The Bear Themes

Throughout the play, landowners Popova and Smirnov appear as enemies, arguing about the repayment of a debt. The quick turn in their antagonistic relationship demonstrates the fickle and unpredictable nature of human relationships and emotions. While both Popova and Smirnov have relatively rational intentions—to mourn her husband and to collect a debt, respectively—they are quickly embroiled in a heated gender war about the nature of love, escalating all the way to a proposed duel. In…

Written amid ongoing conversations in 19th-century Russia about women’s rights and autonomy, The Bear uses hyperbole to explore different perspectives within the same highly gendered social system. For example, in mourning her husband, Popova remarks that she is a “good girl, and faithful little wife.” She supposedly embraces the docile femininity that is expected of her, but clearly resents the position she is in and the role she must play. Smirnov shares these ideas of…

Over the course of The Bear, both Popova and Smirnov act “out of character,” demonstrating how little they actually know about who they are. At the beginning of the play, they are both incredibly strong-willed and pompous in their self-descriptions. To start, Popova mourns her late husband out of a supposed sense of duty, sacrificing her youth to satisfy her own ego. Her belief that she is some sort of martyr is quickly attacked…