Zoschenko "The Lady Aristocrat"

The short story and the narrator use skaz. He is chatty and talks to the reader like they are friends. The story also comes to the point with the first sentence. The man doesn't like women that wear hats. He is also not just talking about women, but is using a very colloquial language to describe women by calling them "Baba." The language the narrator uses is very conversational in general. Mopsic for a dog is another example. The collection of things that he doesn't like in a woman are varied, but all point to a more well off woman - the sort of woman that would have the dog on her lap, the gold, the stockings and hat. This type of woman the reader understands is not what the narrator wants, but, based on the lexicon and the folksy speak, we also understand that she is above him socially.

The reader is told that the main event of the story will take place in the theater. The narrator is not the kind of man one would automatically expect at the theater. If the woman is an aristocratic woman, then, by her class, she wouldn't go to the theater with this type of man and certainly doesn't have an ideology. The narrator uses the new language and only the bits he has managed to pick up to describe their relations. These two together are opposite ends of the social spectrum. They are the result of the new society where a well brought up lady, if she is such, has to endure the likes of this proletarian because he holds the power in the new society.

They originally meet in the yard of the same apartment where the live. It was at a meeting - presumably something political or ideological in nature or even just one to iron out the building's needs. The man addresses the woman in the old style - calling her Grazhdanka, not Tovarish. He is still using the lexicon that held over for a while after the war and the man recognizes that they are not of the same class. He is also very direct with her - starts by asking where she lives - shows his lack of culture. They don't have much to say to each other and he tells her to "live." This is either insulting or just odd.

What is interesting is that he tells the reader that he saw this woman and immediately didn't like her, but started talking to her and then started seeing her "in an official capacity." This is not a love affair. He is either the worker for that building or the building's political officer. It seems that, although he says he doesn't like her, that he wants the acquaintance. He asks very banal questions because he doesn't know how to speak to this type of lady or any lady. She answers very simply - not trying to form an acquaintance. She never answers him in a way a lover would answer, but that is the way the narrator shows their relationship - as if lovers talk about the pipes in the building.

She starts answering in more detail as time goes on, but the reader gets the idea that she is simply trying to get rid of him. He says that she answers in greater detail, but all she does is use full sentences and his name and patronymic - as if trying to placate him in his position or to seem polite. It is still not a conversation. He still speaks to her months later in an official capacity.

They start talking walks for some reason together. He relates that she makes him treat her like a proper lady, her arm in his. He takes it as either a romantic walk or as an affront to his position as her equal. She is still using the forms of the old bourgeois system, so now he feels embarrassed in front of the other passersby on the street. He says that he feels embarrassed because he is being led, which he is, but it is also because he can't talk to her and doesn't know what to say - all he has is official questions about the pipes.

He said that he was being dragged through the streets, but in the next paragraph he reports that she asks him why she has to walk with him. The reader understands that he is making her do it, probably to look good on the streets in front of others and that she is forced to go because of his higher official position. Or she is not really an aristocratic lady or even someone of good breeding, but just thinks that this is what a woman of good breeding would do - like him. She gets him to take her to the theater. He is not comfortable in the theater, but she plays it up.

He is able to get a ticket with his connections and one from a friend-worker, but he has better connections than his friend Vaska the locksmith, so the seats are different. He sits in the highest balcony and she in the front. He doesn't even watch the performance, but tries to look for her. It is clear he is not there for the theater and gets bored, very bored. It doesn't seem that he watches the play at all. He realizes that he can't even look at her over the rail so he leaves and goes to the hall. Even when they meet at the intermission he has nothing to say to her but to ask about the pipes. He should at least have something to ask about the play, but he didn't watch it.

He tries to act the role of a gentleman, but he has no idea how to do it properly. He tells her that if she wants to have ONE pirozhok cake he will pay. Weird. She answers in French as if she is playing the part of an upstanding lady too. He had proposed a very Russian and proletarian pirozhok, but she takes a creme puff. He suffers not knowing how much anything costs and not having much money. He explains that she is acting very high and looking for compliments, which she might be. She might not have any experience at the theater and is acting a part poorly.

He tries to get her to stop eating so much, but she is not very lady-like and takes up a forth cake before he gets upset and yells at her. Such yelling in the theater about money matters is not very cultured. She gets scared because he swears at her. Very crude. A crowd starts gathering and laughing - also not very cultured. As it turns out he does have enough for what she had touched, but she is too ashamed to eat it after she was sworn at. He made a fool of himself and argued for nothing. Another man comes up and eats it in her stead. Also not cultured. Ones gets the impression that the theater is filled with like-minded people and not the high-brow clientele that should attend.

They go back to the opera and she watches it to the end and then to home. She tells him that he has been acting like a swine -a man without money doesn't go out with women. He reminds her that money isn't happiness, but he is sorry for having to remind her of the expression. Why? Is he reminding her that the new system doesn't have a place for the old bourgeois ways and that it would do her well to remember that or is he just using the limited ideological training he has had and when it is not called for. He again mentions that he hates aristocratic ladies, as if she actually were one.