 The characterization of the narrator has been compared to the underground man of "Notes from Underground", and of the pawnbrokers in "Crime and Punishment" and "The Idiot" that seek to empower themselves through the accumulation of wealth.The characterization of the narrator and his wife's suicide are meant as a criticism of what Dostoyevsky refers to as "kosnost" or spiritual stagnation that results from material pursuits.In 1960, а film adaptation was made by Aleksandr Borisov; in 1969, another adaptation, "Une femme douce" ("A Gentle Woman"), was made by Robert Bresson; in 1995, by Mariusz Treliński as "Łagodna"; in 1989, Mani Kaul made this short story into his film "Nazar" and finally, in 1998, Raphael Nadjari did a modern adaptation set in present-day New York, "The Shade".