The Search for Narrative Control: Music and Female Sexuality in Tolstoy's "Family

Happiness" and "The Kreutzer Sonata"

Author(s): Natalia Dame
Source: Ulbandus Review , 2014, Vol. 16, HEARING TEXTS (2014), pp. 158-176
Published by: Columbia University Slavic Department

Stable URL: [Link]

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 The Search for Narrative Control:
Music and Female Sexuality in Tolstoy's Family Happiness
and The Kreutzer Sonata

Natalia Dame

University oj Southern California

It came to mind—the ecstatically blissful state of

a beautiful woman, who knows that she is being
admired, while she is listening to wonderful music,
and [she] knows, feels, that she is being looked at.
—Lev Tolstoy, 1904

Woman may deceive, but the artist ranks as a close

second.

Music, Women, and Sexuality in Tolstoy's Narrative

In his famous treatise on art, What is Art? (1897—98), Tolstoy chooses three
types of feminine allegories to clarify his concepts of good and bad art, i.e.
a wife, a prostitute, and a mother. According to Tolstoy:

Real art needs no ornaments, like the wife of an affectionate husband.

Counterfeit art, like a prostitute, must always be ornamented. The cause
of the appearance of real art is the inner need to express an accumulated
feeling, just as for a mother the cause of sexual conception is love. The
cause of counterfeit art is gain, the same as prostitution (emphasis mine).3

The consistency with which Tolstoy uses feminine tropes to explain the
difference between real and counterfeit art is remarkable. Not only do these

1 Cited in Z. Paliukh and A. Prokhorova, Lev Tolstoi i musyka: khronika, notografiia,

bibtiografiia (Moscow: Vsesoiuznoe izdatel'stvo "Sovetskii kompozitor," 1977), 200.
2 Ruth Rischin, "Ailegto Tumultuosissimamente: Beethoven in Tolstoy's Fiction," in In the
Shade of the Giant, ed. Hugh McLean (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989), 43.
3 Lev Tolstoy, Stat'i oh iskusstve i literature, vol. 15 (Moscow: Izdatel'stvo khudozhestvennaia
literatura, 1964): 212; my translation.
158

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The Search for Narrative Control 159

tropes serve as a powerful rhetorical m

tendency to associate the quality of art
sexuality. By relating the inception of
"conception" {gachatie rebenka), Tolsto
and female sexuality in the positive m
that the parallel between the bad art of
does not appear accidental, Tolstoy f
nature and validity of his "feminized"
is correct down to the smallest details."
Because of Tolstoy's frequent referen
one may wonder how Tolstoy's definitio
the connection between women and music in his fiction. While recent

scholarship has explored the importance of music in Tolstoy's life and

literature, less attention has been paid to the role of music in Tolstoy's
portrayal of women. This article examines the treatment of music and
female sexuality in Family Happiness (1859) and The "Kreutzer Sonata (1889).
I have chosen these specific works because they deal with the relationship
between women and music and the anxieties of male control over both.6
Moreover, each novella serves as an illustration of Tolstoy's early and late
periods, which provides us with an overview of his vacillating belief in the
ethical origins of music and enables us to examine two contrasting ways of
portraying female characters with an adulterous potential.
While neither of Tolstoy's heroines actually commits adultery, the
outcomes of their hypothetical transgression are very different. In
contrast to the main character from Family Happiness, Masha, who returns
to her family intact, the unnamed female character from The Kreutzer Sonata
dies at the hands of her jealous husband Pozdnyshev. When viewed in
the context of Family Happiness, the death of Pozdnyshev's wife not only
signifies Pozdnyshev's attempt to silence potentially explosive female
sexuality, but also suggests Tolstoy's progression towards a more explicit
control of female representation. While Family Happiness features a first
person feminine narrative and provides its main character with a name—
Masha, The Kreutzer Sonata employs a first-person masculine narrative and

4 Tolstoi, Stat'i ob iskusstve i literature, 15:212.

5 Tolstoy often declared his love for music: "I love music more than any other art, it
would have been most difficult for me to part with it [...] music—is the only worldly
thing that affects me." Cited in Z. Paliukh, Lev Tolstoi, 245,213; my translation.
6 Ruth Benson also suggests a strong thematic link between these two novellas: "Family
Happiness clearly marks the first step on the way toward Anna and Karenin, and toward
the final despair of Pozdnyshev in The Kreutzer Sonata." See Ruth Benson, Women in Tolstoy:
The Ideal and the Erotic (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1973), 43.

