Tolstoy's "Kreutzer Sonata"

Depravity is freeing yourself from the restraint you have with women. 18 The man fell because he followed what he was told by the rest of society and that society felt that what he was doing with women was the natural thing to do. He did not even realize that he had had a fall. 21 A man shows he is a libertine by the way that he looks at a woman, and so he became a libertine. 22 had the man only been eating what he should have he would not have had all the impulses to act as he did with women. It is from a result of the extra calories and energy that he took in and could not use up that he needed to use it with women. 29 The problems in the world all stem from the dominant power of women in the world, despite their lack of formal rights. 31 The strongest passion in life is sexual. It serves as the safety valve. 39 The man with whom his wife had the affair was a musician, but not professional. 69 The man and his wife are in a series of arguements daily when the musician comes to them. The man plays the violin, but badly and the wife still plays and well. The musician and the wife began to talk of music and they made plans to play together. They started to flirt with each other and make as if all they wanted was music. 78 The man could have spoken so that the musician never would have come back again, but instead he made it look as if he was not afraid of the musicaian and invited him over the next day to play. 79 They play together and all this makes the man more jealous and petty becuase he knows the game they are playing because it is the fame he used to play when he was a bachelor. They cannot determine what music to play and so ask him. 82 Especially because of music and the proximity that people must be to each other, men and women, that there is the greatest adultery in the world. One must not be jealous of people when they stand that close to eahother, but...83 They get really mad at each other and he appologizes to her and he tells her that he is jeaolous of the musician, but she tells him that she is only interested in his music. The man sees through her and sees that she is putting on a show of being indignant at the thought and telling that he is nothing. He says that everything went against her including the music. 88 The musician and the wife got together for the show that they were to put on and they played Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata. 89 He tells that people state that music elevates people, but he doesn't believe this. He states that music makes him do and be and feel unnaturally and that this is a bad thing. 90 Music of many kinds has a purpose, in church, miltary, etc., but Beethoven has no purpose and so you don't know what to do with it and the feelings that it brings up. 90 Music is too powerful to put in the hands of anyone, maybe immoral, that will wield it. 91 The man went away on business, but upon hearing that the musician dropped off some music with his wife while he was away, he became incensed and went back home. All the trip he was a rising anger and then when delayed he fortified himself with vodka. He knew what he was going to do and assumed that his wife was having an affair. 101 He comes home and finds that the musician is there and his wife is with him. He gives voice to all of his rage and feels relief from the knowledge that he will be free from her forever. 105 He runs through all possibilities. Are his kids his own? Is she doing it in sight of the children, have they been doing it all along? Is she trying to kill him? 107 He took off his shoes and grabbed a knife and when he caught them sitting close to each other, he gave vent to all his anger that had built up since the last fight they had. He attacked her, but the musician kept him off her, he ran for the M, but she kept him back. He would have run after the M if her were not in his socks - he didn't want to look ridiculous. 110 His madness was reaching a similar crescendo as a song. 111 He chocked, then stabbed her. 111 He went to his study to shoot himself, but fell asleep. Then her sister came and he almost went to her, but he felt foolish because of not having shoes on. 115 He still feels that she is to blame and that she will ask his forgiveness, but doesn't. He wants to ask her forgiveness, but is too cowardly, but does so in the end. Only at the funeral does he understand that he has killed her and that he is wrong. Not wrong to have killed her necessarily, but wrong in having married her or anyone. 118