Friday, August 21, 2015

In Dostoevsky's "A Christmas Tree and a Wedding," how did Mastakovich marry the little heiress?In Dostoevsky's A Christmas Tree and a Wedding, how...

We are not exactly told how Mastakovich is able to marry
the little girl, but it seems pretty clear.  He is in some way "superior" to the family
of the little girl.  They are rich, but he must still in some way be "better" than
them.  Since this story is written and set in Tsarist Russia, you can assume that he has
a title or that he is in some way politically important.  Because of this, the girl's
family is happy to have him marry their daughter.  So Mastakovich gets to marry her
because of his status and because the girl's family wants to be connected to
him.


To me, the moral is that the society of this time and
place was hopelessly corrupt.  Mastakovich is physically and morally repulsive and yet
he is sought after.  Even though he is horrid, the family is willing and even eager to
have their young daughter marry him.  People of this time are shown as greedy and
unaffected by more human considerations (the girl's parents don't care about her
happiness, for example).

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