The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories
attacks, and, among the peasants, witchcraft. Note that among the young
girls of the peasantry this state of things does not exist, but only
among the wives, and the wives who live with their husbands. The reason
is clear, and this is the cause of the intellectual and moral decline
of woman, and of her abasement.
“If they would only reflect what a grand work for the wife is the
period of gestation! In her is forming the being who continues us, and
this holy work is thwarted and rendered painful . . . by what? It is
frightful to think of it! And after that they talk of the liberties and
the rights of woman! It is like the cannibals fattening their prisoners
in order to devour them, and assuring these unfortunates at the same
time that their rights and their liberties are guarded!”
All this was new to me, and astonished me very much.
“But if this is so,” said I, “it follows that one may love his wife
only once every two years; and as man” . . .
“And as man has need of her, you are going to say. At least, so the
priests of science assure us. I would force these priests to fulfil the
function of these women, who, in their opinion, are necessary to man. I
wonder what song they would sing then. Assure man that he needs brandy,
tobacco, opium, and he will believe those poisons necessary. It follows
that God did not know how to arrange matters properly, since, without
asking the opinions of the priests, he has combined things as they are.
Man needs, so they have decided, to satisfy his sensual desire, and
here this function is disturbed by the birth and the nursing of
children.
“What, then, is to be done? Why, apply to the priests; they will
arrange everything, and they have really discovered a way. When, then,
will these rascals with their lies be uncrowned! It is high time. We
have had enough of them. People go mad, and shoot each other with
revolvers, and always because of that! And how could it be otherwise?
“One would say that the animals know that descent continues their race,
and that they follow a certain law in regard thereto. Only man does not
know this, and is unwilling to know it. He cares only to have as much
sensual enjoyment as possible. The king of nature,—man! In the name of
his love he kills half the human race. Of woman, who ought to be his
aid in the movement of humanity toward liberty, he makes, in the name
of his pleasures, not an aid, but an enemy. Who is it that everywhere
puts a check upon the progressive movement of humanity? Woman. Why is
it so?
“For the reason that I have given, and for that reason only.”
CHAPTER XIV.
“Yes, much worse than the animal is man when he does not live as a man.
Thus was I. The horrible part is that I believed, inasmuch as I did not
allow myself to be seduced by other women that I was leading an honest
family life, that I was a very moral being, and that if we had
quarrels, the fault was in my wife, and in her character.
“But it is evident that the fault was not in her. She was like
everybody else, like the majority. She was brought up according to the
principles exacted by the situation of our society,—that is, as all the
young girls of our wealthy classes, without exception, are brought up,
and as they cannot fail to be brought up. How many times we hear or
read of reflections upon the abnormal condition of women, and upon what
they ought to be. But these are only vain words. The education of women
results from the real and not imaginary view which the world entertains
of women’s vocation. According to this view, the condition of women
consists in procuring pleasure and it is to that end that her education
is directed. From her infancy she is taught only those things that are
calculated to increase her charm. Every young girl is accustomed to
think only of that.
“As the serfs were brought up solely to please their masters, so woman
is brought up to attract men. It cannot be otherwise. But you will say,
perhaps, that that applies only to young girls who are badly brought
up, but that there is another education, an education that is serious,
in the schools, an education in the dead languages, an education in the
institutions of midwifery, an education in medical courses, and in
other courses. It is false.
“Every sort of feminine education has for its sole object the
attraction of men.
“Some attract by music or curly hair, others by science or by civic
virtue. The object is the same, and cannot be otherwise (since no other
object exists),—to seduce man in order to possess him. Imagine courses
of instruction for women and feminine science without men,—that is,
learned women, and men not _knowing_ them as learned. Oh, no! No
education, no instruction can change woman as long as her highest ideal
shall be marriage and not virginity, freedom from sensuality. Until
that time she will remain a serf. One need only imagine, forgetting the
universality of the case, the conditions in which our young girls are
brought up, to avoid astonishment at the debauchery of the women of our
upper classes. It is the opposite that would cause astonishment.
“Follow my reasoning. From infancy garments, ornaments, cleanliness,
grace, dances, music, reading of poetry, novels, singing, the theatre,
the concert, for use within and without, according as women listen, or
practice themselves. With that, complete physical idleness, an
excessive care of the body, a vast consumption of sweetmeats; and God
knows how the poor maidens suffer from their own sensuality, excited by
all these things. Nine out of ten are tortured intolerably during the
first period of maturity, and afterward provided they do not marry at
the age of twenty. That is what we are unwilling to see, but those who
have eyes see it all the same. And even the majority of these
unfortunate creatures are so excited by a hidden sensuality (and it is
lucky if it is hidden) that they are fit for nothing. They become
animated only in the presence of men. Their whole life is spent in
preparations for coquetry, or in coquetry itself. In the presence of
men they become too animated; they begin to live by sensual energy. But
the moment the man goes away, the life stops.
