Hawthorne and Tolstoy: Views on the Problem of Women as Evil
In: Illuminating the Dark Side: Evil, Women and the FeminineSearch for other papers by Ekaterina Yasko in
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The theme of the male-female counteraction and the problem of the woman as the bearer of evil in particular are touched upon quite frequently in the works of both Nathaniel Hawthorne and Leo Tolstoy. In perhaps the most vivid in this respect Tolstoy’s works ‘The Devil’ and ‘The Kreutzer Sonata’ the male character by way of destruction of the feminine sensuality and magnetism attempts to free himself of this bodily, carnal bond that tortures him. The same attempt of the male characters in Hawthorne’s works like ‘Rappaccini’s Daughter’ and ‘The Birthmark’ to reduce the complex and mysterious feminine image to the level of their comprehension end with an irreversible failure and, like in case with Beatrice, ruin of the very feminine essence, for the poisonous and threatening proves to be inalienable from the pure and ideal. Analysing the feminine nature in the creative works of these authors we can single out the ‘feminine model’, dual in its essence, since it characterizes the woman as idealized and elevated, yet demonic and corrupt. The idealized side of the woman is subject to male power, while the latter is evidently magnetic and devouring, thus representing a real threat to the male character. This work is aimed at tracing the dichotomy of the representation of the woman image in Hawthorne’s and Tolstoy’s works and exploring the authors’ views on the problem of the perception of woman as the source of evil and sin.