Sisterhood, Community, and Power in the "Women's Kingdom" in Anna Karenina
ABSTRACT
This paper explores the intricate dynamics of sisterhood, community, and power within the female realm of Anna Karenina, focusing on a pivotal scene involving Kitty and Levin's domestic space. It argues that while the novel presents the potential for solidarity among women, entrenched social hierarchies and class dynamics often undermine these bonds. Utilizing a comparative literary framework, the study examines how Tolstoy crafts the "women's kingdom" as both a sanctuary and a site of competition, where female characters navigate their identities amidst patriarchal constraints. By analyzing the jam-making scene, the paper reveals how language and social status complicate relationships, as illustrated by the exclusion of Agafya Mikhailovna, the maid, from the intimate exchanges of Kitty and her peers. Drawing on critical perspectives from scholars like Anne Eakin Moss and Devin Conley, it highlights the conflicting impulses for empowerment and the preservation of traditional roles within the domestic sphere. This exploration underscores the broader themes of social change and women's emancipation in 19th-century Russia, demonstrating how Tolstoy's portrayal of female community is marked by both a longing for connection and the realities of class oppression. The essay contributes to the discourse on comparative literature by illuminating the intersections of gender, class, and power within Tolstoy's work, revealing the complexities that shape women's relationships and their quest for agency.
ARTICLE
Chapter Two of Part Six of Anna Karenina opens at Kitty and Levin's estate, during the summer, in a scene in which "the entire company of women are gathered on the terrace"(Tolstoy 553). The women are occupied with jam-making, which is being done not according to Agafya Mikhailovna's traditional way, but through a new method that is being introduced by Kitty. The atmosphere of the scene carries a tense undertone as Kitty, Princess Shcherbatskaya, Dolly, and Agafya Mikhailovna wrestle with the need to control the way the jam should be made. Contrary to many scenes in the book, this is an instance in which there are only women present initially, and all the matters being discussed pertain to the female realm. Nevertheless, the presence of the maid, along with the very nature of the discussion, carries a connotation of social hierarchy that imbalances the seeming safety of the female domain. In a book where the gender spheres are so evidently detached from one another, the possibility of sisterhood and community through female relationships seems to be offered in many ways, but often evaded by other dynamics at play. Such a scene invites the reader to investigate the engines that operate in the gender realm and map out the struggle for power inside and outside the female dimension.
In Anna Karenina, Tolstoy craftily builds a thin, yet palpable, veil that separates the realm of men from that of women. The women in the story are capable of communicating with each other simply by looks and unspoken words, and can often anticipate a friend or sister's emotions well before it surfaces. They rely heavily on their counterparts for a plethora of support that ranges from emotional reassurance, to household work, to saving one's marriage, as illustrated at the very beginning of the book, when Anna Arkadyevna visits Dolly Oblonsky in the wake of the discovery of Stiva's affair. The men, on the other hand, rarely confide in each other and seem to often misjudge or misunderstand their peers. They are never capable of fully gauging how the women in their lives feel and why they behave in a certain way, which infuses the female domain with even more safety and empathy for those who have access to it. Excluded from any say in decision-making outside the home and often misunderstood by their partners, women find in the domestic realm a sanctuary where they are the highest authority and sole judges of what they deem right or wrong: when Levin interrupts the scene on the porch and promptly apologizes for disturbing the "woman's kingdom" (Tolstoy 557), a realm unknown and impenetrable by the men in the book.
In Only Among Women Anne Eakin Moss reflects on the moral value of female community and states that "the portrayal of female character's interrelations plays a special role in delineating the philosophical possibilities and limits of human community and subjectivity in Russian literature and intellectual history"(Moss 23). According to Moss, friendship among women carries the potential to negate egoism and produce empathy, and that is what generates its moral value in Tolstoy's world. Female friendship acts as a safe haven that protects from patriarchal life and its cruelties, which is visible in Anna's friendship with Dolly, and how their relationship morphs as the story progresses. In the beginning, Anna is called to the Oblonsky's house in order to mend the broken trust between Dolly and Stiva. Despite her initial resistance, Dolly opens up to her sister-in-law not only about the infidelity but also about her own sorrows regarding motherhood and her long-lost beauty and youth. Similarly, at the end as pointed out by Moss, the bond of women's friendship is Anna's last hope for salvation during her mad dash around Moscow before her suicide (Moss 98). As she heads towards Dolly's house, Anna plans to confess everything to her friend and ask for her help, a deed that is revealed impossible once she reaches her destination and finds Dolly and Kitty engaged in a conversation about nursing. As Moss puts it, here Anna is excluded "not only from the realm of women's bonds, but from life itself"(Moss 98).
