Resurrection: To Be Guided by Faith

To Be Guided by Faith

An analysis of Leo Tolstoy’s tone in Resurrection

Redemption is finding solace in other people, letting go of your own desire and living the desires of others. “Hell is yourself and the only redemption is when a person puts himself aside to feel deeply for another person,” Tennessee Williams emphasizes this concept by integrating a religious concept in it as well, implying that heaven— happiness, can be achieved by caring for someone besides yourself. Meanwhile, Prince Nekhlyudov is a wealthy landowner who sees no crime in the relishing of worldly satisfactions, until his past returns to haunt him when he is appointed in the jury at a murder trial. Thus begins the account of desperate redemption of Nekhlyudov thorough easing the fate of the defendant, Katusha Maslova, a woman he had wronged in the past causing her to lead such criminal life. There is no specific point at which a change in Nekhlyudov occurred, but after the encounter at the trial a kind of spiritual self awoke in him. As Nekhlyudov battles within his own self to revive his spiritual identity, his thoughtful narration of the novel contemplates the difficulty of living a moral life in a society where it’s difficult to maintain morality while experiencing life’s satisfactions. Through Nekhlyudov’s thoughts of redemption for his former immoralities, Leo Tolstoy forms a philosophical, condemning tone which preaches the author’s own social and religious ideologies to the readers of this magnificent work of life—and art, and explores the topics of humanity, government and law, and religion.

According to Tolstoy, a certain duality is part of every person’s identity; a person is a spiritual being which cares for the world and everything in it, and yet an “animal man”, that acts only in his own interest. Sometimes, one part overwhelms the other, and dominates a person’s being. At such periods of “mania of self-love, brought on by life in Petersburg and in the army, this animal man ruled supreme and crushed the spiritual man in [Nekhlyudov]. (Tolstoy 58)” It is shown that Nekhlyudov’s once spiritual essence was altered by life in the military and among the worldly society; Tolstoy preaches that this immorality must be avoided. In fact, Tolstoy moralizes that “military life in general deprives men” (Tolstoy 54) and shows how life as an army officer has corrupted Nekhlyudov’s spirituality and caused him to seduce Katusha, who he once was innocently in love with before he was exposed to the materialistic lifestyle. All this is narrated in a very cynical, morose tone that seems to inflict criticism into the reader’s mind of the rich whenever they are mentioned, for they are said to take advantage of everything else, squandering money and wronging the poor, characterized by a “depravity [that] develops into a perfect mania of selfishness” (Tolstoy 55). Tolstoy is spreading a pessimistic view about human society and humanity as he uses this condemning tone to describe how a variety of characters become corrupted by the vice of worldly values. When Nekhlyudov comes back to his hometown after his “rebirth” of the soul towards a higher spiritual good, the town strikes him as incredibly distasteful, and the tone makes the reader disgusted by the worldly practices he witnesses. Tolstoy also gives optimism to Nekhlyudov’s actions of attempting to improve the society by renting his land to the serfs that worked it; they were nearly slaves. However, even he, the protagonist, occasionally doubts his newly spiritual ways, proving that one can never truly cease to exist in one’s “animal” self (after he gives up everything for redemption, a random cluster of thoughts flash through his mind: “I want to live, I want a family, children, I want a human life (471)”), even though he is conscious those are sinful desires without redemption. How Tolstoy probably defines an even greater vice is the corrupt system of government and law, which he depicts to be depriving the world and its people.

There is something very pessimistic and accusing about the tone Tolstoy uses while portraying life under the corrupt government in the 19^th century Russia. “First he robbed everybody, took all the earth, and all rights away from men—took all for himself—killed all those who were against him, and then he wrote laws forbidding to rob and kill. He should have written those laws sooner, (Tolstoy 476)” is said by a rather heretical character in contempt, one rarely found in literature at the time for the radical ideas that accompany him. It almost seems as if Tolstoy himself had voiced his own principles through this character, enforcing the condemning nature of describing law. In the philosophies that are brought out, some are rather anarchistic since the government must use violence to implement laws. However, the corrupt government should not have the power to create these laws in the first place, for “God knows whom to execute, whom to pardon, but we do not know (477)”. While others consider this unorthodox man crazy, Nekhlyudov seems to absorb his words, as the reader is encouraged to through the preaching tone. In fact, in his internal narrative he reaches the same conclusion, saying that “punishment does lessen crime or improve the criminal (Tolstoy 481)”, but only contributes to what it is meant to rebuke; crime. This idea is confusing, dumbfounding—contrary to the ways of the modern society, yet is intriguing. Thus the morose tone turns rather pacifistic and therefore anarchistic as the plot unravels, for more and more incidents involving the injustice of laws and the depravity of government is described. Despite all this, society still exists “not thanks to those lawful criminals who judge and punish others, but because notwithstanding their depraving influence on men still pity and love one another. (Tolstoy 481)” At the allusion to Tolstoy’s nonconformist faith, the tone takes a sudden optimistic twist because after all, humanity can be saved if all cease of violence and love one another—a magnificent conclusion to the novel, one that goes alongside some religious morals yet to be discussed.

