#gontya

[sleepy-space-nerd]

It's SO wild that they canonically made the main trio of Goncharov trans in the SEVENTIES

[beameized]

Katya and the illusion of choice

Look I know Katya didn't have as much scenes as Goncharov and Andrey but she is such a good and nuanced character!!!! I love how we are made to believe as the audience that she has the freedom of choice between Sofia and her husband and how in the end, she loses them both.

Everybody talks about the Goncharov and Andrey apple scene but y'all missing out on the Katya symbolism. Before we first see Katya, we see her father piercing through an apple with a knife and then the camera pans towards her. She is then introduced as Goncharov's wife. Also when Sofia and Katya went to the fruit market, Katya's eyes linger on some apples being sold on the street. Sofia offers to buy it but Katya refuses. Do you guys not see the subtle symbolism???

Katya and Goncharov loved each other yes but their love is solitude that is wilting away. It's about how in a world of violence and chaos, there's some solitude in each other. Sure Katya will work with her husband or against him but they've made peace that one of them will have to bury each other. That level of trust and understanding is built over time but it eats at you like it did with them. This is why their relationship symbolizes an apple has been pierced with a knife by her father. their marriage was to tie Goncharov down, she was his leash and their relationship built on love and trauma was fodder for her despicable father. Katya and Goncharov were doomed from the start but there is solitude in knowing that doomsday will come.

But at the same time, Katya and Sofia's relationship or what it could've been is also undeniable. Sofia brings in Katya a part of her she has never known. The cocktail dress scene tells it all. When Sofia brought Katya to her powder room, when her fingers grazed Katya's lips!! man the lipstick scene was so gay okay!! Katya felts so beautiful and powerful in that moment. And to a certain degree that scared her too. Because Sofia was new, she was strong and unrelenting, although a little cruel (but in this movie, really who isn't?). Katya was fascinated but also terrified because she could not really read Sofia unlike her husband. It's why they symbolize the apple she refused at the market place. Because Katya could have made it hers and it could have satiated all her desires but she feared her father would again take away her apple

When Katya's father died, the audience is then presented with these two options where Katya could choose to stay with Goncharov or she could run away with Sofia. But it's really just an illusion. Her father had already destroyed what little she could salvage from her marriage and she already missed her chances with Sofia. In the end, she had no choice at all. Sofia baiting Katya by saving her in the boat scene only to tell Katya to fuck off! Goncharov finding himself dying in Andrey's arms! It's the illusion of choice and it got us good