Analyzing the deeper implications of the relationship between women, Moss offers the possibility that "the empathetic connections between women test the possibilities of union at the granular level, in some cases allowing (...) the merger of individuals into some greater whole"(Moss 3). The nineteenth-century intellectual movement of the Slavophilies, which wanted Russia's future development to be based on values derived from the country's early history, and later Russian symbolist ideas, saw the supposed ability of women to erase their individuality as a quality that granted them "special access to a unified community that is associated with the divine and which transcends the human subject"(Moss 3). Women's ability to see the benefit of, and take pleasure in acting on behalf of others offered a possibility of bringing about collective good. As highlighted by Moss, the literary and social critic Chernyshevsky and other radicals of his time saw women as a metaphorical substitute for "the people" in their struggle for equal rights: "In this era of the emancipation of the serfs and women's emancipation (...) the portrayal of relations among women engaged directly with the Enlightenment idea of personhood, progress, and social reform"(Moss 2). Women, then, became a group with a common cause, emblematic of Russia's historical progress"(Moss 28). Tolstoy is thus thought by Moss as presenting ideal women's friendship as a site of resistance to social expectations and an even more important alternative conception of love and foundation for an ethical notion of community (Moss 54,76).
Chapters 7 and 8 of Part Three offer a glimpse into the importance of female community and mutual help through Dolly's experience. Neglected financially and emotionally by her husband when she transfers to the country, Dolly finds herself alone with her children and relies fully on Matryona Filimonovna's help to ensure that the household runs smoothly. The maid "calmed her mistress, assured her that everything would shape up (...) and, without haste or excitement, went into action herself"(Tolstoy 261). Soon there was a "Matryona Filimonvna club" that ensured that the difficulties of life would indeed shape up. A similar dynamic plays out in chapter 8 when, while bathing in the river, Dolly connects with nearby peasant women and thoroughly enjoys their presence as they converse about mundane female subjects such as child labor, illnesses, and their families: "Darya Alexandrovna did not want to part from the women, so interesting was it for her to talk with them, so completely identical were their interests" (Tolstoy 266).
Within the female kingdom, sisterhood is a relevant aspect that is explored by Anna Berman in her book "Siblings in Tolstoy and Dostoevsky." Using siblinghood as a template for all human connection, Berman states that "the consanguineal sibling family becomes the basis for both author's ideals of loving and supportive family base, which in turn can be the basis for a model society" (Berman 8). In the novel, sibling bonds and the kinship network to which they contribute emerge as the strongest source of support among the characters. In Part 2, after Kitty falls ill from her broken heart and Dolly makes a point of visiting her, the sister sees "that at once there was woman's work to be done". She deems going to Kitty and comforting her as "the main thing necessary"(Tolstoy 123). Indeed, after their exchange, the narrator emphasizes the intimate connection between the two characters: "As if tears were the necessary lubricant without which the machine of mutual communication could not work successfully, the two sisters, after these tears, started talking, not about what preoccupied them, but about unrelated things, and yet they understood each other" (125). At the end of the scene, it is decided that Kitty will be moving to her sister's to take care of the children, retreating herself to a refuge where she will be surrounded by love and sheltered from what made her ill.
Berman stresses that, unlike Anna and Stiva's connection, Dolly and Kitty's relies on an emotional bond. The sister-sister bond between Dolly and Kitty is deeper than Anna and Stiva's and relies on the special tenderness Tolstoy believed possible only between women (Berman 87). As women, they share concerns about the domestic sphere, as well as marriage and child-bearing, among others, which ultimately enhances their closeness. Nevertheless, the woman's kingdom also relies on a hierarchical structure, even among members of the same family. In the jam scene, this system is clearly delineated as the two sisters converse with their mother, Princess Shcherbatskaya. The mother is the one giving instructions to the other women on the terrace and she evidently holds the ultimate power over their actions: "It's quite unnecessary for you to do it yourself - and it's hot, she stopped Kitty". Even Dolly, as an established mother and authority figure in her own household, yields to her mother's suggestions as they prepare the jam. Kitty in this scene feels "a special charm in being able to talk with her mother as an equal about these most important things in a woman's life"(554, 555), a sign that, as a newly married wife and soon-to-be mother, Kitty is experiencing firsthand her rise within the hierarchy of womanhood as she goes from daughter to wife and mother.
