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Leo TolstoyA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Doctors are a recurring motif throughout Pozdnychev’s narration of events. Pozdnychev is staunchly critical of doctors and the services that they provide to society—upper-class families in particular. He asserts that following their advice is what ultimately led to the tragic end of his marriage and blames them for many of the worst developments in Russian society. Doctors thereby symbolize the authority figures in 19th century Russia that seek modernization, something that Tolstoy saw as a negative.
This motif illuminates the theme of Conflict Between Social Expectation and Moral Duty. Tolstoy’s main idea in the novella is that sexual activity is immoral; doctors, throughout, enable sexual activity. They provide women with advice on how to avoid unwanted pregnancies and help to prevent STDs. The doctor characters hence uphold the social expectations of a modern society in contrast to Tolstoy’s views of moral duty.
The doctors advise Pozdnychev’s wife not to nurse her first child, and later to use contraceptives to prevent conception, allowing her to develop an identity beyond motherhood. They also recommend actions and treatments to try and combat high rates of infant mortality, whereas religious convention would instead counsel acceptance of death and faith as a balm for grief. Tolstoy hence presents modern medicine as antithetical to Christian values, particularly in a gendered sense. This highlights the link between traditional family dynamics and The Subjugation of Women.
The novella is named for Beethoven’s 1803 Kreutzer Sonata (Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major, Op. 47), which is played by Pozdnychev’s wife and Troukhatchevsky in Chapter 23. The piece is known for its emotional scope and intensity and symbolizes human desire and sensuality. The sonata was named for violinist Rodolphe Kreutzer because Beethoven had a falling out with the original dedicatee, George Bridgetower, when the latter offended the honor of a woman whom Beethoven admired. Thus, the sonata is also inherently associated with conflict and passion.
The sonata symbolizes the sensual connection that Pozdnychev perceives between his wife and Troukhatchevsky. Pozdnychev, whose views on relationships between men and woman have been tainted by his own “voluptuary” nature, cannot conceive of this connection as anything but sordid and seductive. The piece is notable for its technical difficulty, which requires both duettists to be perfectly in sync with each other and to play in an intimate state of musical synergy. Pozdnychev, who has himself given up on playing music, is unable to share such a bond with his wife just as he is unable to connect with her on an emotional or intellectual level.
The Kreutzer Sonata has a particularly powerful effect on the listening Pozdnychev, who is consistently shown throughout the novella to be highly susceptible to episodes of passion and excessive emotion. Initially, the effect is positive; Pozdnychev feels transported and content. However, just as Pozdnychev’s sensual passion for his wife sours into bitterness and hatred, so too does the aftermath of this music take a darker turn, pushing Pozdnychev into the final jealous fit that moves him to kill. Through this motif, Tolstoy presents Sensual Passion as a Corruption of Purity by showing how unconstrained emotions can disrupt equilibrium and motivate senseless and immoral acts.
The unnamed narrator of the framing narrative describes several times how Pozdnychev’s physical appearance changes while he tells his story. The changes described go far beyond a shift in expression and render Pozdnychev’s face “unrecognizable” from one minute to the next. The changes to Pozdnychev’s physical appearance symbolize the internal turmoil that Pozdnychev experiences when speaking of his past and the turbulent nature of his character. Pozdnychev, more than any other character, is affected by sensual passion and is often overwhelmed by emotions both positive and negative. The fact that his external appearance reflects this changeability emphasizes the power that emotions can hold.
By Leo Tolstoy