A Gentleman Friend
Where there's a will there's a way.
Vanda needs clothes -- needs style -- needs to live well.
Just out of the hospital with nothing but a ring which she pawns for a ruble -- she has to employ her charms to get back in the game.
But like Batman sans cape -- she just doesn't have the same bravado without the fancy apparel -- she goes to a dentist she's familiar with -- one who has enjoyed her attention -- a converted Jew -- who Chekhov still refers to as a Jew. (Does Chekhov subscribe to the idea that once a Jew always a Jew -- it's in the blood -- something the Nazis believed? Let's hope not.)
Vanda loses a tooth to Finkel the dentist and her ruble -- he pulls out her tooth in an unsanitary procedure -- was this the customary ways that dentists worked back then? -- or is this an indictment against Jews for being unclean?(In Spain -- the converted Jews of the Inquisition were referred to as Marranos which translated to pigs).
Vanda doesn't let this discourage her -- within a matter of hours -- she has figured out how to live la Vida Loca again.
Men are easy prey to the charms of a willing lady or are women victims of a society that forces them to rely on their sex for advantage?
Who knows?
Vanda isn't a sociologist -- she just wants to party and party she will.
what are the characteristics of Vanda? what is her struggle? how does this struggle shape her character? in this story, what is the author's (Chekhov) perspective towards women?
ReplyDeleteLook at my more considerate comment to Chekhov's portrayal of women in An Enigmatic Nature. Here -- Vanda does what she must to get back to where she needs to be -- after all, who wants to be poor and alone. As far as Chekhov goes -- he writes in many of his stories that the cards are stacked up against women (has that really changed?) and my sentiment is he empathizes with their plight -- but women like men -- are individuals -- and some people do the right thing and some don't. And what's right for some might not be right for others.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, Chekhov is a storyteller and he is interested in characters and I don't think he is making blanket statements about all women or all men.