Olenka is a conventional type of woman. She is a homemaker whom stays at home to cook and clean while her mate goes out to work or school. When guests arrived "she [always] poured out tea or served the supper"� (Pg. 291). Also, Olenka is very religious. After each of her husbands passed away or left her, she always came "home from mass . . . in deep mourning"� (288), which is a sign that when she is alone, she looks to God for comfort. Olenka is like a mother without the children. She cares for her mates when they are sick, she worries about them when they are away and she loves them dearly but in a motherly way.
Some people are leaders but Olenka is a follower. Whatever her loved ones say and do, she mimics them. When Kukin, her first husband, exclaimed, "all [the public] wants is a clown!"� (285), she repeated the same line, with the same emotion, to her friends. All her husbands have very strong opinions on most subjects. If they were against something such as prices for timber, Olenka would follow their lead and take the same emotion into the subject. Following people makes Olenka "have no opinions of any sort"� (292), thus she becomes a tragic character.
Olenka is a person that does not realize when her love becomes a bad thing, believing that all the attention she gives to her loved ones is a good thing. What she does not see though, is that her loved ones do not want all this attention. When she is smothering Sasha with love, he tells her to "leave me alone!"� (294), but after the outburst, she does not see that he is angry with her. Her affection does not only affect her loved ones on a small scale; it affects them so deep emotionally that sometimes when they sleep, they cry out, "I'll give it you! Get away! Shut up!"� (295). Olenka gives too much attention for one person to handle.
Olenka is a woman who would rather have tradition kept, than new ideas explored. She is a better shadow of whomever she is with, than she is independent. She is a mother that loves her family so much she would rather smother them with love than let them leave her. Olenka is an average woman who has emotional problems inside herself and with her loved ones.
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