Marriage and family are prevailing themes in the major works of Tolstoy. In War & Peace the marriage of Pierre to Hélène is later contrasted with that of Pierre's later marriage with Natasha (among others) and in Anna Karenina, the novel is in some ways two separate stories of two separate marriages. On one hand is the union between Levin and Kitty and on the other is Anna Arkádyevna and Alexéy Karenin. One is a marriage coming together, while the other is one breaking apart. Based on the characterization of the players involved, coupled with parallels to Tolstoy's own life it is possible to discern his philosophy towards marriage and therefore why each character's fate was chosen at the outset.
Although there are two main marriages in the novel, other marriages undergo scrutiny as well. The first character we are introduced to is Stiva Oblonsky, a government clerk portrayed as a likeable character who is also at odds with his wife due to an act of infidelity with their French governess (part I, chapter 1, pg. 1). His wife, Dolly, wishes to leave him as she can not stand to live with a man who has defamed their love, especially with someone under their own roof. At the same time, Levin has come from the country in order to ask for the hand of Kitty, Dolly's sister. Shortly after arriving in town, Levin and Oblonsky had a talk in which Oblonsky's philosophy towards marriage was expounded on: "'a woman, a dear, gentle affectionate creature, poor and lonely, sacrifices everything. Now when the thing is done...just consider, should one forsake her? Granted that one ought to part with her as not to destroy family life, but oughtn't one to pity her and provide for her and make things easier?'" (part I, chapter 11, pgs. 37-38). His op...
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...en Anna can no longer quell her jealousy and throws herself beneath the train, she has come full circle. Her end occurs in a similar place to where her fall began. There was no other moral way out for Anna in the Tolstoyan view. She had already ruined the sanctity of marriage, and in fact had conceived a child not of her own husband while still married to him. His view called for her to obey, but she instead gave way to lust. Going back to her husband would not have undone the damage done to him, and whether or not he was made to appear ridiculous at the close of the novel does not change her transgression. Vengeance was God's, and he did repay.
Works Cited
Maude, Aylmer. "The Life of Tolstoy" Oxford University Press (July 16, 1987)
Tolstoy, Leo. "Anna Karenina." Richard Pevear (Translator), Larissa Volokhonsky (Translator) Penguin Classics, 2004.
Obedience is when you do something you have been asked or ordered to do by someone in authority. As little kids we are taught to follow the rules of authority, weather it is a positive or negative effect. Stanley Milgram, the author of “The perils of Obedience” writes his experiment about how people follow the direction of an authority figure, and how it could be a threat. On the other hand Diana Baumrind article “Review of Stanley Milgram’s experiments on obedience,” is about how Milgram’s experiment was inhumane and how it is not valid. While both authors address how people obey an authority figure, Milgram focuses more on how his experiment was successful while Baumrind seems more concerned more with how Milgram’s experiment was flawed and
Stanley Milgram selected 40 college participants aged 20-50 to take part in the experiment at Yale University. Milgram says, “The point of the experiment is to see how far a person will proceed in a concrete and measureable situation in which he is ordered to inflict increasing pain on a protesting victim” (632). Although the 40 men or women thought that they were in a drawing to see who would be the “teacher” and the “learner,” the drawing was fixed. The learners were a part of Milgram’s study and taken into a room with electrodes attached to their arms. The teachers were to ask questions to the learners and if they answered incorrectly, they were to receive a 15-450 voltage electrical shock. Although the learners were not actually being shocked, the teachers believed t...
Furthermore, Anna, the woman who Dmitri is having an affair with, is married as well. And when she had began to think
In "The Perils of Obedience," Stanley Milgram conducted a study that tests the conflict between obedience to authority and one's own conscience. Through the experiments, Milgram discovered that the majority of people would go against their own decisions of right and wrong to appease the requests of an authority figure.
The BAI consists of 21 descriptive statements of anxiety symptoms. The test taker indicates how often the symptoms have occurred within the last week. The scoring sheet has four columns which are rated on a 4-point scale with the following correspondence: Not at all = 0, Mildly = 1, Moderately = 2, Severely = 3. The test taker marks the appropriate colum...