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160 Natalia Dame

does not name it

Tolstoy's only ex
and sustained rep
of a woman's con
the time Tolstoy
consciousness" ce
task. Having lost h
life, the female ch
only be perceived
by proxy, her mal
Tolstoy's differe
adulterous potent
male protagonist
male control over
in Family Happin
masculinity in Th
means of conflict
for Pozdnyshev. B
sexuality, The Kr
portrayal throug
Happiness, but also
to describe the da
art with wifehood
in What is Art?, it
Tolstoy's positive a
Family Happiness a
The changing d
understanding in F
Kreutzer Sonata i
establish a moral f
value of music's p
Sonata, Tolstoy d

7 Benson, Women in To
8 For more on The K
Christian art, see Pete
on Sexual Morality in
1988). Also, see Steph
Canadian-American Sla
9 Tolstoy questions th
1897: "It's written: the
I had forgotten, but w

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The Search for Narrative Control 161

music and female sexuality to threaten

of the heightened male need to regu
tightening of narrative control is mos
of both music and Tolstoy's heroines
house" in Family Happiness to "paying f
life" in The Kreutzer Sonata™ While i
music are allowed to return to their pro
in The Kreutzer Sonata Pozdnyshev's wif
destroyed as violators of Pozdnyshe
these two alternative scenarios of narrative control over music and female

sexuality, Tolstoy develops evaluative criteria of their ethical properties,

which eventually allow him to subjugate both to the needs of his theory
about aesthetic and sexual morality in What is Art}.
Tolstoy's attempts to inscribe music and sexuality into his verbal
narrative constitute the main focus of this article. After a brief introduction

to Tolstoy's ambivalent views on music and female sexuality, I will examine

Tolstoy's approaches to expressing the non-verbal nature of both in Family
Happiness and The Kreutzer Sonata. I will first demonstrate that in Family
Happiness Tolstoy presents a balanced approach to managing music and
female sexuality because Masha intuitively understands their non-verbal
essence and allows music to direct her sexuality into appropriate venues
of wifehood and motherhood. I will then argue that Pozdnyshev fails
to control the impact of music and his wife's sexuality in a productive
way because he attributes his own narrative of adultery to music and,
consequently, contaminates the non-verbal purity of musical art. The article
will conclude that Tolstoy's continuous preoccupation with appropriate
ways to include music and sexuality in his discourse finds its resolution in
his theoretical poetics of art in What is Art}.

Music and Sexuality: Awakening Desires

In contemporary feminist scholarship, the relationship between music an

sexuality has been examined in terms of their ability to affect one's feelin
provoke desire, and contemplate the erotic sensibilities of the body.
her pioneering study about the musical construction of sexuality, Su
McClary notices that "music is very often concerned with the arousing an
channeling of desire, with mapping patterns through the medium of sou

takes time, hides £tom humans their idleness" Lev Tolstoy, Dnevmki 1895-1910 gg., vo
(Moscow: Izdatel'stvo khudozhestvennaia literatura, 1965): 72; my translation..
10 Richard Gregg, "Psyche Betrayed: The Doll's House of Leo Tolstoy," The Slavic a
East European Journal 46 no. 2 (2002): 279.

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162 Natalia Dame

that resemble tho

of music and sexu
in his search for
for Tolstoy becam
to examine the st
a source of pleas
Similar to music,
of passion and th
of Tolstoy's narr
closely linked fo
and Tolstoy, wit
aroused the passio
ability to stimulat
of seduction mig
pleasure that lay
auspices, music's a
of music as "the h
of the most contr
In his reminisc
Tolstoy both love
of something that
whole reality are
for rationality in
music's ability to

11 Susan McClary, Fe
of Minnesota Press,
12 Nikolai Gusev an
(Moscow: Gosudarstv
13 John Kopper, "T
Devil, and The Kreutz
University of Califo
14Gusev, Lev Tolstoi
15 Cited in Z. Paliukh,
to music, see Sergius
67 no. 1000 (Jun. 1,1
Life (Continued)," Th
Aylmer Maude/Musi
1,1926): 699—701. Als
4 (1958): 258-62.
16 For more about th
Madness, and the Unw
argues that "the powe
influence, its overwhe

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The Search for Narrative Control 163

him suspicious of its moral properties

attitude to the power of music, one sho
of Beethoven, whose works were und
from genius to second-rate in both Tols
lives of his characters.

