Modern
day media has distorted the image of love. Now society sees love as a
passionate whirlwind of fervent, confusing and exciting emotions. Our society places
value on an all-consuming relationship that absorbs your heart, body, mind, and
identity. Is this really what love is supposed to be? Were we created to simply
be the other half of a whole? Anton Chekhov analyzes this view of an all-consuming
kind of love through his analysis of the female character, Olenka, in his short
story, “The Darling.” Chekhov explores this notion of love through his
characterization of Olenka and her reactions to the numerous losses that she
experiences during her life. Through this short story, the audience comes to a
vital realization: the popular view of an all-absorbing love is completely
wrong.
Chekhov purposefully creates Olenka
to be a static character. He describes her as a “darling” woman who “was always
fond of someone” and “could not exist without love.” In essence, she always finds
her identity within a relationship and her life has no meaning outside of the
men that control her. As a result of her lack of identity, Olenka becomes a
very malleable woman whose opinions sway easily. When she marries Kukin her
life and opinions center on the theater. In contrast, when she marries
Pustovalov she focuses on religious piety and timber. Olenka entirely abandons
herself in an effort to have her love and relationships completely consume her.
Throughout the entirety of this short story, Olenka never changes her ways. Whether
she uses a maternal or romantic kind of love, Olenka always finds identity
within the men in her life.
Olenka experiences hardship and loss
three times throughout the short story. Her first two husbands die and her
lover abandons her. After the deaths of both of her husbands, Olenka enters
into a few months of despair, mourning and grief. When her mourning periods
end, she searches for a new love to throw herself into. Chekhov blatantly
states that “she [Olenka] could not live a year without some attachment.” This shows her need for love. Relationships become
an addiction to Olenka, one that consumes her body and mind. Her need for love
and attachment exist due to her inability to think for herself. Chekhov reveals
this truth when he describes Olenka during her period of solitude after
Pustakov abandons her. He describes her as “thin” and “plain” with her “best
years” behind her. She becomes an empty shell of a woman without any outside
opinion to fill her. She even tries to accept Mavra’s, the cook, opinions as her
own but they are not enough. She wants an all-consuming love of a man in which
she can once again find her identity. She later gets her wish when Pustakov
comes back to town with his son, Sasha. Olenka once again abandons herself and
throws her maternal love into this boy. She finds herself within Sasha and his
opinions become her own.
Olenka’s story leads the reader to
examine her version of love. Are we supposed to throw ourselves—body, heart and
mind—into another human being? Are we supposed to become so enmeshed in another
that our thoughts are no longer our own? Chekov’s analysis of Olenka leads us
to conclude that we are not supposed to do this. If we give ourselves completely
over to another, we lose our own identity. Love is not about losing ourselves
or agreeing with everything our partner has to say. Love is not a tumultuous affair
that consumes both our hearts and minds. In this aspect, media has led our
society astray. The Rom-Com idea that the quirky girl gets the handsome man and
enters into a life-altering, self-changing love affair feeds society a false
view of love. Girls can no longer dream of a hero that will lead them through
the trials and tribulations of life; each person must be able to do that for
themselves. Love is an equal compromise: a shared bond between two individuals.
It can ground us and better us, but we must not lose ourselves in the process.
No comments:
Post a Comment