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Wealth, Class, and Power
Themes and Colors
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Bear, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
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 by both Luka and Smirnov: “Don’t I know perfectly well why you wear that black masquerade outfit and have buried yourself within these four walls?” Smirnov asks. “Of course I do! It’s so mysterious, so romantic!” In other words, while Popova may have convinced herself that she is only fulfilling her duty as a wife, Smirnov believes she is just trying to cultivate an image of piety and perform this role for others to see. Her true intention seems much closer to Smirnov’s interpretation, demonstrating how Popova attempts to fool even herself.
Meanwhile Smirnov considers himself to be a misogynist who has sworn off women, no more “suffer[ing] and sacrific[ing]” for “phonies, showoffs, gossips, troublemakers, liars…” For all his anger and refusal to succumb to Popova’s womanly ways throughout most of the play, he is the first to profess his romantic feelings. And for all her obstinance and refusal to engage with society, Popova is the one to insist upon a duel. In developing feelings for each other, in other words, the characters betray their initial worldviews, or at least what they professed to be their worldviews. This rapid shift indicates how flimsy those ideas may always have been. Ultimately, through these highly illogical and self-contradictory characters, Chekhov expresses the limits of self-knowledge and the folly of acting based on faulty assumptions about oneself.
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The Limits of Self-Knowledge ThemeTracker
The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of The Limits of Self-Knowledge appears in each scene of The Bear. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.
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The Limits of Self-Knowledge Quotes in The Bear
Below you will find the important quotes in The Bear related to the theme of The Limits of Self-Knowledge .
Scene 1 Quotes
We’re living, if you don’t mind my saying so, like spiders,—we never see the light of day.
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He was so fond of Toby! He always rode him over to the Korchagins and the Vlasovs. He sat a horse so wonderfully well! Such a graceful expression when he tugged at the reins with all his might! Remember? Toby, Toby! Tell them to give him an extra portion of oats.
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Scene 2 Quotes
And aren’t you ashamed? I’m a good girl, a faithful little wife, I’ve locked myself up in a fortress and will be true to you to the day I die, while you…aren’t you ashamed, you chubby thing?
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Scene 8 Quotes
You won’t lead me down the garden path again! Enough is enough! Dark eyes, flashing eyes, crimson lips, dimpled cheeks, the moon, low whispers, heavy breathing—for all this, madam, I now don’t give a tinker’s damn! Present company excepted, but all women, great and small, are phonies, showoffs, gossips, troublemakers, liars to the marrow of their bones; vain, fussy, ruthless, their reasoning is a disgrace; and as for what is in here (slaps his forehead), forgive my frankness, a sparrow could give ten points to any thinker in petticoats!
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The man is faithful and constant in love! Do tell, now there’s news!...the very best was my late husband…. I loved him passionately, with every fiber of my being, as only a young, intelligent woman can love; I gave him my youth, happiness, life, my fortune, breathed through him, worshipped him like an idolater, and…and—then what? This best of men cheated me in the most shameless manner on every occasion!
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Don’t I know perfectly well why you wear that black masquerade outfit and have buried yourself within these four walls? Of course I do! It’s so mysterious, so romantic!
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Scene 9 Quotes
Now that’s a woman! That’s something I can understand! An honest-to-God woman! Not a sourpuss, not a limp rag, but flames, gunpowder, a rocket! I’m almost sorry I’ll have to kill her!
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Scene 10 Quotes
Yes, yes go away!... (Shouts.) Where are you off to? Hold on… Go on, tough. Oh I’m really angry! Don’t come over here, don’t come over here!
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Luka, tell the stableboys that Toby gets no oats today.
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