# Gender Roles and Autonomy in On the Eve

> Theme guide for On the Eve by Ivan Turgenev.

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](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_eve_se/chapters/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](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_eve_se/chapters/vi): Elena's independence from her parents and her yearning for a purposeful life challenge the passive feminine ideal of her time.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_eve_se/themes/gender_roles_and_autonomy
- Themes index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_eve_se/themes