Tzeitel's story in Fiddler on the Roof is that she is Tevye's eldest (of 5) daughter. At the beginning of Fiddler, Yente the matchmaker visits Tevye's household with great news, the rich Butcher Lazar Wolf has set his eyes on Tzeitel. This means that she will have every comfort known to man - rich samovars (which I had to look up - it is a big fancy hookah-looking water warmer for tea), dresses, petticoats, more than one pair of socks (OH the luxuries of early 20th century Russia), fabulous food around every corner, and a maid to help her clean. For her father, who has an obsession with being a wealthy man, this should be amazing prospect.
However, her father has never been too keen on Lazar Wolf. Tevye like to think of himself as an extremely learned man, though, at least as portrayed in the source book, he is more of a man who likes to hear himself talk, spouting off lessons of the Talmud that he invents himself. Lazar, is not the smartest pitchfork in the barn, and therefore Tevye believed he could have an intelligent conversation with Lazar. He also is uneasy about how Lazar spends all day slaughtering animals, and smelling of meat and animal blood and guts. He is also resentful that Lazar can diem an entire ox unkosher because there was a scar on the animals lung or a spot on it's kidney. For a man with five daughters who can barely bring home enough to feed the girls, much less buy them TWO pairs of socks, this seems entirely sacrilegious. (ESPECIALLY since Lazar himself cannot quote the Talmud NEARLY as well as Tevye - or at least that is Tevye's preception.
Tzeitel and her sisters are also very much Daddy's little girls. No one Yente has brought has ever been good enough for any of Tevye's jewels. In the script it mentions that "the last man Yente brought was so old and he was bald!" I think Tzeitel is completely aware of the power her girlish charms have on her Papa, and isn't afraid to use them to ward of the nightmarish prospects Yente brings.
That being said - she also lives in completely fear of Yente. Why? Because she is in love. Completely, hopelessly, legendarily, passionately, and obsessively in love with a tailor boy, whom she knows Yente will never diem an appropriate match for her. He is neither rich nor learned, so Tevye would certainly disapprove. He is a skinny and in many ways completely ridiculous. All that Tzeitel sees is a loving, honest, optimistic, youthful, beautiful man who understands her, supports her, coddles her, dotes on her, and will do everything in his power to make their life together happy on every level. Sure he may not actually be able to defend her in a dark alley, but he will die trying. Motel understands her better than anyone ever could. He has been her confidant since childhood, as far back as she or he can remember. He remembers every triumph and disaster in her life no matter how big or small. The time she ruined the honeycakes for Sabbath supper, the time she tore her dress and was afraid her mama would yell at her, the time she made a crown out of flowers and pretended she was a rich Czarina, the doll she got for her birthday, the day Tevye came home with all of the food from a lucky run in with a very wealthy family (The profits of which would start his dairy business), and everything in between. She remembers the first pair of pants Motel ever sewed, the day he first heard about sewing machines, the days he would help her learn to read (because girls didn't usually get lessons in those days- Tevye was generous with education - but Motel helped behind everyone's back), the cloths he made for her doll out of scraps of cloth from the tailor shop, the time he helped her stop crying over falling down and bruising her knee, and everything in between that. When two people grow so close over so long, it is a crime to break it apart for social norms. An atrocity! But in a world of TRADITION - what could she do.
Tzeitel is not a girl who simply accepts her fate. She is a girl who wants something and goes after it. She has always been that way. She wanted to make the best darn desserts in Anatevka, and by golly she learned. (Conversely, she HATES cleaning, and often tries to trade cooking duties for cleaning duties with her sisters, sometimes more or less successfully.) Being the strong-willed girl she is - she and Motel make a vow to marry one another. They devise a plan where Motel will buy one of these new fangled sewing machines he has been oogling over. WIth this, he will be able to churn out clothing at record rates, and therefore be able to support a family and prove himself and acceptable suitor to Tzeitel! Together, Tzeitel and Motel save up every penny they can find to buy one of these machines. The sooner the better, Yente keeps bringing more and more appalling men! (According to "Daily life in Industrial America" by Husband and O'Loughlin, a sewing machine cost about $50 in AMERICA in 1877. Who knows how many rubles in 1905 Russian that would be. According to the inflation calculator - it is approximately the equivalent of $999.23 dollars which is currently the equivalent of 30102.99 rubles OR 1506.31 in 1877) Considering Tevye made closer to 5 rubles a day - on a good day - this was quite a lot of saving that needed to be done. My math - of course - could be TOTALLLLLLY wrong here. Every day the possibility that Motel's machine will come too late grows stronger. She secretly wishes he would just man up and ask for her hand himself, but she also knows that this goes against generations of tradition she isn't sure that she, herself is ready to break.
Anyhow, This is where we meet Tzeitel when Yente bring news of Lazar Wolf. Tzeitel senses something might be up and begs Motel to ask for her hand. This is the most forward she ahs ever been and the most determined. She has to convince Motel to man up. She does convince him, but unfortunately, he takes actions a little bit too late. (Just like Motel- bless his heart.)
