The Bad Sigma

Tolstoy described a stereotypical Sigma in War and Peace

For some reason, a number of men consistently confuse SSH rank with morality. They can’t seem to wrap their heads around the obvious fact that high status men whom men admire and to whom women are attracted often will do very bad things of which they do not approve, despite the fact that criticizing the awful behavior of various celebrities is a regular pastime for people of their judgmental kind.

“He moved with a restrained swagger which would have been ridiculous had he not been so good-looking…”

Neither social rank nor sexual rank have much, if anything, to do with behavior according to any moral system, be it Christian, Buddhist, or Stoic. If anything, the relationship with Christian morals is often inverse, as what the world values is often in direct opposition to that which is of value to the Kingdom of Heaven.

As he does with so many things, Leo Tolstoy provides us with a valuable portrait of one of the worst kinds of Sigma in his portrayal of Anatole Kuragin, who is Hélène Kuragina's wild-living brother who is implied to have had an incestuous affair with his sister, and who tries to seduce and elope with Natasha Rostova despite being secretly married to a Polish woman during his time in the army.

The Castalia Library editions of WAR AND PEACE are sold out.

Kuragin is based on a real man, Anatoly Lvovoich Shostak, who successfully seduced Tatyana Bers, the younger sister of Tolstoy’s wife who was the model for the character of Natasha. In the novel, of course, the seduction is successfully fended off by the fictional Sonya, which appears to be a rare example of Tolstoy indulging himself in wish-fulfillment and history as he wishes it to have been rather than as it actually was.

It has been remarked that Kuragin is described in a level of detail that exceeds that of the novel’s more significant characters. This might suggest that Tolstoy, like so many after him, was fascinated by his encounter with a Sigma; being an astute observer of the human condition, it would make sense for such a relatively unusual individual to be of particular interest to him. While he clearly doesn’t admire or respect Kuragin/Shostak or his behavior, Tolstoy does appear to harbor a certain reluctance to condemn him for what Tolstoy clearly takes as his nature.

Both Kuragin and Dolokhov were at that time notorious among the rakes and scapegraces of Petersburg… As Shinshin had remarked, from the time of his arrival Anatole had turned the heads of the Moscow ladies, especially by the fact that he slighted them and plainly preferred the gypsy girls and French actresses—with the chief of whom, Mademoiselle George, he was said to be on intimate relations. He had never missed a carousal at Danilov's or other Moscow revelers', drank whole nights through, outvying everyone else, and was at all the balls and parties of the best society. There was talk of his intrigues with some of the ladies, and he flirted with a few of them at the balls. But he did not run after the unmarried girls, especially the rich heiresses who were most of them plain. There was a special reason for this, as he had got married two years before—a fact known only to his most intimate friends. At that time while with his regiment in Poland, a Polish landowner of small means had forced him to marry his daughter. Anatole had very soon abandoned his wife and, for a payment which he agreed to send to his father-in-law, had arranged to be free to pass himself off as a bachelor.

Anatole was always content with his position, with himself, and with others. He was instinctively and thoroughly convinced that it was impossible for him to live otherwise than as he did and that he had never in his life done anything base. He was incapable of considering how his actions might affect others or what the consequences of this or that action of his might be. He was convinced that, as a duck is so made that it must live in water, so God had made him such that he must spend thirty thousand rubles a year and always occupy a prominent position in society. He believed this so firmly that others, looking at him, were persuaded of it too and did not refuse him either a leading place in society or money, which he borrowed from anyone and everyone and evidently would not repay.

He was not a gambler, at any rate he did not care about winning. He was not vain. He did not mind what people thought of him. Still less could he be accused of ambition. More than once he had vexed his father by spoiling his own career, and he laughed at distinctions of all kinds. He was not mean, and did not refuse anyone who asked of him. All he cared about was gaiety and women, and as according to his ideas there was nothing dishonorable in these tastes, and he was incapable of considering what the gratification of his tastes entailed for others, he honestly considered himself irreproachable, sincerely despised rogues and bad people, and with a tranquil conscience carried his head high.

Rakes, those male Magdalenes, have a secret feeling of innocence similar to that which female Magdalenes have, based on the same hope of forgiveness. "All will be forgiven her, for she loved much; and all will be forgiven him, for he enjoyed much."

The Sigma always has his mission, and it is of absolutely no concern to him what others might make of it or whether they approve of it. And his lack of interest in what others perceive to be in his self-interest is invariably confusing and sometimes even upsetting to others, especially those who are what passes for being close to a Sigma.

The Sigma is a man on a mission that no one else shares.

Which, of course, is why one tends to inordinately find Sigmas among Man’s most memorable monsters as well as his most well-loved heroes and saints. When Cincinnatus repeatedly refuses a crown and returns to his farm, he is praised. When Kuragin attempts to kidnap and bigamously marry Natasha, he is condemned. But in neither case did the prospective praise, or likelihood of condemnation, enter into the Sigma’s equation.

What I found most interesting about Tolstoy’s portrayal of Kuragin is the way that his dissolute friends helped him despite repeatedly trying to talk him out of it, which implies they knew there was no point in getting in the way of the man on his mission, however stupid, evil, and self-destructive they knew it was bound to be.