The Darling(Anton Chekhov)
Summary
The story starts when Olenka is sitting on the doorstep of her house and the rain is started and the cloud is rolling. She listens to his husband’s (kukine) voice who is the open-air theater owner, as a wife Olenka listens to all the things of his husband and helped her in the theater. They are enjoying a happy life. One day kukine is going to Moscow for his theater work, after some days Olenka receives a letter in which the death news of his beloved husband is written. The death of his husband breaks his mental health and she feels alone because she truly loves her then in mourning, she meets a new person who is the lumber Merchant named Vasily Pustovalov after some time she falls in love with Merchant, and then marry as a loyal wife she supports her husband and then helped him in his business work. After some time he becomes ill in winter and fights with diseases for four months and then he is also dies. And Olenka is alone again she cannot handle the loneliness and losses weight.
After six months of mourn, she finds a military veterinary surgeon smirking who is also staying in her house as a paying guest they both read the newspaper while drinking tea. Now she is fascinated with a new man but here the story twist because the military transferred her to the new city.
And now Olenka is all alone with no person in her life and she is in a deep sink and depression. Now her mind is blank and she didn’t take any decision because at that stage her mind didn’t think anything and she did not decide on any single object or whatsoever. Now her all morals of life are decreased she itself isolated her.
One day, the doorbell when Olenka opens the door she seen Smirnin with his wife and his son, Sasha. Olenka welcomes them in her house, and then they live together. After some time smirnin’s wife leaves the house and went to her sister’s home and simirnin also leaves the town at midnight. Olenka and Sasha leave all alone at home and then she decides to take care of Sasha. Olenka develops a maternal relationship with the Sasha. As same Olenka starts cramming the Sasha as well. And after some time Sasha is irritated by her doings. She is totally obsessed with Sasha but this time she is doting like a mother. Like a young boy, Sasha feels suffocation but he is helpless. The story ends with the lament ness of Sasha over the constant closeness of Olenka.
THE DARLING AS A FEMINIST STORY
Feminism is defined as ‘the advocacy of women's rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes. ‘
After a thorough study of the writer and his time period, I have formed the opinion that Anton Chekhov was in-fact trying to highlight feminism in his story ‘the darling’. I would further elaborate my answer below by briefly presenting Chekhov’s behavior with women, ideas, approach, and age.
The writer, Anton Chekhov.
Personal Life: Behavior with women
Chekhov was born in 19th-century Russia, to an abusive father and a storyteller mother. Chekhov carried a soft heart for his mother and often credited her for turning him into a storyteller/writer. When his brother, like his father, turned into an abusive husband, Chekhov criticized him by reminding him how their own mother suffered from their father’s ‘oppression’ and how ashamed they felt during the times their father called their mother a fool.
The general approach of Chekhov as a writer
Chekhov is not only well known for his short stories but is also known for use of feminism criticism theory in his works. This theory refers to ‘using the means of literature to diminish the social and psychological operation of women’. He famously applied this theory in one of his works called ‘the bear’, a story that emphasizes on HOW WOMEN ARE EQUAL TO MEN.
The time period of Chekhov 19th century Russian society and its view of women
In 19th century Russia, Women were not encouraged to pursue higher degrees but rather master the art of being ‘perfect wives’ with no opinions and ideas of their own. In other words, they were encouraged to be "darlings".
Chekhov as a critic of Russian society
Chekhov is known as a critique of 19th-century Russian society and its behavior toward women.
The character of Olenka: Ironic portrayal by Chekhov
Although Olenka seemed like an oppressive character with no opinions of her own it is highly possible that Chekhov, as a critic of Russian society, was in-fact trying to present her character ironically.
In other words, Olenka’s character all together was Chekhov’s criticism not on women but the idealized women which at that time the Russian society preached. Or as a Goodreads user had rightly said, ‘ This is not just "what Chekhov thinks of women, it is “ what Chekhov thinks of how men think about women, in other words, "Chekhov’s criticism of society.’
His criticism of the ideal woman and her treatment by men and society are all clearly represented in the story which I am going to highlight below.
Criticism of Society’s Ideal women:
The character of Olenka herself has seemed to suffer a-lot as a woman who is perfectly generous, loyal, and faithful or in a simpler language, wife material. Her character has all her life been so deeply indulged in living for others that she had never known how to live for herself or even form simple opinions, as Chekhov had even described, she saw the objects around her and understood what she saw, but could not form any opinion about them, and did not know what to talk about. And how awful it is not to have any opinions! ‘This describes perfectly how even when the society and men adored her, Olenka as their ‘darling’ only suffered more and more as she grew old with these toxic traits.
The attitude of men with Olenka
Her naiveness and generosity bounced back negatively at her by the time her last love figure arrived.
Veterinary surgeon’s attitude with Olenka
Chekhov clearly showed how eventually men began using such an ideal lady in the form of the surgeon’s character.
The surgeon seemed ashamed of Olenka’s personality as he tried to conceal their relationship from society. He forbade her to talk in front of his friends. Even after leaving her, he reappeared in her life with his wife and kid and began living in her house for free. While Olenka as an ideal generous woman accepted everything without a single sigh.
Society’s attitude toward Olenka
Chekhov further showed how completely okay the society was with their ‘darling’. They never encouraged her to do anything but live under a men’s shadow because again, this was what the society at that time idealized.
This view of society is represented in the line “ but no one could think ill of Olenka; everything she did was so natural” . Society seemed to normalize Olenka’s relationship with man after man. This attitude shows how even society was emphasizing that women must live with/for a men.
Autobiographical element
The cause which forced Chekhov to show a ‘darling’ woman could possibly come from his own life. As mentioned in the beginning of my answer, Chekhov seemed pretty disgusted by his own abusive father’s treatment of his mother and had expressed his anger over his father calling his mother ‘a fool’.
A similar scenario to this one is present in the story when the surgeon felt ‘dreadfully embarrassed’ by Olenka’s talk and told her to “not to talk about what she does not understand".
Chekhov had shown hatred for his father’s despotism over his mother and had said ‘ it ruined his mother’s youth’. Similarly, Chekhov portrayed how each man in Olenka’s life controlled her life so much that even the thought of losing them (such as the fear of losing Sasha) shattered her.
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