Доклад: Эдит Хэйбер. "Ведьма" Тэффи: мифология русской души

And so in «Собака», even more clearly than in «Русалка», a striking reversal takes place. It is to Lialia's everyday milieu — Garri's «green, abnormal» circle — that grotesque and rfightening traits are attributed. Tolia, on the other hand, although pathetic in his hopeless love, is portrayed as wholesome and boyish, with his round face and childlike eyes.

In general in Ведьма, there is a dichotomy between everyday life — at best monotonous and at worst terribly cruel — and the uncanny. While the latter rarely takes as positive a form as in «Собака», it is frequently an emanation of some genuine and strong passion, although at times perverted by circumstances, as in «Русалка». Even in those cases when some dark superstition is being portrayed, with no particular redeeming features, as in «Ведьма», it still adds a certain excitement and interest to life, which would otherwise be almost unbearably dreary.

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Эдит Хэйбер. "Ведьма" Тэффи: мифология русской души