Oblomov, Part Two, Chapter 5
He felt ready to take on the world!
Stolz left Ilya Ilyich with two things to think about: Oblomovshchina and Now or Never. And he does think about them—these concepts are on his mind.
He starts to think of all the things he wants to do and quickly becomes overwhelmed to the point of freezing. It’s such a common problem in our current age, with so many things demanding our attention and I can relate to this problem in a big way. Ilya finds himself wondering what Stolz would say were he asked and he finds himself feeling nostalgia for the ideal life he’s envisaged for himself:
But he’s unhappy with how things are. Again, relatable. Is he going to get moving? Well, it turns out that yes, he is!
Olga
The time shifts forward to one… three months later. Ilya’s now living in a dacha close to Olga’s aunt’s house. He hears singing outside and it’s Olga Sergeyevna. He picks up a bouquet and runs out the house to go for a walk with her. But wait, who’s Olga?
We go back now and the gap of time is filled in. It’s a beautiful scene that moves the plot forward in a big way. Stolz has introduced Ilya to Olga by taking him along to visit. Ilya’s feeling awkward and embarrassed that Stolz might have told her about his wearing odd stockings or his shirt inside out. He feels Olga’s eyes on him as he’s sitting at table for tea and feels self-conscious. This feeling of awkwardness leads him to piling on an embarrasing number of biscuits and cakes onto his plate and he then feels obliged to eat them all. It’s really quite comical.
Stolz reminds Ilya of Olga’s wonderful singing voice and asks her if she’ll sing for them. Olga asks Ilya if he’d like to hear her singing and he’s like, ‘erm, I don’t know. How could I know if I will like your singing if I’ve never heard it?’. Or something along those lines. He can’t help himself from blurting out whatever’s in his head without any kind of filter. So both Olga and Ilya seem to be worried about being judged negatively by the other.
But she sings, and Ilya’s moved to tears.
I loved this whole scene, particularly as music means so much to me. It always has and I feel that Goncharov must’ve been a music lover too. It’s described so well in the novel, how it moves Ilya’s soul—a beautiful piece of writing (and translation).
And then he goes and blurts out his love for Olga out of the blue. Oops! Again, he has no filter between his brain and his mouth. Was that the right move? We shall see in the next chapter.
Video Review
Questions
Is his love for Olga going to be a problem or a solution?
How many biscuits is too many?