Marriage in the eyes of Leo Tolstoy’s Kreutzer Sonata

Marriage, as the stage that most people will go through in their lives, has been used as themes and topics for a plethora of novels, including Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Erye and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Leo Tolstoy, as one of the most influential writers in Russia, has also written novels concerning marriage, such as Anna Karenina and The Kreutzer Sonata. Through reading The Kreutzer Sonata, similarities between the marriage of the main character in The Kreutzer Sonata, Pozdnyshev and himself was found. It is believed that Leo Tolstoy has portrayed part of his marriage and his views of marriage into the marriage of Pozdnyshev.
In the thesis, I will analyse the marriage of Leo Tolstoy, including the how he met his wife, as well as the disputes they had later on. By analysing this I hope to find out in what way did Leo Tolstoy reflect his marriage in The Kreutzer Sonata.

Leo Tolstoy and his wife, Sofya Andreevna Behrs (Sonya), married on 23 September, 1962, after Sonya accepted Tolstoy's proposal, despite her sister Lisa insisted her to refuse (Rowe 6). And hence begins their marriage, with joy and harmony prevailed (Rowe 7). However, not long after their marriage, quarrels started to happen (Rowe 7). According to Rowe, the reason for this is because Sonya knew that Tolstoy’s most recent mistree, Aksinta, still lived on the estate (7). Another reason, as suggested by Shirer (140), is the publication of The Kreutzer Sonata.
Sonya’s diary of February 12 confirmed her thoughts also that The Kreutzer Sonata is indeed reflecting their marriage:

“I do not know how or why everyone connected The Kreutzer Sonata with our own married life but this is what happened.” (Shirer 140).

The Kreutzer Sonata is a story about a man named Pozdnyshev telling other passengers he met on the train his marriage (Tolstoy 15). Pozdnyshev states that women are to be viewed as objects of desire (Tolstoy 21). This is believed to be Tolstoy’s viewpoint also, given that he had thirteen children with Sonya and as stated in Sonya’s diary, “the physical side of love matters a great deal to Tolstoy” (Shirer 136). Shirer (132) believes the outburst against sex in general and between husband and wife was a direct reflection of Tolstoy’s marriage.
Pozdyshev’s marriage is full of passionate love and vicious fights, just like Tolstoy’s (Tolstoy 41; Rowe 7). Pozdnyshev’s wife bears five children while Sonya bears thirteen (Tolstoy 43; Rowe 8). Undoubtedly both their marriages are based on their children and sex (Tolstoy 43; Shirer 132), as Sonya wrote in her diary “I am to satisfy his (Tolsoy’s) pleasure and nurse his child. I am a piece of household furniture.” (Shirer 30). These pieces of evidence further prove the relationship between Tolstoy’s marriage and The Kreutzer Sonata.
Another point worth noting is that during the time Tolstoy was writing The Kreutzer Sonata, his resentment towards his wife was increased to an extent that even some tiny actions of Sonya would annoy him, as he wrote

“Sometimes I watched her pouring out tea, swinging her legs, lifting a spoon to her mouth, smacking her lips and drawing in some liquid, and I hated her for these things.” (Shirer 131).

This resentment as well be shown in The Kreutzer Sonata.
Towards the end of the story, Pozdnyshev’s wife starts to like a violinist who helps her practice her piano (Tolstoy 56). Eventually Pozdnyshev find his wife committing adultery and hence resort his anger to killing her (Tolstoy 84). According to Herman (30), The Kreutzer Sonata identifies the plausible opposites of pure and impure love and hence failing to contain the threat of adultery. In The Kreutzer Sonata, Tolstoy connected music, as an art form, to adultery, which “both are negative, nasty, and evil” he wrote in his diary (Herman 34). The practice of the Sonata can be viewed as the cause for the adultery of Pozdnyshev’s wife (Herman 32). Beethoven’s opus 47 sonata, though not communicative, is a dialogue for two intertwining voices (Herman 34). Pozdnyshev is horrified by this piece of music, that each instrument feeds off the excitement of the other in orgiastic exchange (Tolstoy 74). Tolstoy himself, also felt unable to distinguish adultery from art (Herman 17).
Therefore, it is easy to speculate how Tolstoy felt when his wife, Sonya, started to have thoughts about loving two men at the same time, in which the other man is a pianist. In 1891, two years after the publication of The Kreutzer Sonata, Sonya wrote in her diary,

“I know how possible it is to love two men… Why must one love always exclude another? And why can one not love and remain honest at the same time?” (Shirer 167).

At the same time, Sonya was moved by the music played by a pianist called Taneyev, and invited him to spend the summer at their home (Shirer 169). When Sonya invited Taneyev again for the second summer, Tolstoy was annoyed and wrote in his diary,

“Taneyev disgusts me with his self- satisfied, moral and ridiculous, so to say, aesthetic obtuseness.” (Shirer 170).

Sonya rarely missed a Taneyev’s concert or chances to meet him in person, that Tolstoy decided to spend a whole winter staying with Sonya, hoping his presence would discourage her from seeing Taneyev so much (Herman 170). It did not work with Sonya, that her intimacy grew increasingly (Herman 171). Tolstoy even wrote a letter to her, stating that her intimacy with Taneyev “is not merely unpleasant to me (Tolstoy), but dreadfully agonizing.” Hence the similarity of the situation of Pozdnyshev and Tolstoy can be seen.

Bibliography

Herman, David. "Stricken by Infection: Art and Adultery in Anna Karenina and Kreutzer Sonata." Slavic Review, vol. 56, no. 1, 1997., pp. 15-36doi:10.2307/2500653.
Rowe, William W., and Gale Group. Leo Tolstoy, Twayne Publishers, Boston, Mass, 1986.
Shirer, William L. 1. Love and Hatred: The Troubled Marriage of Leo and Sonya Tolstoy, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1994.
Tolstoy, Leo, graf, 1828-1910, and David McDuff 1945. The Kreutzer Sonata, and Other Stories, Penguin Books, London, 1985.

I hope you guys will like my analysis please comment below if you have any questions :)