Tolstoy's vacillating appreciation of Beethoven puzzled Tolstoy's

contemporaries and later scholars." In her study of Beethoven in Tolstoy's
fiction, Ruth Rischin approaches Tolstoy's paradoxical pronouncements on
Beethoven as indicative of his perception of Beethoven as his main rival.18
Not only locked in a power play with Beethoven the artist, but also trapped
in an inner struggle against the pleasure induced by his compositions,
Tolstoy, to use Gustafson's metaphor, was a resident and a stranger to
Beethoven's music. Caught in a typically Tolstoyan contradiction between
enjoying pleasure and rejecting the moral premises for this enjoyment,
Tolstoy experienced "on the one hand, the elemental irresistible admiration
of the writer for Beethoven's music; on the other hand—a formidable
resentment of a Tolstoyan doctrinaire against his own admiration."19
Ultimately, Tolstoy's understanding of music's power to affect one's state of
mind and weaken one's willpower resulted in his contradictory statements
about the value of music in general, and Beethoven in particular.
Tolstoy's uncertainty about the ethical qualities of music due to its
strong influence on one's emotional state parallels his ambiguous attitudes
about the force of sexuality. On the one hand, the attractiveness of both
music and sexuality for Tolstoy lay in their power to create and regulate a
narrative. On the other hand, just like music, the sexual force could get out
of control and turn one into a slave of one's own irrational impulses. In
this sense, the seductive power of music, which had the ability to unsetde
one's equilibrium, corresponded to the seductive power of women, whose
sexuality often caused men to lose their moral compass and led them to
ethical failures.20 Because of their concurrent constructive and destructive

17 Tolstoy said about Beethoven: "I do not like him, not exactly dislike, but he grabs
you too strongly, and one does not need this: music should make one happy" (cited in Z.
Paliukh, Lev Tolstoi, 152; my translation). For more on Tolstoy's inconsistent treatment of
Beethoven, see Gusev, Lev Tolstoi, 9-12; 25-27.
18 Rischin, "Allegro," 52.
19 Chezar Petresku, "Kreitserova sonata L'va Tolstogo," in Literaturnoe nasledslvo. Tolstoi i
^arube^hnyi mir (Moscow: Nauka, 1965), 186; my translation.
20 A striking example of a man driven to suicide because of his illicit sexual passion is
Irtenev, the hero of Tolstoy's later story The Devil. In Anna Karenina neither Anna Karenina
nor Vronsky can control their sexual passion for each other, which eventually destroys
both of them. In War and Peace, Natasha's attraction to Anatole and Pierre's fascination
with sexually alluring Hélène initially prevent both Natasha and Pierre from seeing their

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 164 Natalia Dame

potential, both m
in Tolstoy's aest
consciousness and

Music and Sexuality

The Non-Linguistic Aspect and Maternal Connection

The key to understanding Tolstoy's apprehension of the irrational

of music and female sexuality may He in the non-verbal nature o
phenomena. Many scholars link both music and the feminine to t
linguistic and pre-verbal aspects of culture, whose appropriation by a
author becomes a way to empower masculinity by applying a verba
of culture to an amorphous feminine realm of nature. Equating th
verbal state with the pre-Oedipal symbiosis of a mother with a child,
Goodwin argues that a male author usurps the non-linguistic ele
of music in his attempt to "render its pre-Oedipal body verbal." I
way, when faced with the pre-verbal nature of music and female sexu
the author tries to estabhsh a form of linguistic control over the
verbal properties. If one accepts the pre-Oedipal metaphor of mus
the feminine, Tolstoy's allusion to motherhood in his definition o
art in What is Art? serves as evidence for his awareness of the reg
power of music, which is capable of returning one to the pre-verbal u
with one's mother. While both aspects of this theory, i.e. the non-ling
nature and the pre-Oedipal function of music, inform Tolstoy's arg
for ethical art, they also frame Tolstoy's representation of female sex
in his fictional works.

