Anton Pavlovich Chekhov wrote the story "Darling" in 1899. It refers to the late work of the writer. It is noteworthy that Chekhov's "Darling" immediately caused a mixed assessment in literary circles.
The main theme of the work is love. Only for the main character does it become not just a need, but the meaning of life. And it is much more important for her not to receive love, but to give it. The comicality of the situation is that every time the story of selfless deep feelings of the heroine is repeated. The composition of the story consists of four parts: according to the number of heart affections in Olenka's life. Below is a summary of this literary creation.
A few words about the main character
Olenka Plemyannikova, daughter of a retired collegiate assessor, lives in her house with her father. This is a rosy-cheeked young lady with a white delicate neck, plump hands, a meek look and a touching smile.
People lovepretty girl. Everyone likes her without exception. When talking with her, I just want to touch her hand and tell her: “Darling!” Some kind of attachment is always present in Olenka's soul: at first she was in love with a French teacher, then she began to adore her papa, and after her aunt, who visited her twice a year. The problem is that these sympathies often replace one another. But this does not bother Olenka, as well as the people around her. They are impressed by the girl's naivety, her gullibility and quiet kindness. This is how Chekhov describes his heroine in the story "Darling". A summary will help to get an idea of the personal qualities of the heroine. Her image is contradictory: on the one hand, she is endowed with the gift of selfless love. So to dissolve in your soulmate is not given to everyone. And this, of course, causes the reader to respect the heroine. However, on the other hand, she appears to us as a gullible and windy person. The complete absence of spiritual interests, the lack of one's own views and ideas about the world around - all this causes ridicule of the reader.
Kukin is Olenka's first affection
In the big house of the Plemyannikovs there is a certain Ivan Petrovich Kukin, owner and entrepreneur of the Tivoli entertainment garden. Olenka often sees him in the yard. Kukin constantly complains about life. All you hear from him is: “The public today is wild and ignorant. What is an operetta, extravaganza to her? Give her a booty! Nobody walks. Yes, and these rains every evening! And I have to pay rent, artists have to pay salaries. Solid losses. I'm broke! Olenka is very sorry for him. On the other hand, inher heart awakens love for this man. So what, that he is thin, small in stature and speaks in a shrill voice. In her view, Kukin is a hero who daily fights with his main enemy - an ignorant public. The heroine's sympathy turns out to be mutual, and soon the young people get married. Now Olenka is working with might and main in her husband's theater. She, like him, scolds the audience, talks about the importance of art in the life of a person and lends to actors. In winter, the affairs of the spouses are better. In the evenings, Olenka gives Ivan Petrovich tea with raspberries and wraps him in warm blankets, wanting to improve her husband's failing he alth.
Unfortunately, the happiness of the young was short-lived: Kukin left for Moscow during Lent to recruit a new troupe and died there suddenly. After burying her husband, the young lady plunged into deep mourning. True, it did not last long. Chekhov's story "Darling" will tell us about what happened next. In the meantime, we see that the heroine, imbued with the thoughts of her husband, becomes his shadow and echo. It was as if her individual qualities did not exist. With the death of a spouse, a woman loses the meaning of life.
Olenka is getting married again
When Olenka, as usual, returned home from mass, Vasily Andreevich Pustovalov, the manager of the forest land at the merchant Babakaev, turned out to be next to her. He walked the woman to the gate and left. Only since then, our heroine has not found a place for herself. Soon a matchmaker from Pustovalov appeared in her house. The young people played a wedding and began to live in peace and harmony. Now Olenka talked only about forest land, about prices forwood, about the difficulties of its transportation. It seemed to her that she had always been doing this. It was warm and cozy in the Pustovalovs' house, it smelled deliciously of homemade food. The couple did not go out anywhere, spending the weekend only in each other's company.
When others advised the "darling" to go and unwind to the theater, she replied that this was an empty occupation not for working people. In the absence of her husband, when he left for the forest, the woman was bored. Her leisure time was sometimes brightened up by the military veterinarian Smirnin. This gentleman in another city left his wife with a child, which did not prevent him from spending time in the company of other women. Olenka shamed him and strongly advised him to change his mind and make peace with his wife. So the quiet family happiness of the “darling” would have lasted for many more years, if not for the tragic death of her husband. Vasily Andreevich once caught a cold and died suddenly. Olenka again plunged into deep mourning. What does the author want to pay attention to when describing the second attachment of the heroine, what amuses Chekhov here? Darling is a selfless woman, capable of a great and deep feeling. The comicality of the situation is that the story of great love to the grave in the life of the heroine is repeated. And here the same thing: complete dissolution in the beloved, echoing his words, quiet family happiness and a tragic ending.
