The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy Analysis - Essay Example

The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy I. Introduction Russian one of the greatest of all novelists, Leo Tolstoys wrote the Kreutzer Sonata, a novel written during the closing years of the 1880s and published in 1891, issues from the later period of Tolstoys literary career, which followed his moral and spiritual crisis of the late 1870s and culminated in works of fiction largely defined by his moral preoccupations. The novel has been recognized as one of the best examples of Tolstoy’s art of storytelling. In the literary piece, Tolstoy’s emphasized his view on sexuality, which asserts that physical desire is an obstacle to relations between men and women and may results in tragedy. (eNotes, 2009.) A. About the Author Leo Tolstoy was born at Yasnaya Polyana, in Tula Province. He was the fourth in five children. His parents died when he was a child, and he was brought up by relatives. In 1844 Tolstoy started his studies of law and oriental languages at Kazan University, but he never took a degree. Dissatisfied with the standard of education, he returned in the middle of his studies back to Yasnaya Polyana, and then spent much of his time in Moscow and St. Petersburg. In 1847 Tolstoy was treated for venereal disease. After contracting heavy gambling debts, Tolstoy accompanied in 1851 his elder brother Nikolay to the Caucasus, and joined an artillery regiment. In the 1850s Tolstoy also began his literary career. The title of Count had been conferred on his ancestor in the early 18th century by Peter the Great. B. Book Description The Kreutzer Sonata is a tale of sexual obsession and jealousy. A provincial businessman (Posdnicheff) becomes obsessed with his wifes relationship with a violinist, with whom she plays duos. The climax of his jealousy comes during a performance by his wife and her violinist partner of Beethovens Violin Sonata no.9 in A major, known as the Kreutzer sonata, after which Posdnicheff murders his wife. The idea for The Kreutzer Sonata was given to Tolstoy by the actor V.N. Andreev-Burlak during his visit at Yasnaya Polyana in June 1887. In the spring of 1888 an amateur performance of Beethovens Kreutzer Sonata took place in Tolstoys home and it made the author return to an idea he had had in the 1860s. The novel is written in the form of a frame-story and set on a train. The conversations among the passengers develop into a discussion of the institution of marriage. Posdnicheff, the chief character, tells of his youth and his subsequent remorse and self-disgust. Posdnicheff believes that his wife is having an affair with a musician and he tries to strangle her, and then stabs her to death with a dagger. He accuses society and women who inflame, with the aid of dressmakers and cosmeticians, mens animal instincts. II. Brief Summary In one spring night a railway train was speeding across Russia. One group of aristocrats was having a conversation about the place of women in society. One of the listeners finally broke into the conversation with the statement that Russians married only for sexual reasons and that marriage was a hell for most of them unless they like him, secured release by killing the other party to the marriage. With that remark he left the group and retired to his own seat in the car. Later on, he told his story how he killed his wife out of jealousy and suspicion with a lover. Such character, Posdnicheff, the protagonist, attempts to understand the complex relationship between husband and wife in the marriage situation. The very title of this story comes from Beethovens Kreutza Sonata, named after the celebrated violinist Rudolphe Kreutza. The original title for this sonata was the Spring Sonata. This musical piece was written for piano and violin and is said to be Beethovens most famous piece for these instruments. Posdnicheff makes some profound statements concerning 19th century courtship and marriage; he likens marriage to slavery. He also acknowledges that young women are looked upon by men as instruments of pleasure. This situation creates deep unhappiness for both the woman and man in a marriage and sets them up for deceit and infidelity. It also creates a double-bind for women; they are looked upon as instruments of pleasure and they use their sexual power over men as a vehicle for position and financial gain. It seems to Posdnicheff’s that he could become a feminists champion; however, in the end, he blames his wife for his own lack of control of his rage and subsequent murder of her. The acquittal of Posdnicheff for the reason of justification for his wifes murder reveals the political and social climate against women in that day. (The Kreutzer Sonata Summary, 2006). III. Plot and Major Characters The novel opens as a third-person narrative by an anonymous gentleman making his way across Russia by train. When the conversation among the passengers turns to the subjects of sex, love, and marriage, a lawyer claims that many couples live long, content married lives. But another passenger, Posdnicheff, violently contradicts his statement and announces that he has murdered his wife out of jealousy. Citing that the deterioration of their marriage began on their honeymoon when they first began a sexual relationship, Posdnicheff, reveals himself as a man with an insane sexual obsession—he links sex with guilt, and describes sexual intercourse