Genre
Novella, a short story
Setting and Context
The place of action is a Russian village the times of the beginning the XX century
Narrator and Point of View
Third-person narration
Tone and Mood
Calm and controlled pace with the elements of hesitations of Agafya
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist of a story as well as the most affected character is Agafya, and the antagonist is Savka.
Major Conflict
The major conflict is love
Climax
Agafya is opening the secret for their one common acquaintance who came to visit Savka, but Agafya can`t wait to longer in a shadow and comes out and shows her face in light.
Foreshadowing
We expect that the conflict will never arise, Agafya will stay a little with Savka and comes back to her home, but she releases all her laces and stays all night long. After that we can predict that her husband will incriminate this awkward situation.
Understatement
There must be something else, more reasons for Agafya to make such deeds. If she is cheating her husband we need to know some more about her motifs or intensions. There must be a background for cheating.
Allusions
N/A
Imagery
Imagery is used mostly in nature depictions
Paradox
Given novella is very incomprehensible because of the age. Agafya is just 19, and this is too soon for misunderstandings and cheatings in such a young family.
Parallelism
Even though Savka’s relationships with any other woman are not portrayed, we see that he treats them all the same way.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
N/A
Personification
The image of the main character is an embodiment of a young girl in a period of post-nuptual depression.
