Tolstoy: His Life and Work - Essay Example

"Art is a human activity having for its purpose the transmission to others of the highest and best feeling to which men have risen" Leo Tolstoy "What is Art", 1897 During the nineteenth century several persons took the leading role in the european literature and were at the head of mental development. The Count Leo Tolstoy became the eminent representative of the literature after such famous writers as Henry Goethe and Victor Hugo. Nowadays this prominent author, novelist, essayist, dramatist and philosopher is known for everyone who likes reading all over the world. Leo Tolstoy was proud being "the pure aristocrat" according to his family tree. The writer's mother was born a Princess Volkonsky and his grandmothers came from the Troubetskoy and Gorchakov princely families. In contrast to other writers of his generation Tolstoy was connected with noble families of Russian aristocracy, who had brilliant French pronunciation and manners. At the same time he was a person full of antagonism. When Leo was nine he became an orphan. Tolstoy's upbringing was in the hands of Madam Egorsky. Having lost the parents Tolstoy became a rather difficult child. He was naughty boy with unexpected deeds, thoughts, ideas, but very kind-hearted (Derrick Leon, 1944, p. 54). Tolstoy began the literary work at the age of twenty. Being so young the author already had the dismissal from today's literary cannon. He always kept in mind the agonizing doubts between the dream and reality. It became the initial question that came through all his creative life. During his whole life Leo Tolstoy kept a diary. In 1852 the strict analisys of himself and surrounding left the bounderies of the diary and became a literary masterpiece. The author wrote his trilogy - "Childhood", "Boyhood" and "Youth". It was a work about different epoches in the life of every person. Up to Tolstoy it was considered that a human beeing was developing from simple level to complicated one. Every next step of his spiritual experience exceeded and canceled the privious one. We grew and our childhood left us forever. Up to Tolstoy the unit of measurement of a literary hero was his complex character. The Russian writer categorically denied such a view point. Beeing a seventy-six year-old man Tolstoy wrote: "If you ask me how I can perceive myself as a child, a youth and a grown-up paying no attention to time, I will answer you that I who combines a child, a young man and a chap is the answer" (Leo Tolstoy, 2005, p. 117). In his first novel "Childhood" he used the facts that he had gone through and the feelings that he felt deeply. In other words it was the spiritual autobiography of the Russian writer. The main hero of the novel was Nikolay Irtenyev. Everyone could see that the hero had a complex character. On the one hand the boy couldn't concentrate his attention on something particular, he wanted everyone to pay attention to him, he was selfish and easily carried away. On the other hand Nikolay was sensitive, shy and wanted to rank high among others. The Count Leo Tolstoy had the same features of character in his childhood. Tolstoy's aunt Yushkina was a very rich and noble madam with wide established relations. The best society of Kazan city enjoyed the time in her house. She dreamt of her famous nephews to become diplomats and aide-de-camp to the Emperor. The aunt was also sure that Leo Tolstoy should have relations with a woman of property and influence. At that time Leo's childhood was over. The second period of his life began. It was adolescence. Under such circumstances the writer changed a lot. Tolstoy wrote the second meaningful novel "Boyhood" where he used a technique of psychological analysis, which was to become his personal literary weapon. The inner world of Nikolay Irtenyev again resembled the inner world of the great writer. Unexpected emotions and almost arbitrary changes of mood reigned in the boy's soul. Dreams poisoned his mind at every opportunity. Causeless tears and irritation told about shattered , too sensible nerves inherited from the forefathers. At the same time his bashfulness compeled to hide deeply in soul all the kindness and clear, pure, new feelings to women. The boy imagined himself foundling or hussal general by terns, he lived by the imagination, forgetting about where he was and who he was. The author was dissatisfied with the appearence, he felt shy because of wide nose and unattractive face. In that period the writer considered that nothing could influence human's life greater then his appearence and attractiveness (Leo Tolstoy, 2005, p. 86). The reasons of such oddity consists of the fact that genius natures could hardly adapt to the terms of earthly existence. They were too tender. Unnoticable blow for an usual man could cause sufferings and pain in their soul, and sensitiveness made them too touchy. Changeable mood so owned them that they constantly represented somebody: both sufferer or melancholic person, or a man despising everything. All of that reflected the moral loneliness of the writer. Analyzing the thoughts of the great author it was possible to understand his state, described in his work "Boyhood". In outward appearence Tolstoy tried to be decent, correct and sociable young man. But in the third novel "Youth" he admitted that he really belonged to aristocracy and ignored "grey mass". His poses and motions were always defiant, expression of eyes was contemptuous, he condescended to the talk with the comrades. In addition he had his own horse and coachman, that arose his enormous proudness. A man who spoke poor French caused hatred at him. Time went, but Leo didn't want to study at the university. The teachers considered him as both unable and unwilling to learn. Students spent all the time in balls, dancing parties, wine, musical evenings, picnics, cards and women. Tolstoy took part in all that amusements, but later on he got tired of such way of life. The writer saw no sense in further education so finally he left the university in the middle of the studying. Tolstoy's thought about large integral work in which would be reflected not only the part of the epoch, but the whole one appeared long time ago still in 50th. His "Childhood" by plan of that time, had to make the first part, "Boyhood" - the second, "Youth" - the third and finally "Mature age" - the fourth part. But only half of the thoughts was realized