Quick scan of “War and Peace” and “Anna Karenina” by Tolstoy

Aug 19

War and Peace

This is a very famous novel by Lev Tolstoy, very romantic, about Napoleon’s invasion in Russia and the life of some aristocratic families. The novel seems a five star one. But there is a problem, it is weak on the empathic level.

Usually this is not seen on the outside, but by a few small details.

Sonya Rostova

In “War and Peace” one of the characters is Sonya Rostova. Officially it is about War and Peace, but basically this book is about love. And Sonya does not have any luck. Sonya is pretty, but shy, and humble: poor background, humble character, therefore finding herself at the bottom of the “dating pool” where energetic and rich people are at the top. Therefore she misses a chance at love with prince Nikolas, once her childhood friend.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonya_(War_and_Peace)

This is nothing strange. But when in a novel someone fails, it is of course not because the course of events, but because the writer, Tolstoy, does not see any success for this kind character.

And indeed. Actually, Tolstoy is very negative about Sonya, in the end of War and Piece she is portrayed in a negative way, as a “sterile flower”. Nicholas was cheating on her from the beginning, but Tolstoy makes it appear as if it is her fault! And Tolstoy humiliates her. She lives with the Rostovs as a helping hand, a “gouvernant”, an unmarried woman taking care of the children of prince Nicholas and his new wife. Oof, what heavy!

How to analyze this?

Some commentators say that Tolstoy is “cruel” on Sonya. Indeed, it is possible that she would not marry Nicholas. But it is another blow to her, to make her governess of his children with his new wife: oofff. And another blow to give her the fault of it, to call her a “sterile flower”.

Still to me Sonya is the most appealing of Tolstoy’s feminine figures in War and Piece. You can have all the other figures with their vitality, but this is sort of in conflict with her humility, and if vitality is significant to others, humility is significant to me. I do like humble kind of people.

But still I do not want them to fail. I damn Tolstoy, because in his book those humble people don’t seem to be able to be smart and proud about it.

Varenka

You can say that this trouble about Sonya is an incident. But no, in Tolstoy’s second big novel Anna Karenina, he did it again! Exactly the same thing. There is another such a humble “Sonya”-character, it’s Varenka. She also fails in finding a love partner, almost getting married, but in the end not getting married. Tolstoy made the occassion for a marriage proposal almost ideal: a picknick, a nice guy who was in love with her, Koznishev. And they went together for a walk in the forest, looking for mushrooms (“mushroom picking scene”). What could go wrong? Well, Koznishev could not find the correct words, how to express his interest in Varenka, the moment passed, and the moment was gone. Apparently Koznishev was a fool.

And again, when in a novel a character meets a fool, this is not because of bad luck, but because the writer messes up the scene; Koznishev was a bit of a nerd, but he could have found the correct words, he was not stupid!

The underlying problem

What seems the underlying thing is that Tolstoy is just a macho guy: aristocratic, womanizer, new kid on the block. And he does not like humble, shy people, because they are losers. This is pretty low EQ behavior of Tolstoy, and therefore I decided not to read any of his books ever again. pffff!

But there is also an underlying problem. Tolstoy is a typical “adult” guy: he lost something that fairy tales or religious stories still have: a happy end.

As a child I loved to read, I loved fairy tales, but also other children books, they were written well, but also nice: they usually have a happy end

- the poor kids Hans and Gretl are saved from the witch and find a box of gold

- Cinderella is saved from the angry stepmother and marries a prince: cool!

- the people who travel around the world in the books of Jules Verne, and get into all kinds of trouble, always find their way home again

I was busy for a couple of years, but in 2018 I started to read literature again. But this time I was in shock: adult literature is different, these stories often depict how absurd life is, and often have a bad ending! Ay ay ay, what is this?

I had to dissect this, and noticed: children literature, fairy tales, or biblical stories, often have a A-B-B-A format: it starts with challenges A, more challenges B, even harder ones B, but a good ending A. But adult literature is A-B-B: it has a start with challenges A, more challenges B and ends with the hard ones B, like Sonya being gouvernante of the children of Nicholas and his new wife. And then it stops: where is the last "A": the happy end?!?!? Lost! For example compare this:

A1 Ruth 1 challenge going to Bethlehem * hard

B1 Ruth 2 challenge working on the land * harder, though somewhat sweet (meal together

B2 Ruth 3 challenge approaching Boaz * hardest

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A2 reward *** cool!!

But then take Tolstoy War&Peace:

A1 poor girl Sonya Rostova is dating prince Nicholas, cool, but he's a bit cheating on her * hard

B1 Nicholas more cheating on her * harder

B2 Nicholas marrying someone else, and Sonya is the governess of their children and Sonya is even humiliated as Tolstoy writes that she's a "sterile flower" as if the cheating of Nicholas is her own fault!?!?!? * hardest! disaster!!

And what I mentioned above: "Anna Karenina": same problem. The humble friendly girl Varenka ends up alone, and Anna Karenina ends up under the train. Ay!!!!! I looked up on the internet who else saw this, that Tolstoy was perhaps a mysioginist: almost nobody. But I was so angry that in 2018 I posted this on internet

And I am still doing it 2024, that's already six years 🥴😵‍💫 But the basic format that I apply is same as in fairy tales or religion: I make A-B-B into A-B-B-A, like this:

A1 poor girl Sonya Rostova is dating prince Nicholas, cool, but he's a bit cheating on her * hard

B1 Nicholas more cheating on her * harder

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A2 Maurice Luymes 2024 coming to demask Tolstoy and put Sonya Rostova again at the top. Fuj Tolstoy! With Tolstoy girls like Cinderella end up like losers; no way, not allowed!

Gerben Tuenter