YMMV / Enigma Otiliei

• Alternate Character Interpretation: The mystery at the heart of the novel is Otilia's character. Every character sees her differently and interprets her actions in a different way. Is she a gold digger or a self-aware realist? Did she truly love Felix? Even after marrying her, Pascalopol declares to Felix years later that she was an enigma for him.
• Jerkass Woobie: Aurica lives with a smothering, authoritarian mother who drilled into her the idea that her only purpose in life is to marry. Her obsession engulfed her entire personality, to the point where she can't think about anything else, and doesn't really seem to have healthy interests. Because of this, she lashes out continuously at the youthful, beautiful, educated and desirable Otilia, either directly or by badmouthing her to anyone who will listen. She also stubbornly ignores Pascalopol's good advice and continues to wear a ton of makeup and walk up and down the boulevard, even though this approach has gotten her exactly zero results (aside that one time when a student from the Military Academy thought she was a prostitute and followed her home, only to be put off by the respectable appearance of the house).
  • Titi also counts. He clearly has a hereditary disorder or developmental delay, and his mother alternates between stubbornly ignoring his oddities to encouraging or justifying them. Other people, such as the Sohațchis, take advantage of him and trick and threaten him into marrying Ana. He's clearly frustrated and unhappy with the fact that he can't find a wife, as he's not capable of flirting or establishing a relationship the normal way. Unfortunately, the novel doesn't give us any hope for his future.
• Squick: During a ride home in the carriage of a rich relative, Stănică begins to methodically feel up his sixteen year old niece, and is frustrated that he's her uncle, because he would have liked to marry her. He even ponders whether he could find a bishop that would allow him to marry her.
  • Pascalopol knows Otilia since she was a child, is old enough to be her father and admits to Felix that he is uncertain what is paternal and what is sexual in his affection for her.
• Tear Jerker: After Costache's death, Otilia finds herself pressured by Aglae to leave the house. Aside her strictly personal belongings, she wants to take her mother's piano with her, and even the greedy and mean Aglae doesn't object to that - but Aurica does, crying hysterically that a young lady needs a piano to marry nowadays even though she herself can't play. When Otilia finds out about that, she gives Aurica the piano. She graciously gives her mother's piano, one of the few mementos she has of her, to a woman who has been cruel and mean to her since her childhood.
• Values Dissonance: The novel takes place in 1910, and society looked different back then:
  • Costache Giurgiuveanu, who is in his mid sixties, recalls his first marriage, which took place when he was 20. His bride was only 13, and was still playing with dolls when he impregnated her.
  • Stănică not marrying Olimpia after fathering a child with her was seen as scandalous and shameful for the family.
  • Georgeta recalls terrifying her teachers through the fine clothes and expensive perfume she wore even as a child, and recalls how one of her (female) teachers at her all girls school asked her to take off her dress in front of all her classmates so she could see what she was wearing underneath (a shift with exquisite embroidery). Needless to say, this would be grounds for a serious lawsuit and a scandal nowadays.
  • Georgeta had premarital sex, got pregnant and had an abortion, and her reputation was completely ruined. While abortion still carries a stigma today, having premarital sex wouldn't destroy somebody's reputation.
  • Otilia tells Felix that girls only truly live for five, six years before they hit their mid-twenties and their looks begin to decline. She herself wants to commit suicide at the age of thirty, so she doesn't have to grow old. At the end of the novel, Felix sees a photograph of an older Otilia, and notes that although she is still attractive, her mysterious, youthful beauty and energy has gone from her face, leading him to remember her words.
• The Woobie: Otilia, poor Otilia. Her mother died and her step-father never officially adopted her, leaving her social situation uncertain and vulnerable to attack from the Tuleas, especially Aglae and Aurica, who constantly criticize her unfairly and cruelly for everything she does. Her step-father loves her but is too stingy and easily manipulated to truly be able to provide for her financially, which leaves her dependent on the older, wealthier Pascalopol. In the end, she gives up on her love for Felix and chooses to marry Pascalopol and run away with him to Paris.