The power structure in the scene is outlined not only among the Shcherbatsky's, but it also extends to the female society as a whole, as the women turn their discussion to Anna. Anna Arkadyevna chooses not to conform to conventional expectations and therefore is frowned upon by the surrounding society as well as by the female domain in which she once held a high position in, as Princess Shcherbatskaya puts it bluntly: "A fine one to think about! A vile, disgusting woman, quite heartless". Aware of the power structure they exist in, the princess-mother exercises her "motherly supervision of her daughter" (Tolstoy 556) and her societal power to censure Anna's transgressive behavior in the domain of domestic femininity. In the same manner, her actions here as a protective and defensive mother, which were traits attributed to righteous women in 19th century Russia, contrast highly with Anna's conduct towards her children, another facet that shines a light on the unspoken code of conduct of womanhood.
Their reproach of Anna's behavior brings forth the argument that although the woman's realm could potentially operate as an "alternative conception of love and foundation for an ethical notion of community" (Moss 54), there are still rules that need to be followed and a hierarchy that needs to be respected in order for this to "kingdom" to operate. As pointed out by Moss, when Anna is losing her mind and circling around Moscow, her visit to Dolly and thus the bond of women's friendship is Anna's last hope for salvation. This hope is never fulfilled because as she reaches Dolly's house, she does not find the woman alone but instead with Kitty as "the two sisters were having a consultation about nursing" (Tolstoy 758). With these words, Tolstoy himself makes Kitty and Dolly "the sisters" and cuts Anna out of this bond (Berman 111). If sisterhood operates as a microcosm of the women's kingdom, Anna's exclusion because of her deviant behavior presents the case for exclusion within the female domain.
Indeed, Tolstoy allows for this community to be created only in the right circumstances among the right sort of people (Moss 76). The very definition of a kingdom being "a country, state, or territory ruled by a king or queen" establishes the hierarchical nature of this realm. A hierarchy, as a system in which people or groups are ranked one above the other according to status or authority, assumes that in order for someone to be in power there must be someone who holds less or no power at all. While gathered on the terrace, the three aristocratic women discuss the matter of buying clothes for maids as they address direct orders to the servant Agafya Mikhailovna. The scene is relevant because it illustrates the newly risen friction between Agafya Mikhailovna and Kitty since the latter's marriage to Konstantin Levin and thus her attempt to take "the reigns of government"(Tolstoy 486) from the old housekeeper. Dolly, Kitty, and Princess Shcherbatskaya are all women who, despite occasional transgressions, adhere to societal standards and thus navigate their position in the women's sphere with ease, and are rewarded for it. While the two sisters slowly rise to a higher position due to their natural life path, Agafya Mikhailovna, despite her age or knowledge about the domestic sphere, will stay perpetually cemented at the bottom.
Prior to the wedding, Agafya Mikhailovna was the sole female resident of the Levin household and thus had authority over matters of the home. She had always been in charge of making jam according to her method, and considered that "nothing done in the Levin's house could be bad" (553). Nevertheless, as Kitty introduces the "alien Shcherbatsky influence" (Tolstoy 557), the maid is flushed and upset and wrestles with her loss of power within the household she has ruled for years. The very text denounces that the title of "chief adviser on making raspberry jam" has been transferred, as it appears related to Princess Shcherbatskaya and no longer Agafya Mikhailovna. Although the scene on the porch offers a possibility of true community through female bonds, class, and economic status determine in who gets access to power within the domain, suggesting that sisterhood can only be forged among individuals of similar economic status. The book provides room for interpretation in several ways, depending on the ideological lens through which the reader views the interactions. The natural sympathy for Kitty is rooted in her role as a young wife attempting to assert agency and introduce new methods in a traditionally female domain, which can also be seen as a desire for progress and modernity. This perspective resonates with the broader themes of change in Russian society during the period, as Kitty embodies the struggle for women's empowerment within a constrained environment. On the other hand, sympathy for Agafya Mikhailovna emphasizes the entrenched class dynamics that complicate women's solidarity. The housekeeper's traditional knowledge and authority in the kitchen represent a lifetime of experience and respect that Kitty's modern ideas threaten to disrupt.
