Tevya and His Daughters

First, the scene in which Tevya, a poor drayman, happens to do a favor to a rich family

In gratitude they give him money and a milk cow - and Tevya the drayman becomes Tevya the dairyman

Most of the play, however, is concerned with the marrying off of Tevya's two eldest daughters

Each time Tevya and his wife Golde have begun to arrange advantageous matches for the girls and each time their well-meaning plans are foiled by the daughters' falling in love and taking matters into their own hands

Tzeitl, the eldest, has attracted the interest of Lazar Wolf, a prosperous butcher, and Golde is enchanted at the thought that her daughter will have pretty clothes to wear and always enough to eat

But Tzeitl has fallen in love with a poor tailor, and of course, love wins out

Then Hodel falls in love with a poor student; they marry, and on their wedding day Hodel's husband is exiled to Siberia

With her parents' blessing, Hodel goes to join her husband in his exile, and Tevya is left contemplating the future of his remaining five daughters, "fair of form and beautiful to look upon [The] little ones too young to be problems; but they'll grow into it"

The phenomenally successful musical Fiddler on the Roof was also based on the stories of Sholom Aleichem by special permission of Arnold Perl