The Kreutzer Sonata

Summary

Chapter 1

• there are 4 passengers on a train, including the narrator
• one was a woman. The other was her neighbor, a lawyer. The last was a nervous man
• an old tradesman later comes in
• a discussion/debate occurs between the woman and the lawyer against the old man
  • it begins when the lawyer asks the old man that divorce back in his day didn’t happen often, to which he agreed. The old man says it’s because today women are too educated.
  • the old man says “foolishness comes from education” p. 358
  • the old man argues that women now leave their husbands for such small things. This is because they no longer fear their husbands. The woman thinks ‘fearing your husband’ is an outdated idea
  • the woman argues that love is paramount and that the old style of arranged marriage was horrible. The old man doesn’t think love is important
  • the old man says that women need to be controlled by their husbands to ensure they don’t cheat
  • the woman replies that it seems men don’t hold themselves to that same level as they go have their ‘fun’
  • the old man replies that’s a different matter, basically saying men have a free pass

Chapter 2

• the ‘nervous’ man from the very beginning returns after the old man leaves and the debate is over
• after the old man leaves, the woman says to the others that the old man has such backwards view on marriage and women
• the nervous man decides to begin debating the woman, beginning by saying “what kind of love is it that sanctifies marriage?” p. 360
• the whole debate is basically the nervous man arguing that love is purely sensual and doesn’t last long.
• the nervous man reveals that he killed his wife. He reveals his name as Pozdnyshev
• the debate ends and everyone goes their own way

Chapter 3

• Pozdnyshev tells his life story to the narrator, all the way from the beginning
• Poz (moving forward will use Poz for Pozdnyshev) lived an unrestrained life before getting married in his 30s
  • he partook in debauchery but in a steady, decent way for health’s sake - p. 364
  • he viewed himself as a moral man despite this
• he would pay the women he slept with, even when they were not prostitutes. This was his method of not becoming “morally bound” to them
• he said that his ‘episode’ (killing his wife) opened his eyes and sees things in a different light now

Chapter 4

• Poz lost his virginity at 16. Everyone around him told him it was a good thing. He never had anyone tell him it’s wrong or sinful
• Poz calls out the doctors for trying to cure syphilis (an STD), when in reality the focus should’ve been on eradicating debauchery
  • he blames doctors for a large part of the debauchery culture
• Poz says that he ‘fell’ not due to seduction from women, but rather because what he did was not viewed as ‘falling’ by those around him; it simply was a very natural thing, a requirement for one’s good functioning health
• Poz became a libertine; someone whose been with so many women that he’s become perverted, like an alcoholic or drug addict
  • “(a libertine) will never have those pure, simple, clear, brotherly relations with a woman.” - p. 367

Chapter 5

• he calls out society for partaking in this culture of debauchery, including parents, who are happy to see their innocent daughters defiled with a perverted man as long as he is ‘well-connected’
• he talks about finding his wife; she was the daughter of a once-wealthy land owner. Poz saw her and instantly fell in love due to her looks and what she was wearing.
• Poz says that women need to be informed about the type of men that are common in todays society: men that frequently partake in debauchery.
• his own wife, shortly after being married, was allowed to read Poz’s dairy and was horrified at the things she was reading about his past relationships, but she did not leave him

Chapter 6

• Poz talks about how woman just want to look attractive to men, they don’t care about their inner state
  • a woman would prefer to risk being convicted of lying or cruelty rather than appear in an ugly dress to a man she wants to attract, according to Poz
• Poz goes on to explain that prostitutes and these women that he explained are no different, they both wear the same fashion, the same perfumes, they expose themselves, etc
• “prostitutes for short terms are usually despised, while prostitutes for long terms are respected” - p. 432 (annotation 29, p. 371)

Chapter 7

• Poz blames the food.
  • “our stimulating superabundance of food, together with complete physical idleness, is nothing but a systematic excitement of desire” p. 371
  • he further explains that a peasant will eat a good amount of food then work it off during his 16 hour day, while others like himself would eat even more food and since they don’t work all that food goes into excesses of sensuality
• Poz explains that his love for his wife was simply a product of a superabundance of food consumed by himself on one hand, and her mom’s and dressmaker’s activities (to make her beautiful)

Chapter 8

• Poz explains that back in the day arranged marriages were common and are still common today by 99% of the world. It’s just the 1% of libertines who feel otherwise
• he says that women today are only occupied with husband hunting. Their moms too are just trying to get their daughters married off by ‘show-boating’ them
  • yet when you call them out for it, it is considered a grave insult

