How we cite our quotes: Story Number.Paragraph
Quote #1
"I am living here, but it must remain between us." […]
"You're here illegally," I said, "and you're out in the open in the Yehupetz market square?" […]
"You obviously aren't acquainted with Yehupetz regulations. Come, I'll tell you what it means to be a resident and not a resident." And he gave me a long, drawn-out account of how you go crazy trying to get a permit to live there. (3.18-20)
So, yeah, check this out. Back at the turn of the twentieth century, Russian citizens didn't have the right to just go ahead and live wherever they wanted. Instead, if they wanted to move from wherever they were born, they'd have to get government permits to let them resettle. However hard this was for Christians, it was way more difficult for Jews, who were actively kept from moving to the more prosperous town and cities and were kept as segregated as possible in their shtetl communities. You know, the easier to find/harass/kill them.
Quote #2
[…] an angry Lazer-Wolf [the butcher] came in, furious at the shochet, the ritual slaughterer. He had ruined him. He had declared an ox that was the size of an oak to be unkosher, after finding a tiny scar on the animal's lung the size of a pinhead—may he have a stroke, may he sink into the earth! (4.10)
Here, an example of religion beating money in what amounts to a heavy-duty game of rock-paper-scissors, except actually government, money, and religion.
Quote #3
How is it written—Man is but dust and dust is all that remains of him—a man is weaker than a fly and stronger than iron. That describes me perfectly! (5.1)
Hmm, wonder which parts of himself Tevye would describe as weaker than a fly?
Quote #4
"He's not a bad person, even though he is a priest—he does have compassion for people. You'll beg him, fall at his feet. Maybe he'll take pity on us."
"Who—the priest, cursed be his name? You expect me to bow down to the priest? Are you crazy or just out of your mind? Do not open your mouth to the devil! My enemies will not live to see that day! […] What, did you think I'd let myself be pushed around by a woman? I should live by your female reasoning?" (6.80-83)
Well, here we have a nifty little soft-power-vs.-hard-power comparison. Golde wants Chava back on any terms—no matter the loss of personal dignity involved. Tevye, though, can't give up his position as the guy who dares to go toe-to-toe with the priest—even if it means losing his daughter.
Quote #5
It was, first of all, our bad luck. I don't know about you, but I believe in Providence. And second of all, it was something evil, foreordained, do you hear? A kind of sorcery! […] I do believe in magic, you see, because what else could explain it if not magic? (6.94)
Here, it seems Tevye's mostly passive acceptance of life as a series of things that are just supposed to happen actually helps him feel more powerful. Weird.
Quote #6
Suddenly our rich people panicked and stampeded out of Yehupetz, heading abroad […] People poured into Boiberik in droves from Odessa, from Rostov, Katerinslav, Mohliv, and Kishenev—thousands of rich folks! Apparently the constitutzia came down harder on them than on us in Yehupetz. That's why they kept running here. Why were those rich folks running here? Why were our rich folks running there? It has become a custom among us, blessed be His name, that when there is a rumor of a pogrom, Jews run from one city to another. (7.2)
Wow, lots of stuff packed into this tiny paragraph. First, check out the "Setting" section for a bigger scoop of all the historical info, and then come back to think about how power is working in this passage. There's the division between rich Jews and poor ones—rich ones have some ability to at least try to get out of the way of the pogrom, while poor ones have to stay put and survive. But the rich are also bigger targets for the mob specifically because of their wealth. And over all of this is the government and the tsar, for whom this is just a convenient way to let their angry citizens let off a little steam.
Quote #7
What that poor child [Shprintze] went through no one ever knew except me, because I am a father and a father's heart understands. Do you think she said so much as a word to me, that she lamented or wept? Eh! Then you don't know Tevye's daughters. Quietly, turning inward into herself, she anguished and flickered like a dying candle. (7.128)
When Tevye does this kind of emotional shutting down, he chalks it up to being a powerful man (you know, all those "Tevye is not a woman" thingies he busts out with). And maybe Shprintze thinks this is her only power—the ability to say yes or no, whether to an engagement or to life itself.
Quote #8
"He's a contractor, this Podhotsur. He builds houses, walls, and factories. He was in Japan during the war and brought back a fortune. […] a contractor with army contracts, with businesses, with shops, with people for him, with—with—" (8.39-43)
It's always great to get these little peeks into the larger socio-economic thingy. Tevye's an entertaining guy, and all, but his scope is basically just a village and the two towns near it—here we get a sense of the larger world, and levels of power that Jewish entrepreneurs were able to acquire (like this Podhotsur guy who is apparently some kind of big deal jet-setting war profiteer).
Quote #9
Nu, what do you say to such a coarse fellow? At first I thought, Why are you sitting here, Tevye, like a block of wood? Get up, kiss the mezuzah, slam the door behind you, and leave without a goodbye! […] Who did he think he was, telling me to throw away an honest, respectable livelihood and go to America? […] He snickered, stood up, and went over to a table. Withdrawing a metal box, he counted out one bill after another—just imagine, a fine sum. I wasted no time, gathered up the bills—oh, the power of money—and stuck them deep in my pocket. […] Maybe I should throw the money back in his face, I thought. You didn't buy Tevye with money, and with Tevye you didn't talk of honesty and being honorable. But before I could open my mouth […] (8.88-102)
Wow, talk about a straight-up power grab. Tevye gets a little bit of payback here as he can at least tell us that he was thinking about leaving and not taking this domineering dude's get-lost money, but still. The worst might be that "snicker" that Podhotsur lets out when he knows he's figured out exactly how to get Tevye out of his—and Beilke's—life. Yikes.
Quote #10
The constable took his time. He smoked a leisurely cigarette, blew out the smoke, spat, and said to me, "How much time do you think you need, Tevel, to sell your house and all your things? […] I've come to tell you that you must leave the village. […] It isn't me sending you away," he said. "It's the provincial government. […] Anatevka, which was a village and now has officially become a town, so we can drive all, all of you Jews from here." (9.26-32)
How's that for the power of the state? Also shocking is the legalese that covers everything in an official and normal-sounding framework—like they have to first recategorize the little village, so that then when it's a town, the laws against Jews living there can be enforced. Looney tunes.