Critique of "The Darling"

Kate Chopin is an experienced short story writer from the beginning of the 1900s, who was ahead of her time due to her amazing ability to take such complex characters that are easy to identify with and create amazing short stories in such a small amount of space. Marriage is a common theme in her stories, because a "wife" was a defining role in women's lives back then. The only thing is, marriage is not always shown to be flowery and romantic like writings before her. She looked at the painfully real side of how marriage can be good and bad, notably in The Story of an Hour and The Storm. Kate Chopin's attitude towards marriage is primarily negative because it can become dull and it can repress women, yet at the same time her

My initial observation of Dashkova is her ability to be extraordinary despite her difficult upbringing. Her intelligence was compelling to the Empress Catherine and the men that she had encountered during her traveling. Dashkova portrayed herself as a strong, versatile woman, who’s not only different from most of the women during the time period, but can also outperform her male counterparts in various tasks (e.g. surgery, debate, carpenting, etc.) (pg. 144). She surprised the readers at the first moment when she met Prince Dashkov, a Moscow man. She fell in love with him and got married at the age of 16. The proposal was informal and emotional unlike the traditional arrangement with its strict regulations. Just 5 years after, Prince Dashkov passed away, leaving Dashkova 2 children and his mountainous gambling debt. In the most hopeless scenario, Dashkova managed to raise her 2 children and provided her son a wonderful education while still remaining faithful to the Empress Catherine II. She declared, “My own poverty affected me not at all” (pg. 149).

In "The Story of an Hour" Chopin portrays marriage and the role and feelings of women in the 19th century as subordinate contributors to the husbands. The third word of the story is “Mrs.”, identifying the protagonist as a wife, defining her role and her life. She is also identified as weak and fragile.

Moreover, Chekhov’s overall goal of “Anna on the Neck” is not aimed at a concluding idea of what it means to hold power or wealth, but rather to portray what it means to be human by presenting the shift in moral values of Anna. In addition, Chekhov uses distinct images and motifs to establish Anna’s initial position in the beginning of the story as being submissive, powerless, and weak and shift’s this image of Anna to be one of strength, authority, power, and pride, after she became aware of her influence. By Anna not helping her family like she wanted to in the beginning of the story, she now holds a false sense of values since she became the high class superficial woman who did not achieve the goals she wished to accomplish through

     Relationships seem to be the favorite subject of Kate Chopin’s stories. As Margaret Bauer suggests that Chopin is concerned with exploring the “dynamic interrelation between women and men, women and patriarchy, even women and women” (Bauer 146). In “The Story of an Hour” Chopin deals with the subject of marriage. She illustrates the influence of family alliance on individual freedom. According to Wohlpart,“The Story of an Hour” describes the journey of Mrs. Mallard against the Cult of True Womanhood as she slowly becomes aware of her own desires and thus of a feminine self that has long been suppressed”(Wohlpart 2). The Cult of True Womanhood in the XIX century included “purity” and “domesticity”. The former suggested that women must maintain their virtue. The latter – denied them their intellectual and professional capabilities (Papke 12). Being the victim of this Cult, Louise Mallard was a good example of a wife without “her own desires and feminine self”.

“A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle” (Irina Dunn, 1970).

Commonly explored throughout her works, the idea of marriage inhibiting a woman’s freedom is the driving force behind Kate Chopin’s contextual objections to propriety. In particular, The Awakening and “The Story of an Hour” explore the lives of women seeking marital liberation and individuality. Mrs. Chopin, who was raised in a matriarchal household, expresses her opposition to the nineteenth century patriarchal society while using her personal experiences to exemplify her feminist views.

