Master and Man

Almost central enough to the story to be considered a third character, the horse Mukhorty is one of several animals that express themes of work, servitude, and nature. In the description of Nikita as one living “in touch with nature and having known want,” the meanings of the natural world and deprivation are entwined (489). Thus, Mukhorty bears his burden as a domesticated horse with the same resignation of Nikita, both of them breaking the wind for Brekhunov at the beginning of their journey. Domesticated rather than wild animals populate the story, with the exception of the wolf that Brekhunov sees during the night, underscoring the moral quality that can be learned from animals within rather than apart from civilization. Fully cognizant of human relationships, Mukhorty responds to Nikita’s attempts to comfort him, “as if not to pain Nikita by refusing his offer of the straw […] he hurriedly snatched a wisp […] but immediately decided that it was no now time to think of straw” (482).

The other animals Nikita converses with in the barn at Grishkino are endowed with symbolic meaning by Petrushka, who quotes from a fable to relate each animal sound to guest visits—dangerous when the cock crows, etc. More than exhibiting his nearness to nature, Nikita’s respect for the intuition of animals within the human world relates to the theme of the “natural” essence of human beings suggested throughout the story, whereby humans may be and often are corrupted and continuously tempted by a non-animalistic, future-oriented relationship to time, among other preoccupations. That the story’s animals are domestic suggests that a return to this natural state—already occupied by Nikita—need not exceed the framework of tame, hierarchical, and servile relations.