Thursday, September 1, 2011
The soprano
I don't feel like I ever quite grasped the nature of the relationship between Sonechka and Maria Nikolaevna. Sometimes Sonechka seemed to admire the singer and sometimes to loathe her. Sometimes Maria treated Sonechka like a friend and sometimes like a servant. It was fairly bizarre, considering that they lived together and spent so much time in each other's company. Sonechka wanted to make Maria suffer, but at one point she also wanted to free her by shooting her husband. Any thoughts on this strange dynamic? Or on Sonechka's theory that some people are just imperturbably happy and that their happiness fundamentally sets them apart from others?
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It was a strange relationship, for sure. I felt like Sonechka wanted to be Maria's friend and confidant but couldn't help feeling jealous and bitter about Maria's beauty, talent, love life, success, happiness. And Maria, I think, believed her own hype a little too much. The way everyone was kissin up to her all the time, I think maybe the lined became a little blurred between friend and servant.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read Sonechka's theory about happiness, I wondered if maybe Sonechka suffered from the opposite problem: She seemed determined to be unhappy. She had a fun job, got to travel around Europe, people were nice to her, and still she tended to focus on the things she didn't have.