The Power of Beauty In the Narrative Works of Anton Chekhov (PDF)

Masterarbeit aus dem Jahr 2013 im Fachbereich Russistik / Slavistik, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: In 2011, Catherine Hakim, a Professor of Sociology from the London Business
School, presented a theory about erotic capital being a fourth personal asset alongside
economic, social and cultural capital. In her book, Hakim demonstrates the economic
and personal advantages of being an attractive person. Professor of Law, Deborah
Rhode, and Professor of Economics, Daniel Hamermesh, also published books entitled
Beauty Bias and Beauty Pays in the same year; the books discuss the advantages and
disadvantages of being beautiful or ugly. Since human beauty has been a critical and
popular subject for centuries, and includes the issues of worshiping or denying beauty,
the cult of ugliness or beauty and the importance or superficiality of beauty, I decided to
investigate the theory of erotic capital in classic Russian literature, specifically the narrative
works of Anton Chekhov. I have chosen 26 short stories with either a female title
character or a woman protagonist.
As many literary works concerning women show their weakness, powerlessness
and desperate situation, my thesis focuses on the advantages of being a woman as well
as why it is a privilege. I analysed the narrative works of Chekhov through the sociological
theories of Catherine Hakim and Pierre Bourdieu, while also using the works of
literary scholars, Mikhail Bachtin and Jurij Lotman.
Following the analysis, I divided all the women characters according to their appearance
into two categories: Ladies and Peasant Women. There were numerous differences
between these categories of women ranging from how they act, look and sound to
how they are treated. If the ladies lived in a world of beauty and love, the peasant women
existed in a world of ugliness and sex. Their level of power over men also differs: the
ladies had more power and privilege, and the men catered to their every whim but the
peasant women were physically and mentally abused, had little influence over men-if
they did, it was mostly sexual-and received no financial reward, even if they possessed
a high level of social and physical attractiveness.
Besides appearance, what distinguishes a lady from a peasant woman is her cultural
capital: the combination of education, intelligence, good manners, an understanding
of art and culture, and ethical values. Only cultural capital makes a lady out of a
peasant woman. [...]