The Darling Blog

"The Darling" was a story that was about a woman who was or has been married to a number of different men and some of them have died. She was loved all of these men and they loved her. This woman's father died when she was a small child and then she inherited the townhouse that her family owned after the death where she then lived with her husband of the time, Kukin. Kukin was a theater owner. He was a weird guy and seemed to always be sad because of the rain. Because of the rain he moved and left to go to Moscow to meet some actors to hire. Olga was told of the death when she was awoken in her house and she was obviously upset and sad about the death and moved on to the Vasily. Vasily Pustovalov was a timber merchant and she eventually fell in love with this guy and they had a child, a son. Vasily then died from a cold. So once again this woman Olga is all alone and has to grieve the loss of yet another husband(Glencoe Literature).

This story had a very sad vibe because it was all about losing your loved one and death. Everyone died that she got closed to and she loved. This would eventually make loving people hard because you would be scared to get attatched. Even though she would mourn the death of these men and she would feel alone she obviously got over them pretty fast because she moved right on to Vasily after the first death of the husband. I do not think she really knew what love was because that is not something you can get passed so quickly. I almost think this person was selfish because she seemed to always want to have someone there. Maybe to impress society which completely goes against Emerson and Thoreau because you should value yourself and not the opinions of the rest of society(Quinn). I think she needed to think a little more about loving herself and not searching for the love of others.


Chekhov, Anton. "The Darling." Glencoe Literature: The Reader's Choice. New York, NY: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2000. 557-66. Print.

Quinn, Edward. "Transcendentalism." A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= DLLT1007&SingleRecord=True (accessed February 14, 2012)