Zorba the Greek

The narrator sits next to Anagnosti to watch the men dance in the village. The young shepherd at the head of the group is admired for his youth and virility. As the men dance, Adroulis comes in yelling that the widow has entered the church. The constable, Manolakas, goes after her, saying that she has disgraced the village. The villagers throw stones at the widow, crying for her blood. The narrator tries to help her but trips and falls. The shepherd he’d seen dancing tells him to keep away. Manolakas is about to kill her when Zorba appears.

Zorba fights with Manolakas, throwing his knife aside, but Mavrandoni, the father of the boy who killed himself over the widow, decapitates her. Saddened, Zorba and the narrator retire to their hut. The narrator consoles himself by thinking that the tragedy was meant to happen, that “the widow lay peacefully in the divine immobility of symbolism” (248). He is ashamed by the depth of Zorba’s mourning.

The next morning Zorba goes for a walk, but the narrator is concerned that Manolakas might attack him. He is right, and when Zorba and Manolakas confront each other by the widow’s garden, the narrator comes between them, appealing to them to put their conflict aside.