In the famous Tolstoy, War and Peace novel, villain Dolochov makes a marriage proposal to dear Sonja. She saves the proposal, but one of my readers wondered if she did well.

Sonja

Sonja is the poor niece of the Rostovs. She was admitted to the family after her parents passed away. She is very beautiful, sweet, and has a strongly developed sense of justice. She is the dearest friend of Natasja and very much in love with Nikolaj. Tolstoy describes her as a promising pussy.

Dolochov

Dolochov is a handsome officer, infamous card player and duelist. He has no money or connections. Most people find him cruel and insensitive. Actually, the only one who does think he has a heart of gold is his mother. It is one of the most enigmatic characters in War and Peace. He seems disappointed in the world and has an excessive need to avenge himself.

Offers

He tells Nikolaj that he sacrifices everything for the people he loves, but we do not see any evidence of that; au contraire: he says to be Nikolaj’s friend, but tries to take his girl away and if that does not work, he punishes Nikolaj for him by 43000 rubles (exactly 43 thousand, because 43 is the sum of Sonja’s and his age) in a card game . This way he ruins the Rostovs financially.

Sonja, however, sacrifices herself: she puts her friendship with Natasja on the line to prevent Natasja from ruining herself by letting Anatole chess. Later she writes a letter to Nikolaj telling him to forget his promise to marry her and that he is free to marry Marja.

Why?

Why did Dolochov want to marry Sonja anyway? I tend to think that he was jealous. In his head, people like Pierre and Nikolaj get everything on a silver platter because they have nobility, connections and money. And for those same reasons they come away with everything. * He understood that Sonja loved Nikolaj and he could not have it.

During the recovery from the injuries he sustained in the duel with Pierre, Nikolaj regularly visits him. Dolochov takes him into trust and tells him that he is looking for “divine purity and devotion” in a woman. He needs a woman who “regenerates, purifies and lifts him to a higher level”. It is technically possible that he saw those qualities in Sonja, but it is equally possible that he tried to win the sympathy of Nikolai.

Anyway, Sonja has certainly done well to reject him. His mother might have been blinded by the love for her child, our Sonja was a sensible girl, who had a flawless sense of good and bad. She involuntarily uses Nikolaj as an excuse, optimistic thinking that Dolochov will at least be happy for his friend. Her euphoric state immediately after the proposal speaks volumes: she has acted correctly.

Better happy alone

In nineteenth-century terms, Dolochov was indeed a good candidate for Sonja. The old countess, who did not yet see a marriage between Sonja and Nikolaj, thought she should have accepted Dolochov’s proposal. But Sonja will never marry and live with Nikolai and Marja together with the countess. As a cat, Tolstoy writes, she had not attached herself to the people, but to the house.

Revenge

And Dolochov and his need for a woman who will improve him? It is not up to anyone to do that, let alone a sweet girl of seventeen. He shows his true character and punishes Nikolaj mercilessly for the love of his niece: first by letting him lose a fortune and later by doing nothing to prevent the tragic death of the little Petja. Tolstoy does not tell us in the epilogue whether he ever found the wife of his dreams.

* at the beginning of War and Peace Dolochov, Pierre and Anatole tie a bear to a policeman and then throw them into the Neva. As a punishment, Dolochov is returned to rank as a soldier. Anatole, who has money and connections, remains an officer. Pierre is a citizen and avoids his punishment because his extremely wealthy father is dying.

Nikolaj also seems to have everything: he is a count, everyone likes him and he comes from a warm, close family. He also enjoys the protection of his name and avoids the penalty of being second in a duel (between Pierre and Dolochov), he even gets a promotion shortly thereafter.

Have you read War and Peace? And do you think Sonja should have married Dolochov?

© Elisabeth van der Meer

Old Russian illustration from War and Peace