Oblomov, Part Three, Chapter 4
"What nice arms you have!" Oblomov suddenly blurted out. "Someone should sit down and draw them this very moment."
Olga and Ilya are observing propriety and Ilya’s finding it quite wearing. We get a scene that describes Agafya’s household and it has a tone of domestic bliss about it.
Agafya, the landlady, and Zakhar’s wife Anisya are getting on like a house on fire. Ilya’s not quite slipped back into his old ways, but the general tone is one of a kind of blissful apathy. He’s reading books and newspapers, but he’s also daydreaming on the sofa as he absent mindedly plays with his slippers while watching his landlady’s elbows.
Elbows
This chapter features Agafya’s elbows once again. This time, Ilya can’t help but express his feelings:
Agafya’s brother is also being personified as a paper-wrapped bundle. I’ve mentioned this before, but it feels reminiscent of Gogol’s The Nose or The Overcoat. I kinda like it. It feels very Russian. Are there good examples of this kind of synecdoche elsewhere in literature?
“Oh, just some Oblomov.”
Ilya’s feeling worn out with not being able to spend time alone with Olga. He tries to go home after dinner, which I’m guessing must be around 3 p.m., but Olga’s not having it and, instead, persuades him to go to the theatre again. He’s already seen the opera several times, but it’s the only way that Olga can keep an eye on him they can see each other. He visits Olga’s family box at the interval and overhears two young gadflies talking about him:
“Who was that character just now in the Ilinskys’ box?” one asked the other.
“Oh, just some Oblomov,” came the dismissive reply.
This causes Ilya some consternation and he starts overthinking his relationship again. It passes though, and he goes home to lie on the divan and dream of their blissful future together.
“So that means the wedding won’t be until after Christmas then?”
Looks like Zakhar’s gone and put his foot in it again and is line for some ‘harsh words’ from Ilya. Somehow it seems that a rumour has spread about Ilya and Olga’s engagement. The Ilinskys’ servants know about it, Zakhar and Anisya know about it. It’s a disaster! Ilya doesn’t take it well and we get a whole comic scene between the two of them. It’s such fun to read these scenes and I imagine that Goncharov had fun writing them.
It gets worse. Zakhar calls on Anisya and she explains that the rumours weren’t to do with Ilya and Olga, but with the Baron and Olga. Remember old Baron von Langwagen from chapter 8? This news sends Ilya into a tailspin that ends with his becoming overwhelmed. The poetic romance of his heart gives way to the prosaic narrative as he thinks of all the obstacles in the way, leading him ultimately to declare to himself that it’s over:
Video Review
Here’s my video review of the chapter, recorded right after reading it.