Genre
Novella
Setting and Context
The end of the XIX century, Russia
Narrator and Point of View
It is first-person narration. There are two narrators – the one unnamed who listens the story of Posdnicheff, and another one Posdnicheff himself, who tells the narrator his story
Tone and Mood
The tone and mood is sad and melancholic, from the very start Posdnicheff states that he is a person who has killed his wife. And since it is known that the story will end with the death the sadness does not decrease.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist is Posdnicheff, but at the same way he is an antagonist, as he is the murderer. Very rare thing in literature when the same person is protagonist and antagonist at the same time, but “the Kreutzer Sonata” is one of such an example in the world literature.
Major Conflict
The main conflict is in wrong attitude to marriage, love and women in particular. Too many issues are developed by the author – absence of sacredness of marriage, delusive ideas about happiness.
Climax
The climax comes when Posdnicheff catches his wife with her lover, and kills her.
Foreshadowing
When Posdnicheff says that he has killed his wife, his statement foreshadows awful events.
Understatement
The solutions for the problems raised by the author are understated: he does not give clear statements as to the ways these problems might be solved. The narration is too ambiguous.
Allusions
The most prominent allusion of the novella is the one to Beethoven’s famous sonata, which acquires symbolic meaning in context.
Imagery
See the Imagery section
Paradox
N/A
Parallelism
Parallelism is used through the entire novella, since Posdnicheff tells events from his past which are integrated with the present.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
“They say that Humanity should annihilate itself to avoid its sufferings” (Humanity is metonymy for people)
Personification
N/A
