More thoughts on Chekhov: Ariadne

Wow.  These people are NOT HAPPY!

Anton Chekhov
at his home in Melikhovo
with his dachshund Khina in 1897
from Wikimedia Commons

• Shamokhin seems really conflicted about his feelings about women in general.  This quote it interesting: "This backwardness of the educated woman is a real menace to civilization." Hmmmm.  That is SO the opposite of what our society believes (well, I guess it depends on who you ask).  I'm not sure I think that Shamokhin actually believes it either.  He just seems ticked off at Ariadne.
• According to Shamokhin, Ariadne is a total fraud anyway.  He doesn't really think she's smart, but she acts like she is.  He doesn't really think that she's cultured, but she acts like she is.  So the fact that he bases his feelings about women on Ariadne is, well, problematic.  
• Stories like this make me think how totally crazy the social structure of this time and place was.  I mean, these people don't work at all, but they have all this money to burn travelling around and going to resorts.  Yes, Shamokhin asks his father to mortgage their family home to support this habit (crazy!), but still.  It doesn't even occur to any of them to work.  Now, today, in our society, it is only the super wealthy who can live this way.  In Chekhov's time, it seems, people lived this way even if they were what we would consider middle class.  I would be curious to learn what the tipping point was when the middle class became more of a working class (well, I think I know....do you?).
• If Ariadne were around today, would we call her a "gold digger"?
• The money borrowing and lending in this story is out of control.  How did this work?  It seems like people made personal loans, that banks had nothing to do with it.  I wonder how this colored people's friendships and relationships with family members.  What if Lubkov didn't repay his loans (I bet he didn't!)?  Were there any consequences, or could he just borrow and borrow and borrow, endlessly?
• What is the deal with this Prince?  Hilarious!
• I love the fat, pale spiritualist brother character.  I wish there was more of him in the story. I think 19th century (and early 20th century) spiritualism is fascinating!  Anyone else?  Mesmerism, seances, hypnotism, all of that.  People were so caught up in it, and those people make such wonderful literary characters.
• I love that Ariadne tells the narrator that she loved his stories, but the Shamokhin whispers to him that she hasn't even read them.  I wonder, has she?  Does Shamokhin know?  Is he right about her?