The Darling

Olenka is the title character, "The ducky," which bottom be alternately translated as " teensy-weensy spirit" or "little soul" (Poggioli 128). When with the objects of her love, she mimics their very thoughts; her spirits soar and others respond positively by smiling, grabbing her hand or hugging her, "exclaiming in a gush of delight, 'You darling!'" (Chekhov 46). When she is without someone to love and be with, however, Olenka's "little spirit" cannot keep its flame burning: "thither was the identical emptiness in her brain and in her philia ... and when people met her in the street they did not look at her as they used to" (Chekhov 51).

This synopsis gives the impression of great complexity; "The Darling" is simple and clean-cut in its level. The chronicle of Olenka's intent is presented with a matter-of-fact countdown of details. The end effect may be deeply touching, except it is not achieved by means of romanticism or manipulation. Nor be deep layers of psychological insight to the protagonist's motives determined bare as with a literary scalpel. Olenka does what she says and says what she feels. The reader watches her, analogous a doctor, from the outside: carefully observed, small, details emerge - but not a catalogue of symptoms. It is a simple notebook computer entry on the case history of Olga Plemyanniakov.

There is one, disturbing, fake note of complexity in "The Darling" - the final line. Olenka has waken from a worried dream and stands over the sleeping systema skeletale of Sash

C.Survey of themes attached to the story by critics with different theses: as metaphor for Psyche, as feminist statement, as comment on emotional sterility, and as grotesque comedy.

Critics are continually laying over "The Darling" such assumptions - usually to fit the needs of their theses. About language, for example: one can ask any native Russian-speaker and the answer is always the same - Chekhov writes naturalistic dialogues, precise reflections of the way Russians speak. Critic Barbara Heldt in her screen "Woman Is Everywhere Passive" must make lush interpretations on the usage of names anyway: "Chekhov's use of critical endings...'Dushecka'...'Olenka'...

Vanichka, Vasichka and Volodichka" (53) - all to reach her previously-decided point that "Olenka's affection trivializes her loved ones" (53). much(prenominal) bulldozing literary interpretation reaches a point of absurdity in Thomas Winner's dissection of Chekhov's prose in the critical essay "A crude Mood." Seeking to explicate his own thesis that "The Darling" is a combination of mock tragedy and grotesque comedy, Winner describes a pun on the words "xoxorony (sic)," "poxorony (sic)," and "xoxotat (sic)" (213). The problem? In his amplify explanation, Winner apparently is unaware of the elementary fact that the letter "x" in the Russian alphabet translates into "h" in the Latin alphabet - a fact that can be double-checked in a college dictionary (Webster's 43).

It is too much to ask, particularly of a short story such as "The Darling" - and, in order to bend the story to their interpretations, critics alter the facts of the narrative as well. The story presents Olenka as a pleasant, contented issue woman of the middle class as the story begins; a simple finger-count of the historic period encompassed by the events related has her only 35-to-37 years old by tale's conclusion. Yet review after critique presents a different premise than the one Chekhov wrote. "Olenka Plemyannikova (sic) is a solitary(a) spi
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