ing bosoms” proves that he still thinks about women and their beauty, and is simply trying to give men all the credit for being sacrificing and suffering concerning love.Mrs. Popov, on the other hand, expresses her supposed feelings of men through a depressing attitude rather than rage. She enters the play as being a sad and lonely victim of an unfair marriage and remarks to her footman that “[she is] dead” and “nevermore shall [she] see the light of day, never strip from [her] body this...raiment of death!”. The reason behind Mrs. Popov’s supposed feeling about men is that her husband “made love to other women before [her] very eyes...” and because of his unfaithfulness, all men hold true the same characteristics as her husband. When seeing Smirnov, Mrs. Popov puts up a complete guard towards any feelings or emotions that could be aroused from their encounter, and trying so immensely to keep herself from getting attached, Mrs. Popov even reaches the point of accepting a duel. Directly before the planned event, she still cannot rise above her view of men and remarks, “No excuses...no delays...we’ll shoot it out.” Just as Smirnov does, Mrs. Popov provides a reader or viewer with an extensive remark concerning her feelings about men and the ways in which women love and shows through her words that she still knows how to and still wants to love. She says: "I loved [my husband]...there are women who know how to love...I gave him my youth, my happiness, my life, my fortune...and after he died, I found a drawer full of love letters...the best of men was unfaithful to me...I was faithful...I am still faithful..."By saying that she is “still faithful” and that she “knows how to love“, Mrs. Popov is slyly sending the message to Smirnov that she does have feelings, and even though she has been hurt, a life of house-confinement is not what she truly ...