by the author. Even the third part "Youth" was not finished. He promised to describe the best and happiest time of the life, but didn't do that. Tolstoy had only two large novels "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina". Those masterpieces and other works were translated into a lot of languages and were known all over the world. They were so popular because they showed the misterious dialectics of Russian soul and character. It was his own manner of writing , his individual method of creating heroes of strong personality who sticked in a reader's mind. In his novel 'Resurrection' the author wrote that there was a typical superstition that every person could be only good or only evil, only clever or only foolish but it was not true. We could say that a person was rather good than evil, rather clever than foolish and vise versa. It would be wrong if we said that one person was good and clever and another evil and foolish. But we always devided people in shuch a way. Leo Tolstoy had the other point of view. It was one more reason for choosing him for our discussion. The great Russian writer was convinced that people were like rivers. The water was the same in every river but the river could be narrow or fast, broad or calm, clean or cold etc. So every individual consisted of all human virtues and depending on the situation showed one or another trait of his character (Mirsky, 1985, p. 152). According to Tolstoy a person was very contradictory. Two beginnings - carnal and spiritual, animal and divine fought in him. Such psychological thoughts grew from the main motive of Tolstoy's life and creative work - the aspiration for moral height, self-perfection. Since that time the term "dialectics of soul" firmly attached to the writer. He paid much attention to the soul and to the character. The main motive of his creative work was the testing of the hero on changeability. The human ability to renew, the liveliness and flexibility of a person's inner world and mentality were the main indicator of the moral sensitivity, talents and the cultural level for Tolstoy. If such transformations were impossible in a person Tolstoy's view point towards the world would be ruined and his hopes would be annihilated. Though let us take for example "War and Peace". Tolstoy's favourite heroes were changable in the novel but unloved ones were static. The author showed the ability to improve oneself in Peter and Andrew. They were looking for the true values. Leo Tolstoy was the first who showed the instantaneous changes of his horoes' spiritual conditions. The important principle of psychological analysis was the delineation of his heroes' dreams. Peter saw all his defects and found the decisions in his dreams. Andrew felt the contradictions which influenced his life (Feuer, 1996, p. 203). In the novel "War and Peace" the author also showed his another novelty - the attitude towards history. His contemporaries were sure that the the history of a family was nothing in comperison with the history of the world. Only Tolstoy proved that peaceful ordinary life was more important and colorful than the history because it was the basis and the cradle for the history itself. In comparison with "War and Peace" there were many changes in "Ann Karenina". Even Tolstoy's phrases and syntactic periods became shorter and more vigorous. Artistic thought of the writer moved tensely and resilient and the restraint had a content. The feeling of dramatic reserve and mutual estrangement of heroes appeared. The "dialectics of soul" like a quality characterizing the generous, sensitive attitude towards heroes' life coagulated. In "Ann Karenina" such heartfelt openness and trustfulness was already impossible. It turned into an inevitable dramatic effect. By all the events of the novel Tolstoy proved the great true of evangelic precept about the mystery of marriage, about holiness of conjugal ties. Family without love was dramatic, because there was an absent perceptible communications between husband and wife. But the divorce of a married couple was the most dramatic. For a heartfelt sensitive person it inevitably entailed moral retribution. Tolstoy didn't finish the novel by the death of Ann Karenina. He was conscious that the tragic end of life of the main heroine was a deep disintegration of spiritual values in that modern society, which came to the blind-alley in it's development. The civilization inexorably went to the self-destruction, putting satisfaction of continuously growing material necessities and perceptible pleasures as a purpose of development. Man with avid and hungry eyes was its ideal and pursuiting after pleasures was the way of aristocratic life. Once Leo Tolstoy was asked about the sence of human living. He answered that for him it was enough to know that every moment of his life consisted of the things belonging to his forefathers. Leo Tolstoy considered that he managed to make his 'animal' beginning obedient to his rational part. He showed love towards people and after his passing away he continued living in others. Leo Tolstoy was convinced that every person continued his existing after death. And it was true. The great Russian writer continued his life in his marvelous novels, with his heroes and heroines, in the thoughts of every reader. Contemporaries of the Count Leo Tolstoy paid him much tributes. For example Fyodor Dostoyevsky considered him to be the greates of all living writers. French writer Gustave Flaubert while reading his masterpiece "War and Peace" in translation compared Tolstoy to Shakespeare and said: "What an artist and what a psychologist!" Anton Chekhov often visited Tolstoy in his country estate. He wrote: "When literature possesses a Tolstoy, it is easy and pleasant to be a writer; even when you know you have achieved nothing yourself and are still achieving nothing, this is not as terrible as it might otherwise be, becuse Tolstoy achieves for everyone. What he does serves to justify all the hopes and aspirations invested in literature" (Mirsky, 1985, p. 138). References Derrick Leon. (1944). Tolstoy: His Life and Work. Routledge. Feuer, Kathryn B. (1996). Tolstoy and the Genesis of War and Peace. Cornell University Press. Leo Tolstoy. (2005). Wise Thoughts for Every Day. On God, Love, Spirit and Living a Good Life. Arcade Publishing. Mirsky D. S. (1985). A History of Russian Literature. Northwestern University Press. Read More