Domesticity and Captivity: Images in “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk”
The first domestic image that emerges in the story appears when Katerina gives her hand to Sergei so that she can prove that she is as strong as she says she is. When he takes her hand, she cries “Ouch! Let go my ring—you’re hurting me!” (Leskov 8). At this point, the affair has not yet started, but she still experiences physical pain when Sergei grabs her wedding ring. This is a powerful image, as it foreshadows Sergei’s interference with Katerina’s marriage and the pain that she will later experience because of Sergei. Once Sergei fully infiltrates her marriage and she has fallen in love with him, Boris finds out and threatens to tell Zinovy of the affair and to send Sergei to prison. In order to protect herself and Sergei, Katerina murders Boris and later Zinovy and Zinovy’s heir as well. After she and Sergei are convicted of the three murders and sent into exile, Sergei cheats on Katerina and she is so deeply hurt that she kills both herself and his mistress. All of this tragedy is brought about by Katerina and Sergei’s affair. Had they never met and engaged in their affair, this chaos would not have happened, as she would have had no need to protect him or herself from her father-in-law and her husband.
Moreover, the ring symbolizes Katerina’s marriage to Zinovy. This ring not only entraps her finger but is also a physical manifestation of her legal bond to her husband. It is this bond that hurts Katerina by removing any sense of independence that she may have felt before her marriage. The fact that Sergei violently grabs the ring shows that he too will restrict her freedom; however, the two never marry after her husband’s death. In spite of the fact that Sergei does not give Katerina a ring, he still limits her autonomy because he regularly manipulates her. For instance, Sergei persuades Katerina to give him her stockings so that he can give them to Sonetka. When she realizes this, she spits at him and he pays two men to beat her, leaving her in immense pain: “The hurt she suffered was beyond all measure; nor was there any measure to the fury now seething in her heart” (58). This coercion and the beating that follows show that there is a direct relationship between Sergei’s manipulations and the pain that Katerina experiences, whether that pain is physical or emotional. The violence in this exchange connects to the grabbing of her ring, as it shows that the foreshadowed pain has come to fruition thanks to Sergei’s manipulations. This demonstrates that no matter how much autonomy she may think she has, she is still confined by her relationships with men, whether it be her marriage or her affair. Therefore, the pain she experiences when Sergei grabs her wedding ring serves as a reminder of her captivity and foreshadows the pain that their affair will bring about.
When Katerina and Sergei first begin their affair, the image of her husband’s watch emerges. The watch is a significant symbol, as it represents the cyclical nature of Katerina’s domestic life and how she is trapped by the monotony she associates with her lack of autonomy. While Katerina has been trapped in this domestic cycle, Zinovy has been working. As a man in a patriarchal society, Zinovy has the autonomy to work and leave home whenever he pleases; Katerina does not experience this same level of freedom. To attempt to break free from her monotonous life, she begins her affair with Sergei. While they are together, “silence set[s] in, broken only by regular ticking from a pocket watch, hanging above the bed, which belonged to Katerina Lvovna’s husband; but that changed nothing” (12). Like Katerina’s wedding ring, her husband’s watch serves as a reminder that she does not have full autonomy. At this moment where she feels as though she has agency, her husband’s watch hangs above her, reminding her of the oppressive, patriarchal force that has stripped her of her independence. Katerina being physically below the watch serves as a reminder that in society, she is placed below her husband, which results in her loss of independence and her feelings of captivity. Furthermore, the ticking watch interrupting Katerina and Sergei’s silence evokes the feeling that their time is running out. This foreshadowing comes to fruition a week later when Boris catches Sergei climbing out of Katerina’s window, resulting in Katerina’s decision to murder her father-in-law. The watch makes another appearance when Zinovy returns to their home. While Zinovy begins to piece together his wife’s affair, Katerina finds him “kneeling on top of the coverlet… [and] hanging his silver watch with its bead chain above the head of the bed” (28). By returning home and immediately positioning his watch at the head of the bed, Zinovy makes it known that he knows about her affair, as the watch represents his presence looming over her and him watching over her, seeing as he already knows about her affair. However, the whereabouts of Zinovy’s watch are inconsistent in the text: when Katerina and Sergei first begin their affair, it hangs at the head of the bed, but Zinovy again places it there after returning home. This shows that while her affair may have given Katerina the illusion of freedom from her marriage, she has still been trapped despite the fact that she has tried to gain more agency. It also shows that Zinovy is reinstating his position as the head of the house, as he places his watch so that it can hang above Katerina, which reinforces the idea that he is above her. This oppressive structure is what holds Katerina captive in her own home: she will never have autonomy or as much agency as her husband.
