The Power of Darkness

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The Power of Darkness Russian: Written in , the play's production was forbidden to be produced in Russia until , mainly through the influence of Konstantin Pobedonostsev.

In spite of the ban, the play was unofficially produced and read numerous times. Paperback , pages. Published December 8th by Kessinger Publishing first published January 1st To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about The Power of Darkness , please sign up. Be the first to ask a question about The Power of Darkness. Lists with This Book. Nov 25, Debbie Zapata rated it it was ok Shelves: As usual, I did not know anything beforehand about this play when I picked it for a year-long challenge to read one short work per week.

All I paid attention to was Tolstoy as the author, and knowing that I wanted to read more of his plays. I ended up with two in the same challenge, and what a difference there was between them! The Fruits of Culture was a comedy, but this play was a tragic drama: I cannot say I actually liked it, although I do have to admire Tolstoy's unflinching ability to show human beings at their very worst. Greed, lust, murder, cowardice, incredible selfishness, horrific actions I cannot imagine the reactions this play would have gotten in theaters, I really cannot.

I do think Tolstoy was correct to write a variation for the latter section of Act 4. My edition at Gutenberg says the variation is the scene usually acted on stage, which is a good thing, because the original would surely have ladies fainting all over the theater.

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It was horrible enough to simply read. So what actually happens in this play? And is the supposed redemption at the end really of any value at all? Well, in a nutshell: A confession, and an old man saying God will show mercy. The ending made me angry. The confession is supposed to clear the air, but the other guilty parties did not confess.

So does this redeem the one who does? Am I supposed to think of him as a hero now instead of the spineless worm that he is? Maybe God will show mercy, but I won't. I am too old and cynical.

If a character cannot be a real human being, whether in fiction or in real life, he deserves whatever he gets. Well, anyway, the challenge is done I cheated and have read more than one each week lately so I could finish early and I have read more of Tolstoy. Now all I have to do is get that scene from Act 4 out of my head.

This is no secret from Anisya, but she fears to appeal to the law to strip him of her money. Akim learns the tragic history of the match when he comes for money to buy the horse that Nikita promised him. His son, drunk, returns from town, gives Akim the promised sum and then displays presents he has bought for Akoulina. Anisya berates him for buying the presents with her money, and Akoulina, who has accompanied Nikita, retorts: You wanted to steal it, but couldn't get away with it! You're a bitch who murdered her own husband! Old Akim tosses his gift on the table, leaving with this warning to Nikita: You're stuck fast, Nikita--stuck fast in sin Come to your senses It's the soul that God wants.

Nikita's new affair continues until the following autumn, when a neighboring peasant courts Akoulina. The girl, however, keeps to her house with "pains in the stomach," and gossip moves the prospective bridegroom's father to ask Matryona if there is "something wrong. The father is won over, and Matryona reminds him not to forget her after the wedding--that she has been to much trouble in making the match.

But as the wedding plans are made, Akoulina is furtively delivered of a child. Nikita pleads with Anisya to take it to a foundling hospital to avoid a scandal.

You take that child down cellar and dig a hole. The wedding day comes, but now Nikita, tortured by his sins, avoids the party.

He is trying to hang himself in the barn when Anisya and Matryona come upon him. I'm a lost soul I hear it whimpering--whimpering--all the time!

The Power of Darkness by graf Leo Tolstoy

But when he enters alone he is barefooted, and calls out: Men of the village, are you here? He attempts to hang himself but fails, and finally decides to go before the entire assembly to confess his crimes. The Power of Darkness is a terrible picture of poverty, ignorance and superstition.

To write such a work it is not sufficient to be a creative artist: He understood that the tragedy of the peasants' life is due not to any inherent viciousness but to the power of darkness which permeates their existence from the cradle to the grave. Something heavy is oppressing them -- in the words of Anisya -- weighing them down, something that saps all humanity out of them and drives them into the depths.

The Power of Darkness is a social picture at once appalling and gripping. Let us suppose, for example, you have money, and I, for example, have my land lying fallow; it is spring, and I have no seed; or I have to pay the taxes. So I come to you, and say: I will have the harvest in by St. Mary's Intercession and then I will give it back to you, with a tithe for the accommodation. But this is, so to speak, a wrong done to a peasant. If one forgets God, so to speak, it is not good. So remember what you have done: She has no place to put it in and, being a woman, does not know what to do with it.

So she comes to you: And so you wait. Next summer I come to you once more. But if I have not a blessed thing, and nothing to eat, you make your calculations, seeing that I cannot be skinned, and you say: Now this is called a bank. So it keeps going around.

It is a very clever thing, my friend. This is a nastiness, so to speak. If a peasant, so to speak, were to do it, the peasants would regard it as a sin, so to speak. This is not according to the Law, not according to the Law, so to speak. How can the learned men, so to speak As I look at it, so to speak, there is trouble without money, so to speak, and with money the trouble is double, so to speak. God has commanded to work. But you put the money in the bank, so to speak, and lie down to sleep, and the money will feed you, so to speak, while you are lying.

The Power of Darkness

This is bad -- not according to the Law, so to speak. Not according to the Law? The Law does not trouble people nowadays, my friend.

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All they think about is how to clean out a fellow. Father, listen to me! First of all, Marina, look at me!

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