Revisiting The Kreutzer Sonata

I thought of revisiting The Kreutzer Sonata considering the latest literary trends in Sri Lankan literary scene both in Sinhalese and English. When the dominant literary zest in Sinhalese literary scene seems to be romance or can be rightly termed as love making in its crudest form, the Sri Lankan English literary scene seemed to be caught up in a never-ending spree of comedy of errors often enacted by comedians in literati’s garb.

The Kreutzer Sonata, a novella by Leo Tolstoy, (1889), is one of the major literary works of the 20th century which deals with the perennial issues of morality, love and sexual abstinence. The story is unfolded from the perspective of the main character of the novella, Pozdnyshev.

According to some critics, the novella presents Tolstoy's controversial view on sexuality, which affirms that physical craving is an impediment to relations between men and women and may result in calamity.

The story unfolds during a train ride in which an anonymous passenger overhears a conversation about marriage, divorce and love. The story is told in third person narrative style and from that anonymous passenger’s perspective.

Marriage

A woman argues that marriage should be based on true love and something which should not be arranged. Pozdnyshev, another passenger questions “What is love?” and argues if the marriage is implied as an exclusive preference for one person, it would quickly vanish off.

By convention, it demands that two married persons should stay together and the preliminary can quickly turn into hatred. Pozdnyshev reveals his past and that he murdered his wife.

He frankly disclosed his play-boy type young days as a bachelor and how he used to visit prostitutes. The crux of his argument is that women will never enjoy equal status and rights with men as long as men perceive them as objects of desire.

However, at another level, Pozdnyshev describes the position of women as an overarching power and influence over men and how much society caters for their pleasure and how powerful women are in influencing men’s action.

It was following a decisive boat ride that Pozdnyshev fell in love with the woman who became his wife. Describing his marriage, he states that moments of passionate love alternate with vicious fights and after bearing several children, they receive contraceptives: "The last excuse for our swinish life -- children -- was then taken away, and life became viler than ever."

Pozdnyshev’s wife develops a liking to a violinist and the duo perform Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata (Sonata No. 9 in A Major for piano and violin, Op. 47). Disheartened Pozdnyshev objects that some music is so powerful even to change one’s state of mind.

Hiding his mounting jealousy, Pozdnyshev goes on a trip only to return early to find that his wife is passionately in love with the violinist. He kills his wife but does not pursue the fleeing violinist: "I wanted to run after him, but remembered that it is ridiculous to run after one's wife's lover in one's socks; and I did not wish to be ridiculous but terrible."

Subsequently Pozdnyshev is acquitted due to his wife’s apparent adultery. He seeks forgiveness from the fellow passengers. The Kreutzer Sonata amply demonstrates Tolstoy’s sheer power of storytelling and the maturity of the craft. Russian writer and Tolstoy’s contemporary Anton Chekhov wrote: "You will hardly find anything as powerful in seriousness of conception and beauty of execution."

Major criticisms

Following its first imprint in 1889, The Kreutzer Sonata was immediately censored by the Russian authorities. In 1890, the United States Post Office Department prohibited the mailing of newspapers containing serialized instalments of the book. This was confirmed by the U.S. Attorney General in the same year.

Many critics castigated the novella for its unrealistic plot, inconsistent method, and the unsound principles espoused by Pozdnyshev. Pozdnyshev's principles particularly pointed total abstinence of sex would end humanity.

However, Tolstoy in an epilogue to The Kreutzer Sonata, published in 1890, clarified his position with regard to the moral of the novella: “Let us stop believing that carnal love is high and noble and understand that any end worth our pursuit – in service of humanity, our homeland, science, art, let alone God – any end, so long as we may count it worth our pursuit, is not attained by joining ourselves to the objects of our carnal love in marriage or outside it; that, in fact, infatuation and conjunction with the object of our carnal love (whatever the authors of romances and love poems claim to the contrary) will never help our worthwhile pursuits but only hinder them.”

Despite the arguments for and against, it remains one of the most widely read literary works which absorbs the reader's imagination from generation to generation. For instance, R. F. Christian has described the appeal of Tolstoy's novella: "Few other novelists could have made compelling reading out of sentiments and arguments which are irritating and manifestly unjust. Few other novelists could have given pathos and poignancy to the ending of a story whose limits appear to be laid down by the advice proffered in its opening chapters: 'Do not trust your horse in the field or your wife in the house'."

Lessons for Sri Lankan literati

One of the major lessons that Sri Lankan literati could derive from world literature is that even the issues of love, sex and marriage can be dealt with in a broader perspective so as to shed light on the intricate web of human behaviour and the vital role that the dynamics of sex play in prospering humanity.

The present literary tendency in Sinhalese literary scene of depicting the crudest form of romance and cashing in on them would lead Sinhalese literature to nowhere but to the abysmal obscurity.

The great literary works such as The Kreutzer Sonata which would stand the test of time for its masterly craftsmanship and exploration of humanity provides a lesson for Sri Lankan writers in English. For most of the literary works which should really be called stories and those storytellers, show signs of sheer bankruptcy of substance. Naturally, such literary works would become hilarious farces posing off as humour.