Chapter 9

• Poz equates women with Jews and how they are domineering
  • women and Jews are oppressed, but ‘pay us back’ by dominating in some other way
  • ” ‘ah, you want us to be traders only - all right, as traders we will dominate you!’ Says the Jews. ‘Ah you want us to be merely objects of sensuality - all right, as objects of sensuality we will enslave you!’ says the women” - p. 373
• women don’t do the choosing, the men do, or at least that how it looks like from the outside
  • women are deprived from that right to choose, but in reality they ultimately choose
  • a woman acts on a man’s sensuality and subdues him, therefore making her choice while he only formally makes the choice
• “why is gambling forbidden while women in costumes which evoke sensuality are not forbidden? They are a thousand times for dangerous!” - p. 375

Chapter 10

• Poz says that spiritual love was lacking in his relationship with his fiancé. They had nothing to talk about ever, and talking with her was like the labor of Sisyphus
• Poz goes on a rant against the formalities of marriage/wedding
  • he says most men don’t even believe in it. Even the ones that do are planning on how they are going to cheat after marriage
  • he equates the wedding formalities with a kind of sale where an innocent girl is being sold to a debauched man

Chapter 11

• Poz says the honeymoon phase is overhyped
• Poz says that sex is an unnatural thing, just ask an unperverted girl or a child
• the narrator replies back asking “but how would the human race continue?”
• Poz says that abstention for the purpose of morality is looked down upon, while abstention from child-bearing or abstention for greater pleasure is looked upon highly
• Poz says why should the human race continue? Why even live? If life has no aim, then there is no point in living. And if live does have an aim, then life should cease to exist once that aim is reached
  • if the aim is goodness, righteousness, and love as the prophets have preached, there is one major barrier holding human race back: sexual passion. Once that passion is destroyed then we can fulfill our aim and at that point the human race does not need to exist any longer

Chapter 12

• during Poz’s honeymoon, him and his wife were not having a good time. Both of them were sad and started arguing. She claimed he does not love her
• Poz says that the ceasing of sensuality is what led to the quarrels. It revealed their natural state. They don’t actually like or love each other, they were simply horny for each other
• Poz says that sometimes after him and his wife fought, they’d embrace each other in sensuality, i.e. “make-up sex”. Looking back at it he is disgusted

Chapter 13

• Poz says men delve into the excess when it comes to pleasure and sensuality, going as far as having sex with their pregnant wives and wives who have just given birth, which Poz thinks is wrong

Chapter 14

• Poz argues that a woman’s entire life, what she’s taught, etc, is on how to attract men. Her whole life is made for men.
  • in her maiden life, this is so she has a wide variety of men to choose from
  • in her married life, this is so she has power over her husband
• Poz says that men will get pleasure however they can, whether it be from turning their pregnant/nursing wife into a mistress, or finding a mistress elsewhere
• women view the highest state as finding a husband and being a wife
  • Poz argues that women need to view virginity as the highest and most noble state

Chapter 15

• Poz talks about the feeling of jealousy (annotation 49)
• Poz dislikes doctors, saying they have a free-pass to do morally bad things
• Poz reveals that his children are in the custody his wife’s sister and brother. They won’t let Poz have his children and Poz himself recognizes he is crazy

Chapter 16

• Poz says mothers fear losing their children so much so that they’d rather not have kids
• Poz explains that the life of the parents is misery because they’re all always worried their kids. If a little sign of sickness shows up, all hell breaks loose

Chapter 17

• Poz’s relationship with his wife is now really bad by their fourth year of marriage. They fight all the time and they always had hostility for one another
• both him and his wife would do things to forget their shitty life and marriage. Poz would drink and smoke, his wife would do unnecessary chores like her life depended on them
  • “thus we lived in perpetual fog” - p. 393

Chapter 18

• Poz’s wife got sick and was ordered not to have any more children. This was the last thing keeping their marriage alive
  • “the last excuse for our swinish life - children - was then taken away, and life became viler than ever.” - p. 395
• his wife started to pay more attention to her looks and appearance. Her attractiveness was catching the attention of men. Poz was frightened.

Chapter 19

• Poz’s wife payed less attention to her kids and more to herself and appearance
• her goal was to find love again, attract another man (according to Poz)
• Poz talks about a man who his wife fell in love with
• Poz reveals that during the trial, they acquitted him of his crime of killing his wife because the court decided he was a ‘wronged husband’ who was defending his honour
• Poz says that any husband forced to live a life like his would either commit suicide, kill his wife, divorce, or live a life full of bad behavior and morals

Chapter 20

• Poz tells a story about a time he had a huge fight with his wife. Divorce was imminent, but like always they would have a reconciliation or at least a half-reconciliation and everything would be fine

