ACT I
A lonely mill. Late afternoon
Jenufa is expecting a child by her cousin Števa, owner of the mill. In
the company of Števa’s jealous half-brother, Laca, and their
grandmother (old Mrs Buryja), Jenufa is anxiously awaiting Števa’s
return from the army recruitment board: if Števa has not been
conscripted, they will be able to marry at once, without revealing
Jenufa’s guilty secret.
The herd-boy, Jano, gleefully announces that Jenufa has taught him
to read. Old Mrs Buryja praises her grand-daughter’s intelligence and
common sense; Jenufa replies that her common sense has long since
‘flowed away like water’. Laca is trying to carve a whipstock but
complains that the knife is blunt. The mill foreman offers to sharpen it
for him. Goaded beyond endurance by Laca’s jealous taunts, Jenufa
goes into the house, leaving the two men to comment on what a fine
sister-in-law she will make for Laca.
The foreman has heard that Števa has not been conscripted after all;
Jenufa’s joy at the news is shared neither by Laca nor by her
stepmother the sextoness (Kostelnicka). The new recruits arrive in
high spirits, with Števa at their head. When Jenufa accuses him of
being drunk, he rounds on her: doesn’t she realize she is addressing
Števa Buryja, a mill owner loved by all the girls? Look, he says, one of
them has given him a posy of flowers. Števa orders the musicians to
strike up Jenufa’s favourite song, and leads a riotous dance in honour
of their forthcoming wedding.
The Kostelnicka interrupts the revelry. If Jenufa marries this
spendthrift, she will spend the rest of her life scraping for pennies. The
Buryja family are all alike, she says: her own late husband (Števa’s
uncle) was the same – a blond, handsome, drunken wastrel. She issues
an ultimatum: if Števa can prove his good intentions by not getting
drunk for a whole year, then she will consent to the marriage.
Jenufa is horrified at this fateful delay. Števa tries to appease her by
declaring that she is the prettiest of them all: he loves her ‘rosy-apple
cheeks’. Grandmother Buryja sends him away to sleep off his
drunkenness. Laca taunts Jenufa with the posy which Števa had
received from one of his admirers; she declares that she will wear it
with pride. Laca tries to kiss her, but she repulses him. Angrily, he
slashes her cheek with a knife.
ACT II
The Kostelnicka’s living-room. Five months later; winter
Jenufa has had her baby in secret; little Števa, now a week old, is
asleep in the next room. The Kostelnicka tells Jenufa she should pray
to God that the baby will die and save the family from dishonour. She
gives Jenufa a sleeping-draught and sends her to bed.
Števa arrives, in response to a summons from the Kostelnicka. He
refuses to go in and look at his child, although he promises to pay for
its upkeep. He cannot marry Jenufa now: her face is disfigured, and
she has become ‘cross and miserable’ just like her stepmother.
Anyway, he says, he is engaged to the Mayor’s daughter, Karolka, and
that will be the end of the matter. Jenufa cries out in her sleep; Števa
departs hastily, to avoid having to face her.
Laca is next to arrive. He knows nothing of the baby, believing that
Jenufa has been away; he has just seen Števa visiting the house, and
takes this as a sign that Jenufa has come back. He begs the Kostelnicka
to let him marry Jenufa after all, but she breaks the news to him that
Jenufa has given birth to Števa’s child. In desperation, she suddenly
tells Laca that the child has died and Števa is to marry someone else.
She sends him off to find out more about the wedding. Left alone, she
comes to a terrible decision: with the child out of the way, her
stepdaughter will be saved from shame and disgrace. She takes the
baby from the sleeping Jenufa and goes out to drown him in the millstream.
Jenufa wakes from her drugged sleep, wondering when Števa will
come to see his son. She discovers that the baby is missing, but
concludes that her stepmother has taken him to show him off to the
workers at the mill. She prays to the Virgin Mary to protect her child.
The Kostelnicka returns and tells Jenufa that she has been lying in a
fever for two days, during which time the child has died. She tells her
that she is now ‘free’; Števa no longer wants to marry her, and she
should consider the faithful Laca.
Laca himself now returns and loses no time in asking Jenufa to
marry him. She declares that she has neither ‘property, nor honour,
nor love’, but accepts. An icy gust of wind blows the window open;
gripped by remorse, the Kostelnicka sees ‘the face of Death’ looking in
at her.
ACT III
Two months later; spring
In spite of the Kostelnicka’s increasingly nervous state, preparations
are under way for Jenufa’s marriage to Laca. The Mayor and his wife
come to pay their respects; the Mayor’s wife expresses surprise that
Jenufa should ‘dress like a widow’ for her wedding. Laca tells Jenufa
that he has overcome his resentment towards Števa and has invited
him to the wedding with his bride-to-be, Karolka. The village girls sing
a song to Jenufa; Grandmother Buryja gives the couple her blessing.
The Kostelnicka is about to bless them in her turn when the
proceedings are interrupted by a commotion outside: the body of a
baby has been discovered in the frozen mill-stream. From its clothes
Jenufa identifies the dead child as her own. The villagers assume she
must have killed it herself, but the Kostelnicka reveals the truth and
recounts the grisly details of her crime. Appalled, Laca blames himself.
Karolka calls off her marriage to Števa.
Jenufa realizes that her stepmother has acted unselfishly, believing
that she was protecting Jenufa’s honour. Jenufa calls upon the
wedding guests to understand and forgive. She tells Laca that he is free
to go, but he promises to stay by her side; moved by his devotion,
Jenufa feels that God has blessed their love.
©Jonathan Burton