Kellett has an M.A. in literature and works in corporate communications. In this essay she discusses Turgenev's use of dichotomies as a structural and character development device.

In the introduction that precedes Richard Newnham's English translation of A Month in the Country, Richard Schechner applauded Turgenev for what he called "a masterful study of Natalya Petrovna," the play's main character. While Schechner discussed at some length the ways in which Natalya's fear of men is closely linked to her fear of her father, his analysis also culminated in an important conclusion: "Natalya Petrovna is a failure in love, and that is the crux of her personality and the play. She cannot consummate love with her husband or Rakitin; Beliayev slips out of her grasp. She dissolves in a series of futile gestures and contradictions as the play draws to a close."

It is certainly true that...