Two themes that are in Anton Chekhov's "The Darling" are Conformity to Others and the Nature of Love.
- Conformity to Others and Dependency
A vapid character, Olenka Semyonovna assumes the personality of the men in her life, becoming but an extension of her husbands. When she marries her first husband, Snookin, the proprietor of the Tivoli Pleasure Gardens, loves true drama, so Olenka loves drama, also. When she speaks to her friends, she informs her friends that
...nothing in the world was so remarkable, so important and necessary as the theatre, and only in the theatre could you experience real enjoyment and become an educated, civilized human being.
Whatever Snookin says about the theatre, Olenka echoes his opinions.
But, after Snookin dies while away on a business trip, Olenka is inconsolable. Soon, however, she meets Vasily Andreich Pustovalov, manager of Babakayev's lumber yard. She falls in love and is married shortly thereafter. Soon, she helps her husband, managing the accounts and dispatching orders. Now, Olenka feels that timber is the most important thing in life. "Whatever thoughts her husband had, she had also." Even when some friends suggest she go to the theatre, which she has claimed that she has always loved, Olenka replies, "Me and Vasya have no time for theatres." Because her new husband has no refinement, she now has none. Whenever he does express himself, Olenka mimics his opinions. But, when Pustovalov suddenly dies after having a cold, Olenka is again alone, and without opinions.
It was a horrible, bitter sensation....she saw objects round her and understood everything that was going on, but she could not form opinions about anything or ...know what to talk about.
Emptiness and bitterness overcome Olenka. Finally, one day she meets a military veterinarian, Vladimir Platonich Smirnin, who rents a room from Olenka. Soon, they become friends, but he has an estranged wife and a child, called Sasha.
Olenka becomes happy again, repeating the opinions of the veterinarian, much to his discomfort. So, he scolds Olenka and tell her to keep quiet when he speaks with his associates. Olenka is hurt, but soon she has a purpose in life as she watches the boy Sasha. Soon, she adopts the opinions of the boy, mimicking his complaints about homework and teachers.
Later, when Sasha's mother calls for the boy to come live with her, Olenka is devastated, but she hears the voice of the vet returning. "Oh, thank God" she thinks. Foreshadowing more problems, though, are Sasha's talking in his sleep, "I'll show you! Get out! Stop fighting!"
- The Nature of Love
Loves seems illusory in all of Olenka's relations as she is dependent upon the men she loves and nothing without them. There is something lacking in this kind of love that seeks nurture from those with whom she is in love. While she gives the men companionship and support, mirroring their sentiments, there is a selfishness to this love that makes it questionable. The boy Sasha senses this selfishness as he feels stifled by Olenka's love and cries out in his sleep, "I'll show you! Get out! Stop fighting!"
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