From Alexander Ostrovsky to Pussy Riot, Essay Example

A century ago, Russian playwright Alexander Ostrovsky created a series of works that have come to be considered classics in the history of Russian literature. Ostrovsky was known for creating characters and depicting events that were at once realistic and tinged with a satirical edge. In his play “Without a Dowry,” Ostrovsky offers the story of a young Russian woman whose mother schemes to marry her off to the highest bidder, and who is fought over as a commodity by virtually every man she meets. “Dowry” paints a compelling and tragic portrait of a woman whose only options in life appear to be accepting the marriage proposal of one man she does not love or becoming the mistress of another man she does not love. The recent documentary film “Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer” follows the exploits, arrests, and trials of several young Russian women who use performance art as a means of making political and social statements about the nature of contemporary Russian society. Although much has changed in Russia over the last one hundred years, these two works demonstrate that for many Russian women, the expectations and limitations placed on women in a male-dominated society have remained firmly in place.

At the heart of A Cruel Romance is the tale of a young, beautiful woman named Larissa who captures the attention of nearly all the men in her life. As the film begins, Larissa is with her mother on a pier overlooking the Volga River. Moored at the pier is a large steamship waiting to depart. The character of Krandyshev, an officious civil servant, is attempting to convince Larissa to attend a social function with him, but she demurs, telling Karandyshev that she has a previous engagement with the dashing Paratov. As this scene plays out, the reason for the gathering on the pier becomes clear: Larissa’s sister is about to be married off to a “noblemen” whom she does not know. The reluctant bride is in tears, telling her mother that she does not wish to marry this man; her mother dismisses her daughter’s cries, telling her that the groom “loves” her, and that she should consider herself fortunate to be married to someone like him, especially considering that the daughter does not have a dowry to offer her husband-to-be. In “A Punk Prayer,” the audience is presented with a real-life story of three young women who consider themselves political activists and protesters and whose message is in large part a rejection of the social and political patriarchy that dominates the lives of Russians.

In these first few moments of “A Cruel Romance” one of the underpinning themes of the story is firmly established. The notion of finding a husband –especially one that is financially well-off, is central to the lives of women, at least those women who are part of the social class and cultural strata in which Larissa and her sister live. A second theme emerges as a counterbalance to this notion that matrimony is the greatest prize for a woman, as the jealousy Karandyshev feels over Paratov is immediately clear. If the prize for a woman is marriage, the prize for a man is the woman herself. Within moments of Paratov’s arrival at the pier, the two men begin competing for the attention and affection of the beautiful Larissa. It is obvious from the start that Larissa is quite smitten with Paratov; as the object of her affection prepares to leave the wedding party, Karandyshev asks her “can you explain to me why women prefer evil men?” Larissa ignores Karandyshev’s protestations and questions, and she too prepares to leave the party. In a display of chivalry, Paratov wades into a deep puddle near the pier and physically moves Larissa’s waiting horse carriage closer to the edge of the pathway so that Larissa may embark without soiling her dress. Karandyshev can only look on, fuming, as Larissa swoons over Paratov and his swaggering machismo. This display establishes the patriarchal context in which men are powerful and women are submissive and compliant. As the two men compete for the attention of Larissa, she merely observes their actions, and seems to simply expect such behavior. In “A Punk Prayer” the existence of a patriarchal system is equally demonstrated, though the men in “A Punk Prayer” are not competing for the affections of the women in the film; rather, they are angered by and responding to the actions of the women who dared to challenge the patriarchal order.

In a sense, the story told in “A Cruel Romance” is nothing new, and contains themes and elements that have been seen countless times both in historical and contemporary literature and film. The leading man is, of course, physically strong and seemingly heroic, while the leading woman is, by comparison, weak and pliable, and entirely susceptible to the charms of the man who is wooing her. These are not traits that are specific to Russian literature; they are echoed and reflected in innumerable stories from cultures around the world and throughout history. Despite the geographically-specific references in the film, from the Volga River to Larissa’s home in the Russian countryside, the central tale told in A Cruel Romance could be set in virtually any place and any time. This does not detract from the story’s impact; if anything, it merely serves to reinforce how universally woman have been treated as commodities by men, and portrayed as weak and helpless in stories and films. The central male figures in “A Punk Prayer” are also authoritative; we see attorneys for both the prosecution and defense of the three women charged with “disrupting the social order,” as well as the literal Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Chruch and several priests who speak out against the actions of the women from Pussy Riot.