A thought-provoking question is raised towards the end of the text; what is the purpose of different religions? The inquiring tone of the narrator once again urges the reader to embrace a certain philosophy. Tolstoy’s view of religion is evident through the tone of the character’s narratives and dialogue, as well as Nekhlyudov’s contemplations about religion. Even though he encourages the belief in Christ, in his novel Tolstoy criticizes the Russian Orthodox Churches and all other Christian churches; he believed their corrupted practices were not true to the original faith that should exist in the human soul. In fact, in one of the characters in the novel, Tolstoy brings out his true conception of Christ; the belief in one’s own, unique God means to believe in Him. Tolstoy gives his own voice to a particular old man, one of the convicts: “I have no kind of faith, because I believe no one—no one but myself, (Tolstoy 456)”, and he said this “quickly and decidedly (Tolstoy 456)”. Devotees of the Orthodox Church must have been shocked and outraged at this untraditional concept of faith. In fact, Tolstoy was excommunicated from the Orthodox Church in 1901, and his later state of existential misery is brought out in his character’s thoughts. “Recalling the monstrous confusion of the life we lead, he distinctly saw what life could be if men could obey these rules [five tenets]; and rapture such as he had long not felt filled his soul. (Tolstoy 482)” He had stressed five particular laws; that one should not hold anger, should not lust, should not take oaths, should not resist evil, and must love his enemies. Throughout the text, Nekhlyudov’s spiritual self constantly abides by these laws, and the reader becomes acquainted with them even before Nekhlyudov reads them from the Gospel on page 482. Acquiring his spiritual self once more, Nekhlyudov loves and pities all human beings, lust that he had previously experienced for Maslova being immoral and foreign to him, and this is shown with a kind of thoughtful, encouraging nature. Tolstoy also thought that stationary religion is superfluous, for only the one true religion is faith in oneself and one’s own God. In fact, blindly following the Orthodox Church is described with a very hopeless tone; evidently, Tolstoy wanted make the reader feel as if simply belonging to the Church or being read the Testaments doesn’t spiritualize a person. For instance, when the Englishman visited the Siberian prison where Maslova was being kept, he gave out and read Testaments to convicts, and Nekhlyudov, who supervised this, felt “weariness and hopelessness (Tolstoy 475)” by the end. From the same chapter, the reader also gets a feeling that faith in the Church is hopeless for improving one’s own self, for “everywhere men—cold, hungry, idle, diseased, degraded, and confined—were shown off like wild beasts” while the Testaments were being spread. Adjectives such as “depressing” and phrases such as “same foul air, same iron hanging between the windows, the same tub at the left of the door” all contribute to the intended pessimistic tone. Contrary to the beginning of the novel where religious ritual is heavily criticized and questions of faith remain desperate according to the tone, the later part of the plot is accompanied by a certain positive outlook on religion, because it becomes clear how identity is revealed with the discovery of true faith. This discovery of one’s own God is what leaps from the pages of Tolstoy’s masterpiece, blinding in its brilliant array of color everything else.

The reader’s insight into Nekhlyudov’s mind as he journeys to seek redemption for the sins he had committed is a journey all by itself, one that constantly attains a different tone as it touches various subjects. The tone used when mentioning the society is often condemning and accusing, and preaching the usual theme of the rich taking advantage of the poor. Whenever Nekhlyudov is faced with the law, a certain pacifist tone takes lead into the internal monologue and even dialogues of the characters, in favor of criticism of the government and promoting an anarchist approach. As for religion, it envelops the entire novel, for it is constantly questioned with a thought-provoking tone that is used by the author to appeal both his ideology to the reader and raise inquiry. Unlike the tones used when dealing with society and law, religion is not always pessimistic, because it is what leads Nekhlyudov to seek redemption and find his own God, which is a meaning of happiness that everyone in the world wants to feel above everything else that’s found on Earth.