Moreover, Anastasia illustrates how those in the upper class can use their class as a means to meet their immaterial needs. The Grand Royal Duchess is motivated to find her long lost granddaughter because she seeks the thing that money cannot buy: love. Marx argues that money is the “external, universal means and power to change representation into reality” (Marx 272). Empress Dowager is able to use ten million rubles to represent the return of her granddaughter. By making the

Even if her life has had a lot of obstacles, she still manages to stay positive and learn only the good things from her bad experiences. This has made of Ivanna a mature person that knows about the value of things and that motivates her to work for what she wants. Over her life Ivanna has learned not to depend on a man just like her mom. She hopes to someday be someone in life and be there for her mom like she is for her. She takes this into consideration and encourages herself to work harder every day because at the end of the road all her hard work will pay

The words of advice given to Alexander would change his behavior momentarily. Through others respect for her, she was able to dispel Alexander’s behaviors to live a life without torment briefly. In addition, she was able to shape her life by removing the immoral company of her husband through sending a request to those around the prince, who helped her to seclude herself from the immoral actions of her husband. A particular request of this nature was her request to stay in Tsarskoe Selo longer than usual, which was away from the city where her husband’s immoral company dwelled (p.79). Her request was granted to her eliminating Alexander’s immoral actions temporarily.

She was alone, and she had to learn to adapt to this state. Some people in this world are born naturally cool. They give off an alluring air of nonchalance and aloofness that simply wins them into the hearts of anyone. Vasilisa Merwyn Dolohov was simply not one of these people. In fact, she was the polar opposite. Her nowhere near perfect white picket fence family had immigrated from Russia to the United States before Lissa was even born, along with the firm belief to achieve the “American Dream.” Her father, Viktor, was an eminent technology mogul while her mother Lenya, was a rising politician from a small town. Striking characteristics that contrasted the two, but they somehow found love, despite it all. All seemed well, as they both were incredibly supportive of one another and worked as a well-functioning machine; making an extensive sum collectively. Residing in America, they cultivated a giant house that was the epitome of luxury and raised the family. Viktor soon became acquainted to the deadly desires of drinking, as luxury was often associated with the finest of the alcoholic beverages. On the daily, he consumed far too many bottles for his own good, professing the excuse that it only increased his

As the story unfolds, Gurov at first changes subtly. First of all he meets Mrs. Anna Sergeyevna. His attitude at first is still the same, he finds her as another victim of his little game that he plays. He sits and watches, searching his mind for a ways to get her attention like he does for every woman. He still looks at women in the same sort of fashion. Anna and Gurov start spending time with each other more and more, he still plays his game. Each time that he meets her and tries to coax her into have an ice or syrup, yet he still looks at her as “pathetic.” After their first kiss he begins to realize that there is something different about this girl. Unlike the usual women he messes around with, she feels guilty about engaging in this affair with him. Anna does not give him the satisfaction of playing the game along with him. As he spends more time with Anna he becomes fond of her presence. He starts learning more about her, when she talks him listens intently instead of getting bored and rolling his eyes. When Anna gets a letter from her husband asking for her to come home, Gurov acts like it isn’t a big deal, he still believes he is playing his game. At first he forces himself to believe he is ok, but after they are apart for a while he realizes that Anna isn’t leaving him. She follows him everywhere, not just in his dreams. He feels something that he has never felt before, he

This piece of dramatic irony follows him to the end, as he realizes that no matter where he goes, if he does not abide by the social standards then he will be shunned, no matter how “free” he perceives the society to be. He believes that he will be able to do as he wishes in a gypsy society, but even there he faces persecution. As a stereotypical superfluous man he is non-conformist, but his insistence of going against the status quo shows to the readers how fruitless it is to try to rebel against society’s ideals. When Aleko places himself on a pedestal above his peers, it is a display of how one’s thoughts does not matter, it is one’s actions. With the convention that superfluous men are all talk and no action, Aleko goes in an unexpected direction - he acts, but in a detrimental way.

In their short stories, both Gogol and Dostoyevsky give the reader a snapshot into the life of two different couples and in doing so, present marriage in a way that is perhaps peculiar and unflattering to a modern reader. To a contemporary reader, however, these short stories would have been much more relevant, as along with a large amount of other Russian literature at the time, these two short stories are taken from real-life experience, and therefore, anyone can relate to the characters; for example, Dostoyevsky’s ‘A Gentle Creature’ was based on a local news item that many reading the short story at the time would have been aware of. Neither marriage is presented as a simplistic one and as two short stories written by Russian

‘It was dirty, terribly rundown and primitive but in the Ukrainian terms, very desirable. Her carers are good people and with the best interest of their charges of heart, though there is no therapy as such. Oxana Malaya is doing things she loves