We have Napoleon marching towards Moscow and
Balkonskya family forced to flee.
Maria, lost after the death of her father, and seeking to do anything to avoid the starvation of her serfs opens the last of the grain to them. She opens up everything to them including lodging and food in Moscow in a show of selfless generosity and care for their welfare.
I apologize, but I forget the special name the book uses for this reserve grain. The landlord share? Something like that. Perhaps it is the fact she is offering this particular grain that makes the gift less generous?
Anyway, it goes basically the opposite of how you would think it would. The serfs not only don’t appreciate it, they reject it and get angry with her. They put her under house arrest under circumstances that seem sure to lead to her capture by the French.
Then Nicolai Rostov shows up and beats the crap out of several serfs, imprisons some, and they seemingly snap out of it and do the right thing.
I feel like I’m missing something here. Is Tolstoy’s message here that serfs are stupid and act contrary to their own interests and need to be manhandled into obedience to do the right thing, essentially supporting the rigid class structure in place? I understand there is also the undertone that they are considering defecting to the French as well seeking better treatment. But this doesn’t seem enough on its own to explain their reaction to her seemingly selfless gift.
My recollection is that Anna Karenina is set after the emancipation of the serfs, and I don’t recall thinking that it took so critical a view of the serfs (although I could be just not remembering). I do recall that the recent emancipation of the serfs was depicted in a way that it was causing issues in society in Anna K.
Is there more going on here I don’t understand? Some context that would make it make sense? As an aside I have been spoiled on several points just looking for context, so I am hesitant to just google it.
by The__Imp