Irony of books
Karl Ivanich is surrounded by the warmth and good attitude of Nikolenka and everyone in the house. This character cannot hurt anyone, and is always in his books. Being well-educated and a teacher of German, he produces an ironic image concerning his reading likings. On his shelf there were just few books, among which Nikolenka remembers “a German pamphlet on Manuring Cabbages in Kitchen-Gardens, a History of the Seven Years’, and a Course of Hydrostatics”. He has an inclination to reading that had even “injured his sight by doing so, but he never read anything beyond these books and The Northern Bee”. Thus, being an addicted reader, Karl Ivanich could not boast of great knowledge. This produces an ironic effect, and shows what kind of teachers were in Russian noble children.
A happy serf
The mother’s nurse Natalia Savishna was a serf, as many other characters of the story. The time of events is the first part of the 19th century, when serfdom has not been abolished yet. The mother was very attached to her nurse, and loved her dearly, and as a gift for her devotedness decided to let her free, handing to Natalia Savishna a letter of enfranchisement. Natalia Savishna was so insulted by this that tore the letter into small pieces, and said that if she was not wanted any more in the house, she would leave at once, and she did not need freedom. Surely she stayed, but this event shows that freedom is not a thing that everyone wants. Natalia Savishna wanted to be among people she loved, and freedom meant nothing for her.
An educated fool
Another ironic personage of the story is Ivan Ivanich, a distant relative of the Irtenievs. He was really well-educated, “loved to quote from Racine, Corneille, Boileau, Moliere, Montaigne, and Fenelon”, “but for mathematics, natural philosophy, or contemporary literature he cared nothing whatever”. But one of his strong points was to talk about “authors whom he had never read—such as Goethe, Schiller, and Byron”. The overall image of Ivan Ivanich is ironic, and he represents society “of a youth of the end of the last[18th] century”.
