel starts out as the family’s biggest keeper of tradition next to her father. Early on, when Tzeitel worries that Yente has brought a match to her mother, Hodel says, “Well, somebody has to arrange the matches. Young people can’t decide these things for themselves.” Hodel likes the rabbi’s son. She is even the first to be suspicious when Perchik says he is a “good teacher.” She replies, “I heard once, the rabbi who must praise himself has a congregation of one.”

But Hodel is the first daughter to really break tradition, under Perchik’s influence. In Act I, scene six, she is left alone with him for a moment. Hodel perceives she has been insulted by Perchik and immediately turns to tradition for support. She tells him, “We have an old custom here. A boy acts respectfully to a girl. But, of course, that is too traditional for an advanced thinker like you.” Perchik protests several lines later, stating that “our ways are changing all over but here. Here men and women must keep apart. Men study. Women in the kitchen. Boys and girls must not touch, should not even look at each other.” Perchik goes on to tell her that in the city, men and women, girls and boys can dance together. He grabs her hand and starts to dance with her. Though startled, Hodel dances along.

Later, during Tzeitel’s wedding, Hodel and Perchik are public agents of change. At the reception

in Act I, scene ten, Perchik goes over to the women’s side and asks Hodel to dance. While some villagers call this act a “sin,” Tevye defends the young man’s brash act. After Perchik and Hodel dance, Tevye joins in and makes Golde dance with him. Soon the rest of the village joins in, save Lazar and Yente. Both of them have suffered the most because of these breaks with tradition.

Finally, when Perchik must leave in Act II, scene one, he asks Hodel to marry him. She agrees, though it will be a hard life for her. Tevye enters and they tell him of their engagement. This break with tradition is again hard for him to understand. He believes they are asking for his permission and tells them no. Perchik tells him, “We are not asking for your permission, only for your blessing. We are going to get married.” Tevye has another crisis of conscious, but he asks himself “did Adam and Eve have a matchmaker? Yes, they did. Then it seems these two have the same matchmaker.” Again, when Tevye sees that one of his daughters is happy, he gives in and breaks with tradition. He allows Hodel to travel to Siberia, where she will marry Perchik. There is no wedding for him to attend, though she promises to keep one tradition and marry under a “chupa” or canopy.

Of all of Tevye’s daughters, however, Chava makes the biggest break with tradition. She crosses a line that even Tevye cannot allow. In Act I, scene eight, Chava minds Motel’s tailor shop for a moment. During that time, a young Russian man named Fyedka begins to talk to her. He tells her, “I’ve often noticed you at the bookseller’s. Not many girls in this village like to read.” He goes on to offer a book to her. Chava is uncomfortable with him because he is not Jewish. She does not want to take the book, but she finds herself doing so. When Motel returns, she lies to him, saying that the book is her’s. By Act II, scene two, the villagers, like Yente, have noticed that the Russian and Chava have been spending time together.

In Act II, scene five, things come to a head. Chava tells Fyedka that she is afraid to tell anyone about their relationship. When Tevye comes by, Fyedka wants to talk to him, but Chava says that she is the one who must confront her father. She argues, “The world is changing, Papa.” He replies, “No. Some things do not change for us. Some things will never change.” Chava then informs her father that she and Fyedka want to be married. He says that he will not allow it and grows angry. By the next scene, Chava has secretly married Fyedka and begs her father to accept the union. He cannot. Tevye asks, “Accept them? How can I accept them. Can I deny everything I believe in? On the other hand, can I deny my own child? On the other hand, how can I turn my back on my faith, my people? If I try to bend that far, I will break.” Chava leaves with her husband, disowned. Tevye says that she is dead to him.

In the final scene of the musical, Chava comes with her husband to say goodbye following the Jews’ expulsion from the village. Though Golde and Tzeitel warmly greet her, Tevye still cannot accept what she has done. Fyedka and Chava tell them that are leaving the village, too, because they do not want to be a part of this injustice. Just before the couple leaves Tevye tells Chava in a quiet way “God be with you,” acknowledging her and the changes in tradition that inevitably have come to his family.

Tevye and his daughters force an evolution in society’s transitions which predict greater changes for their village and their country. The community of Anatevka is literally breaking down at the end of Fiddler on the Roof just like the traditions that fell through the course of the play. A way of life is disintegrating, making way for new traditions and mores. Stein implies that people like Tevye contribute to such a process. By being innovators, the agents of change, those involved gain the strength of character to face an uncertain future.

Source: A. Petrusso, for Drama for Students, Gale, 2000.

What Do I Read Next?

• Rags, a musical written by Joseph Stein that was first produced in 1986. It continues the story of Tevye and his family upon their arrival in the United States.
• Russia in the Age of Modernisation and Revolution 1881-1917, published by Hans Rogger in 1983, is a history of Russia, including treatment of the Jews and the events of the Revolution of 1905.
• Wandering Star is a novel by Sholem Aleichem published in translation in 1952. It concerns a Yiddish theatrical group touring Russia.
• Life Is with People: the Culture of the Shetetl, a nonfiction book published by Mark Zborowski and Elizabeth Herzog in 1952, describes the customs of a type of Jewish town known as a shetetl.
• Native Land: A Selection of Soviet Jewish Writers is a collection of short stories compiled by Chaim Beider and published in 1980.