Chapter 21

• Poz reveals the whole story of the man who his wife falls in love with
• his name is Trukhachevski, a violinist.
• he comes over and Poz says his wife plays violin and it all started from there
• their first encounter Poz could see Trukha liked his wife and vice-versa. Despite that, Poz still invited Trukha over to play violin with his wife
• Poz felt intense jealously seeing them together but suffered through it. He kept inviting him over
• his wife and Trukha would meet privately to practice their music and this enraged Poz, but he tried to suppress his feelings of jealousy because he thought it was wrong
  • “a couple are occupied with the noblest of arts, music; this demands a certain nearness and there is nothing reprehensible in that and only a stupid jealous husband can see anything undesirable in it.” - p. 406
• Poz would treat Trukha very well even though he hated him
• it seems that Poz just didn’t want to appear as a social pariah

Chapter 22

• Poz and his wife have yet another fight, this time Poz has thoughts to physically get violent with her
• instead, he throws objects her way (without hitting her purposefully) to get her to leave after their fight
• later on his wife becomes ill and they reconcile (like always)
• Poz reveals to his wife his jealous feelings of Trukha
• his wife says nothing has happened with her and Trukha. Furthermore, she tells him that if he wishes, she’ll never see him ever again.
  • “I am too proud to allow anyone to think that of me” - p. 409
  • Poz’s wife says this about herself and Trukha’s relationship, saying that she’s too proud to get into a sexual relationship with Trukha

Chapter 23

• the talk Poz had with his wife in the previous chapter eased his concerns, but he was still a little bit jealous and was keeping a close eye on them
• Poz had a party at his house where his wife and Trukha were playing Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata together.
• Poz, while listening to them playing, lost all feeling of jealousy. The music changed him in some way. It was unexplainable.
• Poz and Trukha bade farewell to each other in a very pleasant way
• Poz and his wife were pleased with each other in a way they haven’t been lately

Chapter 24

• Poz leaves for the ‘meetings’ with the Council (some government thing)
• he receives a letter from his wife and she mentioned that Trukha had called and brought some music and offered to play, but she refused him.
• seeing his name mentioned infuriated Poz and the feelings of jealousy were revived, despite his wife saying in the letter that she refused Trukha
• Poz couldn’t suppress the feelings of jealousy so he leaves the Council meeting and heads home to Moscow

Chapter 25

• Poz is on his way back to his house. He travels by train
• the entire time he is suffering with jealous thoughts. Vivid images of what his wife and Trukha might be up to are coming into his head
• at one point Poz thinks to commit suicide, but he feels that his wife must suffer too
• Poz feels it’d be better if his wife is in fact having an affair with Trukha because at least at this point there would be no uncertainty, which is what was making him suffering most (see analysis section on Poz’s character)

Chapter 26

• he arrives home late at night and Trukha’s coat is hanging in the hallway! Poz is instantly enraged but plans his next steps carefully
• his wife and Trukha are eating food together. The kids are sleeping. Poz grabs a sword and goes into their room

Chapter 27

• as he barges in the room, both the wife and Trukha are shocked and Poz relishes in their facial expressions of terror
• Poz attempts to stab his wife but Trukha stops him and tells him to think about what he’s doing. Trukha then runs away
• shortly after, Poz and his wife start yelling at each other then he stabs her
• Poz leaves to go to his room and pulls out a revolver. He thinks about suicide which he has thought of before, but now he feels there’s no point
  • his reason for suicide before was because he thought of how much it would shock his wife, but with her dying there’s no point of killing himself
• his sister-in-law comes into his room and tells him his wife is dying and so he must go to see her

Chapter 28

• Poz goes to see his wife. At first, he’s expecting her to beg for forgiveness. But instead, she has the opposite reaction to seeing him
• she says “look and admire what you have done. See what you have done” - p. 427
• Poz looks at her, looks at the children, and for the first time sees a human in her, simply a fellow human being. All his feelings of jealousy felt insignificant to him at that moment.
• in a shocking turns of events, Poz exclaims “forgive me” - p. 427
  • she does NOT forgive him
• he was taken the prison to await trial, and during this time he comes to his grand realization
  • “had I then known what I know now, everything would have been different. Nothing would have induced me to marry her… I should not have married at all.” - p. 428
• his concluding words of his story were “well, forgive me”
• there are 2 ending variations
  1. as the narrator goes to leave and says good-bye to Poz, Poz says “yes, forgive me” repeating the same words with which he concluded his story
  2. Poz continues his story to the narrator explaining the passage in the bible about adultery
     • “a man should understand that the real meaning of the words in the Gospel where it says that everyone that looketh on a woman to lust after her commits adultery, relates to woman, his fellow human being - not merely to casual women or strangers, but above all to his own wife”

