31 pages • 1 hour read
The Darling
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Character Analysis
Olga (Olenka) Semyonovna Plemyannikov
Olga Semyonovna, often called Olenka, is the story’s protagonist. She is a static character who functions as an archetype of passivity and subservience. Chekhov characterizes her physically as a young woman with “ “plump pink cheeks,” a “soft white neck,” and a “kind, naïve smile […] when she listened to something pleasant” (2). This appearance, in combination with her meekness, suggests an ideal woman according to the stereotypes of the era: passive, obedient, selfless, modest, and beautiful. This is why the townspeople, approving of such stereotypes, affectionately nickname her “darling.”
What makes Olga’s subservience especially ironic is the fact that she has everything she needs to live a far more independent life than the vast majority of women and men in the society of that era. She is the only child of a former collegiate assessor (a mid-level civil servant according to tsarist Russia’s Table of Ranks), meaning she inherits his property, and she is wealthier than Kukin and Smirnin, her lodgers, both of whom need to work for a living. Despite this, her passivity means she is unable to use these advantages to act independently.
Related Titles
By Anton Chekhov
