Narrative Structure in “the Darling”

Narrative structure is important to the development of a story. It is the structural framework of a story and without it, the reader would not be able to grasp the story fully. Anton Chekov, the author of “The Darling” uses distinct episodes to structure his story. The different episodes develop the plot smoothly and the reader is able to better understand the piece of work. Each episode is different in many ways but all the episodes are linked by one common character. That one common character is Olenka, her actions in each episode seems to have a repetitive nature. The repetitive, but varied episodes tie the whole story into one world. The first episode was based around the marriage of Kukin and Olenka. In the beginning of the story the narrator gave the reader insight on how Olenka is not able to exist without loving someone. The narrator tells the reader that in the past Olenka had loved her papa, her aunt, and her french master. When they left her life she had no one to love and that is why she fell head over heels for Kukin in a short amount of time. During the marriage Olenka became engulfed in Kukin 's world. For example, before Kukin and Olenka got married Kukin would always complain about how ignorant the public was about his theater and Olenka would listen to his comments silently. During their marriage Olenka would also complain about the public. “Like him she despised the public for their ignorance and their indifference to art”(236). This shows that before she got married to Kukin she didn 't have any opinions of her own because if she did, she would have talked back to Kukin instead of just silently listening to what he had to say. The first episode ends when Kukin dies of an illness. The second episode begins when Olenka decides to marry Vassily Andreitch Pustovalov, her neighbor. After church one day . After their walk together Olenka could not stop thinking about him. Just like with Kukin, Olenka gets married to Pustovalov in a very short