The central conflict in “A Cruel Romance” arises when, after what Larissa believes is a whirlwind romance (and one that she likely hopes will lead to marriage), Paratov leaves town to attend to his business affairs. Larissa sees him boarding the train, but she arrives at the loading dock to late to intercept him. As Larissa laments the loss of Paratov, the various men in her mother’s social circle all maneuver to marry Larissa, offering money and the potential access to social status if her mother can convince Larissa to marry them. Again and again, Larissa is seen as a mere commodity, an object to be bought and sold, to be fought over and fought for. Larissa’s mother takes a willing, active role in this treatment of Larissa, as she tries various schemes to more or less sell her daughter off to the best suitor. In “A Punk Prayer,” the parents of the three young women are interviewed, and while they are less parochial than Larissa’s mother, viewers do get a sense that at least some of these parents are unhappy not just about the way their daughters have been treated, but also by the way their daughters have behaved. When asked to give her thoughts about the protest in the cathedral, the mother of one of the young women says, simply, that it was “not good. Not good at all.”

In many cultures and societies women have literally been treated as property; even when this is more figurative than literal –such as in the case of the character of Larissa- the demands and expectations placed on women have made it all but impossible for many of them to even imagine a life that is not defined by the constructs of a male-dominated society. Larissa is not seen as a tragic figure because of the fact that she lives in a society that places such limitations on women or because she so readily conforms to the expectations that marriage is the ultimate accomplishment and the only goal for women of her time. Instead, she is seen as a tragic figure merely because she fell in love with the wrong man, or because she did not have the opportunity to marry a wonderful man and find the ultimate bliss of married life. The tragedy is that she is young and beautiful, and the object of many men’s desire, yet she does not end up married. Larissa does not choose to be a participant in a patriarchal system; rather, she simply accepts it as the natural order of things. By contrast, the women of Pussy Riot reject the patriarchal order (and reserve particular ire for Putin and his cozy relationship with the Church).

Pussy Riot member Katia discusses her feelings about the government and about the Russian social system in a jailhouse interview, clips of which appear near the beginning of the film. Katia is asked by an offscreen interviewer whether she dreams of finding a husband, getting married, and having children. The interviewer asks this question without a hint of irony, as if he is asking her if she plans to continue eating food or breathing oxygen. It is clear by the way that the question is posed that the interviewer only expects there to be one correct answer, and Katia appears to be unsure whether she should laugh out loud before she provide an answer. “No,” she says, she does not have such dreams. This does not mean that all (or any) of the members of Pussy Riot are opposed to marriage; of the three featured in the film, two are already married, and one is the mother of a young child. In “A Cruel Romance” Larissa has a quite opposite view; she is eager to be married and to both embrace and fulfil her role in the patriarchal order.

What Pussy Riot does oppose, among other things, is the expectation that women must find a husband and get married. Again and again the women speak out and sing out against a patriarchal system that they believe limits their individual freedoms and ultimately, the freedom of the entire nation. “Women must give birth and love” according to the lyrics of one Pussy Riot song, and this attitude is mirrored in the reactions and responses many Russian have to the actions of Pussy Riot. Among the most vocal critics of Pussy Riot, not surprisingly, are the Patriarch and the priests of the Russian Orthodox Church. During scenes where some priests are preparing to attend a protest against Pussy Riot, several of the men speak out about their views. One man notes that “pussy” can mean both “kitty” and “uterus,” while another asserts that the name Pussy Riot can be literally translated to mean “deranged vagina.” One of the men refers to Nadia as a “demon with a brain;” another of them claims that if this had been an earlier time, the members of Pussy Riot would have been burned as witches. “We must be forgiving,” claims one of the priests; “we will use the law to punish them.” It is impossible not to be struck by this statement and to consider that “forgiveness” and “punishment” in this context seem to be diametrically-opposed concepts.

The objectification of women is a recurring theme in both “A Cruel Romance and “A Punk Prayer.” When Karandyshev arrives to try to convince Larissa to be with him, he overhears the conversations between the two family friends who quite literally flip a coin to determine which of them will have the privilege of taking Larissa as a mistress. Karandyshev is enraged by this, and attempts to tell Larissa about it in an effort to make her see him as her only real option. When Karandyshev informs Larissa of the arrangement the two men made, he tells her “they insulted you and they will pay a great price.” To this, Larissa replies “The greatest insult is you playing the role of my protector. I am an object! At long last we know what I am!” Where Larissa had to come to the realization that she was merely an object to the men who fought over her, the women in “A Punk Prayer” are well aware of their objectification, and have engaged in a number of public demonstrations intended to broadcast their dissatisfaction with patriarchy and female objectification. One of the women, Masha, had earlier participated in an act of group sex in a Russian biology museum, for which she and the other participants received a great deal of notoriety. Such actions would have been quite literally unthinkable in Larissa’s time, but in her own way she too rejected the patriarchal order.