Mindful of the challenges posed to a writer by the ineffable quaHty of

music, Tolstoy both appreciates and resists its "non-linguistic" properties.
In his psychoanalytic study of Tolstoy's Hfe and art, Daniel Rancour
Laferriere suggests that Tolstoy's inabihty to describe the effect of music
on its Hsteners highlights his recognition of music's "pre-verbal modes
of functioning."22 Indeed, Tolstoy ffequendy mentions the impossibihty
of articulating one's reaction to a musical sound: "one cannot express
in words what inspired the soul by the sound."23 On the one hand, the

objects of affection for who they really are—empty, selfish, and amoral individuals.
21 Sarah Goodwin, "Wordsworth and Romantic Voice: the Poet's Song and the Prostitute's
Cry," in Embodied Voices: Representing Female Vocadty in Western Culture, ed. Leslie Dunn and
Nancy Jones (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 66.
22 Daniel Rancour-Laferriere, Tolstoy on the Couch: Misogyny, Masochism, and the Absent Mother
(New York: New York University Press, 1998), 126.
23 Cited in E. Babaeva, "Lev Tolstoi i muzyka," introduction to Lev Tolstoi i musyka:

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The Search for Narrative Control 165

fact that Tolstoy rejects words when

demonstrates his intuitive grasp of m
verbalization. On the other hand, Tols
own verbalized narrative reveals his d
linguistic medium of communication by
linguistic narrative.
Like their author, Tolstoy's characters
attempting to describe their musical im
early short story "Albert" (1858), list
after the eponymous hero's violin sol
everyone present, and this strangene
followed Albert's play. As if everyon
what it all meant."24 Similarly, in Tolst
Sonata, Pozdnyshev cannot directly ex
of music, and instead resorts to a seq
"Under the influence of music it seem
do not feel, and that I understand what
what I cannot do."25
PozdnysheVs lack of language to des
should not be viewed in the positive lig
focus on music as a way to connect with
Tolstoy's early short story "Lucerne"
the same feeling that I was experien
of "it seemed" (ka^alos) is an early si
subjective, and thus possibly erroneo
the world through music, "Lucerne" lar
of music in human life. For later Tol
musical expression and its resistance
of collective euphoria, but instead
khronika, notografiia, bibtiografiia, ed. Z. Paliu
izdatel'stvo "Sovetskii kompozitot," 1977),
verbalizing musical impressions, see N. Kash
muzyke," in Meyhdunarodnyi tolstovskii al'man
24 Lev Tolstoy, Povesù i rasska^y, 1857-1863, v
khudozhestvennoi literatury, 1958), PR 38. Su
given in parenthetical form: (PR page number)
25 Lev Tolstoy, Proi^yedeniia 1872—1890 go
izdatel'stvo khudozhestvennoi literatury, 19
volume will be given in parenthetical form: (P
26 According to Justin Weir, Tolstoy values
boundaries" and "unite separate individuals." Se
Narrative (New Haven: Yale University Press,

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166 Natalia Dame

which can be ove

Unfortunately, as
of music on his w
unreliable narrat
music and his wi
Tolstoy's own narr
Tolstoy's strugg
his contradictor
article "Tolstoi C
obsessive desire
deal with languag
Tolstoy's contem
unmediated mode
least mediated of
interaction when
Happiness, Masha
her understanding
that no verbal ex
not say anything s
no longer lose him
performance of
conversation betw
they resolve their
A peaceful resol
no longer an opti
destabilizing effe
which his wife's
playing: "She on
previously comp
Instead of silenc
27 Krystyna Pomorska
(Durham: Duke Univ
28 Caryl Emerson, "T
(Cambridge: Cambrid
29 I would like to th
exist in the Mozart
fantasy (K. 475) and
performance, under
30 For more about t
between Masha and
of Sentimentalism in
S lavistes 21 no.3 (197

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The Search for Narrative Control 167

music causes it to proliferate, thus prom

adultery that exists solely in the head of
Unable to escape the fallacy of creating
becomes a victim of his own narrative s
properties to the non-verbal art and,
circle of endless interpretations of the

