ENIGMA OTILIEI

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One of the many sub-plots concerns her relationship with Pascalopol, her father’s friend and a man of around fifty but also very rich. In a particularly creepy passage, Costache remembers that his young wife was playing with dolls while pregnant.

George Calinescu was a Romanian novelist, critic, historian, academic, and journalist, whose work tends to be humanist and realist. Pascalopol is jealous of the handsome and young Felix, whom he rightfully sees as a rival for Otilia's affections. Felix can't recognize the woman in the photo, and realizes that the freshness of youth has left Otilia.Aglae, Costache's own sister, waits for his death day after day, hoping that she gets all his money after that. Blatant Lies: Incredibly, almost everything that comes out of Stănică's mouth is a lie, designed to either make him look better or to extract money or benefits from others. Romanul devine o satira vehementa la adresa burgheziei in care relatiile copii-parinti s-au degradat datorita banului.

Her obsession engulfed her entire personality, to the point where she can't think about anything else, and doesn't really seem to have healthy interests. He spends much of the book scrounging money and when he cannot scrounge it, he is happy to cheat whoever he can. Aglae seems interested in the future of the host’s daughter, in hope she will marry her with Titi, while Felix seems more and more ashamed of Georgeta’s behavior. Pascalopol feels like he can't keep up with her, and is jealous that Felix's youth enables him to follow Otilia up every tree she wants to climb. Despite committing a crime, he keeps all the money and runs away, gets married to Georgeta and becomes a successful lawyer.

She also stubbornly ignores Pascalopol's good advice and continues to wear a ton of makeup and walk up and down the boulevard, even though this approach has gotten her exactly zero results (aside that one time when a student from the Military Academy thought she was a prostitute and followed her home, only to be put off by the respectable appearance of the house). He is obsequious towards the rich, such as Costake, and often acts as a messenger and/or a spy, particularly for Aglae.

In spite of this, Aglae stubbornly refuses to admit that she they have flaws and most importantly, that she had a hand in raising them poorly.Titi, the youngest son, has been spoilt by his mother, who treats him like a young child (he is twenty-two). The pair are also invited, also a first time for Otilia, to his house in the country, where he grows exotic crops for sale to other parts of Europe. On a more realistic note, she's also aware of the fact that Felix can't offer her the life she craves, and that she would probably feel trapped and bored as his wife.

As a result, Aglae considers that she should be the heir of Costake and that Otilia is just a poor cousin who has no claim on Costake’s assets, particularly as, as far as she and we know, he has not made a will. Viewers Are Geniuses: Since the Romanian society of 1938 (when the novel was first published) was very fond of reading (and francophile to boot), there are a lot of references that could go over a modern reader's head. Felix, with the beginning of the First World War, becomes a doctor, afterward a university teacher, and has a successful marriage entering the high society. Like a romantic person that he is, he falls for it and trusts her, which is bringing him only disappointment because she has left him every time when she promised him otherwise. Awful Wedded Life: Olimpia constantly rejects Stănică's conjugal advances and refuses to have another child with him, which rapidly diminishes his affection for her.In spite of the fact that the characters belong to different social strata and cultural backgrounds, the language is homogenous and the same linguistic devices are employed. Costache becomes more and more scared of death, Stanica being a cause of it, thanks to his constant stories about tragedies. Pascalopol knows Otilia since she was a child, is old enough to be her father and admits to Felix that he is uncertain what is paternal and what is sexual in his affection for her. One of his finest novels, Enigma Otiliei, was published in 1938, and it focuses on the bourgeoisie populating the capital city of Bucharest at the beginning of the 20 th century.