Marriage, Freedom and Self in Tolstoiâs Family Happiness and Chekhovâs Three Years

Rose France

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Marriage, Freedom and Self in Tolstoiâs Family Happiness and Chekhovâs Three Years

In: Tolstoi and the Evolution of His Artistic World

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Rose France

Rose France
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 116â139

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004465633_007

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Abstract

This chapter offers a comparison between Tolstoiâs Family Happiness and Chekhovâs Three Years of 1893. France pays particular attention to the ways in which structural elements in each story are employed to reflect a specific ideological position on marriage. Both stories depict the first three years of an unhappy marriage and end with reconciliation between husband and wife following a crisis. In Franceâs view, the underlying position of Family Happiness takes the form of a single truth: love when it is perfect is a state of complete communion, both with the object of oneâs love and with the universe as a whole. However, this perfect state is jeopardized by engaging in worldly activities and pursuing egotistical desires. In Three Years, by contrast, the ideal is not communion but self-realization. What matters most is not the success of the marriage between Laptev and Iulia, but how the marriage affects their progress as individuals. In Laptevâs case, marriage interrupts his escape from the family home and returns him to a state of dependence and slavery, whereas for Iulia it opens up new perspectives. The chapter then turns to the ways in which each works manifests these ideas. In Family Happiness, setting, imagery, character and event all gravitate towards the storyâs centre: Mashaâs experience of her marriage. In Three Years, the opposite is the case: Chekhov emphasizes the lack of harmony between inner experience and outward event / setting. Moreover, Chekhov repeatedly shows how a characterâs moral convictions or intentions may be at odds with more deep-seated, irrational desires and motivations. More broadly, and in summing up the relationship between the two works, France argues that Chekhovâs story was written at a time when Chekhov claimed to have freed himself of Tolstoiâs influence. It contains several allusions to Tolstoiâs work, (particularly Anna Karenina) and can be seen to take issue with Tolstoi on certain questions.

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Tolstoi and the Evolution of His Artistic World

Series:Â Studies in Slavic Literature and Poetics, Volume: 64Â andÂ Studies in Slavic Literature and Poetics Online, Volume: 64

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004465633

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 23 Jul 2021

Subjects
- Literature and Cultural Studies
- Slavic and Eurasian Studies
  - Literature & Linguistics

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Marriage, Freedom and Self in Tolstoiâs Family Happiness and Chekhovâs Three Years

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Tolstoi and the Evolution of His Artistic World

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Marriage, Freedom and Self in Tolstoiâs Family Happiness and Chekhovâs Three Years