I've Loved and I've Lost

Throughout the short story  “The Darling,” we see a character, Olga, commonly referred to as Olenka, face numerous hardships in her life. Olenka is confronted with many deaths and losses that shape her in unique ways. Despite her grief, we are forced to ask ourselves, do we sympathize with her or do we believe her to be extremely dependent which leads to her own downfall?

Throughout her life, Olenka has relied on men for support. She is unable to form her own attitudes and opinions towards life. She grows up loving and admiring her father, which any daughter does, but she also accepts his ways and opinions as her own. After the death of her father, Olenka is lonely and marries Kukin. Kukin is the owner of theater, and after his marriage to Olenka, we see Olenka adopt his views and opinions as her own. We see this when tells her acquaintances that, “…the theater was chief and most important thing in life…” (page 105). We see this trend of adopting others’ attitudes continue through Olenka’s relationship with Vassily Pustovalov. The narrator states, “Her husbands ideas were hers...Her husband did not care for entertainment…” (page 107). Later, when one of her friends suggests going to the theater, we see Olenka say, “We have no time for that nonsense. What’s the use of these theaters?” (page 107). In such ways, we see that Olenka has the inability of forming her own judgments, which perhaps leads the reader to be annoyed.

Although we see how Olenka is extremely dependent, what is the purpose of everyone addressing her as “darling”? Darling is commonly used as a term addressing one’s beloved; however, it can also be used to describe a person who is popular within a certain group. Taking this definition into consideration, it is possible for Olenka to be called darling because of her popularity in conforming to the opinions of men in the society. Her ability to love and be compassionate towards males forces the reader to have a sympathetic attitude towards her. She “deeply and genuinely” loved Kukin. Her immense love for Sasha also shows how much affection she had for him. She would take him to school and took care of him after Sasha’s family abandoned him. Yet, the “heart-warming” love and “sweet ache in her bosom” for Sasha was not appreciated. Olenka embarrasses Sasha when she tries walking him to high school, making the reader feel bad for Olenka for loving people so much, only to lose them in the end.