Short Fiction by Leo Tolstoy (book reader for pc TXT) 📕

done in olden times. The lass was grown up and her parents arranged the marriage. So it was done, and is done, among all mankind⁠—Chinese, Hindus, Mohammedans, and among our own working classes; so it is done among at least ninety-nine percent of the human race. Only among one percent or less, among us libertines, has it been discovered that that is not right, and something new has been invented. And what is this novelty? It is that the maidens sit around and the men walk about, as at a bazaar, choosing. And the maidens wait and think, but dare not say: ‘Me, please!’ ‘No, me!’ ‘Not her, but me!’ ‘Look what shoulders and other things I have!’ And we men stroll around and look, and are very pleased. ‘Yes, I know! I won’t be caught!’ They stroll about and look and are very pleased that everything is arranged like that for them. And then in an unguarded moment⁠—snap! He is caught!”

“Then how ought it to be done?” I asked. “Should the woman propose?”

“Oh, I don’t know how; only if there’s to be equality, let it be equality. If they have discovered that prearranged matches are degrading, why this is a thousand times worse! Then the rights and chances were equal, but here the woman is a slave in a bazaar or the bait in a trap. Tell any mother, or the girl herself, the truth, that she is only occupied in catching a husband⁠ ⁠… oh dear! what an insult! Yet they all do it and have nothing else to do. What is so terrible is to see sometimes quite innocent poor young girls engaged on it. And again, if it were but done openly⁠—but it is always done deceitfully. ‘Ah, the origin of species, how interesting!’ ‘Oh, Lily takes such an interest in painting! And will you be going to the exhibition? How instructive!’ And the troika drives, and shows, and symphonies! ‘Oh! how remarkable! My Lily is mad on music.’ ‘And why don’t you share these convictions?’ and boating⁠ ⁠… but their one thought is: ‘take me, take me!’ ‘take my Lily!’ ‘Or try⁠—at least!’ Oh, what an abomination! What falsehood!’ he concluded, finishing his tea and beginning to put away the tea things.

IX

“You know,” he began while packing the tea and sugar into his bag. “The domination of women from which the world suffers all arises from this.”

“What ‘domination of women’?” I asked. “The rights, the legal privileges, are on the man’s side.”

“Yes, yes! That’s just it,” he interrupted me. “That’s just what I want to say. It explains the extraordinary phenomenon that on the one hand woman is reduced to the lowest stage of humiliation, while on the other she dominates. Just like the Jews: as they pay us back for their oppression by a financial domination, so it is with women. ‘Ah, you want us to be traders only⁠—all right, as traders we will dominate you!’ say the Jews. ‘Ah, you want us to be merely objects of sensuality⁠—all right, as objects of sensuality we will enslave you,’ say the women. Woman’s lack of rights arises not from the fact that she must not vote or be a judge⁠—to be occupied with such affairs is no privilege⁠—but from the fact that she is not man’s equal in sexual intercourse and has not the right to use a man or abstain from him as she likes⁠—is not allowed to choose a man at her pleasure instead of being chosen by him. You say that is monstrous. Very well! Then a man must not have those rights either. As it is at present, a woman is deprived of that right while a man has it. And to make up for that right she acts on man’s sensuality, and through his sensuality subdues him so that he only chooses formally, while in reality it is she who chooses. And once she has obtained these means she abuses them and acquires a terrible power over people.”

“But where is this special power?” I inquired.

“Where is it? Why everywhere, in everything! Go round the shops in any big town. There are goods worth millions and you cannot estimate the human labour expended on them, and look whether in nine-tenths of these shops there is anything for the use of men. All the luxuries of life are demanded and maintained by women.

“Count all the factories. An enormous proportion of them produce useless ornaments, carriages, furniture, and trinkets, for women. Millions of people, generations of slaves, perish at hard labour in factories merely to satisfy woman’s caprice. Women, like queens, keep nine-tenths of mankind in bondage to heavy labour. And all because they have been abased and deprived of equal rights with men. And they revenge themselves by acting on our sensuality and catch us in their nets. Yes, it all comes of that.

“Women have made of themselves such an instrument for acting upon our sensuality that a man cannot quietly consort with a woman. As soon as a man approaches a woman he succumbs to her stupefying influence and becomes intoxicated and crazy. I used formerly to feel uncomfortable and uneasy when I saw a lady dressed up for a ball, but now I am simply frightened and plainly see her as something dangerous and illicit. I want to call a policeman and ask for protection from the peril, and demand that the dangerous object be removed and put away.

“Ah, you are laughing!” he shouted at me, “but it is not at all a joke. I am sure a time will come, and perhaps very soon, when people will understand this and will wonder how a society could exist in which actions were permitted which so disturb social tranquillity as those adornments of the body directly evoking sensuality, which we tolerate for women in our society. Why, it’s like setting all sorts of traps along the paths and promenades⁠—it is even worse! Why is gambling forbidden while women in