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Oblomov
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Oblomov - Week 5 - Part 3
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That's a much more polite way to put it than I had in mind, haha! After the episode with the contract, not to mention that Ivan is besties with Tarantyev, why on earth would Oblomov trust him with his estate? He has other friends he can consult. Stolz is out of town, but we saw at the beginning of the book that he knows other people. He could have asked any of them to recommend someone to him.
And he needs to quit staring at the landlady's bosom! He's going to get himself into trouble. Related to this, does anyone know whether Russians of this time period were as class-conscious as Victorian Brits were? I mean, if Oblomov were to marry this widow, would it be a big deal?
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I can't help but feel he's lazy and willfully ignorant. I think that's what bothers me about his character. He has the compacity to learn new things, we saw that earlier when Olga asked him to read things and then explain them to her. He is capable of learning how to do thing things he needs to do, but he keeps throwing up his hands and doesn't even try.
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I keep wondering if the landlady was a small part of him staying home and not visiting Olga. The author does not indicate this but, I still wonder.
I don't know that much about the Russian social structure, but here is what I found on factsanddetails.com re: Russian Society
Russian society has its roots in peasant culture. Many Russians like to describe themselves as a “simple people.” One Russian historian told the New York Times, “In Russia, the system is still in its very beginnings.. You think Russia is its intelligencia, its Dostoyesky, its Pushkin. But that is a very narrow part. It’s about villages. It’s peasants.”
Society has traditionally been divided into an upper class and a lower class. The middle class was never very developed in Russia or the Soviet Union. In the czarist era there was an aristocracy and serfs. In the Communist era, there were the Communist Party elite and everybody else. In the 18th and 19th centuries, among both serfs and aristocrats, the basic Russian social unit was based in bilateral kindred (the practice of tracing descent on both the male and female lines).
I'm thinking that since she was a property owner, she couldn't have been considered lower class. I'm concluding that it would not have been scandalous for them to marry.
Gem wrote: "I can't help but feel he's lazy and willfully ignorant. I think that's what..."I agree. To answer some Gem questions,
1) I do think Oblomov will fall for whatever is done to him by Tarantyev and Ivan because he is 'lazy and willfully ignorant.'
2) I think Zekhar is trying to protect Oblomov, not because he is a good person, but because he is loyal in his way, following the Delta House credo of "You can't do that to our pledges. Only we can do that to our pledges," if you substitute the word 'master' for 'pledges.'
3) As to Oblomov and Olga, the relationship does seem doomed, but I don't have a feel if final doom will be prior to or after a marriage. There's still a quarter of the book left.
4) I have limited sympathy for Oblomov as he is willfully lazy and ignorant. So I look forward to some disasters to make things interesting and whether the resolution is good or bad toward Oblomov is less important than that the resolution is creative and interesting.
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I wondered about this too. I think he prefers Olga, by a lot, but with the landlady he can be himself. She doesn't expect anything from him, and he's happy to watch her work.
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It was obvious that Tarantyev was taking Oblomov's clothing and other things, demanding money for ridiculous reasons and never repaying it. But colluding with someone to defraud Oblomov over his estate is a new level of cruelty.
Oblomov admits to Ivan about all the things he doesn't know. Interestingly, he never admitted all that to people of his own circle or to Olga. At one point he says "I am a gentleman, and I don't know how to do anything." This seems like a commentary on the society of the time. It's a bit disturbing that he is still qualified to be a magistrate, just because he owns some land.
I liked the descriptions of the different seasons, for instance how people watched the river freeze and then could walk across it on planks. It is also symbolic, in that the love affair flourished in the gardens of summer but froze up in the winter.
There was much in the comments about Oblomov‘s laziness. I think this actually is a medical condition. His aggravated procrastinations and inability to do anything are, in my opinion, caused by this clinical condition. He is able to see things clearly, but is unable to act. I’ve seen this kind of behavior (not quite as dramatic) in a relative of mine. That’s why I think it’s not just laziness, but much more complicated than that. It looks at this point as if he is destroying his life against his better judgement.
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He certainly seems depressed at various times. But I wonder how much of his Oblomovism is supposed to be a reflection of society rather than a realistic portrayal.
It is certainly meant as reflection on society seen through an individual’s plight. Oblomovism became a term in itself describing people just like Oblomov. It’s also used as a term describing clinically dysfunctional procrastinators.
Oblomov watching the elbows work back and forth (never heard of an elbow fetish before!), the arm appearing through the half open door and him talking to the landlady’s bosom and not looking her in the eye! I think this is meant to show us that he actually is not that much in love with Olga. He says he is in love, but he doesn’t know that it isn’t supposed to be that way. He did sense that something was not right after the kiss. So his reaction is to retreat into Oblomovism.
Olga accuses him of not loving her, since he is so inactive. I think his state of apathy is just a comment on (loathing of) the society institution (marriage/household economy).
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I am married to a wonderful, successful person but in some areas he is a bit Oblomovian. I find myself nagging and complaining, which doesn't help. And I have myself sometimes been confronted with issues or tasks that seem overwhelming and I have been tempted to just withdraw from them. It usually turns out they aren't that bad once I get into them.
As we saw, it's not entirely Oblomov's fault, as he was raised to be idle and indecisive. He and his family were like pampered house pets, who could never have survived on their own.
