" His presence added nothing to society..."

“What is being said in detail, and how?” is one of the four questions I was taught to ask when reading imaginative literature. Reflecting on today’s passage I think about the time and effort that went into the creation of this minor character. I ask myself if the character in this passage is a composite of an unknown number of real-life individuals Goncharov might have observed, met, or remembered. I wondered what occurred in Goncharov’s life that compelled him to create this character and propose these two rhetorical questions; “Is the man attractive?” and “Does he love or hate, or suffer?” What enters your mind as you read this passage?:

“Oblomov

“A man of indefinite age and of an indefinite appearance came into the room; he reached the age when it was difficult to say how old he was; he was neither ugly nor handsome, neither tall nor short, neither fair nor dark; nature had not bestowed on him a single striking or outstanding characteristic, neither good nor bad………..A stranger, meeting him for the first time and being told his name, immediately forgot it, as he forgot his face, and never noticed what he said. His presence added nothing to society and his absence took nothing away from it. His mind possessed no wit or originality or other peculiarities, just as his body possessed no peculiarities. He might have been able to tell everything he had seen or heard, and entertain people at least in that way, but he never went anywhere; he had been born in Petersburg and never left it, so that he merely saw and heard what others knew already. Is such a man attractive? Does he love or hate, or suffer?”

                                                Literary Apparel for the Enlightened.