Family Happiness by Leo Tolstoy

1569 Words4 Pages

Despite Tolstoy’s intentions of ultimately turning “Family Happiness” into a novel, an intention which one would expect would render any temporary stopping place awkward and convey the wrong idea, the ending of the story is not actually as disjointed or raw as one would perhaps expect of an unfinished work. There is ample suggestion from the beginning of Sergey Mikhaylych and Masha’s relationship that the two lovers do not fully understand each other or themselves, and set expectations for their marriage based on these misunderstandings so that neither character’s expectations can possibly be met. Masha’s eagerness to appear mature enough leads her to put on the affectations of the personality she thinks Sergey is seeking in her, and in doing so she suppresses her own desires by casting them off as childish. Sergey, on the other hand, overestimates the maturity and wisdom of his own feelings by failing to see the distinction between life experience, of which he has a great deal, and romantic experience, of which he has virtually none. He substitutes the former for the latter in his perception of the situation, but in doing so, misconstrues his own desires. These misunderstandings of both themselves and each other are established in the story before the couple marries, and while it is possible for their love to change shape or to end altogether, it is impossible from its beginning for it to maintain its initial passion.

Sergey’s first visit to Pokrovskoe sets up an initial contradiction of his and Masha’s relationship. He immediately sees her eagerness to earn his praise, a trait he finds distasteful and tells her, “I can’t praise a young lady who is alive only when someone is admiring her” (7). As friendly advice, this would seem a sensible warning about the dangers of evaluating oneself by the approval of others, and Masha could choose to take it or disregard it. However, in the context of her budding love for him, it creates an impossible situation for Masha because she is too young still to disregard what others think of her, and it is her very desire to please Sergey that convinces her to cultivate herself. The older narrator realizes this dilemma, remarking that “a very obvious form of affectation took [the place of her concern with her appearance]—an affectation of simplicity, at a time when I could not really be simple” (14).

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