Chapter 3
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In the book Wokulski’s hands are described as having a reddish complexion. For Polish readers this was a clear allusion to the time Wokulski spent deported to Siberia, where his hands had been injured by frostbite.
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Prus’s 'The Doll' famously disposes of large fragments of the outside world, which means that looking out through the window Wokulski never ‘notices’ Russian officers, or even any traces of the Russian presence in the Polish capital.
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Izabela, Wokulski’s remote object of desire, comes from an affluent noble family. However, part of Izabella’s father’s fortune was lost due to ‘political events’ - an allusion to the repressions and confiscations after the January Uprising.
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'What a primitive parvenu he is, he doesn’t even speak English’, she thought.
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‘I can’t make sense of this woman,’ he thought. When is she ever herself? With whom is she ever herself?’
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'He gazed still more intently into her dreaming eyes and recalled, without knowing why, the limitless tranquility of the Siberian steppe, where sometimes it was so hushed that you could almost hear the rustle of souls flying back to the west.'