Essay Questions

Describe what makes Podkoliosin's character particularly interesting.

Podkoliosin is peculiar in his psychology; he convinces himself of the desirability of certain courses of action, but when it comes to enacting these plans, he finds himself lacking in motivation to carry them out and contents himself with merely pushing it into the vague future. This deep-set indecisiveness leads to many problems in the course of the play; he nominally wants to get married, but when forced to pursue such a course of action by his friend Kochkariov, he suddenly develops all sorts of reasons why he shouldn't do so immediately: he would rather do it tomorrow, or the rain would make a journey messy, or he doesn't feel like it at the moment. It quickly becomes clear that his disposition is such that he would never end up marrying at all unless forced by another person, and even then it fails, as the resolution of this novel proves. Podkoliosin's aversion to responsibility outweighs even the most convincing of intellectual arguments, making him a hilarious and intriguing character.

Analyze each of Agafya's suitors and indicate which, if any, she should have married.

Agafya had five main suitors: Starikov, Zhevakin, Anuchkin, Yaichnitsa, and Podkoliosin. Starikov is the only non-gentleman of the bunch; he is a trader and shopkeeper in the drapery line. He has a beard, which is one of Agafya's two main problems with him (the other being that he is only a mere shopkeeper), but overall, he seems like a decent fellow.

Zhevakin is a retired navy man who talks a lot about himself and boasts about his experiences, but no one really takes his conversation seriously. His main motivation for pursuing Agafya is that she attracts him, which seems noble in comparison with the others, but appears less so when it is revealed that she is his seventeenth such love interest.

Anuchkin is a polished social man whose only qualification for a bride is that she speaks fluent French, which in his eyes is the sole indicator of female gentility. Agafya, however, does not seem to speak French.

Yaichnitsa is a very large and good-natured, yet blunt and easily inflamed man. His main motivation for courting Agafya is her sizable dowry, which he later realizes has been somewhat exaggerated. His size and temper fail to endear him to Agafya.

Podkoliosin is the least reliable of the bunch; he doesn't even really want to marry Agafya, even though he is the novel's protagonist.

In the end, Agafya does not marry any of them. If she were to marry one, Starikov seems to be the best choice, since he doesn't have any of the blatantly obvious defects of her other suitors, but that isn't saying much at all. Perhaps Agafya would be better off hiring a more capable matchmaker.