as a perverted act. A persuasive motive was evident where the character tries to persuade his audience that all marriages are obscene shams, and that most cases of adultery are occasioned by music, the infamous aphrodisiac. As mentioned earlier, this latter idea explains the title of the story, which is also a musical composition by Ludwig von Beethoven. After marrying a pretty woman who bore him children, he came to hate but lust for his wife-which led to his tragic story. One day a musician named Trukachevsky, accepting Posdnicheff’s invitation to visit their house, accompanied Posdnicheff’s wife on the violin while she played the piano. Upon suspicion that the pair was having an affair, Posdnicheff went into the country to attend the meeting of the local council, often recalling the look on their faces as they played the "Kreutzer Sonata.” Upon returning home early, Posdnicheff thought that he would find the lovers in bed; instead he found them sitting in the drawing room after they had played some music. Enraged nevertheless, Posdnicheff killed his wife after Trukachevsky had escaped. IV. Evaluation/Analysis The principal theme of The Kreutzer Sonata is the corrupting power of sex and jealousy. From the point of view of critics, the novel exposes the moral ideals of its author through the medium of an artistic narrative. It summarizes Tolstoys attitude toward sex, which he completely denounces, and reflects his new faith in celibacy and chastity after his conversion to a radical Christianity. The narrative explains Tolstoy’s principle that since Christ was not and could not be married, everybody should follow him since the moral standards rest on Christ and the law of Christianity. The novel entirely speaks that carnal (fleshly) love is selfish and that unselfish love needs no physical consummation, thus, sexual intercourse between husband and wife is a lustful act. The disturbing experiences that the main character goes through in his failed marriage gives him somewhat of an unusual view of love. From his experiences, he comes to three generalizations: that women are inherently deceitful, that relationships between men and women can never be anything but purely physical and that emotional love is only a temporary feeling that can never sustain a strong and long term relationship such as marriage. From these generalizations he comes to the conclusion that there is no such thing as everlasting love. From these points of views, women are regarded as merely sex objects, vessels of reproduction if a husband desires for bearing her children. In contrast with what the bible is saying on matters of procreation, perhaps, Posdnicheff misconceived that women are objects of desire, as in the case of Eve. (To talk of loving a man or woman for life is like saying that a candle can burn forever." "But you are talking of physical love. Do you not admit a love based upon conformity of ideals, on a spiritual affinity?" "Why not? But in that case it is not necessary to procreate together... "Yes, I affirm that love, real love, does not consecrate marriage, as we are in the habit of believing, but that, on the contrary, it ruins it.") Though Posdnicheff believes that women to be naturally the “weaker vessel”, they are no more regarded as sex slaves or recipients of lust and pleasure that even women themselves are into the physical consummation of sexual bonding rather than the expression of genuine love. That is why in some cases, women are used to entice men, to attract them because their primary role in life is not to love but to complement to man’s desire. Thus, quoting the lines, “As she, Eve, the woman, was taken from mans ribs, so she will remain unto the end of the world," is held captive in a bottle preventing due liberty for woman’s identity and role in the society. For Posdnicheff, every marriage which is not based on a natural attachment, on love, has in it nothing that is morally obligatory. Marriage is not a sacred union as what the novel is trying to project. For him, sex is repulsive and destructive, even in marriage. His story highlights this premise by suggesting that sexual love degrades a human being and results in hostility to others and to ones self. To him traditional marriage has lost meaning and represents a cover for vice, fostering misunderstanding, jealousy, lies, and criminal passions. Conjugal infidelity has become more common and is considered less reprehensible. As viewed in our society, modern marriages are conceived less and less from the point of view of the family. Having children is not the result of love but the mechanical force between man and woman and a consequence of that biological union, no more regarded as fruits of love. If that is the case, this world is filled with people born out of love. To raise the argument against these ideas, the novel quotes, “There certainly exists among human beings this feeling which is called love, and which lasts, not for months and years, but for life." Yet, Posdnicheff adheres to celibacy, which, in idea is out of context in relation to how Christ’s thought about love. A Christians ideal is not marriage, but love for God and for his neighbor. Celibacy on different ground states that such a thing called love or Christian marriage never was and never could be. Since Christ did not marry nor his disciples, there was a wrong connotation about how Jesus viewed love and marriage and the creation of offspring who are bound