The Christmas Tree and a Wedding is a harsh indictment of the social classes and manners of the wealthy. The story revolves around a children’s party thrown by a wealthy government contractor. The narrator believes the party to be thrown as a cover for adults to mingle and talk. The narrator observes the people and children at the party. He notices a man who appears to be serious, decent, and alone, a man whose whiskers appear to have been “brought into the world first, and the gentleman himself was only afterwards attached to them in order to stroke them” (Dostoyevski 90).
During the party, we are also introduced to a man who appears to elicit reverence from one and all, Julian Mastakovich, “a man of confidence” (Dostoyevski 90). Mastakovich is a mean of means, one who has the respect of all at the party except for our narrator and two children. One of the children is a quiet red-haired, freckled, ten-year-old boy, the poor son of the contractor’s governess. The other child is the contractor’s daughter, a beautiful girl of eleven who receives three hundred thousand roubles as her dowry. Immediately, the narrator is captivated by the girl’s charm and beauty. He is also painfully aware of the little boy, who, being poor, receives the least expensive present. The narrator is aware of the class distinctions that will plague this little boy the rest of his life because of being the poor son of a governess. The little boy “…was the son of a poor widow…a completely cowed and scared little boy…He wanted terribly to play with the other children, but he did not dare: one could see that he already felt and understood his position” (Dostoyevski 92).
The narrator also tells us that the little boy wants to be with the other children, and around their toys and theater, that he becomes submissive and masochistic merely to keep their acquaintance. He c
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