Mothers, Music, and Sexuality in

In addition to the ineffable qualities o

of its pre-verbal nature is music's associ
of music to convert dangerous female
receives extensive treatment in Family
uses music as an important structural el
of maturation, i.e. young maiden, bride
the importance of music for his char
musical performances at key turning poi
act as a stand-in for verbal communic
a trigger for their further interaction.
Masha's transition from an innocent g
the organization of the entire novella
of music with female sexuality allows
narrative representation, thus subject
Whereas Masha's husband fails to cont
succeeds in narratively taming Mas
channeling her sexual desires into mater
The first encounter with music in the novella occurs when seventeen

year old provincial beauty Masha plays Beethoven's Sonata Quasi Una
Fantasia for her father's friend and her future husband, Sergei Mikhailych.
Sergei Mikhailych's role in Masha's relationship with music is crucial, as it is
because of him that Masha resumes her piano playing and acquires a new
status as an object of male attention. The fact that Sergei Mikhailych—a
surrogate father figure—not only chooses the piece for Masha to play
but also provides constructive criticism on her performance distinguishes
Masha's first recital as solicited and regulated by a male narrative.32 Unable
to refuse Sergei Mikhailych's "musical" request, Masha enters the world of
womanhood by initially submitting to the male will—a first step towards

31 For more on music as an organizational narrative pattern in Tolstoy, see Richard

Gustafson, Feo Tolstoy, Resident and Stranger: a Study in Fiction and Theology (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1986), 117.
32 For more on the didactic paternal element in Family Happiness, see Gregg, "Psyche," 274.

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 168 Natalia Dame

her later attem

Mikhailych's stand
of music on Serge
to manipulate him
begin to communi
first performan
Mikhailych and o
The importance
initial connection
reconnection wit
a state of depress
feeling of anguis
extent that I did
pick up books" (P
Oedipal unity wit
a reconciliation with her mother's death and her transition into a new

category of a female performer under the gaze of controlling masculinity,

personified by Sergei Mikhailych.
Whereas Masha's first performance of Beethoven transitions her from
the role of a child into a role of an eligible young maiden, Masha's secon
performance of Mozart changes her from spiritually available to sexually
desirable: "I felt the pleasure that he was experiencing and, without looking
at him, felt [his] gaze directed at me from behind" (PR 92). Like in her
first recital, Masha plays Mozart because it is Sergei Mikhailych's choice of
music for her to perform, which again frames Masha's transition into an
object of sexual desire as guided by the male narrative.
Despite being in control of Masha's second musical selection, Sergei
Mikhailych appears to lose his sexual composure during her performance
Having become a source of sensual rather than just spiritual pleasure for
her male listener, Masha notices the destabilizing effect that her musica
performance has on Sergei Mikhailych's demeanor as his shining eyes and
attentive gaze betray his strong physical attraction to her. Given Serge
Mikhailych's role as Masha's spiritual guru and educator, it is not surprising
that any loss of control due to the power of Masha's musical performanc
poses a risk to Sergei Mikhailych's narrative.33 While Masha's mind seem

33 In their study of female sexuality, Leslie Dunn and Nancy Jones suggest that th
male succumbing to his erotic impulses "could threaten the stability of the patriarchal
order and the male subject himself." See Leslie Dunn and Nancy Jones, introduction t
Embodied Voices: Representing Female Vocality in Western Culture, ed. Leslie Dunn and Nancy
Jones (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 9.

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The Search for Narrative Control 169

to be under Sergei Mikhailych's influenc

him because it is difficult to control his ow
impulsive behavior. Hardly able to conc
by Masha's musical performance, Sergei
control of the situation by deciding to leav
Masha to profess her love for him and com
minutes Sonia was screaming across the w
marry Sergei Mikhailovich" (PR 103, emph
Sonia's slip of the tongue (^henit'sia na Se
vyiti t(amu^h %a Sergeia Mikhailovichd) is s
appears to be in charge of the marital deci
destiny. Yet while marrying Sergei Mikhai
of Masha's wish, the origins of this wish
suggestion of Sergei Mikhailych as a po
viewed as the subconscious fulfilment o
marriage to Sergei Mikhailych becomes
control and provides Sergei Mikhailych w
educate Masha's mind but also to curb her
to escape in order to avoid Masha's phy
Masha in the hope of regulating her sexual
a powerful desire to control Masha's and hi
eventually desexualizes their relationship a
in spiritual terms.
Masha's third and final solo musical perf
Quasi Una Fantasia not only evokes mem
of Beethoven, but also frames Masha in
charged society lady into an asexual mot
with my husband was over; and the new fe
and for the father of my children mark
but an otherwise happy life" (PR 150). Si
Beethoven who both liberates Masha from
in the first chapter and entraps Masha
mother in the last chapter. Given the impo
of Mozart plays in Masha's sexual awake