Perhaps the biggest element of exclusion in the scene stems from the fact that Kitty, Dolly, and Princess Shcherbatskaya choose to speak mostly in French "so that Agafya Mikhailovna would not understand them" (Tolstoy 555). This aspect is thoroughly analyzed by Devin Conley, as the author writes on the use of the French language as a reflection of the superficiality of the Russian aristocracy in the 19th century. Certainly, in Anna Karenina the scenes set in St. Petersburg that depict the aristocracy and their superficial way of life are suffused with French as the main vehicle for communication. Conley states that "while Russian remains the language of intimacy and emotions, French represents the ritualized life of ignorance and falsehood. This linguistic anomaly differentiated the aristocrats from the peasants (the "Russians") and presented a dual cultural identity for Russians of the upper crust"(Conley 2). The language itself is an assertion of superiority within the hierarchy, as only the elite is granted access to this realm of communication.
"As the most sacred part of human identity, language embodies all cultural implications of communication that are necessary for existence" (Conley 16). With Peter the Great's transformations of Russian society, French became the language of refinement and culture, while Russian was reduced to a peasant language. Paradoxically, most refined and cultured Russians could speak only the peasant form of Russian that they had learned from the servants as children (Conley 16), which emphasizes the importance of Agafya Mikhailovna. As Levin's former peasant nurse she signifies an important link in his morality and empathy for the working class, and "even though (or perhaps because) she doesn't speak French, she is favorably portrayed as a beloved mother figure to Levin" (Conley 17). Her relationship to both Levin and Kitty is also evidence of the political and social turmoil that characterized Russia in the second half of the 19th century, as different groups struggled with the notion of freedom and emancipation. After Levin shows his sympathy to the old maid towards the end of the jam scene, Kitty follows his lead and addresses the old maid "with the same feeling" (557), complimenting her pickling abilities and straightening her handkerchief.
In "Love and Slavery: Serfdom, Emancipation, and Family in Tolstoy's Fiction", Anne Hruska analyzes a scene in the novel Childhood by Tolstoy in which a child and a serf experience a moment of tension due to the need for authority. When Natal'ia Savishna punishes Nikolen'ka for spilling water on a tablecloth, the boy asserts his position as her social superior. She writes: "The passage with the tablecloth affirms both the unjust structure of serfdom and its potential as a haven for maternal love (...) Natal'ia Savishna and Nikolen'ka jockey for power within the social hierarchy: grownup over child, serf-holder over serf" (Hruska 631). Although the passage ends with both characters renouncing their attempts to punish each other, the dynamic at play is very similar to that of Kitty and Agafya Mikhailovna, and brings into conversation how the concept of class intersects with the idea of community. Hruska points at how "Anna Karenina is the novel in which Tolstoy examines the most explicitly the relationship between social change and family structure. Emancipation is one of a number of major social changes in the world of Anna Karenina that lead to an overwhelming sense of dissolution that disrupts even the comforting world of maternal love"(637). Although the debate surrounding social change takes place outside the home, its effects trickle down to the realm of domesticity and culminate in such a scene where the women wrestle for power within the household and discuss what the correct manner for gifting maids is. Not being allowed to discuss political matters directly, the jam scene demonstrates how they are still engaged in political thinking as they reflect on the issue of the working class and the nuances of marriage. The scene also illustrates the tension between progress and tradition that is often brought forth by Tolstoy. The friction between Kitty and Agafya highlights the challenges women face in navigating their identities and relationships within patriarchal structures: while the desire for sisterhood and community is present, it is continually undermined by existing hierarchies.
As pointed out by Whiting in "Tolstoy and the Woman Question", the second half of the 19th century in Russia was a time of immense transition: "The issue of emancipation of women (...) arose at a time when Russian society was facing serious moral questions in all aspects of society" (Whiting 17). Although the woman question was certainly not the main focus at the time, it was part of the broader range of issues at play. Intellectuals and liberal politicians were calling for an examination into the justification and fairness of the serf economy, and "freedom, in general, was the rallying cry under which most all else was lumped: serfdom, women, censorship, etc" (Whiting 17). As we see in the book, among the cacophony of voices resounding freedom in Russia in the second half of the 19th century were women themselves. It was believed that a woman's place was in the home, and therefore women should be educated on the nature of domestic duties and responsibilities, which makes the domestic realm their battleground for power. Tolstoy's work in Anna Karenina shows that there was no simple solution to the woman question, and that even the areas where women were given authoritative power were permeated with injustice.
