The Thaw (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Ilya Ehrenburg
- First Published: 1954
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: The early 1950’s
- Setting: A small town in the Soviet Union
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism
- Subjects: 1950’s, Factories, Communism or communists, Love or romance, Sex or sexuality, Art or artists, Small-town life, Totalitarianism, Soviet Union or Soviets
- Locales: Soviet Union
Characters Discussed
Elena (Lena) Borissovna Zhuravliov (boh- rih-SOHV-nah zhew-rahv-LYOV), a Soviet schoolteacher. Attractive, intelligent, and cultured, she is a thirty-year-old wife and mother who has become dissatisfied with her life. She finds purpose in her career as a teacher but no emotional satisfaction in her relationship with her husband. She unwittingly falls in love with her husband’s coworker, Dmitri Koroteyev, who is also cultured and sensitive. When she realizes the seriousness of her affection, she leaves her husband. Mistakenly believing that her love is...
[The entire page is 558 words long]
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