SOURCE: Janecek, Gerald. “A Defense of Sof'ja in Woe from Wit.” Slavic and East European Journal 21, no. 3 (fall 1977): 318-31.

In the following essay, Janecek asserts that many critics neither appreciate the complexity of Sofia's character nor how the ambiguity associated with her enhances Woe from Wit.

“Sof'ja is unclearly drawn. …”

A. S. Puškin

Critiques of Woe from Wit (Gore ot uma) usually center on Čackij. Mirsky's attitude is, in this respect, typical: “Chatsky is the principal thing in the play. He is its imaginative and emotional focus, its yeast and its zest.” But Mirsky precedes this with a remark on Sof'ja which is not typical and which highlights a feature of the play that is peculiar, if not paradoxical:

Sophia is not a type, but she is a person. She is a rare phenomenon in classical comedy: a heroine that is neither idealized not caricatured. There is...