TBK: Symbols of Power

K. O’Donnell

CLT 361

Prompt 3

Create a list of instances of power in the text. Then, discuss in several paragraphs who has power over whom does the entity have power, where the power comes from, what conflicts of power occur, and how power is used (with justice,manipulatively,etc.)

·      Aristocracy- marriage into aristocracy

Fyodor Pavlovich started with next to nothing and sought out to marry and enter a well-to do family

p.8 “To squeeze into a good family and get a dowry was tempting indeed. As for mutual love, it seems there never was any either on the bride’s part or on his own, despite the beauty of Adelaida Ivanovna.

P 13 His second marriage to Sofia Ivanovna –she was a young orphan who grew up in  a rich house of her benefactress, mistress, and tormentress, an aristocratic old lady, the widow of General Vorokhov.

·      Power from capital possession

p.12-13 “Fyodor Pavlovich, though he led a wild, drunken, and debauched life, still never stopped investing his capital, and always managed his deals successfully..”

·      Adelaida held power not only by her Aristocratic social status

p.9 “It is well known that there were frequent fights between husband and wife, but according to tradition it was not Fyodor Pavlovich who did the beating but Adelaida, a hot-tempered lady, bold, dark skinned,impatient, and endowed with remarkable physical strength”

·      Ownership of Land denoted power

·      Fyodor held power over Sofia because she lacked independence

p.13 “Most likely she would not have married him for anything is she had learned more about him in time. But she lived in another province, and what could a sixteen-year-old girl understand except that she would rather drown herself than stay with her benefactress. So the poor girl traded a benefactress for a benefactor.”

Fyodor held the power in the relationship with Sofia because he manipulated her and prided himself on “saving her from the noose”

He would take advantage of the power he held over her and would even have orgies in the house in front of her.

This mistreatment eventually led to her emotional/mental disturbance…

·      Ivan Fyodorovich obtained ‘fame power’ ‘star power’ by being published in one of the big newspapers

I think much of the power from the reading thus far has been from monetary wealth , social standing and the act of “obtaining power from others”.

As manipulative as Fyodor was, he would have never been satisfied with his first wife because she ultimately held a certain power over him. The fact that he married a second wife who was in no means as strong and bold as a character as Adalaida was, he was able to have dominance over someone and feed his sick ego. I feel like the fact that he was not receiving any wealth, inheritance from the second marriage, made him have more of a reason to manipulate Sofia and gather power from that situation by other means, ultimately by knocking her down even farther than she initially was and taking advantage of the fact that she was submissive to him.