How we cite our quotes: Story Number.Paragraph
Quote #4
"He's not a bad person, even though he is a priest—he does have compassion for people. You'll beg him, fall at his feet. Maybe he'll take pity on us."
"Who—the priest, cursed be his name? You expect me to bow down to the priest? Are you crazy or just out of your mind? Do not open your mouth to the devil! My enemies will not live to see that day! […] What, did you think I'd let myself be pushed around by a woman? I should live by your female reasoning?" (6.80-83)
Well, here we have a nifty little soft-power-vs.-hard-power comparison. Golde wants Chava back on any terms—no matter the loss of personal dignity involved. Tevye, though, can't give up his position as the guy who dares to go toe-to-toe with the priest—even if it means losing his daughter.
Quote #5
It was, first of all, our bad luck. I don't know about you, but I believe in Providence. And second of all, it was something evil, foreordained, do you hear? A kind of sorcery! […] I do believe in magic, you see, because what else could explain it if not magic? (6.94)
Here, it seems Tevye's mostly passive acceptance of life as a series of things that are just supposed to happen actually helps him feel more powerful. Weird.
Quote #6
Suddenly our rich people panicked and stampeded out of Yehupetz, heading abroad […] People poured into Boiberik in droves from Odessa, from Rostov, Katerinslav, Mohliv, and Kishenev—thousands of rich folks! Apparently the constitutzia came down harder on them than on us in Yehupetz. That's why they kept running here. Why were those rich folks running here? Why were our rich folks running there? It has become a custom among us, blessed be His name, that when there is a rumor of a pogrom, Jews run from one city to another. (7.2)
Wow, lots of stuff packed into this tiny paragraph. First, check out the "Setting" section for a bigger scoop of all the historical info, and then come back to think about how power is working in this passage. There's the division between rich Jews and poor ones—rich ones have some ability to at least try to get out of the way of the pogrom, while poor ones have to stay put and survive. But the rich are also bigger targets for the mob specifically because of their wealth. And over all of this is the government and the tsar, for whom this is just a convenient way to let their angry citizens let off a little steam.