I am still wondering what it is that destroyed Oblomov’s love affair. Was it Olga’s fault? His fault? Did you think it was his fault?We may be provoked by Oblomov’s innocence and trust. But in ideal world we should be able to trust one another! Oblomov is a representative of the virtuous, one of the last honest people.
Olga had a dream about him and thought she would change him.
Or: was the doom of the love affair due to all the external factors: the conventions of courtship, the untrustworthy people he thought would help him, etc.
What exactly is the Oblomovism that he gives Olga as a reason for their failure?
I am reading the book in Russian, and have a copy translated by Stephen Pearl at hand for reference. A couple of times I wanted to place a comment but was disappointed by the translation. I know it is a hard text to translate, it reads almost like a poem, maybe akin to Dead Souls, in form, not in content, and sometimes is almost as funny as Gogol’s masterpiece.A few days ago I hit a sentence, indented into a whole paragraph – why would the author outline a sentence into a paragraph? I guess, so that the reader could pause and think for a little bit longer than otherwise – that I found very important.
Immediately, I grabbed the Pearl’s version. Alas, the sentence was omitted there entirely.
Well, here is my clumsy translation:
“And she [Olga] was looking into his [Oblomov’s] eyes to know (to see?) how glad he would be.”
That’s it! Not only Olga’s thoughts about Ilya, but also her intuition misfires in his regard. He can’t be possibly happy to carry his butt through the mud to the theatre where they barely can talk or see each other; on the other hand, the number of distracting nuisances being enormous there! For Oblomov, it would be much more natural to sit at home and daydream about Olga since they can’t properly socialize anyway.
And how about asking the baron about a chair in the theatre? For Oblomov, to ask somebody, apart from his servants, for something like taking care of a place in the theatre?!! Well, he can ask. But then a trip to the theatre is cursed to be as almost on par with taking care of his estate.
No, I believe Olga is far from understanding Ilya even on the emotional level.
And by the way, when we ask each other for a favor, how differently difficult is it for each of us? And where does this ability come from? Apart from genetic temperament, I believe one needs to have had experience dealing with a long and dense spectrum of people, from enemies to friends, on equal social footing. Oblomov, growing up, has had one close friend who is almost always far away now, loving parents and loving servants. That’s it.
The saddest part of it all is that Oblomov first hand feels and realizes his situation. But he can’t rewire his brain just like that. His rock has caught up with him. Is it possible for him even to try to explain his emotional state to anybody without falling into even worse agony? For Olga he found one word: Oblomovism. Will she get it? We'll see.
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I think it partially comes through. There were some parts that were funny, and they reminded me of the humor in Dead Souls. Of course the poetics don't come through as well.
Olga was just too young and inexperienced experimenting a bit with her powers, finding out that she could influence people like Oblomov. She thinks it’s love, but is it really?? Oblomov sees something else, the landlady apparently is to his liking and is more than willing to comfort him in his lifestyle. There is more to come....
Bigollo wrote: "...was disappointed by the translation. .."
The sentence is in my book:
And she looked into his eyes to see how glad he was.
(Actually he wasn’t.) I remember that was a sentence that stood out to me in that section. She was going in a different direction and didn’t understand who he was.
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I noticed that too and was wondering if they got together would she become more like him or he more like her?
Olga is resisting Oblomov telling her aunt they want to marry. She wants him to get his affairs in order first. This means managing or having the estate managed for him, repairing his house in the country, learning what his income should be, etc. Oblomov doesn't want to wait. This is not so much a conflict because Oblomov does whatever Olga wants him to. Do you think this smart on her part, insisting on waiting? Will waiting result in more of the same... little to no action from Oblomov? Or do you think Oblomov will rise to the occasion and to Olga's expectations of him?
Oblomov is really struggling with a lack of money at this point. He's locked into a year's lease where, in addition to renting the rooms, he has to pay for stables & a shed for horses even though he doesn't have horses, food, and the improvements made prior to his moving in. This happened because he didn't read the lease, he just signed it when Tarantyev brought it to him. Additionally, Tarantyev fronted Oblomov the money for this lease. Is Tarantyev helping or hurting him? Knowing Oblomov the way he does, isn't this a huge risk for Tarantyev to take, fronting the money for a year's leases?
Speaking of Tarantyev, Zekhar again asks him about items borrowed from Oblomov, which we have seen repeated in the past week's readings. What do you make of this? Is Zekhar being protective, cantankerous, or is there another reason for Zekhar to continue to bring this up? Does Zekhar see/sense something in Tarantyev that Oblomov doesn't?
Once Oblomov receives a return letter from his neighbor in the country who describes the sad state of affairs at his estate and refuses to assist him in the management, Oblomov becomes overwhelmed. He thinks about mortgaging the farm in order to put things right but that idea scares him. He decides that his marriage to Olga will need to wait at least a year. He askes his landlady's brother, Ivan, (who manages the business affairs of the landlady) for help admitting he has no business sense. Ivan offers the services of a colleague. We then learn that Tarantyev and Ivan are out to defraud Oblomov. Did you see that coming? If so, what tipped you off? Do you think Oblomov will fall for this or figure it out in enough time not to be played a fool?
Oblomov visits Olga and informs her of his decisions, including waiting a year before they are married. Olga faints but upon her recovery, she breaks up with him. She declared, "I loved the Oblomov that might have been." He is understandably devastated. What will become of Oblomov? What will become of Olga? Do you have any idea how this is going to play out?