A heavily intoxicated man named Chí Phèo walks through Vu Dai village, cursing everything from the sky and the earth down to the entire village and even the unknown entity that brought him into existence. Left as an infant by a brick kiln and raised by a series of impoverished caretakers, Chí eventually became a farmhand for Ba Kiến, the powerful and feared head of the village. Following a mysterious period of imprisonment triggered by village jealousies, Chí returns years later utterly transformed. He looks terrifying, with a shaved head, heavily tattooed body, and an aggressive, menacing demeanor. He marches straight to Ba Kiến estate, drunkenly screaming abuse and demanding a reckoning from the household.
When Ba Kiến son, Lý Cường, arrives and violently attacks him, Chí Phèo immediately plays the victim, rolling on the ground, wailing for help, and slashing his own face with a broken bottle to create a public spectacle. A massive crowd of curious villagers gathers to watch the chaos, but when Ba Kiến finally appears and authoritatively disperses the onlookers, the confrontation shifts dramatically. Instead of escalating the conflict or punishing him, the shrewd Ba Kiến adopts a surprisingly soft and welcoming tone. Recognizing that Chí is a desperate man with nothing to lose, the veteran landowner chooses to appease him with hospitality and smooth words rather than force.
As his alcohol-induced rage begins to wear off and the crowd dissipates, Chí Phèo experiences a mix of vulnerability and inflated pride. He realizes that despite having no family, wealth, or allies, he is the only man in the village audacious enough to openly challenge the powerful ruling family and walk away invited into their home. Reflecting on past local troublemakers like Năm Thọ and Binh Chức, Ba Kiến inwardly analyzes the complex power dynamics of Vu Dai village. He understands that oppressive leaders must balance harshness with strategic yielding, knowing how to manipulate desperate, lawless outcasts rather than pushing them into fatal retaliation.
The Drunken Outcast Meets Thị Nở
Following his successful arrangement with Ba Kiến, Chí Phèo feels immensely triumphant and spends his newly acquired money on alcohol and medication. After a few days, his cash runs out, prompting him to bully a local wine shop owner and set fire to her awning when she hesitates to sell on credit. He then retreats to a ruined temple by the river, where he drinks his wine with green bananas and coarse salt before wandering back toward Ba Kiến estate. Feigning drunkenness, Chí demands that Ba Kiến send him back to prison because he has no home or livelihood. Amused, Ba Kiến challenges him to collect an overdue debt from Đội Tảo, a powerful local rival. Chí easily secures the money because Đội Tảo is bedridden and his wife prefers peace, earning Ba Kiến fresh admiration and a grant of five acres of riverside land.
Years pass, and Chí Phèo loses track of his age, his face heavily scarred and deformed from a lifetime of violence, drunkenness, and constant self-harm through his signature public threats. Living in a perpetual haze of alcohol, he blindly executes whatever violent or destructive tasks Ba Kiến and other village factions demand of him. One moonlit night, filled with an inexplicable urge to cause trouble, he wanders out intending to wreak havoc. Instead, he encounters a local eccentric named Tự Lãng drinking outside, and the two drunken men bond warmly over shared alcohol, mocking the futility of human life and social status until Tự Lãng collapses on the ground.
Feeling restless and itchy, Chí Phèo heads down to the riverbank to bathe near his garden. There, he discovers Thị Nở, a notoriously ugly, dim-witted woman with no family support, fast asleep and half-undressed in the moonlight. Overwhelmed by sudden desire and curiosity, Chí cautiously approaches her and sits by her side. Thị Nở startles awake, recognizes him, and frantically tries to push him away while threatening to call for help, completely bewildered as the notorious village terror simply laughs in response.
The Ill-Fated Redirection
Following a night of intimacy by the river, Chí Phèo falls violently ill from severe stomach cramps and vomiting at dawn, prompting Thị Nở to care for him and feed him a hot bowl of onion porridge. Deeply touched by this rare act of human warmth and care, Chí feels a profound awakening, yearning for an honest life and a humble family, and the two happily resolve to live together. However, after six days of bliss, Thị Nở consults her elderly aunt, who reacts with furious outrage at the shame of marrying an outcast like Chí, filling the young woman's mind with bitter prejudice and resentment.
Enraged and emotionally torn, Thị Nở marches back to Chí Phèo and harshly hurls her aunt insults directly into his face, shattering his brief hope of redemption and plunging him back into despair. Driven half-mad by rejection and lingering intoxication, Chí seizes a knife and storms straight to the estate of Ba Kiến to demand a reckoning, crying out for justice and declaring his agonizing desire to become an honest man. When Ba Kiến dismisses him with mocking contempt and casual coin, a desperate Chí lunges forward and viciously slashes the landowner to death before turning the blade upon himself, leaving the village in a state of chaotic shock, hidden celebration, and dark speculation.
Thị Nở suddenly visualizes an abandoned, desolate old brick kiln located far away from any houses and completely deserted by passers-by. This brief epilogue reflects the cyclical nature of destitution and tragedy, reminiscent of how Chí Phèo was first discovered abandoned as an infant. The text concludes with the date of composition, February 1941, attributed to the author Nam Cao.