Hruska states that the end of serfdom brought "a lack of clarity that begins to affect not just agriculture, but every aspect of life. Neither fully free, as in England, nor fully unfree, as under serfdom, Russians must renegotiate their position in the social world" (Hruska 638). The new rules are unclear and must be negotiated. Just as agriculture and marriage intersect, so does the struggle for freedom among women and serfs. Towards the end, the scene on the porch is interrupted by Levin, who is met with silence upon answering a question and realizing that the women "had been talking about something that they would not have talked about in his presence" (557). Nevertheless, for a second he "felt that he shared Agafya Mikhailovna's feeling - displeasure that the raspberry jam had been made without water" (557). In the novel, Levin is one of the most flexible thinkers in political and philosophical discussions and the one most deeply concerned with the practical problem of constructing a new social order (Hruska 15). He believes in establishing the right kind of relationship with the workers and longs for a sense of community that would include the peasants, which is demonstrated in his sympathy for the old maid's feelings: "Well, Agafya Mikhailovna, is the jam done? Said Levin, smiling at Agafya Mikhailovna and wishing to cheer her up" (557). It seems significant, then, that in the scene he is the only male character that is allowed, though partially and briefly, into the safety of the female realm.
The lack of clarity of the gentry towards the working class pointed out by Hruska, along with the question of language emphasized by Conley, are two aspects that make themselves known in the behavior of the characters in the jam scene. Although the space in question is one exclusive to women, in which they are free to discuss questions interest them and pertain solely to the female domain, the hierarchy of this system is still ever-present and evident. Princess Shcherbatskaya, a woman who belongs to an older generation and thus is familiar with older and more conservative ways of being, does not sympathize with or even consider Agafya Mikahilovna's experience in the discussion at play and fights to assert her dominance. Kitty on the other hand, perhaps because of her proximity to Levin, senses the maid's discomforts and tries to include her, although her choice to speak French and her position in the social scale will always separate her from the maid. Dolly, although proven herself as sympathetic to servants on previous occasions, does not refer to Agafya Mikhailovna and participates in the hierarchy solely as an aristocratic daughter and older sister.
As cited by Moss, in his didactic essay "What Then Must We Do?" Tolstoy reserves to women the power of "salvation of the people of our world from the evils afflicting them" (Moss 3). Indeed, Anna Karenina offers multiple instances in which the community created among women acts as a domain of protection from the pressures of the outside world, capable of providing women the love and guidance that they long for and are rarely able to find outside of it. Contrary to the men, the female characters go beyond their way to offer help and support and often act aimed at the greater good. Women's friendship offers the women at least the illusion of escape from rationalized life and its cruelties, and this intimacy and connection hold the potential to be seen as a "tiny manifestation of the connection of the individual consciousness to the "consciousness of the entire world" (Moss 60,72). The safety of the female kingdom is offered almost as a manifestation of true community and greater sisterhood, but nonetheless, it is thwarted by the question of class in the wake of the social turmoil of Russia in the second half of the 19th century. Ultimately, the quest for female solidarity is complex and fraught with obstacles, and interlocking oppressions of gender and class complicate the potential for true community. As the discussion surrounding emancipation posed a visible threat to the family structure, the women in the novel, despite occasional sympathy, wrestle with the need to distance themselves from the lower class, which is exemplified in a scene where, although the struggle seems to be about the method of making jam, the real conflict lies a lot deeper than the surface.
WORKS CITED
Tolstoy, L., Pevear, R., & Volokhonsky, L. (2002). Anna Karenina: a novel in eight parts. New York, NY, Penguin Books.
Moss, Anne Eakin. Only among Women: Philosophies of Community in the Russian and Soviet Imagination, 1860-1940. Northwestern University Press, 2020.
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Berman, Anna A. Siblings in Tolstoy and Dostoevsky: The Path to Universal Brotherhood. 2015.
Conley, Devin. French Framing of Anna Karenina: Confused Identities In ..., Illinois Wesleyan University, 16 Apr. 2007, digitalcommons.iwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=intstu_honproj.
Hruska, Anne. “Love and Slavery: Serfdom, Emancipation, and Family in Tolstoy’s Fiction.” The Russian Review, vol. 66, no. 4, 2007, pp. 627–46. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20620635. Accessed 6 May 2024.
Whiting, Jeanna Marie. Tolstoy and the Woman Question. University of South Florida, 2006.