In Anton Chekov's play, "The Bear," Toby is a horse. Toby
is significant because he symbolizes all of the most wonderful memories Elena Ivanovna
Popova has for her not-so-excellent dead husband. It can be said that he sat a horse
well, but that he was a terrible, abusive, philandering
husband.
Popova instructs Luka to give the horse extra oats
out of her commitment to remain faithful to her faithless husband until she dies. By
doing so it seems she is trying to prove herself worthy of his love while he is dead, as
she could not prove to him in life.
POPOVA.
He
was so fond of Toby! He always used to ride on him to the Korchagins and Vlasovs. How
well he could ride! What grace there was in his figure when he pulled at the reins with
all his strength!
When she
finally falls in love with Smirnov, Popova instructs Luka not to
give the horse extra oats; her feelings have changed. She does not plan to waste her
life mourning for a man who treated her so shabbily. While the extra oats earlier were
offered out of respect for the memory of her dead spouse, Nicolai Mihailovitch, her
decision to hold back those extra oats from the horse indicates that she has let the
past go. While Toby earlier seems synonymous of the memory of her husband, Toby is now
simply a reminder of what a louse she was married to. So, no extra oats for
Toby.
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