Love and marriage in Zsigmond Kemény’s novel Özvegy és leánya (The Widow and the Daughter)

Abstract

The interpretation of Kemény’s novels are dominated by readings focusing the dramatic and tragic features of the texts, and this is particularly true of the novel which is the subject of my paper, Özvegy és leánya. The predilection for a dramatic perspective necessarily puts more emphasis on the tragic protagonists. Interpretations reducing the novel to this single aspect, however, ignore those details of the novels which are, in Kemény’s view, their most distinctive features, setting them apart from plays. In my paper I offer an interpretation of the man-woman relationships represented in the novel, focusing not only on the love of Sára Tarnóczy and János Mikes, but also on Mrs Judit Naprádi and Péter Haller, which unfolds in the background of the novel.