Lyudmila Ulitskaya provides a masterful piece of character development in her short novella Sonechka. The character is Sonechka is highly complex and incredibly intricate. What Ulitskaya is able to do with a character in only seventy-one pages is truly incredible. She takes the character of Sonechka in a full character arc while juxtaposing her character with that of Jasia, Robert’s mistress. By the end of Sonechka, the reader finishes the novella understanding the motivation of all characters involved and while he or she may not agree with Sonechka’s choices or actions, they cannot fault her for them. Sonechka is an intriguing and highly complex character. Throughout Sonechka, she grows and then reverts to the character she was
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She is 18 when Tanya meets her and is a Polish orphan who had an incredibly difficult life (38). Jasia is beautiful and delicate, people flock to her, and act as “protectors” (39). She is accustomed to having sex with men in order to achieve safety and success in life, as is the case with the policeman Malinin who visits her once a week in exchange for protection from deportation or removal from Moscow (40). Jasia elaborates on her past, painting her family as rich Polish aristocrats in order to make Tanya think more highly of her (41). Additionally, Jasia is cunning and manipulative. She refuses to visit Tanya’s home until she feels that she can ensure that she looks her best and will receive acceptance from Tanya’s family; she sews an exquisite dress just for the occasion (44-45). When she meets Robert, Jasia’s first instinct is that she must sleep with him in order to gain acceptance into his home; she immediately takes off her nightgown, runs into his arms, and says “Okay, just a quickie” (47). This action says a lot about Jasia’s character. Her life experiences have extremely distorted her view of sex and the function of it; she views sex as a business deal, not as an act of love between two adults. When Robert initially refuses her offer of sex, Jasia is shocked (48). It is not something she ever expected, again showing how broken her childhood was and how sex was used on …show more content…
Not for a character like Sonechka. Sonechka is inherently kind, selfless, and mothering. She likes to feel that she has done a good deed and fixed someone. Therefore, when Tanya relates the horrors of Jasia’s life to Sonechka, Sonechka wants to help Jasia because she feels sorry for her (44). When she first meets the beautiful Jasia, Sonechka’s first response is to feed her, as the girl is so thin (46). Jasia’s beauty and youth do not threaten Sonechka—the thought never even crossed Sonechka’s mind. Another motivation for Sonechka is that she wants a large family but can have no more children, so she sees Jasia as an opportunity to gain a daughter (50-51). Sonechka practically adopts Jasia as part of her family, and because Sonechka is selfless and loyal to her family, she cannot turn her back on Jasia. Thus, Sonechka justifies the affair and puts it in the context of selflessness. Sonechka concludes, “How right is it that he will have someone so young and beautiful at his side, so soft and clever, and as exceptional and outstanding as he is himself” (57-58). This exemplifies Sonechka’s selflessness and shows how she sees herself as completely unworthy of love. Her family’s happiness, which includes both Robert’s and Jasia’s happiness, is all that matters to Sonechka. Her happiness is inconsequential. Consequently, Sonechka’s first action toward Jasia following the discovery of the affair is not one of anger or jealousy, but a
She is 18 when Tanya meets her and is a Polish orphan who had an incredibly difficult life (38). Jasia is beautiful and delicate, people flock to her, and act as “protectors” (39). She is accustomed to having sex with men in order to achieve safety and success in life, as is the case with the policeman Malinin who visits her once a week in exchange for protection from deportation or removal from Moscow (40). Jasia elaborates on her past, painting her family as rich Polish aristocrats in order to make Tanya think more highly of her (41). Additionally, Jasia is cunning and manipulative. She refuses to visit Tanya’s home until she feels that she can ensure that she looks her best and will receive acceptance from Tanya’s family; she sews an exquisite dress just for the occasion (44-45). When she meets Robert, Jasia’s first instinct is that she must sleep with him in order to gain acceptance into his home; she immediately takes off her nightgown, runs into his arms, and says “Okay, just a quickie” (47). This action says a lot about Jasia’s character. Her life experiences have extremely distorted her view of sex and the function of it; she views sex as a business deal, not as an act of love between two adults. When Robert initially refuses her offer of sex, Jasia is shocked (48). It is not something she ever expected, again showing how broken her childhood was and how sex was used on …show more content…
Not for a character like Sonechka. Sonechka is inherently kind, selfless, and mothering. She likes to feel that she has done a good deed and fixed someone. Therefore, when Tanya relates the horrors of Jasia’s life to Sonechka, Sonechka wants to help Jasia because she feels sorry for her (44). When she first meets the beautiful Jasia, Sonechka’s first response is to feed her, as the girl is so thin (46). Jasia’s beauty and youth do not threaten Sonechka—the thought never even crossed Sonechka’s mind. Another motivation for Sonechka is that she wants a large family but can have no more children, so she sees Jasia as an opportunity to gain a daughter (50-51). Sonechka practically adopts Jasia as part of her family, and because Sonechka is selfless and loyal to her family, she cannot turn her back on Jasia. Thus, Sonechka justifies the affair and puts it in the context of selflessness. Sonechka concludes, “How right is it that he will have someone so young and beautiful at his side, so soft and clever, and as exceptional and outstanding as he is himself” (57-58). This exemplifies Sonechka’s selflessness and shows how she sees herself as completely unworthy of love. Her family’s happiness, which includes both Robert’s and Jasia’s happiness, is all that matters to Sonechka. Her happiness is inconsequential. Consequently, Sonechka’s first action toward Jasia following the discovery of the affair is not one of anger or jealousy, but a