SYMBOLISM AND THE NOVEL
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realistic novel. Referring to Tolstoy's
Anna Karenina,
he writes:
"When Vronsky ... rides his mare to death at the races, breaking
her back by his awkwardness or zeal, his action, unnecessary to the
plot and far from realistic, embodies
his
relationship with Anna."
Here we have a situation, of rare occurrence in Tolstoy, where the
author manipulates events in the interest of a symbolic foreshadowing.
Yet the symbol remains realistic, for horse-racing, as every reader of
the novel knows, is a natural element in the life of the Russian aris–
tocracy. The animal that Vronsky kills clearly belongs in his world.
Its death is brought about by his impetuosity and thoughtlessness.
And in so far as these contribute to Anna's ruin, the episode can as–
sume the functions of a symbol for the relationship between Anna
and Vronsky.
If
we compare this to Henry James's golden bowl with
its mysterious crack, which similarly serves as symbol for the rela–
tionship between two lovers, the difference is at once apparent. The
bowl exists in the novel solely for the sake of its symbolic character,
and by possessing this character it controls the structure of the plot.
Tolstoy's symbol is a possible interpretation of a subordinate event
which the reader can also take at its face value. But a reader who
misses the meaning of James's golden bowl will miss the entire novel.
Only in
The Golden Bowl
do we have symbolism in the full sense
of the term-the symbol as image, expressing the meaning it is meant
to convey in image and not in a causal nexus. For the strange way
in which the bowl is found and bought at the no less strange art
dealer's establishment after all bears merely a semblance of causal
relation to the plot, a semblance that will not stand up under the
slightest scrutiny. And between symbol and meaning, between the
bowl and the relationship of the two lovers, there is no causal nexus
at all but only a mysterious parallel. In addition, the bowl was not
cracked by any of the characters in the novel. It is a motif outside
the realm of reality, with magic powers. Its breaking releases magic
effects, which bring the two lovers together again.
I have called this kind of symbol "transcendent" because here
an image embodies a meaning with which it has no direct connection.
The golden bowl with its crack stands for little Maggie Verver's im–
periled relationship to her princely husband. This kind of transcen–
dent symbol is a belated manifestation of faith, a last faint reflection
of religious convictions, a surviving vestige of magic amid the secu-