“And that, not in the presence of a certain man, but in the presence of
any man, provided he is not utterly hideous. You will say that this is
an exception. No, it is a rule. Only in some it is made very evident,
in others less so. But no one lives by her own life; they are all
dependent upon man. They cannot be otherwise, since to them the
attraction of the greatest number of men is the ideal of life (young
girls and married women), and it is for this reason that they have no
feeling stronger than that of the animal need of every female who tries
to attract the largest number of males in order to increase the
opportunities for choice. So it is in the life of young girls, and so
it continues during marriage. In the life of young girls it is
necessary in order to selection, and in marriage it is necessary in
order to rule the husband. Only one thing suppresses or interrupts
these tendencies for a time,—namely, children,—and then only when the
woman is not a monster,—that is, when she nurses her own children. Here
again the doctor interferes.
“With my wife, who desired to nurse her own children, and who did nurse
six of them, it happened that the first child was sickly. The doctors,
who cynically undressed her and felt of her everywhere, and whom I had
to thank and pay for these acts,—these dear doctors decided that she
ought not to nurse her child, and she was temporarily deprived of the
only remedy for coquetry. A nurse finished the nursing of this
first-born,—that is to say, we profited by the poverty and ignorance of
a woman to steal her from her own little one in favor of ours, and for
that purpose we dressed her in a _kakoschnik_ trimmed with gold lace.
Nevertheless, that is not the question; but there was again awakened in
my wife that coquetry which had been sleeping during the nursing
period. Thanks to that, she reawakened in me the torments of jealousy
which I had formerly known, though in a much slighter degree.”
CHAPTER XV.
“Yes, jealousy, that is another of the secrets of marriage known to all
and concealed by all. Besides the general cause of the mutual hatred of
husbands and wives resulting from complicity in the pollution of a
human being, and also from other causes, the inexhaustible source of
marital wounds is jealousy. But by tacit consent it is determined to
conceal them from all, and we conceal them. Knowing them, each one
supposes in himself that it is an unfortunate peculiarity, and not a
common destiny. So it was with me, and it had to be so. There cannot
fail to be jealousy between husbands and wives who live immorally. If
they cannot sacrifice their pleasures for the welfare of their child,
they conclude therefrom, and truly, that they will not sacrifice their
pleasures for, I will not say happiness and tranquillity (since one may
sin in secret), but even for the sake of conscience. Each one knows
very well that neither admits any high moral reasons for not betraying
the other, since in their mutual relations they fail in the
requirements of morality, and from that time distrust and watch each
other.
“Oh, what a frightful feeling of jealousy! I do not speak of that real
jealousy which has foundations (it is tormenting, but it promises an
issue), but of that unconscious jealousy which inevitably accompanies
every immoral marriage, and which, having no cause, has no end. This
jealousy is frightful. Frightful, that is the word.
“And this is it. A young man speaks to my wife. He looks at her with a
smile, and, as it seems to me, he surveys her body. How does he dare to
think of her, to think of the possibility of a romance with her? And
how can she, seeing this, tolerate him? Not only does she tolerate him,
but she seems pleased. I even see that she puts herself to trouble on
his account. And in my soul there rises such a hatred for her that each
of her words, each gesture, disgusts me. She notices it, she knows not
what to do, and how assume an air of indifferent animation? Ah! I
suffer! That makes her gay, she is content. And my hatred increases
tenfold, but I do not dare to give it free force, because at the bottom
of my soul I know that there are no real reasons for it, and I remain
in my seat, feigning indifference, and exaggerating my attention and
courtesy to _him_.
“Then I get angry with myself. I desire to leave the room, to leave
them alone, and I do, in fact, go out; but scarcely am I outside when I
am invaded by a fear of what is taking place within my absence. I go in
again, inventing some pretext. Or sometimes I do not go in; I remain
near the door, and listen. How can she humiliate herself and humiliate
me by placing me in this cowardly situation of suspicion and espionage?
Oh, abomination! Oh, the wicked animal! And he too, what does he think
of you? But he is like all men. He is what I was before my marriage. It
gives him pleasure. He even smiles when he looks at me, as much as to
say: ‘What have you to do with this? It is my turn now.’
“This feeling is horrible. Its burn is unendurable. To entertain this
feeling toward any one, to once suspect a man of lusting after my wife,
was enough to spoil this man forever in my eyes, as if he had been
sprinkled with vitriol. Let me once become jealous of a being, and
nevermore could I re-establish with him simple human relations, and my
eyes flashed when I looked at him.
“As for my wife, so many times had I enveloped her with this moral
vitriol, with this jealous hatred, that she was degraded thereby. In
the periods of this causeless hatred I gradually uncrowned her. I
covered her with shame in my imagination.