# June 1st: My Beloved Makar Alexievitch explained — Poor Folk

> Chapter companion for Poor Folk by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

## What happens

Barbara sends Makar a manuscript detailing her past life, including her mother, Pokrovski, Anna Thedorovna, and her misfortunes, as a gift to repay his care and love. She expresses weariness and suffering from insomnia.

## Themes in this chapter

### Memory and Nostalgia

Barbara revisits her past through the manuscript, feeling aged and weary as she reflects on happier times.

### Love and Sacrifice

Barbara offers the manuscript as a token of gratitude for Makar's ceaseless care and love.

## Character check-ins

### Barbara Alexievna Dobroselova

Author of the letter and manuscript, expressing her desire to please Makar and her current suffering from insomnia.

### Makar Alexievitch Dievushkin

Recipient of the manuscript, whose care and love Barbara seeks to repay.

### Pokrovski

Mentioned as a figure from Barbara's past life recorded in the manuscript.

### Anna Thedorovna

Mentioned as part of Barbara's earlier experiences.

## Key lines

> So eager am I to do something that will please and divert you in return for your care, for your ceaseless efforts on my behalf—in short, for your love for me—that I have decided to beguile a leisure hour for you by delving into my locker, and extracting thence the manuscript which I send you herewith.

I want so much to repay your constant care and love that I've decided to send you a manuscript from my locker to entertain you.

_Barbara explains her motivation for sharing her personal manuscript._

> Yet somehow I feel depressed when I read it, for I seem now to have grown twice as old as I was when I penned its concluding lines.

Reading it makes me sad, as if I've aged twice as much since I finished writing it.

_Barbara reflects on the emotional toll of revisiting her past._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poor_folk_se/chapters/june-1st-my-beloved-makar-alexievitch
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poor_folk_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poor_folk_se/chapters