Turns out that the temptations of money - LOTS of money - is too much for Tevye to withstand, and with the help of quite a bit of vodka, he agrees to the match without consulting Tzeitel. Everyone except Golde realizes that Tevye has completely sold out and married Tzeitel to a gross old grimey rich guy who smells of animal guts. (On Hodel has made some rather astute observations about Motel - so at least she is somewhat sympathetic of the lost love.) It is too much for Tzeitel to bear. She begs her Papa to take back the match, even offering to hire herself out as a servant or worse to make up for the money. The prospect of spending the rest of her life digging ditches with prisoners is more appealing that having to spend a day beside Lazar Wolf! (for the record - I couldn't figure out why she offered to dig ditches - since this seemed like a chain gang activity. The only historical record of ditch digging I could find that would be relevant to Jews outside of Moscow is that people dug ditches to collect Beets or to build irrigation systems to service farms. It could also refer to working in gold mines, where people had to dig ditches OR haul rocks - both the empty out the mine and stabilize wheelbarrows. The hauling rocks could also refer to clearing out rock falls. Not sure what the topography of Anatevka was in the early 1900s...) Anyhow, I digress, Tevye resists saying that a deal is a deal, and he already gave his word to lazar. Tzeitel, devastated, throws in the clincher - "Is that more important than I am Papa." Of course, to Tevye, NOTHING is more important to him than his jewels. He loves his daughters so much, and has to cave in.
It is then that Motel mans up - and asks Tevye for hand. In (what Tzeitel perceives as) a splendid display of machismo, bravery, intelligence, wit, and determination, Motel reveals his intentions and will to provide Tzeitel with everything a wife should have. Tzeitel and Motel reveal their pledge (which is not to be taken lightly! They did it in front of Jehovah Himself!!!!!) and, breaking tradition, ask to be married without a matchmaker! Tevye sees the love in their eyes and gives in - and there is happiness and rejoicing throughout the land! (Well - not necessarily -more confusion of why Tevye would trade Lazar in for Motel - but in the land of Motel and Tzeitel - nothing but happiness - from here on out. ) Tzeitel is happy as can be - so long as she has her Motel - she can be poor and starving - but she won't know it - because she is so happy with her Motel. Ah to be in love!
Well - that was way more than I intended to write - and I didn't even get to the wedding - or her feelings towards the Russians (especially Fyedka - who I believe to she open to - she sees he is different from most of the other cossacks - and is ACTIVELY rebelling against their despicable ways- plus - he buys a lot of shirts from Motel - which is nice for feeding the new baby at any rate!:) As for the others - she mostly tries to act invisible - don't trouble them - they won't trouble you -though after the wedding, she is a bit more hostile and paranoid.) or the Czar (Alexander III at her birth but Czar Nicholas for most of the life she can remember - she is disappointed in a leader who allows and even encourages anti-semetic pogroms - and feels helpless that there is no one to appeal to about such deplorable behaviour. That being said, she is more concerned about putting food on her own table than politics (She'll leave politics to Hodel) and therefore follows the Rabbi's blessing for the Czar - may God bless and keep the Czar - far away from us) - or the Rabbi (I think she views the Rabbi the way I view some of my teachers - such as Jana - who I can talk to about anything and she gives wise advice not tainted by any personal investment aside from - she seems to care about me and her other students) or her sisters (She is the eldest and therefor a bit of a teacher in the ways of life to her sisters - she really turns to Motel for her emotional support - I think she confides a bit more in Hodel - more of her equal in age -and respects her intelligence and wise curiosity about the world - and dotes on Chava - but also thinks Chava's view of reality is a bit skewed- and often chastises her for her fanciful daydreaming - which at times can make her seem even younger than she is- perhaps Tzeitel views Chava as being a bit silly - she loves ALL of her sisters dearly - and every action she enacts towards them is filled with sisterly affection - even if at times it is more the sisterly affection that teaches about the harsh reality of the world than hugs and kisses and happiness forever and ever) but that I suppose is a decent starts to the first few scenes she is in. I'm sure there will be much more to come!
I should also add something in about her relationship to Golde. I'm very excited to explore this, because the character descriptions always say that Tzeitel is a chip off of Golde's block - cut of the same fabric - the acorn that didn't land far from the tree. I'm interested to see how Belen, the woman playing Golde in this productions, portrays Golde. My first impression of Golde is harsh, stern, obnoxious, cynical, jaded, pushy, completely stuck in tradition and very money hungry - none of which are attributes i see in Tzeitel. As far as I can tell - Golde did very few things in her life FOR love - although she did grow to love Tevye. Everything Golde does seems more out of duty - she does LOVE her daughters - I don't mean to imply that she doesn't - but I don't see her being happy as a mermaid with a string of pearls with a poor tailor just because she loves him. She is always pushing Tevye to make money this way or that - and to be wise with money. (Even in the song MATCHMAKER there is the line 'for Papa make him a SCHOLAR for Mama make him RICH AS A KING.) As far as I can tell - Tzeitel doesn't give a hoot about money - she accepts it is a rare commodity and is used to (and even delights in) making a small kopeck go a long way. So this will be an interesting place for character development!:)
Tomorrow is going to be three hours of blocking the opening number TRADITION! (and some alto 2 harmonizing! I tremble with fear!)
Do you think Perchik or Chava tell Motel about what is happening in the barn. So that he runs to talk to Tevye
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