In the end, Larissa and the women in “A Punk Prayer” each paid steep prices for their rejection of their objectification. By choosing the site of the Cathedral as the platform for one of their demonstrations, the members of Pussy Riot brought the wrath of the patriarchal Church and also of Putin’s government. They were charged with disrupting the social order, a crime which earned them rather severe prison sentences. There have been some recent news stories indicating that the women of Pussy Riot who were imprisoned may receive amnesty and be released early; even if that is the case, however, they will still have spent a significant amount of time in prison for what was, in the end, a “crime” that caused no real injury to anyone. Larissa paid an even greater price for “disrupting the social order”: for the crime of rejecting her most ardent suitor, she paid with her life. In a classic case of male anger at female rejection, Karandyshev screamed “if I cannot have you, then no one can” before shooting Larissa. As she lay dying, Larissa looked up into the sky and murmured the word, “thank you.” She seemed to be grateful for the release from a system that would never allow her to be anything more than an object, a possession, a “plaything” of the men in her life.

Each of these two films offers insight not only into how a patriarchal system affects women, but also allows viewers to see how such systems are reinforced by all participants. Larissa’s mother functions as an arm of the patriarchy as she negotiates and plots with the various men who show interest in her daughter. Larissa’s mother sees economic potential in marrying off her daughter; in this sense, she too objectifies Larissa. This acceptance and even embrace of the patriarchal system by women is also seen in “A Punk Prayer.” Nowhere is this clearer than in the scenes where the priests from the Russian Orthodox Church organize a protest against Pussy Riot. Tens of thousands of people show up in the square outside the Cathedral, and many of these attendees are women. While there are some in attendance who are there to show support for Pussy Riot, the vast majority of protesters seem to be quite angry about the actions of the young women. The filmmakers interview several women in crowd who speak very clearly about their anger and disgust over the actions of Pussy Riot. It is not only the supposedly anti-religious message that angers so many of the protesters (both male and female) but also seemingly the comfort the women show with their own youth and sexuality. The issue of sexuality is not discussed overtly in “A Cruel Romance,” but it is clear in the film’s conclusion that Karandyshev’s rage is driven in large part by his desire to possess Larissa as a sexual object; he does, in fact, nearly rape her before she escapes his grasp, only to end up shot in the back by him moments later.

In a sense, then, the women of Pussy Riot are still enmeshed in a system that has changed very little over the course of Russian history. Author Lev Sviridov (2012) describes their conviction as just one of many examples of the “collaboration between church and state typical of Russian history, aimed to increase Putin’s power.” In one interview segment in “A Punk Prayer,” the attorneys in charge of prosecuting the women of Pussy Riot scoff at the notion that Putin himself is directing their actions; they refer to such a suggestion as an example of “paranoia.” What they fail to acknowledge –or perhaps even fail to realize- is that even if Putin is not directly pulling their strings from behind the scenes, they are still enforcing the rigid roles assigned to women in Russian society. The various male characters in “A Cruel Romance” seem equally oblivious to their own roles in enforcing such rigid roles for females; when one of the men tells Larissa that he will “take you to Paris with me” to make her his mistress, he sincerely believes that he is doing her a favor. Larissa’s rejection of her assigned role costs her her life, and the rejection of their assigned roles costs the members of Pussy Riot their freedom. If there is any difference between the women of Pussy Riot and Larissa, it is that Larissa sees no way to fight back against the social restrictions that bind her, and in the end she decides to accept the offer of “gold” (meaning, presumably, the offer to be a mistress) is she cannot have “love;” the members of Pussy Riot, by contrast, choose to reject the restrictions of the expectations placed on them entirely.

Despite the changes in culture and technology that allow women like the members of Pussy Riot to speak out in ways that women of Larissa’s generation never could, it is clear that Russian society has largely maintained the expectations for women and their roles in society that have existed for centuries. If anything, the Soviet era was an aberration, and the influence of the Orthodox Church both before and after the Soviet era has served to reinforce a patriarchal system that remains deeply embedded in Russian society. For the crime of singing a punk-rock song in a church as a form of political protest, the members of Pussy Riot were sentenced to several years in Russian prisons. In the last several weeks, Nadia announced a hunger strike, and she was recently sent to a Siberian prison hospital in what can only be seen as retribution for her actions (Reevell, 2013). If there is a lesson to be learned from the Pussy Riot story, it seems to be that there are many more Larissas in Russia than there are Nadias, Mashas, or Katias.

Works Cited

A Cruel Romance. Dir. Eldar Ryazanov. MosFilm, 1984. Film.

BBC. “Storyville: Pussy Riot A Punk Prayer.” YouTube. N.p., 14 Oct. 2013. Web. 1 Dec. 2013.

Reevell, Patrick. “Missing Pussy Riot Inmate at a Tuberculosis Hospital | Music News.” Rolling Stone. N.p., 14 Nov. 2013. Web. 1 Dec. 2013.

Sviridov, L. “Pussy Riot Jailed: Why This is Both a Religious and Political Issue – PolicyMic.” N.p., 17 Aug. 2012. Web. <http://www.policymic.com/articles/13039/pussy-riot-jailed-why-this-is-both-a-religious-and-political-issue>.