Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses violence against women, domestic abuse, and suicide.

Pozdnychev is a middle-aged Russian nobleman who murders his wife. He is the novella’s protagonist and functions as a secondary narrator because the main plot of the novella is written in his voice, recounting the events leading up to his wife’s murder. His voice and biased perspective color the narration of all but the framing narrative, and so Tolstoy exhibits his personality as much through the way he describes events as through his actions in the events themselves.

Pozdnychev has a changeable and highly suggestible personality that is prone to mood swings and fits of excessive emotion. His inner turbulence is both a reflection and critique of the upheaval that Russian society was undergoing in the late 19th century. It is also a representation of the force of Sensual Passion as a Corruption of Purity; his capacities for peace and tranquility are marred by his excessive passion. The depth of his suggestibility and the rapidity of his mood swings are particularly evident in the aftermath of hearing

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