In addition to Katerina’s wedding ring and Zinovy’s watch, the samovar also serves as an image that reinforces the idea that Katerina is held captive by her domesticity. One morning while Katerina and Sergei are laying in bed, “the cook [comes] and [knocks] at the door. ‘The samovar under the apple tree’s going cold,’ she said” (16). The samovar, which families commonly gather around, serves as an interruption to the time Katerina and Sergei are spending with each other and a reminder that Katerina has domestic obligations to her husband. The samovar going cold is representative of the coldness of Katerina’s marriage, as the previous night with Sergei, “the heat was unbearable, her face streamed with sweat, and her breathing was hot and laboured” (16). The juxtaposition of these two temperatures shows the stark contrast between Katerina’s relationships with Zinovy and Sergei. Her relationship with Zinovy was cold and loveless, whereas her relationship with Sergei can be categorized by its fiery passion. These temperatures are extremes and both cause her pain, as she feels like a prisoner in her marriage and Sergei hurts her so deeply that she kills herself. Moreover, when Zinovy comes home, Katerina offers to heat the samovar, to which her husband replies “Why bother? Just call Aksinya” (27). Instead of calling Aksinya, the cook, Katerina heats the samovar herself. This shows that during the time that Katerina has spent with Sergei apart from her husband, she has a newfound false sense of agency and independence. After Katerina and Sergei kill Zinovy, she scrubs his blood off the floor and “the water had not yet gone cold in the samovar from which the master of the house had been warming his soul with poisoned tea, and she was able to wash away the blood completely” (33). Katerina choosing to poison the tea that she served her husband shows her growing sense of autonomy and that she is ready and willing to take measures to ensure that she is no longer held captive in her domesticity.
While all these domestic images show how Katerina feels trapped in her marriage and in her life, the image of her window gives her a view of the autonomy she longs for. The window allows her to look outside of her home and her marriage, thereby giving her a glimpse of the autonomy that others have. For instance, when she decides to take the walk that results in her first meeting with Sergei, she is sitting by the window in her attic. She looks outside and sees “all the different birds fluttering from bough to bough of the fruit trees” (6). The image of these birds flying freely symbolizes the freedom that Katerina yearns for, but she can only see this freedom through her window. The window shows how limited she is, as she can see freedom but she herself cannot attain it. It is while she is sitting at her window that she decides to go outside, leading to her first interaction with Sergei. After this initial interaction, Katerina “dined early, went up to her attic, and opened the window” (9). After opening the window, she talks to Sergei, who is standing below. Like the birds, Sergei is a figure who has autonomy and the freedom to do as he pleases. He is an unmarried man and can engage in their affair without worrying about being held accountable by a spouse or by patriarchal standards. Sergei has the autonomy that Katerina so desperately hopes for, and she mistakenly believes that she has agency in her relationship with him. While Katerina may associate Sergei with her autonomy, he does not give her the freedom that she believes he does. As they begin their affair, Sergei “[pulls] his young mistress away from the window” (12). By pulling her away from the window, Sergei is pulling her away from the autonomy that she desires and has symbolically seen outside. This shows that he muddles her perception of autonomy, allowing her to believe that she has agency when she is being manipulated by him.
The domestic images that appear throughout the story serve as a reminder of Katerina’s lack of agency and autonomy, which results in her feelings of captivity in her life with her husband and father-in-law. She is unhappy with her domestic life because she had no choice other than to accept her husband’s marriage proposal. She came from a lower class, in which she had less standing financially but a greater sense of independence. This sense of independence was lost once she married Zinovy because she was expected to stay in her house and lead a domestic life in spite of the fact that she gained a higher financial standing. When she begins her affair, she feels that she has more autonomy with Sergei, but he, too, strips her of her autonomy through his manipulations. Through these relationships, Katerina’s lack of autonomy comments on Russian society and patriarchal societies in general. Katerina can never gain autonomy because her standing is dependent on her relationships with men. Because of this, domesticity holds women like Katerina hostage in their own homes because they are lacking agency; however, domesticity itself does not trap women. When women are given a choice and actively choose to live a domestic life in which they uphold the traditional female role in the home, they still have autonomy because they are choosing how they want to live. However, women like Katerina are stripped of their agency and forced into domesticity, which leads to them being held captive in their own homes. Ergo, the text argues that it is a lack of autonomy that holds women captive in domestic settings, not domesticity itself. Katerina is a victim of the patriarchal society she lives in and every murder she commits, including taking her own life, is an attempt to gain autonomy and break free from the constraints of her relationships with men; however, in a society where men hold power over women, women can never break free of these bonds.
Bibliography
The domestic images that appear throughout the story serve as a reminder of Katerina’s lack of agency and autonomy, which results in her feelings of captivity in her life with her husband and father-in-law. She is unhappy with her domestic life because she had no choice other than to accept her husband’s marriage proposal. She came from a lower class, in which she had less standing financially but a greater sense of independence. This sense of independence was lost once she married Zinovy because she was expected to stay in her house and lead a domestic life in spite of the fact that she gained a higher financial standing. When she begins her affair, she feels that she has more autonomy with Sergei, but he, too, strips her of her autonomy through his manipulations. Through these relationships, Katerina’s lack of autonomy comments on Russian society and patriarchal societies in general. Katerina can never gain autonomy because her standing is dependent on her relationships with men. Because of this, domesticity holds women like Katerina hostage in their own homes because they are lacking agency; however, domesticity itself does not trap women. When women are given a choice and actively choose to live a domestic life in which they uphold the traditional female role in the home, they still have autonomy because they are choosing how they want to live. However, women like Katerina are stripped of their agency and forced into domesticity, which leads to them being held captive in their own homes. Ergo, the text argues that it is a lack of autonomy that holds women captive in domestic settings, not domesticity itself. Katerina is a victim of the patriarchal society she lives in and every murder she commits, including taking her own life, is an attempt to gain autonomy and break free from the constraints of her relationships with men; however, in a society where men hold power over women, women can never break free of these bonds.
Bibliography
Leskov, Nikolai. Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk: A Sketch. Translated by Robert Chandler, Hesperus Press Limited, 2003.
