The Importance of Sonya in War and Peace
Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace speculates deeply about history, religious life and human brotherhood. Most readers focus on the characters of Natasha, Prince Andrew, and Pierre. Another character named Sonya, who is an orphaned cousin, is staying with the Rostov family. Sonya is overshadowed by the other characters, however, she is vital to the rounding out of the other characters in the novel.
The people she loves most take her life of commitment and sacrifice for granted. The reader is thus also inclined to give little emphasis to her role in their lives and in the novel as a whole. As someone who has essentially nothing, Sonya is willing to give everything she has to those she loves. She gives of herself willingly and thanklessly. This life of sacrifice truly embodies Sonya's generous character. This genuine nature of her character allows her to reveal so much about those with whom she interacts throughout the novel. With Sonya's seeming "simplicity" in the background, Tolstoy fully develops the characters of Natasha and Nicholas. He uses Sonya as a contrast for his heroine, Natasha, and also as a chart of growth for Natasha's brother, Nicholas. Tolstoy even uses Sonya as a contrast to Princess Mary. Here, if one looks deeper, one will find that there is very little contrast at all between the two women. Most importantly, Sonya is an illustration of society's effects on a poor selfless young girl who puts her needs below those of all others. Tolstoy employs Sonya's character in a variety of situations. Without Sonya, a great deal of his novel's depth and richness would be lost.
Sonya is first introduced as Count Rostov's fifteen-year-old niece who ...
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Just as the characters in the novel never really appreciate all that Sonya does for them, the reader puts very little emphasis on all that Sonya does to enhance the entire novel. Sonya serves as a truly reflective mirror to Natasha who "never needed to sacrifice herself, but made others sacrifice themselves for her and yet was beloved by everybody"(903). Sonya's presence also helps the growth of Nicholas and reveals a great deal about the society in which she lives. The importance of Sonya's character to War and Peace is immense, yet overshadowed by characters deemed more "important" than she. Sonya tends to be put in the background of this novel as she is put in the background of the lives of those whom she loves. Without her Leo Tolstoy's novel would greatly diminished.
Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, Book of the Month Club, Inc., New York.
The novel, A Separate Peace, by John Knowles describes the life highschool life of Gene Forrester through the flashbacks he experienced 15 years after his graduation. Throughout the novel Knowles takes us on a journey that revolves around Gene and his friend Finny as they go through their years in a private high school. While reading the novel one can see that Gene takes his hero journey during his highschool time as he makes the choices that will dictate not only his hero journey but his entire life.
In Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll House, a drama written in the midst of an 1879, middle-class, suburban Europe, he boldly depicts a female protagonist. In a culture with concern for fulfilling, or more so portraying a socially acceptable image, Nora faces the restraints of being a doll in her own house and a little helpless bird. She has been said to be the most complex character of drama, and rightfully so, the pressure of strict Victorian values is the spark that ignites the play's central conflicts. Controversy is soon to arise when any social-norm is challenged, which Nora will eventually do. She evolves throughout the play, from submissive housewife to liberated woman. It seems as though what took women in America almost a century to accomplish, Nora does in a three-day drama. Ibsen challenges the stereotypical roles of men and women in a societally-pleasing marriage. He leads his readers through the journey of a woman with emerging strength and self-respect. Nora plays the typical housewife, but reveals many more dimensions that a typical woman would never portray in such a setting.
In the end, all three minor characters have undergone a radical change, having arrived at some other position in life. Krogstad and Mrs. Linde have become a couple, and Dr. Rank is soon to pass away. This is significant, as Nora has chosen to abandon her family to pursue her own independence and individuality. She will no longer play the part of a doll and depend on Torvald to support her and resolve all of her problems and thus, takes a giant step forward towards the development of women as their own individuals. Ibsen’s A Doll’s House explores the role of women in the late 1800’s and stresses the importance of their realization of this believed inferiority. Living in our present day society sometimes causes us to underestimate the transition that women have undergone throughout these last hundred years. However, Nora’s progression at the end of the play arouses an awareness to an awakening society recognizing the changing view of the status of women at that time.
Nora: Oh, but Torvald, we can squander a little now. Can’t we? Just a tiny, wee bit. Now that you’ve got a big salary and are going to make piles and piles of money. (Ibsen, 660)
Clothing was valued in the Aztec society as each class of people wore different clothing and the wealth and power of each person could be depicted from the clothing they wore: Nobles wore precious stones and fabrics whilst the commoners were forbidden to wear clothes longer than the knees
Nora and Torvald were very poor and had to watch what they spent, but after Torvald earned a new position at the bank where he works, they no longer had to worry about how much money they have spent. Mrs. Linde, Nora’s friend, came to speak to Nora about her life and what has gone on since her husband has died. Nora then begins to tell her how Torvald became sick and how they had to travel to Italy so he could recover, but since they didn’t have enough money she illegally borrowed money for the trip and has been trying to repay the debt before he or anyone could notice. Krogstad, an employee at the bank, then black mails Nora and threatens to tell her husband that she stole money if she does not convince him to let him keep his job. Mrs. Linde and Krogstad both reveal that they had fallen for each other and she tries to convince him to not tell Torvald of his wife’s secret, but instead she tells him to leave the note for him to find out. Torvald then finds the letter and is angry. He tells Nora mean things and calls her a liar and then tells her she will not be allowed to raise their kids. Once Helene, their housemaid, brings another letter containing the contract the tries to apologize and ask forgiveness. Nora then begins to express her feelings of how they do not belong together and explains that she feels like a “doll” that is played with and admired. She then decides to leave Torvald. Mrs. Linde and Krogstad both used Nora’s secret to get what they wanted. Although, Mrs. Linde didn’t know her secret at the beginning she still used it against her at the end because she felt that Torvald needed to know what she had
Nora Helmer was a fragile character that relied on her husband for her own identity. This dependence has kept her from having her own personality in so many different ways. Throughout the story Nora portrays the perfect housewife who stays at home to take care of her family and please her husband. From early childhood Nora has always held the opinions of either her father or Torvald, only hoping to please them. Nora’s upbringing was so easy that she only needed to make a cute noise and someone would come running over to serve her. It’s no wonder that when she got married that Torvald followed the same routine. Ibsen even states that, “she was merely a doll, a plaything, passed from papa’s hands onto Torvald’s” (1610). I believe that these actions made her look extremely infantile, showing that she had no thoughts of her v...