Analysis

Notes and Quotes

• “it is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness. A handsome woman talks nonsense, you listen and hear not nonsense but cleverness. She says and does horrid things, and you see only charm. And if a handsome woman does not say stupid or horrid things, you at once persuade yourself that she is wonderfully clever and moral.” - p. 369
  • men are whipped by beauty

Poz’s Character

• during his jealous thoughts he felt intense hatred for his wife but not for Trukha. For Trukha he said “regarding him I had a strange feeling of my own humiliation and of his victory” - p. 448 (annotation 89)
• the cause of his suffering:
  • “the chief cause of the suffering was my ignorance, my doubt, and the contradictions within me: my not knowing whether I ought to love or hate her. My suffering was of a strange kind. I felt a hateful consciousness of my humiliation and of his victory, but a terrible hatred for her.” - p. 417
• Poz feels intense hatred for his wife and feels she must suffer so she can understand his suffering - p. 417
• after he stabs his wife (who eventually dies of her wounds), he begs forgiveness from her but she refuses. As the narrator leaves the train and they say their good-byes, Poz’s last words to him are “forgive me”.
  • I think this signifies that he still feels lots of guilt and has yet to be forgiven. This is further supported by the fact that he was sobbing and trembling as he was telling the final parts of the story to the narrator.
  • no one would listen to his story, except the narrator. He was hoping that by at least sharing his story he could be forgiven in some way.

Love

• “marriage without love is not marriage; love alone sanctifies marriage” - p. 360
  • the woman on the train says this to Poz
• “in reality that love of mine was the result, on the one hand of her mamma’s and the dressmakers’ activity, and on the other of the superabundance of food consumed by me while living an idle life.” - p. 372
  • Poz says this about this ‘love’ for his wife. He blames it on her beauty and his own over-eating

Women

• “you have given yourselves freedom but want to shut women up in a tower” - p. 359
  • the woman on the train says this to the old man who was arguing that women should fear their husbands

Music

• “under the influence of music it seems to me that I feel what I do not really feel, that I understand what I do not understand, that I can do what I cannot do. I explain it by the fact that music acts like yawning, like laughter: I am not sleepy, but I yawn when I see someone yawning; there is nothing for me to laugh at, but I laugh when I hear people laughing.” - p. 410-411
  • this is so true. Music really does have this kind of effect.

Main Idea of the Book / Key Themes

Sexual Abstinence

• this book is an argument in support of sexual abstinence. Tolstoy argues for this by giving a detailed account of jealous rage and it’s logical end in the killing of the wife.
• Sexuality is seen as a negative thing in this novel. It has the power to completely surpass logical reasoning and morality, hence why it’s so bad according to Tolstoy.
  • Tolstoy blames a combination of factors that led to the excesses of sensuality: namely abundance of food, physical idleness, and the fact that women are only focused on making themselves look beautiful to attract men

Marriage

• Tolstoy also seems to argue against the concept of marriage itself. Saying that it is restrictive, especially for the woman. What’s the solution? Abstinence / not getting married.
  • he especially attacks marriage in the early chapters of this novel.
• in one chapter he looks approvingly at arranged marriage, largely due to the fact that the aspect of willing love is missing

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

• this idea was mentioned on a Quora post and immediately it clicked with me
• early in the novel Poz and his wife have quarrels here and there. Slowly the fights get worse, and any little thing that be pointed out is turned into a fight.
• it’s clear Poz hates his wife and interprets everything she does in a way to justify his jealousy and his hatred towards her
• eventually, his ‘fears’ become true. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. As the famous saying goes: watch your thoughts for they become words…words become actions, actions become habits, habits become character, character defines your destiny
  • Poz was constantly trying to find ways to find fault with his wife. He was trying to find reasons to be jealous and hate her. Eventually, it all became true.

Tolstoy the Misogynist?

• it’s very common to see online that Tolstoy is heavily criticized for this novel. In fact, this is probably his most heavily criticized novel. Tolstoy is discredited and called a misogynist.
• Personally, I take a different view.
  • Firstly, Tolstoy is not just attacking women for being the cause of the “excesses of sensuality”, rather he also blames the fact that men have an abundance of food and are physically idle. He is saying that men need to work harder, similar to farmers or peasants. Men are also part of the problem
  • Secondly, lots of critics say this novel was an attack against Tolstoy’s own wife. But after I looked into this a bit, it turns out after this novel was censured by the Tsar’s government it was Tolstoy’s own wife who pleaded to get it uncensured.

Reflections

Overall I disagree with Tolstoy main argument. His argument can be summarized as: love is fake. Therefore marriage is also a sham. Love is just a product of societal manipulation and “sexual excesses”. My problem with this is that sexuality is not bad in the confines of a marriage, even very passionate sexuality. Poz should be blamed for his own mental state, creating issues out of thin air, imagining things, etc