The Captain's Daughter

A core conflict in The Captain’s Daughter is the struggle between duty and personal desire. This conflict is most closely associated with the protagonist Pyotr Grinyov as he matures and comes to terms with making his own way in the world. Pyotr vacillates between the pole of his duty as a captain in the Russian imperial army and his personal desire for the eponymous captain’s daughter, Maria Ivanovna, and the choices he makes shape his growth and development.

At the opening of the novella, Pyotr is only 16 years old and “determined to kick over the traces and show that I was no longer a child” (10). In this immature mindset, Pyotr recklessly pursues his personal desires regardless of the consequences. On his first night away from home, Pyotr drinks to excess and gambles away 100 rubles. He rudely upbraids his serf, Savelich, who initially refuses to pay the gambling debt. However, even in this early episode Pyotr experiences a moment of growth. While driving away from the inn, Pyotr realizes, “I could not help admitting that I had behaved foolishly at the Simbirsk inn, and I felt guilty before Savelich” (11).