The Kreutzer Sonata Page #7

"The Kreutzer Sonata" is a novella by Leo Tolstoy, first published in 1889. The story revolves around a man named Pozdnyshev, who recounts his tumultuous marriage and the deep-seated jealousy that led him to commit a tragic act of violence against his wife. Catalyzed by his obsession with her perceived infidelity, Pozdnyshev’s narrative explores themes of love, passion, and the complexities of human relationships, while also critiquing societal norms surrounding marriage and sexuality. The title refers to Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata, which serves as a poignant backdrop to the emotional and psychological turmoil experienced by the protagonist. The novella challenges conventional views on love and the institution of marriage, making it a thought-provoking work that resonates with contemporary issues.

								

women from which the world suffers arises solely from what I have just
spoken of?”

“What do you mean by the power of women?” I said. “Everybody, on the
contrary, complains that women have not sufficient rights, that they
are in subjection.”

“That’s it; that’s it exactly,” said he, vivaciously. “That is just
what I mean, and that is the explanation of this extraordinary
phenomenon, that on the one hand woman is reduced to the lowest degree
of humiliation and on the other hand she reigns over everything. See
the Jews: with their power of money, they avenge their subjection, just
as the women do. ‘Ah! you wish us to be only merchants? All right;
remaining merchants, we will get possession of you,’ say the Jews. ‘Ah!
you wish us to be only objects of sensuality? All right; by the aid of
sensuality we will bend you beneath our yoke,’ say the women.

“The absence of the rights of woman does not consist in the fact that
she has not the right to vote, or the right to sit on the bench, but in
the fact that in her affectional relations she is not the equal of man,
she has not the right to abstain, to choose instead of being chosen.
You say that that would be abnormal. Very well! But then do not let man
enjoy these rights, while his companion is deprived of them, and finds
herself obliged to make use of the coquetry by which she governs, so
that the result is that man chooses ‘formally,’ whereas really it is
woman who chooses. As soon as she is in possession of her means, she
abuses them, and acquires a terrible supremacy.”

“But where do you see this exceptional power?”

“Where? Why, everywhere, in everything. Go see the stores in the large
cities. There are millions there, millions. It is impossible to
estimate the enormous quantity of labor that is expended there. In
nine-tenths of these stores is there anything whatever for the use of
men? All the luxury of life is demanded and sustained by woman. Count
the factories; the greater part of them are engaged in making feminine
ornaments. Millions of men, generations of slaves, die toiling like
convicts simply to satisfy the whims of our companions.

“Women, like queens, keep nine-tenths of the human race as prisoners of
war, or as prisoners at hard labor. And all this because they have been
humiliated, because they have been deprived of rights equal to those
which men enjoy. They take revenge for our sensuality; they catch us in
their nets.

“Yes, the whole thing is there. Women have made of themselves such a
weapon to act upon the senses that a young man, and even an old man,
cannot remain tranquil in their presence. Watch a popular festival, or
our receptions or ball-rooms. Woman well knows her influence there. You
will see it in her triumphant smiles.

“As soon as a young man advances toward a woman, directly he falls
under the influence of this opium, and loses his head. Long ago I felt
ill at ease when I saw a woman too well adorned,—whether a woman of the
people with her red neckerchief and her looped skirt, or a woman of our
own society in her ball-room dress. But now it simply terrifies me. I
see in it a danger to men, something contrary to the laws; and I feel a
desire to call a policeman, to appeal for defence from some quarter, to
demand that this dangerous object be removed.

“And this is not a joke, by any means. I am convinced, I am sure, that
the time will come—and perhaps it is not far distant—when the world
will understand this, and will be astonished that a society could exist
in which actions as harmful as those which appeal to sensuality by
adorning the body as our companions do were allowed. As well set traps
along our public streets, or worse than that.”

CHAPTER X.

“That, then, was the way in which I was captured. I was in love, as it
is called; not only did she appear to me a perfect being, but I
considered myself a white blackbird. It is a commonplace fact that
there is no one so low in the world that he cannot find some one viler
than himself, and consequently puff with pride and self-contentment. I
was in that situation. I did not marry for money. Interest was foreign
to the affair, unlike the marriages of most of my acquaintances, who
married either for money or for relations. First, I was rich, she was
poor. Second, I was especially proud of the fact that, while others
married with an intention of continuing their polygamic life as
bachelors, it was my firm intention to live monogamically after my
engagement and the wedding, and my pride swelled immeasurably.

“Yes, I was a wretch, convinced that I was an angel. The period of my
engagement did not last long. I cannot remember those days without
shame. What an abomination!

“It is generally agreed that love is a moral sentiment, a community of
thought rather than of sense. If that is the case, this community of
thought ought to find expression in words and conversation. Nothing of
the sort. It was extremely difficult for us to talk with each other.
What a toil of Sisyphus was our conversation! Scarcely had we thought
of something to say, and said it, when we had to resume our silence and
try to discover new subjects. Literally, we did not know what to say to
each other. All that we could think of concerning the life that was
before us and our home was said.

“And then what? If we had been animals, we should have known that we
had not to talk. But here, on the contrary, it was necessary to talk,
and there were no resources! For that which occupied our minds was not
a thing to be expressed in words.

“And then that silly custom of eating bon-bons, that brutal gluttony
for sweetmeats, those abominable preparations for the wedding, those
discussions with mamma upon the apartments, upon the sleeping-rooms,
upon the bedding, upon the morning-gowns, upon the wrappers, the linen,
the costumes! Understand that if people married according to the old
fashion, as this old man said just now, then these eiderdown coverlets
and this bedding would all be sacred details; but with us, out of ten
married people there is scarcely to be found one who, I do not say
believes in sacraments (whether he believes or not is a matter of
indifference to us), but believes in what he promises. Out of a hundred
men, there is scarcely one who has not married before, and out of fifty
scarcely one who has not made up his mind to deceive his wife.

“The great majority look upon this journey to the church as a condition
necessary to the possession of a certain woman. Think then of the
supreme significance which material details must take on. Is it not a
sort of sale, in which a maiden is given over to a débauché, the sale
being surrounded with the most agreeable details?”

CHAPTER XI.

“All marry in this way. And I did like the rest. If the young people
who dream of the honeymoon only knew what a disillusion it is, and
always a disillusion! I really do not know why all think it necessary
to conceal it.

“One day I was walking among the shows in Paris, when, attracted by a
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