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In the story “Fiddler on the Roof”, Tevye, a poor Jewish milkman with five daughters,
explains the customs of the Jews in the Russian town of Anatevka in 1905, during a time
where their lives go through several changes. “The musical is not only a story about
adaptation and survival, but also that the show itself is a beacon of the adaptive process,
that while the escapist approach taken up by the Broadway musical offered a postwar
audience a palatable and relatable Jewishness”(Solomon). The story starts where in Tevye's
home, where everyone is busy preparing for the Sabbath meal. Tevye’s wife, Golde, orders
their daughters, Tzeitel, Hodel, Chava, Shprintze and Bielke, to attend to their tasks. Yente
is the village matchmaker, arrives to the home to tell Golde that Lazar Wolf, the wealthy
butcher, and a widower wants to wed Tzeitel Tevye’s eldest daughter, Tzeitel overhears
this and is unenthusiastic about the match. She wants to marry her childhood friend, Motel
the tailor.
Tevye delivers milk into town he encounters Avram the bookseller. Avram has heard news
from the outside world about pogroms and expulsions of towns. A stranger, Perchik, hears
their conversation and scolds them for doing nothing more than talk. The men dismiss
Perchik as a radical, but Tevye invites him home for the Sabbath meal and offers him food
and a room in exchange for tutoring his two youngest daughters. Golde tells Tevye to meet
Lazar after the Sabbath but does not tell him why, knowing that Tevye does not like Lazar.
Tzeitel is afraid that Yente will find her a husband before Motel asks Tevye for her hand.
But Motel resists: he is afraid of Tevye's temper. Tradition says that a matchmaker arranges
marriages. Motel is also very poor and is saving up to buy a sewing machine before he
approaches Tevye, to show that he can support a wife.
After the Sabbath, Tevye meets Lazar at Mordcha's Inn assuming mistakenly that Lazar
wants to buy his best milk cow. Lazar is actually trying to ask for Tzeitel’s hand in
marriage. Tevye agrees to let Lazar marry Tzeitel with a rich butcher, believing that his
daughter will never want for anything if she marries Lazar. Tevye happens upon the
Russian Constable, who has jurisdiction over the Jews in the town. The Constable warns
him that there is going to be a "little unofficial demonstration" in the coming weeks (a
euphemism for a minor pogrom). The Constable has sympathy for the Jewish community
