Poor Folk: Analysis of Major Characters
"Poor Folk" is a poignant exploration of the lives and relationships of its major characters, highlighting themes of love, sacrifice, and social struggle. The central figure, Makar Alexievitch Dievushkin, is a government clerk whose deep affection for a friendless orphan, Barbara Alexievna Dobroselova, drives him to financial ruin and deteriorating health. Their elaborate correspondence, filled with mutual respect and shared hardships, paints a picture of their vulnerability and resilience. Makar’s extravagant devotion is both noble and tragic, as he grapples with his feelings, often expressed through clichéd yet touching prose.
Barbara, a distant relative of Makar, is depicted as a woman caught between her past happiness and the harsh realities of her present, eventually choosing to marry a wealthy but unsavory man. Supporting her is Thedora, an aging cook who provides loyalty and companionship amidst the turmoil. The other characters, including Barbara's lecherous betrothed, Bwikov, and the tenderly loving scholar, Pokrovski, further enrich the narrative with their struggles and desires. Overall, "Poor Folk" offers a rich tapestry of human experience and emotion set against the backdrop of societal challenges, reflecting the complexities of love and the burdens of existence.
Poor Folk: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Fyodor Dostoevski
First published: Bednye Lyudi, 1846 (English translation, 1887)
Genre: Novel
Locale: St. Petersburg, Russia
Plot: Impressionistic realism
Time: Nineteenth century
Makar Alexievitch Dievushkin (mah-KAHR ah-lehkSAY-eh-vihch deh-VEWSH-kihn), a government clerk or copyist whose extravagant love for a friendless orphan leaves him penniless and broken in health. A supremely noble and at the same time ridiculous aging lover, Makar, laughingly called Lovelace in his office, carries on for some months an elaborate correspondence with the woman next door. Although they see each other less than once a week, they write almost daily of their mutual respect, their penurious existence, and their calamities and minor triumphs. Makar has attached his wages to give her flowers and bonbons, driven himself mad with worry over her health, and generally devoted himself to her comfort and ease of mind. He also concerns himself with a dying clerk wronged in a scandal, a writer of penny dreadfuls, and a drunken friend in his office. His style of writing is florid; his thoughts are mostly clichés; and his feelings, though obvious, are touching. Like many of the author's great creations, the clerk welcomes suffering and forces it upon himself so that he may ask forgiveness for imagined sins, but his “dedicated” living turns out to be mostly effusions of a distraught mind and overstrained susceptibilities, dramatized for their effect rather than their feelings. Even so, within the humor there is deep pathos.
Barbara Alexievna Dobroselova (vahr-VAH-ruh ah-lehkSAY-ehv-nuh dohb-roh-SEH-lo-vah), his beloved, a very distant relation who sensibly berates the extravagant but impoverished devotee but also thanks him for his devotion. A woman who has suffered much after a happy childhood, she is unable to adjust to the cruel world where she is lustfully sought after and generally disregarded. Loving the rural life from which she came and failing in health, she finally decides to marry a rich but irascible man who can save her, but under protest from Makar, so much her admirer that he cannot bear to see her sell herself cheaply. Her concern for the man who watches over her so tenderly and even foolishly, her deep devotion to the memory of her parents, and her cherished recollection of a dead lover who was her tutor suggest the kind of character that has allowed her to survive the insults of an aunt and the buffeting of fortune.
Thedora (teh-DOH-ruh), a cook and Barbara's companion, often her benefactress, an aging servant who loyally remains with the ailing woman. She stays on to cook for Makar when he moves into the departing bride's rooms. Often berated for her keen-eyed reporting of Makar's extravagances and mis-adventures, she redeems herself again and again in his eyes.
Bwikov (byih-KOHF), Barbara's betrothed, a middle-aged and wealthy but patronizing and lecherous friend of her aunt. Driven on by the embittered relative of the destitute Barbara and involved in the prostitution of Barbara's cousin Sasha, Bwikov comes to St. Petersburg supposedly to make amends for the indecent propositioning by his nephew. In reality, he intends to claim a wife and beget a legitimate heir to his fortunes.
Pokrovski (pohk-ROHV-skih), a consumptive young scholar who truly loves Barbara and dies declaring his love. A bright but shy person, he befriends Barbara and bequeaths to her his love of great books and a knowledge of good writing and good taste.
Gorshkov (gohrsh-KOHF), an unfairly indicted civil servant whose reputation is finally cleared but who dies of the shock. A victim of the bureaucratic system, the young man and his family suffer desperately and unfairly, befriended only by old Makar.
Anna Thedorovna (AHN-nah teh-OH-rov-nuh), Barbara's aunt, with whom Barbara and her mother, now dead, lived after her father's death.
Sasha (SAH-shuh), Barbara's cousin, an orphan.
Old Pokrovski, the tutor's father, devoted to his son and much impressed by the young man's learning. Apparently deranged by his son's death, he follows the funeral procession on foot, dropping a trail of books on the way to the cemetery.