About Love

Understanding and Interpretation

1.     The second paragraph of ‘About Love’ is brief account of a violent love affair between two servants. Is it significant that Alyohin is the source of this anecdote? How does the anecdote contrast with Alyohin’s own story?

Ø In the second paragraph of the story ‘About Love,’ the writer gives a brief account of a violent love affair between two servants, Nikanor and Pelageya. Alyohin is one of the important sources of this anecdote because he himself is a character in that anecdote and also he is the narrator of the whole story. As a result, we, the readers are compelled to believe in whatever Alyohin says about the violent or whatever type of love relationship the two of them had had. Whomever Alyohin makes the protagonist pr the antagonist, they are the same for us as for Alyohin. But very cleverly, Alyohin has narrated the story in such a way that both of them are right and wrong at the same time on their own. He himself is confused whom to blame and how to define such a love relationship. So, it is significant that Alyohin is the source of this anecdote.

There is a clear-cut contrast between the anecdote and his own story. The anecdote tells a love story between two members of so-called low class society while Alyohin and his lovers both represent so-called high class society. The story between Nikanor and Pelageya is violent in physical sense and we get that the type of love between them is somehow limited to physical attraction. But, in case of Alyohin’s love story, it is emotionally violent as both of them get hurt emotionally. Moreover, their love though starts from physical attraction, reaches beyond any ordinary love. The kind of love is spiritual and is above of all other type of love relationship.

2.     How does an account of the occasion and of the setting in which narrative occurs affect our understanding of Alyohin?

Ø The initial two paragraphs of the story nearly provide the setting of the whole story. The first paragraph of the story tells us what the characters in the story are doing and the second paragraph gives us the plot of the story which is love.

It is understood that Alyohin along with his friend is celebrating his holiday in a restaurant (may be). They talk about the love affair between the cook Nikanor and Pelageya and soon their conversation turns to love. Alyohin has a theory about love and how it is born. He wonders why Pelageya has fallen in love with Nikanor and why not with someone who is more like herself both inwardly and outwardly. According to him, love is poeticized, embellished with roses, nightingales and that love is a great mystery. He says love stories should not be generalized but individualized. With these, we understand him as a type of person who doesn’t believe in true love even if it exists.

But when Alyohin tells his own love stories, with his college girlfriend and Anna Alexeyevna, the wife of Luganovich, our thoughts and understanding towards him changes. In those two stories, we get the impression that Alyohin is the person who believes in true love and in fact he is a true lover himself. May be because he himself narrated the story, we find his love story to be spiritual love and him a well cultured and selfless personality. So, in this way our understanding of Alyohin is affected by the setting and narrative occasion of the story. 

Style and Rhetoric

1.     An atmosphere of inertia is established in the opening paragraph of the story. Cite some specific details which help to create the atmosphere. Is this air of indecisive leisure suggested again at the end of the story? What is the connection between the atmosphere and Alyohin’s behavior with the woman he loves, and the outcome of their relationship?

Ø An atmosphere of inertia is established in the opening paragraph of the story where Alyohin along with his friends is enjoying his leisure time, may be a holiday. It is seen that they are eating, drinking and talking about whatever they like. They’ve already had their breakfast and Nikanor, the cook comes to ask what they would like for dinner. Then suddenly their conversation turns towards the love affair between Nikanor and Pelageya, and then towards love. This occasion helps to create the atmosphere of inertia in the sense that they have nothing special to do except eating, drinking and talking.

The same air of indecisive leisure is suggested again at the end of the story. While Alyohin is telling his story the rain stops and sun comes out and his two friends Burkin and Ivan go out to the balcony to enjoy the fine view of the garden mirror. This atmosphere in the story has a close connection to Alyohin’s behavior with the woman he loves. He seems to be a lovely fellow and he is always disturbed by the memory of his beloved Anna. Whenever he has a free time he can’t help himself but tell his love story to others. This also suggests that he has got a lifelong grief and misery as the outcome of his relationship with Anna.

2.     Alyohin is said to rush around like a squirrel in a cage and this judgment is echoed in the final paragraph of the story. What is the significance of this repetition?

Ø Alyohin is said to rush around like a squirrel in a cage and this judgment is again repeated in the last paragraph of the story. Firstly, the judgment is made by the Luganoviches because he is an educated man, graduated from a university. He is a bookish fellow with lots of knowledge and intelligence. But instead of involving himself in some high profile job, he is living a life of a simple farmer which limits the scope of his life. That is why Alyohin is said a squirrel in a cage by the Luganoviches.

Again, in the last paragraph, same judgment is done by his friends when he finishes telling his love story. Alyohin tells his love story so skillfully and beautifully that his friends are greatly impressed by his intelligence and skill. Such a person who can tell stories with such a condor, kindness and intelligence is living a life of an ordinary farmer. So his friends are sorry for him and make this judgment. The implication is that he should have been an artist, or writer or anyone of high profile but not an ordinary farmer.