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On the Eve · Theme
Gender Roles and Autonomy
How On the Eve develops Gender Roles and Autonomy.
Elena asserts her independence by choosing her own husband and leaving her family, challenging the passive, domestic role expected of women in her society, and embodying a new kind of female agency.
Where it surfaces
- III
Anna Vassilyevna is portrayed as a passive, emotionally fragile wife who endures her husband's infidelity without direct confrontation, illustrating limited female autonomy in 19th-century Russian marriage.
- VI
Elena's independence from her parents and her yearning for a purposeful life challenge the passive feminine ideal of her time.