Goldilocks and the Three Bears

The three girls in Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears could almost represent three different prespectives of how to view the whole love search concept, kind of like the three bowls of porridge in Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Katerina is the sensible girl, she's curious about love but she doesn't really want to search too hard. I think her inexperience is a significant player in her story. She hadn't played the game very much at all when she meets Rudolph, and falling for him fast, she ends up getting hurt the worst out of all the girls. She was kind of like the bowl of porridge that was too cold. She'd been sitting out of the game for a bit too long to jump into a relationship with an experience player.

Lyudmila is the crazy one. From my observations about Katerina, it would seem that Lyudmila would fare better in her situation with Gurin. She's played the field, flirted with her fair share of men. But I think her over-experience hurts her in the same way as Katerina's inexperience. She didn't look at love in the right way. For her, it was a game, a way to settle down with a rich man who could support her, not a meaningful relationship. She's a bowl of porridge that's too hot. She's hot out the fire, and not really thinking too clearly.

Antonina on the other hand gets it just right. She doesn't play the field a lot, but she goes with a sensible man who isn't necessarily the apple of all her friend's eyes, but works for her. She doesn't need glamour or money to make her happy in her relationship and her faring in love turns out to be the best experience of all the girls.

The sensible guy theory continues even further once Katerina meets Gosha. He is a down to earth kind of guy, not very rich, but humble and interesting in Katerinas' eyes, which is all that counts. Katerina found her perfect bowl of porridge.

What a terrible analogy!