ties. Pavlova implies that there is no qualitative difference between the
extraordinary woman, regarded as a freak by her society, and every
other woman.
Another link between Dvoinaia zhizn’ and the works discussed ear-lier can be found in the mysterious, “stern,” reproachful but “loving”
male figure who appears in Cecilia’s dreams each night—a fitting rep-
resentative of the sadistic but supposedly loving God we have already
encountered:
)
,
(
,
)
# ;
'
*
u u u .
+
,
U u
e
u ?
e
u
+ u
!h
(He stands, full of stern power,
He stands motionless and unspeaking,
He looks straight into her eyes,
He look straight into her soul.
Reproach for what guilt, what mistake
Clouds his brow?
On that unsmiling face
What sad love!)
( 237 )As we shall see, this figure in various guises continues to appear in
Pavlova’s later works.^45
Pavlova turned even further from cosmology to social issues in the last
two works to be discussed, Kadril’ (Quadrille) and her short story “Za
chainym stolom.” Pavlova first published both in 1859 in Russkii vestnik
but wrote them over a period of about twenty years. Perhaps as a result,
both combine the protests against women’s lack of freedom in society
(polozhenie zhenshchiny) typical of the 1840 s with the more radical issues
of self-determination surrounding the woman question (zhenskii vopros)
of the late 1850 s.^46 Like Cecilia in Dvoiana zhizn’,the heroines of both
works are “ordinary” women in society. However, unlike her they are
older and wiser survivors of their first painful encounters with love. We
shall consider Kadril’first. Not only did it appear a few months earlier,
but it introduces issues that Pavlova further develops in “Za chainym
158 Karolina Pavlova