Masha Character Analysis

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To compensate for his lack of exposure to romantic relationships, Sergey displays extremely dominating and pretentious behaviour in his interactions with Masha. Masha, aware that “Most of my former tastes and habits did not please him,” (Tolstoy, 11) practiced and refined skills just to appease Sergey’s haughty air. Instead of loving Masha for her soul and the person she was, Sergey pushes and pulls at her appearance, talents, and emotions. Masha describes Sergey as having “contempt” for her personal appearance, even laughing when others flatter her. When she plays piano poorly, Sergey chastises her rudely -- Masha, in her childishness, interprets this abuse as constructive criticism between adults. Through further interaction, Masha thinks …show more content…
Masha is just a puppet obsessively displaying Sergey’s interests and refinements. Instead of loving Masha for who she is, Sergey loves the Masha he builds -- he loves an extension of himself. Simply, Sergey loves Masha because Masha loves him. In no facet of their relationship does pure love exist. Additionally, her total relinquishment of her individuality and obsession with Sergey is not indicative of young love or selflessness, it is another sign of her immaturity. Even in the throes of love, a woman should not feel that “every thought was his thought, and every feeling was his feeling” (Tolstoy, 13). Masha’s love is adolescent and unhealthy, not sweet. Subsequently, Tolstoy cannot expect a relationship constructed of projection, manipulation, and selfishness to hold up to the test of …show more content…
Sergey and Masha are representative of nothing other than the despair false love can create. The novel’s driving theme of deception, the characters’ actions, and the couple 's respective ideals prove their shortcomings as a pair. Tolstoy injected his own failed romance with Valeria Arsevena into Family Happiness and made sweeping pretenses about love and married life. In reality, Tolstoy got one thing correct, all happy families are alike -- they are alike because the happy family is built on a foundation of true, mutual, and respectful love between

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