Native American’s place in United States history is not as simple as the story of innocent peace loving people forced off their lands by racist white Americans in a never-ending quest to quench their thirst for more land. Accordingly, attempts to simplify the indigenous experience to nothing more than victims of white aggression during the colonial period, and beyond, does an injustice to Native American history. As a result, historians hoping to shed light on the true history of native people during this period have brought new perceptive to the role Indians played in their own history. Consequently, the theme of power and whom controlled it over the course of Native American/European contact is being presented in new ways. Examining the evolving
A disconnect between genders was exhibited in early Russian culture. The objectification of women was a common problem in the Soviet society. In Mikhail Sholokhov’s And Quiet Flows The Don, there is an abundant amount of examples detailing men’s attitudes toward women. Early on in the novel there is a disturbing depiction of rape between Aksinia Astakhov and her father. It is difficult to comprehend the motives behind an act of rape, especially when coupled with incest, but that is not occurrence of rape within the novel. Further on there is a particularly vivid account of a gang rape scene between multiple Cossack soldiers and a young woman. Although particularly difficult to read, this moment further illustrates the female objectification present in this time-period by clarifying the commonality of the abhorrent treatment of women. Furthermore, it is revealed that the men are more than willing to resort to violence if it is necessary to keep the rape a secret, “Breath a word… and, by Christ, we’ll kill you!” (186). In a different aspect of everyday life, at times it seems that women are not...
From the moment when Raskalnikov murders the old woman, his personality begins to change drastically. Dostoevsky challenges the reader to understand the madness which ensues by first demonstrating that the ideas and convictions to which Raskalnikov clung died along with the women. While the reader struggles with this realization, Dostoevsky incorporates the Biblical legend of Lazarus as a symbolic mirror for Raskalnikov's mind. By connecting the two, the reader encounters the foreshadowing of a rebirth of morals and beliefs, though what form this may assume remains cryptic. As references to Lazarus continue to occur, the feeling of parallelism increases in intensity. Just as Raskalnikov slowly struggled through madness, Lazarus lay dying of a terrible disease. When Lazarus eventually dies, Raskalnikov mimes this by teetering on the edge of insanity, the death of the mind. Eventually Sonya begins to pull Raskalnikov back to reality by relieving a portion of his guilt. As his Christ figure, she accomplishes this by providing the moral and spiritual sturdiness which Raskalnikov lost after his debasement during the murders. Sonya affects him not by active manipulation, but via her basic character, just as Christ personified his beliefs through the manner in which he lived his life. No matter what Raskalnikov says or does to her, she accepts it and looks to God to forgive him, just as Jesus does in the Bible. This eventually convinces Raskalnikov that what he did was in fact a crime and that he must repent for it and"seek atonement".
Wurdinger, S. D. (2005). Using Experiential Learning in the classroom: Practiccal ideas for all educators. Oxford UK: Littlefield Publishing Group Inc.
It is apparent that the love between Sonia and Raskolnikov plays a crucial role in Crime and Punishment, pushing Raskolnikov in a direction he otherwise would not have gone. Dostoevsky uses their relationship as a tool to develop the philosophical themes in the novel and prompt profound changes in Raskolnikov’s character. Through their love, Dostoevsky demonstrates the importance of human relationships in finding and maintaining happiness. He also seeks to condemn nihilism and disprove the idea that one cannot make one’s own meaning in life by having Raskolnikov adopt Christian existentialism and find his purpose through Sonia.
The decision for Nora to leave her husband and children behind is an extremely difficult decision to make. I am able to understand how she could leave her husband, the self-righteous and pompous man that he is; however, leaving her children behind is a much more difficult decision to make. Through Torvald’s anger with Nora, he states to her that women are accountable for the decency of their children. He states further that because of her scandalous act; she is no longer able to be a role model for them. Because Nora understands that she is an uneducated woman, she agrees with Torvald and chooses to leave her children behind.
discovery and understanding. Nora had to take a stand and do something on her own in
The quote “all’s fair in love and war” means nothing is out of bounds when it comes to love and war; everything is fair game. Nicholas Sparks, Norman Rockwell, and Robert Frost do an excellent job depicting this quote in their work. Nicholas Sparks is famous for his romantic novels; many of which involve a man in the military falling in love with a woman and doing whatever it takes to be with one another. Norman Rockwell’s paintings are simple but also show the love and war. Though Robert Frost’s poem are not particularly about love and war; he does have many poems about love between two people as well as poems about war and what it takes to survive. All three people are extremely talented and I enjoy all of their work.