The Man in a Case

      A man named Byelinkov who is very strict, organized and educated is to marry a free spirited, immature, and playful girl named Varinka. Until something seems to bug Byelinkov. The Man in a Case is the perfect example of how things are like right now. How, do you ask? Because it's so tough to find someone that you can be compatible with. This play was refreshing at first. You see that two polar opposites were going to be married yet they still seemed to be in love with each other, or least "trying" to be in love with each other. I believe that this was short-lived. As the end of the play suggests that their relationship may not work out after all.  Let me give some background on the play first. Byelinkov and Varinka seem to be prepared to marry each other and throughout the play, they are conversing with one another about this possible marriage. Although they were very different from each other, they seemed to still be interested in each other.
      Until, that is, the bike comes up. Byelinkov doesn't seem to like the fact that Varinka rides her brother's bike around because she is a women and people have seen her doing this. Apparently, this seems to be the deal breaker for Byelinkov. When talking about her brother, he states "he has been careless-oh so careless- in giving you the bicycle (Wasserstein 24). The bike represents everything wrong with society and its' expectations. I feel as though Varinka is just a playful, innocent good girl and Byelinkov likes that about her but he couldn't man up to what the community will feel about Varinka and some of her actions. Things like this still occur today, we care too much about our image rather than about what we want. It seems as though Byelinkov may have thrown away something that he wanted and may have been good for him just because he couldn't man up to the judgment of society. That is very unfortunate.

X: He did the right thing. Society can be scary sometimes. I stood up against society and I got assassinated for it. 

Idris: Would you do it differently if you had the chance? 

X: Not in a million years.