The book on which Fiddler on the Roof is based (Tevye the Dairyman or Tevye and His Daughters) is actually a compilation of eight short stories which were written over a period of twenty years from 1894 to 1904. During this time Tevye and all of the characters visibly age and change. This gives Tevye a chance to grow as a person and adapting to changing events. In writing the musical only four of these stories were used; time was compressed into a few months of 1905 and the stories overlap. While in the adapting them for the stage the basic incidents are included, the tone of the stories was changed. The musical is sentimental and, with a few exceptions, is lighthearted. The original stories oscillate from wild Jewish humor to wrenching and painful tragedy; Tevye is a modern Job. In each of the stories, the garrulous Tevye is talking to Sholem Aleichem whom he meets occasionally by chance over a period of years and whom he brings to date on his life and that of his family. In each he illustrates one of Aleichem's sayings, "No matter how bad things get, you got to go on living, even if it kills you". He schemes, but none of his ideas work out and, although he complains to God, he accepts the fact that his life is tragic. While the stories can be funny. However, he does not realize this because the stories also tell of the destruction of his world.

The members of Tevye's family are paradigms of Russian Jewry during the changes at the last years of Tsarist Russia. Each represents a different type. The old paternalistic system is breaking down with the spread of learning and a wide gulf is opening between the generations.

The first two stories tell how Tevye becomes a dairyman. Each of the next five deals with the marriage of one of his daughters. Then there is a short postlude which was probably intended to be another full length story but was brought to an end shortly before the author's death.

Tevye is the only Jew in the small Christian village in which he lives. Nearby is a shtetl or small city in which there are many Jews. (The two are amalgamated into the fictional Anatevka in Fiddler.) The big city of Yehupitz represents Kiev. Since the stories are told in the first person in a rambling style, we always know Tevye's thoughts. Deeply religious, he performs all the prayers and rituals without fail no matter where he is or what he is doing. In one scene, his horse starts to run away while he is saying his prayers but he never stops saying them as he chases after the him still clinging to the reins. He is always quoting the Bible of the Talmud (usually misquoting) and then interprets it to suit his own situation. His God is not remote but someone he talks to, questions and argues with everyday. Others regard him as well educated but most of his quote are from the sources studied and learned by memory in the Jewish schools and, over the years, they have gradually changed from the originals.

Because he travels around the countryside on his delivery routes, he has contact with all sorts of people, rich and poor, Jews and Christians alike and absorbs ideas from them all. To the reader he is funny, but he is really stoic in his tragedy; his life is a series of major and minor disasters. He says that if a man is destined for success he needn't lift a finger to achieve it, and if he is to have a life of tragedy he can't do anything to prevent it.

Tevye Strikes it Rich - 1894
When we first meet Tevye he is a poor gatherer of logs which he delivers to the rich Jews who live in dachas by the lake. On a good day he might earn one ruble. He, his family and his horse are all close to starvation. They have never even seen a roast chicken. He has seven daughters and no son. (Two of the daughters are never named and only five appear in the later stories.) The lack of a son is a real tragedy for a observant Jew of the time. Every man had to have a son to say the mourning prayer at his funeral. Otherwise the women would have to hire someone from outside the family to do so.

Then one day he meets two rich Jewish women who are visiting one of the nearby dachas and have gotten lost in the woods. At first he thinks the are ghosts or demons but reluctantly agrees to take them home. There, he is feasted by the rich and grateful owners, and given more money than he has ever seen in his like. His horse is also fed oats, a welcome if unknown treat for him, and his wagon is filled with rich food to take home. Finally they give him a cow which has stopped producing. Golde, his wife cares for the cow which soon produces milk and he is able to buy another cow and start his dairy business.

Tevye Blows a Small Fortune - 1899
He has saved his money but meets the shady Menachem Mendl, a "business man" who convinces him to invest his savings and he dreams of wealth. (The inspiration for If I Were a Rich Man) Of course, he loses all his money, but he still has his business.

Today's Children - 1899
This is the story of Tzeitel. He participates in arranging her marriage (without a matchmaker) to Lazar Wolf whom he dislikes. But his traditional authority is undermined by Tzeitel's pleas and his like of Motel who represents the poor Jewish artisan from the shtetl. Tevye decides that "Money is a lot of baloney", gives in gracefully, and sees his daughter happy in her traditional marriage and her growing family. (Golde is upset because her family had had teachers and cantors, not poor tailors.)

Hodel - 1904
Perchik represents the Jewish youth of the city who has been exposed to the world at large, managed to get more that the usual education, and has defected to the revolutionary movement. Tevye has arranged for him to tutor his younger daughters in exchange for meals. Hodel loves books and is well read in both Yiddish and Russian and enjoys talking to him. The matchmaker Efrayim (the more traditional male Jewish matchmaker than the Yente in the musical) sets up a match with a young man who "can read the fine print", but whose education is more limited. However, even less traditional than Tzeitel, Hodel agrees to become engaged to Perchik without even asking her father. Reluctantly Tevye agrees and there is a hasty, simple wedding. He is unhappy when she leaves for Siberia, but he knows she is happy.

Chava - 1905
This breaks Tevye's heart. Her secret marriage to a Christian is a terrible blow. Tradition and his religion require that he disown her and declare that she is dead to him.

Shprintze - 1907
This is the most tragic of all. Russia has adopted a Constitution and Jews who could have been fleeing the city to the country. Tevye meets one of them, Ahronchik, who loves to give things away. He visits Tevye and meets Shprintze. The young couple fall in love, but the boy's family, thinking Tevye wants money to break them up, takes the boy away. Shprintze commits suicide.

Tevye Leaves for Israel - 1909
Bielke marries a rich contractor, a new Jew who has never read the Talmud, for money rather than for love. He realizes how he has changed. His youngest daughter has the marriage he had wanted for Tzeitel many years before. Tevye's son-in-law gives him money to move to Jerusalem and he sells all his possession in getting ready. However, he never leaves.

Lekh-Lekho -1914
Tevye living with Tzeitel, Motel and all their children who have moved in with him. Beilke's rich husband has gone broke and they have moved to America where they both work at menial jobs. Now, for the first time, the pogroms reach Tevye, fifteen years after depicted in Fiddler. (Tzeitel was married in 1899.) He had always been on good terms with the Christians in his village. They came too him for advice and had promised they would never allow a pogrom against him. However, this is causing them trouble. Tevye is warned that the Russians are demanding a pogrom; if the authorities come through and don't see any damage they will be in trouble. They ask him what kind he would prefer but finally leave him with instructions to do some damage himself to make it look like there had been a real pogrom. In spite of this, an officer comes by and orders him to sell everything and leave.

Some of Tevye's Quotations
When God decides to punish a man. He begins by removing his brains.
So what if things couldn't be worse. That is why there are Jews in the world! You know what they say:
    a soldier had better like the smell of gunpowder.
It is like the prayer book says, ... what does a man ever know and what is he really worth?
Was I really the worlds greatest sinner, that I deserved to be the most punished Jew? God in heaven,
    ... who am I that You don't forget me even for a second, that You can't invent a new calamity, a new
    catastrophe, a new disaster, without trying it out on me?

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Revised February 2011
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