The Snowstorm: Delia's Thoughts

"The Shot" and "The Snowstorm" are two very similar short stories. They are both the tales of young age and the romanticism that literature likes to ascribe to it. The second short story talks about a young heiress in love with a sub-lieutenant. They decide to elope, but a snowstorm prevents the future groom from coming and Marya Gavrilovna marries someone else by accident. The two lovers' ways drift apart and Vladimir dies in war, while Marya is rejecting all her suitors and suffers in convalescence. One suitor attracts her attention and by the end he proves himself to be her husband. What struck me about the two short stories were the apparent superficiality and the sarcastic tone. First of all, the two stories have no depth and no apparent carry on message. They are simple tales of strange events, rather anecdotic than literary. The built up seems pushed by a too fortunate string of events, and the dénouement is amusingly unrealistic. Pushkin keeps his protagonists linear, dull, and thus improbable, even though both of them progress impressively through life during few pages. The entire story, in both cases, seems to be pushed by a supernatural force of destiny. This would seem rather intolerable from an author with such renown if it weren't for the sarcastic tone, which brings me to my second point. Even though the two stories have a different narrator, there is a strong feeling that Pushkin mocks his heroes and his stories. In "The Shot", narrating at the first person, he presents the narrow mindedness of a young officer.