"The fewer of life's blessings that were left to her, the more she entertained and comforted herself in her fanciful imagination. The more irrevocably her last hopes waned and finally perished altogether, the more her extravagant and insubstantial dreams took hold of her. Unimaginable wealth, unfading beauty, elegant suitors, rich, renowned, of pricely and distinguished stock, chaste and spotless at heart, expiring at her feet with infinite love, and, finally, the one- The one, the paragon of beauty, the seat of all the virtues, passionate and loving; an artist, a poet, a general's son in turn or all at once- all this made up not only the substance of her dreams, but even her of her waking hours. Her mind was already beginning to exhibit symptoms of deterioration as a result of indulging in this uninterrupted succession of opiate fantasies..."
"The novels inflamed her imagination even more, and she usually abandoned them on the second page. She could not sustain the strain of reading further- the first few lines would be enough to carry her into dreams, the merest suggestion of love, sometimes simply the description of a place or of a room or somebody's dress."
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The character is completely inside her own world, and is even taking wisps from reality to feed to her imagination. Imagine to live a life like that! It must be some sort of happiness... a sort of delusion. The imagination is even better than a drug, for it never dies, it always finds a way to wriggle itself out of reality and fly back to its own world. I really sympathize with this character, for so many try to block themselves out of this reality, and she's actually to be admired, since she succeeded completely.
In this entire book, I was so mad at Foma... I kept asking why no one threw him out! They kept submitting to his preposterous demands, as if they weren't ridiculous at all. I would have smacked him a couple of times throughout the story, and yet, everyone kept apologizing for their supposed "temper". Especially the father of the house, who was such a kind soul! Goodness, such men are so rare, and yet, very easily manipulated. Which is what Foma took full control of. One just needs to find such a kind fool in order to take advantage of him.
And so, when all was said and done, after life got back to normal, and Foma died. Who won in the end? Did Foma, with all his scheming, his arrogance and merciless testing, did he win in the end? He died knowing that he did rule those unfortunate people, he died like a king. Or did kindness and patience win? Did the people of the house, their apologies, their attempts to silence their tempers, did they win?
And if they had thrown him out from the beginning, would they have had the same satisfaction in the end? Because for it to have been a happy ending, either Foma had been thrown out and peace would have been restored sooner, or (as in this case) through pleasing Foma, peace was also achieved. Wouldn't their pride (if Foma would have been thrown out) have achieved a different happy ending? Their satisfaction at the end of the story, would not have appeared to intense, for they would have had no obstacles to their happiness. This obstacle, Foma, gave them the contrast in life, which showed them what to be thankful for.
Of course, these people who bring "contrast" can be tolerated easier in theory. :)
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