34 An example of Masha's unpredictability is her

order to stay out of the cherry pin. Instead, she
authority. For more on the volatility of women i
Sexuality, and the Family in Tolstoy," in The Camb
Orwin (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
35 "4epe3 rum MHHyr Cohh Ha Becb aom Kprr
Cepree MaxaHAOBHue."

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 170 Natalia Dame

Tolstoy chooses B
powerful "Beeth
with Masha the m
Masha's sexual inn
of sexual interest
The fact that M
own accord high
concerns about h
good mother by
an old friend wa
the act of rejecti
with her husband
of music: "I comp
to Petersburg; bu
the old music she
the function of a
volatile female se
musical perform
Oedipal memorie

Verbalizing the Non-Verbal in The Kreutzer Sonata

In contrast to Family Happiness, which presents music and motherhood

positive light, The Kreutzer Sonata negates their constructive value. Acco
to Pozdnyshev, the mother should not perform music as it loosen
husband's control over her body and renders her vulnerable to an
man's lust: "Given the impact that music, especially the violin, has
impressionable personalities, this person should have conquered, cru
twisted her, wrapped her round his little finger, done with her any
that he wants" (P 317). Significandy, in Pozdnyshev's narrative, his
refusal to continue giving birth, which leads to a quick deterioratio
their relationship and the intensification of his jealousy, also corres
to her starting to play the piano again. Thus, instead of conne
piano playing with motherhood, Pozdnyshev tries to show their mu
exclusive nature, which demonstrates his fear of relinquishing control
his desire to divorce the purity of motherhood from the dangerous eff
of music.

36 Richard Gregg concludes: "refused sexual fulfillment by the fiat of her creator, denied
the satisfaction of obstacles met and eventually overcome, bereft of "romance," and
alienated from the social milieu which had once nourished her, Masha's terminal phase is
defined largely by privations and absences." See Gregg, "Psyche," 278.

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The Search for Narrative Control 171

Pozdnyshev's separation of music

indication of his inability to appreciat
verbal nature. In contrast to Family H
linguistic features of music as helpfu
Sonata emphasizes human failure to c
examines its destructive capacity. Wit
the value of art and the workings of
music's power to "infect" people wi
scrutiny. Instead of demonstrating how
may allow characters to escape the con
Sonata Tolstoy shows how these feat
uncontrolled emotional release, provo
music's effects on one's sexuality.
A striking example of this rhetoric ap
"fearful power" (strashnaia vlast), which
and music. According to Pozdnyshev
to enslave men: "She affects the sensu
through sensuality [...]. And having once
abuses it and acquires a fearful power
characterization of women, music ut
trance: "Music functions like a yawn, a
I yawn, when I am looking at someone y
about but I laugh, when I hear someon
In Pozdnyshev's view, both women a
they lead to a loss of control and rat
compares the effect of women to that o
influence of music is similar to "hypn
resolve either threat on his own, Pozdny
of state control in order to protect peop
dangerous, appeal of woman and music B
(kapkany), Pozdnyshev advises the gover
provocative clothing: "Why is gambling
like outfits, which incite sensuality,
because of music's propensity to cause
Pozdnyshev wants the government to be
China music is a state thing. And it sho
Pozdnyshev literally connects music
where the danger of the corruptive in
music is played around provocative
play this presto in a salon among d

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 172 Natalia Dame

case, the visually

sanity of the voy
dual seduction. F
sexuality, Pozdny
to any form of v
such as the state
The fear of mu
Pozdnyshev's in
music unequivoca
Pozdnyshev claim
nor in a suppressi
Similar to the fr
wife's beauty as a
emerged in her,
(P 309). By associ
unsettle one's pea
the pre-verbal n
and provocation
narrator.

