16 March 2007

a painful uneasiness

Ryabovitch and Olengka (Olga Semyonovna) are the main characters in Anton Chekov’s short stories The Kiss (1887) and The Darling (1899). As you know, Chekov is the master in dissecting human emotions and feelings and presenting them as vignettes of daily life through his short stories. These two stories explore the captive power of a feeling.

Ryabovitch was occupied by the kiss he got unexpectedly in a party while on duty with his artillery battalion. The image of the mysterious woman and the dark room flickering on and off in his mind during his five months away in tents and landscape. Chekov exploits this feeling of longing that we are all familiar with when we are in love. It is “A painful uneasiness that took possession of him.”

Olengka also has a longing although in a different way. She is a woman that always feels the need to express love to somebody. “She wanted a love that would absorb her whole being, her whole soul and reason…” Without it, her soul, “was empty and dreary and full of bitterness.” When it's taken away she is lost and desolate: “In winter she sat at her window and looked at the snow. When she caught the scent of spring , or heard the chime of the church bells, a sudden rush of memories from the past came over her, there was a tender ache in her heart, and her eyes brimmed over with tears; but his was only for a minute, and then came emptiness again and the sense of the futility in life.” But who wouldn't if put in her place. She lost three husbands and a step son. This is where, I think, Chekov really pushed the experiment of human feelings to the extreme.

The captive power of a feeling is really interesting. Although I hated when I was in it. It’s like being trapped in a mud slide. Messy and stupid. But I asked myself why is it so captivating as in Ryabovitch’s story and could create such a misery as in Olengka’s story? Then I think about something different. These two stories are more about an exploration on how one can shape a feeling or otherwise be shaped by it.

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