SOURCE: "Ambiguity and Point of View in Some Novelistic Representations of Jealousy," in Modern Language Notes, Vol. 86, No. 5, October, 1971, pp. 891-909.

In the following excerpt, Ellis identifies sexual jealousy as a major theme of The Kreutzer Sonata, suggesting that it provides the basis for narrative ambiguity which in turn contributes to the coherence of the novella.

When narrative is presented from the point of view of a jealous character a likely consequence is the occurrence of ambiguity regarding certain events in the action. Such ambiguity, deriving from a perspective affected by jealousy, determines meaning in several modern novels, and failure to take it properly into account has not only frustrated the task of interpreting some of these novels, but has also thwarted the appreciation of the possibilities of an important narrative technique. I wish to examine principally two novels: Tolstoy's The Kreutzer Sonata (1889) and Machado de Assis' Dom...