to live and complete a happy family. If we accept that celibacy is better and nobler than marriage, the human race will come to an end. Hence, the whole reasoning on celibacy is wrong. If Christ never married, it is because he has a unique purpose on Earth; not to marry but to fulfill the wishes of his Father in heaven concerning the salvation of mankind. And if Christian marriage cannot exist according to Posdnicheff, there is such a thing as a Christian view of marriage. V. Conclusion The Kreutzer Sonata is the story of a man who kills his wife out of jealousy, and later tells his story to a stranger he meets on a train. The man has a disturbed understanding about love and marriage and importance of women in the society. The corruption of family life, evils of sex and lust and impurity of women drives the main character to resolve a distorted thinking. Without any proof, basing his intuition on suspicions and over jealousy, he feels that his wife is guilty of infidelity. He hates his wife who has started an intimate friendship with a violinist, and then he kills her quite deliberately. As he tells his story, he continually harps back to his obsessions, and the narrative of his marriage becomes framed in the terms of a struggle between purity and corruption. It looks, in outline, like the psychological portrait of a madman. The marvelous portrayal of jealousy, incompatibility in marriage and violence, by Tolstoy in the novel laid the groundwork for the Kreutzer Sonata to be a successful novel. The madman, a psychotic was acquitted by court on the grounds of insanity. Yet, it is doubtful whether a common reader, though feeling there might be something wrong with the man, could really point to anything definite in the mans make-up that would establish his illness. The whole setting as portrayed by the author was such as to give at least an apparent justification for the murder, and certainly no one in those days and perhaps even in our day, would regard all jealousy as pathological, and murder as a result of jealousy as entirely unjustified, since such murders are common. Moral Lesson The Kreutzer Sonata teaches us a lesson. It aims us to understand that it is not a novel merely narrated by an unbalanced, insane character, whose distorted view of love, sex, and marriage make us convince that it is so. It is not intended for pleasurable reading. The subliminal contents and messages strike through men’s selfish ideologies and wrong perception about women. First, it condemns sex. Believing that sex is bad and is a form of carnal pleasure, Tolstoy revealed his contention on the matter. Sex per se is not bad. As humans, we are designed to enjoy sex within the merits of our own marriage or intimate relationship with the one we love. Sex is an instrument both for man and woman to have and raise children. And as a biological need, sex is a major component of one’s being. In the modern society, doctors and experts have found a devise to alter pregnancy with the use of contraceptives. In the novel, doctors conspire in this subjugation of women by giving them contraception, and thus permitting them to have a liberal sex without the fear of getting pregnant. In such case, infidelity is promoted. This can lead to the woman developing an unnatural and undesirable degree of freedom. As for having children, the novel points no other greater significance of having children. Children are the greatest gift and joy of human life. That is, if we go back to the idea of celibacy, the human race will go extinct. And they are the completeness of a family. How can you call a couple as family? I think it’s inappropriate to do so without this couple having at least one child, or even adopted child. In my opinion, men are drawn forth during the most promising period of life; they choose and win the most desirable objects of love that only in the end, which love fades like a burning candle that cannot sustain its kindle. Even women who allure men and deceiving them into marriage is an unfair practice of rights. The ideals of the founding of God’s kingdom, the union of all living creatures by the bonds of love dissuade entirely the concept of celibacy. The conception of its attainment is incompatible with the conception of the movement of life. What kind of life could subsist if all living creatures were joined together by the bonds of love? Our conception of life is inseparably bound up with the conception of a continual striving. We don’t live to exist but we exist to live for this is the very purpose of living—to breathe and feel the existence. Even if there are threats about the end of the world, about the sun losing its power, about the earth losing its resources, we continue to live. The Kreutzer Sonata is a worthwhile reading experience. It is a story of hate, love, and violence through the eyes of a mad man; an exploration of ideas about sex and marriage in which the reader could make up his or her own mind. But instead it is presented to us as a controversial and one filled with spite and prejudice at that; and if we do not read it as the author intended, we have failed to learn the lesson correctly. The moral of the story must always, for the good of the reader, for the good of society, be explicit. Bibliography: 1. eNotes. The Kreutzer Sonata Leo Tolstoy. 22 March 2009. 2. "Introduction." Short Story Criticism. Ed. Anna Sheets. Vol. 30. Gale Cengage, 1999. eNotes.com. 2006. 23 Mar, 2009 Read More