A voluptuary
Posdnicheff has experienced physical closeness with a woman for the first time, and along with satisfaction he perceived an awful truth – that he has turned into a voluptuary. The image is created with comparison of the morphine habit, or a drunkard, or a smoker. None of these can be considered a normal man, as well as a man who has known several women for his pleasure. Such a person is abnormal - a voluptuary. “Just as the drunkard and the victim of the morphine habit may be recognized by their face and manner, so we may recognize a voluptuary. He may repress himself and struggle, but nevermore will he enjoy simple, pure, and fraternal relations toward woman. By his way of glancing at a young woman one may at once recognize a voluptuary”.
Troukhatchevsky
Posdnicheff gives a portrayal of Troukhatchevsky on the crucial night when the contact between him and his wife has been formed in detail: “in his dress-coat, with diamond shirt-studs, in bad taste. He bore himself with ease. To all questions he responded promptly, with a smile of contentment and understanding”. Posdnicheff tried not to notice evident danger of the existing “electricity in the air” and hoped that his ironic attitude to Troukhatchevsky might conceal his own worrying.
An image of a woman
In the following quote, the author masterfully creates an image of a woman and all the perniciousness of this image on a man: “As soon as a young man advances toward a woman, directly he falls under the influence of this opium, and loses his head. Long ago I felt ill at ease when I saw a woman too well adorned,—whether a woman of the people with her red neckerchief and her looped skirt, or a woman of our own society in her ball-room dress.” Such a woman is dangerous, as she knows very well how to use her own charm to captivate a man, who is blind in his heart, and is capable of seeing only with his eyes.