Pozdnyshev's journey to rationalizing his conduct goe

several stages. With his surplus of energy, created by the irritat
of music and female sexuality, Pozdnyshev does not init
where to channel his feelings. As a result, Pozdnyshev's inabi
any form of spiritual oudet for his excess of physical energy
erroneous perception of music as a mode of seduction for
Because Pozdnyshev fails to explain the enlightening qualities
reducing its effects to "refined physical lust" (utonchennaiapokho
he ignores the essentially spiritual, incorporeal nature of mu
mistakenly connected music and female sexuality through a n
physical adultery, Pozdnyshev then tries to combat both by
the female irritant, i.e. by killing his wife. Far from bringing P

37 Tolstoy frequently expresses a similar doubt about the inherendy mor

music. For example, see A. Lomunova, Lev Tolstoi ob iskusstve i literature, v
Sovetskii pisatel', 1958), 101.
38 For Tolstoy as well as for Pozdnyshev, music, which does not natura
movement (a march or a folk dance), may provoke one's sexuality.
39 For more on music as a shared social code of deception, see Weir, Leo T
40 In contrast to Pozdnyshev, Tolstoy believes in the non-corporeal nat
"other arts have an addition of the bodily, but there is no bodily in the musi
HCKyccraax ecn> npHMecb TeAecHoro, a b My3nxe Her TeAecHoro.") Cited
Lev Tolstoi, 222.

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The Search for Narrative Control 173

peace, the physical eradication of the

an impetus for Pozdnyshev's subseque
his behavior. By creating an elaborate
the destructive force of music for his
Pozdnyshev finally articulates his ow
frustrations with music and sexuality
Despite the popular consensus o
Pozdnyshev's views and late Tolstoy's
argue that Tolstoy denounces neither mu
that Pozdnyshev does, but instead pres
as a victim of a verbal rather than a
the many negative roles in which Tols
jealous husband and a murderer, Pozdn
unreliable narrator.41 In a futile attem
tries to gain control twice, first by silen
music produced by her, and then by insc
the two guilty parties in his final verbal
problem with Pozdnyshev's narrative i
narrative "program"42 to music, thus ma
the purity of music with his subjecti
Tolstoy's known dislike for "program m
not surprising that Pozdnyshev's failu
false nature of his narrative.

Another issue with Pozdnyshev's discourse lies in his inability to

recognize the deceptive properties of language. Contrary to Pozdnyshev's
perception of music as the real culprit of his crime, the last straw that
pushes Pozdnyshev towards the murder of his wife does not come
from music but originates from the written word. In fact, it is not the
"inexpressible" nature of Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata but a letter from his
wife, received four days later, that finally puts Pozdnyshev into a state of
murderous frenzy: "a maddening beast of jealously snarled in its kennel
and wanted to jump out" (P 326). In particular, it is the verbal properties
of the letter, i.e. its content (the mention of Trukhachevskii's unexpected
visit) and its form ("the artificial tone of the letter" \natianutyi ton pis'ma]),

41 For more on the controversy about Pozdnyshev's narrative reliability, see Tamar Yacobi,
"Authorial Rhetoric, Narratorial (Un)Reliability, Divergent Readings: Tolstoy's Kreutzer
Sonata" in A Companion to Narrative Theory, ed. James Phelan and Peter J. Rabinowitz
(Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2005), 108-23.
42 Emerson states that Pozdnyshev creates "his own narrative, i.e. the worst possible
program for music," in order to gain control over the effects of music. See Emerson,
"Tolstoy and Music," 19.

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 174 Natalia Dame

which ignite Poz

as "the most exqu
(P 327). Blinded
notice that it is n
major emotional
to murder.

By portraying Pozdnyshev as an unreliable narrator and an

incompetent reader, Tolstoy advises against confusing the social
functions of music with its actual properties. A stark contrast between
Pozdnyshev's peaceful state of mind right after the musical performance
and the letter's devastating effect on his psyche serves as further evidence
for Tolstoy's belief in differentiating between music as a pure form of art
and the narrative of music as an artificial language of social interactions.
In spite of Pozdnyshev's excruciating attack on the power of music, his
actual experience at his wife's performance is very positive: "I felt light,
happy all evening. What it was, that new thing that I found out, I could
not rationalize, but the realization of this new state was very joyful" (P
325). Not only does Pozdnyshev feel closer to his wife during the recital,
but he also does not get jealous of his arch-nemesis Trukhachevskii at
the end of the soiree: "for the first time I shook his hand with true

pleasure and thanked him for the enjoyment" (P 326).

