The Bear" Draw woman nature discussing Popova‟s character

Popova is a rich young widow of feudal class. She is true representative of her class. She is foolish, frivolous and selfish. She loves to show off even in sorrow. She wishes to be honoured as a faithful wife. That is why she seems to take her husband‟s death seriously. She is hypocrite because she does not love her husband so much as she pretends. She is a very talkative lady and it is through her continuous talk that we are able to guess that most of the time she is telling lies and is, in fact quite unfaithful and insincere. She says:

“I shall be true till death and show him how I can love.”
Smirnov, a friend of her husband, has come to collect his bill but she refuses and says that she will pay the bill, the day after tomorrow. Smirnov asks her to pay immediately. So they decide to fight a duel with each other. But she does not know how to fire a shot, and says to Smirnov:

“Before we fight you must know to fire. I have never held a pistol in my hands before.”
Smirnov who is as perfect a shot as one who,

“ Can put a bullet through a coin tossed into the air as it comes down”

Smirnov begins to tell her and on the other hand he himself declares that he is “going to fire in the air” because “its‟ my affair”. Meanwhile the moody Smirnov falls in love with Popova. He kneels before her and says:

“I love you as I have never loved before! I have refused twelve woman, nine have refused me, but I never loved one of them as I love you.”
At first she shows hatred towards him. He gets up and quickly goes to the door but she stops him. “No, stop … No … go away, go away I hate you”, “yes, yes go away”. All of a sudden we see popova lowering her eyes and they embrace each other most passionately.
Through the character of Popova, the writer has described and shown the nature of woman. Like ladies of her class Popova is very emotional. She flies into a rage whenever something happens against her desire. She cannot stand defiance. Popova has no character. She is often in conflict with herself. For instance she vows never to forget her husband, but at the same time she admits that he was not good husband. Popova easily falls for temptation. So she accepts Smirnov‟s offer readily. She is a complex character because she is not what she seems. All in all she is a truly feudal character showing the woman‟s nature.