Great Expectations Unfulfilled
Kuzmin begins with an introduction of his existing relationship with Kostya (Kuzmin 195) but quickly turns to his present where he discovers that Kostya is being lauded as a “promising young poet” (Kuzmin 196). These early pages serve to describe the level of hype surrounding Kostya even going so far as to explicitly mention the splitting of opinion (Kuzmin 196) that coincides with significant persons in a field. This phenomenon has stood the test of time as we see it clearly today in the form of ‘haters’ of excelling professionals in most occupations today. To make the reader aware of such an age-old indicator of notoriety is to convince the reader of the presence of some historically special talent or potential. Kuzmin reinforces this idea of opinion-splitting when he mentions that, after reacquainting with Kostya, he “willingly joined a company of cautious, not unduly skeptical bystanders not too young to dismiss the visibly developing talent of Konstantin Petrovich” (Kuzmin 196). It is evident from his hesitation to laud Kostya as much as his potential suggests that Kuzmin is aware of the effects of lofty expectations and wishes to simply follow Kostya’s career with interest rather than sabotage it with illusions of grandeur. However—through Zoya’s unrelenting enthusiasm for Kostya’s work (Kuzmin 203)—illusions of grandeur are in part a reason for his eventual suicide.
Kuzmin began to have a closer relationship with Kostya after they reacquainted by chance years later at one of his friend’s plays (Kuzmin 198) where Kuzmin finally met Kostya’s wife, Zoya. To his surprise, Zoya was of much higher social standing than Kostya—being the rebellious daughter of a former vice-governor (Kuzmin 198)—which is what piqued Kuzmin’s suspicion of her in the first place (Kuzmin 199). The authors resulting interactions with the couple are revealing of the pressure that Zoya was willing to put on Kostya to fulfil the expectations of him. There is an instance in the Shchetinkin residence where Zoya recites part of a piece that Kostya is working on. Kuzmin is moved but refrains from overtly showing it as he is still cognisant of the effect of expectations on an obviously underachieving Kostya. Kostya sits embarrassed as Zoya “started to demand greater enthusiasm” (Kuzmin 203) from Kuzmin. Here is one of the best examples in the short story of the pressure Zoya puts Kostya under to achieve “high art.” Kostya clearly already knows that he could’ve done much more in the years between the plaudits and the mediocrity and it in no way helps him to be reminded of his potential as he continues to miss the mark.
Zoya’s pessimism about the state of artistic appreciation is also a vector for Kostya’s frustrations with himself as an artist. She holds her husband’s work in such high regard that he seems to be the root of, or at least reinforce, her attitudes towards how artists are appreciated in society. She believes that no matter what great works artists conjure up; they will never be the subject of the amount of interest they deserve (Kuzmin 202). This is brought up again when Zoya argues with Kuzmin about him having Kostya do some translating for money (Kuzmin 204) as she feels vindicated by the fact that Kostya must translate on the side to make enough money just like Kuzmin composes music for plays although that is not his true profession. Zoya inspires a sense of hopelessness in Kostya as she seems to hold the opinion that even if he becomes as great as people once said he could be, still no one would care. One could argue that Zoya’s pessimism stems from the inability of Kostya’s work to generate a stable income for them. She thought that marrying the next great poet would allow her to continue to live her lavish lifestyle and became disillusioned with the way artists are treated in society when she discovers that she couldn’t. If this were true, Kostya perhaps feels some responsibility for not being able to live up to his wife’s expectations and her subsequent rocky relationship with her passion for art.
High Art is the story of regret. Regret of what could have been egged on by immense expectations and a wife disenchanted with that which she used to love. Kostya, having already buckled under the weight of expectations of plaudits, buckles under those of his wife in a much more fatal way. Kostya was a young talented man with the world at his feet and ready to cement himself as a great Russian poet but great expectations, a prideful wife, and financial hardships were ultimately too much for him.