Not surprisingly, Pozdnyshev's feelings of happiness, lightness, unity,
and true pleasure, as produced by Beethoven's music, correspond to the
examples from Tolstoy's earlier works "Lucerne," "Albert," and Family
Happiness, in which the irrationality of the musical experience has not
yet become a problem. By contrasting the two opposing depictions of
music in Pozdnyshev's narrative—harmonious and destructive—Tolstoy
tries to demonstrate the difference between music as a true mode of

communication and music as an artificial code in a highly develope

culture of falsity and vulgarity. Far from endorsing Pozdnyshev as hi
mouthpiece on the issues of music and sexuality, Tolstoy examines th
destructive potential of both as a symptom of one's own contaminate
perception and a sign of social corruption. Furthermore, by renderin
Pozdnyshev guilty of artistic adulteration, Tolstoy not only portrays th
case of "music gone wrong, i.e. perceived and remembered under flawe
condition,"44 but also reveals his own concern of the verbal narrative
gone bad.

43 Contrast Pozdnyshev's definition to Tolstoy's own description of music as "stenography

of feelings" (stenografiia chuvstv). Cited in Z. Paliukh, Lev Tolstoi, 201.
44 Emerson, "Lev Tolstoy," 17.

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The Search for Narrative Control 175

Conclusions

In his article about the relations between music and literature, Ca

Brown asserts that the study of music in the works of such write
"Thomas Mann, Conrad Aiken, and Josef Weinheber, for whom music
been a fundamental experience and a shaping force, may be of real lite
importance."45 Without a doubt, the addition of Tolstoy to the r
of the aforementioned "musical" authors will not be an overstatement.

Tolstoy's deep involvement with music and his understanding of its equally
creative and destructive potential found expression in both Tolstoy's
fictional narratives and his theories on art. Tolstoy's struggle with the
place of music in his created moral universe corresponded to his concern
with the problem of sexuality, whose powerful irrational force prevented
Tolstoy from closing the gap between "his deepest instincts and the moral
superstructure by which he judged them." In Tolstoy's discourse, music,
sexuality, and the main embodiment of both—the Female—became
interrelated because of their mutual capacity to disrupt rational equilibrium,
evoke unknown passions, and render men vulnerable to chaos.
As demonstrated by Tolstoy's recurrent portrayal of his male
protagonists' attempts to rationalize the world of music and female
sexuality, Tolstoy never stopped searching for the most successful ways
to resolve his concerns about the destructive force of the irrational. By
defining music in feminine terms, Tolstoy aimed to kill two birds with one
stone, i.e. to establish the rules of intrinsically ethical art and to create a
program for appropriate expressions of female sexuality. In his correlation
of motherhood with the positive perception of music in Family Happiness
and adultery with the negative perception of music in The Kreutzer Sonata,
Tolstoy attempted not only to assert his masculine verbal narrative over
the irrational, but also to purge his discursive system from rampant female
sexuality and the intoxicating effects of music.
Paradoxically, in order to subsume both music and sexuality into his
discourse, Tolstoy had to break his rules about artistic purity and commit
"literary adultery" by transforming the non-linguistic language of music
and female sexuality into a literary narrative in Family Happiness and The
Kreutzer Sonata. Given Tolstoy's apprehension about "overextended
semiosis," his growing concern about the false nature of language, used
to describe music and sexuality, became especially prominent in Tolstoy's

45 Calvin Brown, "The Relations between Music and Literature: As a Field of Study,"
Comparative Literature 22 no. 2 (1970): 106.
46 Benson, Women in Tolstoy, 2.

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176 Natalia Dame

portrayal of Pozdn
What likely help
non-verbal natur
of female tropes a
By maintaining
sexuality, develop
validated this cla
value of music, bu
standards of their
to female sexualit
incorporate music
"inexpressible" nat

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