In class there have been many discussions over the relationships and marriages among the books we have read. When someone thinks of marriage, a fairy tale with a happy ending might come to mind, or possibly a safe haven for those looking for something stable. In The Awakening by Kate Chopin, and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, marriage takes a turn for the worse. Marriage is no longer the happy memories in a lifetime. It can be the thing that hinders the women in these stories from developing their full potential or experiencing the world and other lifestyles. Through these texts and this time frame, we will analyze the meaning of their marriages, how they function, and the end result of both.
Milgram, Stanley. Issues in the Study of Obedience: A Reply to Baumrind. From American Psychologist. Vol. 19, pp.848-852, 1964.
Marriage oppressed her, she needed freedom, freedom to grow and do what she wanted to do, and marriage took that away from here. Chopin didn't believe that one person should take away another's freedom.
...sessment should not be used solely for making any diagnostic decisions or decisions related to treatment of any kind but the findings do indicate that the BAI is useful in using as a supportive tool in screening for common anxiety disorders in mental health settings. The assessment would be most effective if used in a tiered diagnostic system, if time constraints interfere with conducting a tiered study then a subsample of individuals would be a suggested option for clinics who are looking for a more time efficient assessment.
Marriage can be seen as a subtle form of oppression, like many things which are dictated by social expectations. In Kate Chopin’s The Story of An Hour, Louise Mallard finds herself in distress due to the event of her husband’s death that makes her question who she is as a person. The author cleverly uses this event to create the right atmosphere for Mrs. Mallard to fight against her own mind. As the short story progresses, we see that Mrs. Mallard moves forward with her new life and finds peace in her decision to live for herself. This shows that marriage too is another chain that holds oneself back. Not wanting to admit this to herself, Louise
“There is no perfect relationship. The idea that there is gets us into so much trouble.”-Maggie Reyes. Kate Chopin reacts to this certain idea that relationships in a marriage during the late 1800’s were a prison for women. Through the main protagonist of her story, Mrs. Mallard, the audience clearly exemplifies with what feelings she had during the process of her husbands assumed death. Chopin demonstrates in “The Story of an Hour” the oppression that women faced in marriage through the understandings of: forbidden joy of independence, the inherent burdens of marriage between men and women and how these two points help the audience to further understand the norms of this time.
The short stories “Souls Belated” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” have in common ‘Marriage’ as main theme. However, the marriage is treated quite differently in both short stories. In "Souls Belated", Lydia chooses to take control of her destiny, to deviate from conventions and to choose what is good for her. She is the strongest character of the couple. Whereas, in "The Yellow Wallpaper", the name of the main character who is also the narrator of the story is not known. She is identified as being John’s wife. This woman, contrary to Lydia in "Souls Belated" is completely locked up in her marriage. This essay will first describe and compare the characters of Lydia and John's wife in the context of marriage, and then it will look at how marriage is described, treated and experienced by couples in these two short stories.
The first marriage that we encounter in the book is that of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. The Bennets are not well matched at all in character or social background. Mr. Bennet is intelligent, and a “gentleman”, while Mrs. Bennet had little money and much “lower social connections” before their marriage. Their union was based on an initial physical attraction-Mr. Bennet found Mrs. Bennet to be beautiful, and Mrs. Bennet wanted the economic and social status that this marriage would provide her with. However, a marriage that is based on this kind of superficial attachment is doomed to failure, because as the years go on and the beauty fades Mr. Bennet is left living with a woman whom he absolutely does not respect at all.
Marriage is seen as one of the most beautiful things that two people can agree upon. Marriage is where two people who are in love agree to commit to be together through thick and thin for the rest of their lives. Although marriage is a very beautiful moment in life it does not necessarily mean that the people in the marriage are happy. In American society marriage comes across a very beautiful moment but also it comes across of a tie down. In American society many people feel that in marriage you are not free or you will no longer be able to do anything you prolong wanted or simply you cannot be yourself. In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, Mrs. Mallard undergoes series of emotions once she finds out her husband had died. However one
For many, marriage is the most important steps in life because it doesn’t just represent two people taking a vow to be with each other. But marriage also exemplifies purity and singularity because it gives people the strength to overcome any temptations by engaging in a love that can be given and received physically, emotionally, and spiritually. However, in The Story of an Hour, Chopin also displays how all marriages can be oppressive, even the “kindest and loving” ones, which implies that people just want to be free physically, emotionally, and spiritually. She does this by having Louise Mallard react to her husband’s death with joy and also not having any sort of bitterness or contempt over his passing either.