New heroine sympathy
Now people around hardly saw Olenka. Only sometimes she could be found in the church or at the vegetable market with the cook. But soon the neighbors already saw a picture in the courtyard of the house: "darling" is sitting at a table ingarden, and Smirnin is drinking tea next to her. Everything became clear from the moment Olenka suddenly told one friend at the post office about the problem of milk contamination from sick cows and horses. Since then, the young lady only talked about rinderpest, pearl disease, and much more. Olenka and Smirnin tried to keep their relationship secret. However, it became clear to others: a new affection appeared in the heart of a woman. What else will Chekhov tell us in his story "Darling"? The summary of the work allows us to trace the chain of Olenka's sympathies. The author gives the reader the opportunity to feel the deep feelings of the heroine. And at the same time, using the example of a repetition of the situation, he shows how they are limited and relative. It becomes clear to us how a new feeling was born in the heart of the heroine. This is her third attachment. It seems comical that with her arrival, the deep mourning of a woman instantly disappears.
Olenka remains alone
But Olenka was not happy this time either. Smirnin was soon assigned to a distant regiment, and he left without calling his beloved with him. The woman was left alone. Her father died long ago. There were no relatives around. Black days began for Olenka. She lost weight, grew ugly and aged. Friends, when they saw her, tried to cross to the other end of the street so as not to meet her. On summer evenings, Olenka sat on the porch, going over all her affections in her memory. But it seemed to be empty there. It seemed to her that there was no meaning in life. Before, she could explain everything, talk about everything. Now there was such an emptiness in her heart and thoughts, it was soterribly and bitterly, as if she "ate too much wormwood." This is how A. P. Chekhov described the loneliness of the heroine in his story. Darling lives only when she can give love to a loved one next to her. It would seem that here you need to feel sorry for the heroine, because she suffers. But the author deliberately and now belittles Olenka's feelings, ironically over them in the words: "as if she overate wormwood …". And this is fair. Further, we will see how quickly the pictures in a woman's life change from complete despondency and sorrow to absolute happiness.
New meaning of the heroine's life
Everything changed in one moment. He returned to the city of Smirnin with his wife and ten-year-old son. Olenka gladly invited him and his family to live in her house. She herself moved into the outbuilding. There was a new meaning in her life. She went about happy, taking charge of the yard. This change was not hidden from the eyes of others. Friends noticed that the woman looked younger, prettier, recovered. It became clear to everyone: the old “darling” returned. And this means that in her heart again a new attachment. Further, we will see what nevertheless captured Chekhov's darling Olenka. Her last sympathy is an example of selfless maternal love, tenderness, readiness to die for her child. Probably, every woman in her life should realize this natural need - to give tenderness and warmth to children. The good news is that our heroine also took place as a woman and mother.
Maternal feelings in Olenka's soul
Olenka fell in love with Sasha, the son of Smirnin, with all her heart. The wife of the former veterinarian went to Kharkov on business, he himself disappeared for days on end.then, appearing only late at night. The child spent the whole day in the house alone. It seemed to Olenka that he was forever hungry, abandoned by his parents. She took the boy to her wing. With what tenderness the woman looked at him, seeing him off to the gymnasium.
How she pampered the child, regaling him incessantly with sweets. With what pleasure I did homework with Sasha. Now from the "darling" one could hear only about studying at the gymnasium, textbooks, teachers and the like. Olenka blossomed, gained weight. The woman was afraid of one thing - that her beloved Sasha would suddenly be taken away from her. With what fear she listened to the knock on the gate: what if it was a telegram from the boy's mother, who demands him to her? At this unfinished moment, Chekhov ends his work. "Darling", the analysis and summary of which is given here, is a story about selfless love, which is so rare in our lives, about its sometimes ridiculous and ridiculous manifestations. The main thing in the heroine is an inexhaustible supply of tenderness and warmth, care and affection. Ridiculous and insignificant in comparison with her, her chosen ones. She is funny only in the part when she completely accepts their way of life and their views on reality. Only in her last maternal affection does she become truly beautiful. In this image of her, many women will surely recognize themselves.
We retold and analyzed Chekhov's story "Darling", followed how a woman from a narrow-minded bourgeois turns into a real Chekhov heroine.
