In literature a drama genre deserves your attention. Dramas are usually called plays. Every person is made up of two parts: good and evil. Due to life circumstances, the human reveals one or another side of his nature. In drama we can see the full range of emotions : it can be love, jealousy, hatred, fear, etc. The best drama books are full of dialogue. This type of drama is one of the oldest forms of storytelling and has existed almost since the beginning of humanity. Drama genre - these are events that involve a lot of people. People most often suffer in this genre, because they are selfish. People always think to themselves first, they want have a benefit.The Light Shines in Darkness by graf Tolstoy Leo (the best novels to read .txt) đ
- Author: graf Tolstoy Leo
- Performer: -
Book online «The Light Shines in Darkness by graf Tolstoy Leo (the best novels to read .txt) đ». Author graf Tolstoy Leo
MARY IVĂNOVNA. How very Christian!
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH. Yes, it is wrong of me, and I am to blame, but I only want you to put yourself in my place. I mean to say that she has turned from the truth âŠ
MARY IVĂNOVNA. You say, âfrom the truthâ; but other peopleâthe majorityâsay from âan error.â You see VasĂly NikonĂłrovich once thought he was in error, but now has come back to the Church.
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH. That's impossible ââ
MARY IVĂNOVNA. He has written to Lisa! She will show you the letter. That sort of conversion is very unstable. So also in TĂłnya's case; I won't even speak of that fellow Alexander PetrĂłvich, who simply considers it profitable!
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH [getting angry] Well, no matter. I only ask you to understand me. I still consider that truth is truth! All this hurts me very much. And here at home I see a Christmas-tree, a ball, and hundreds of roubles being spent while men are dying of hunger. I cannot live so. Have pity on me, I am worried to death. Let me go! Good-bye.
MARY IVĂNOVNA. If you go, I will go with you. Or if not with you, I will throw myself under the train you leave by; and let them all go to perditionâand Missy and KĂĄtya too. Oh my God, my God. What torture! Why? What for? [Weeps].
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH [at the door] Alexander PetrĂłvich, go home! I am not going. [To his wife] Very well, I will stay. [Takes off his overcoat].
MARY IVĂNOVNA [embracing him] We have not much longer to live. Don't let us spoil everything after twenty-eight years of life together. Well, I'll give no more parties; but do not punish me so.
Enter VĂĄnya and KĂĄtya running.
VĂNYA and KATYA. Mamma, be quickâcome.
MARY IVĂNOVNA. Coming, coming. So let us forgive one another! [Exit with KĂĄtya and VĂĄnya].
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH. A child, a regular child; or a cunning woman? No, a cunning child. Yes, yes. It seems Thou dost not wish me to be Thy servant in this Thy work. Thou wishest me to be humiliated, so that everyone may point his finger at me and say, âHe preaches, but he does not perform.â Well, let them! Thou knowest best what Thou requirest: submission, humility! Ah, if I could but rise to that height!
Enter Lisa.
LISA. Excuse me. I have brought you a letter from VasĂly NikonĂłrovich. It is addressed to me, but he asks me to tell you.
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH. Can it be really true?
LISA. Yes. Shall I read it?
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH. Please do.
LISA [reading] âI write to beg you to communicate this to Nicholas IvĂĄnovich. I greatly regret the error which led me openly to stray from the Holy Orthodox Church, to which I rejoice to have now returned. I hope you and Nicholas IvĂĄnovich will follow the same path. Please forgive me!â
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH. They have tortured him into this, poor fellow. But still it is terrible.
LISA. I also came to tell you that the Princess is here. She came upstairs to me in a dreadfully excited state and is determined to see you. She has just been to see BorĂs. I think you had better not see her. What good can it do for her to see you?
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH. No. Call her in. Evidently this is fated to be a day of dreadful torture.
LISA. Then I'll go and call her. [Exit].
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH [alone] Yesâcould I but remember that life consists only in serving Thee; and that if Thou sendest a trial, it is because Thou holdest me capable of enduring it, and knowest that my strength is equal to it: else it would not be a trial.⊠Father, help meâhelp me to do Thy will.
Enter Princess.
PRINCESS. You receive me? You do me that honour? My respects to you. I don't give you my hand, for I hate you and despise you.
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH. What has happened?
PRINCESS. Just this, that they are moving him to the Disciplinary Battalion; and it is you who are the cause of it.
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH. Princess, if you want anything, tell me what it is; but if you have come here merely to abuse me, you only injure yourself. You cannot offend me, for with my whole heart I sympathise with you and pity you!
PRINCESS. What charity! What exalted Christianity! No, Mr. SarĂœntsov, you cannot deceive me! We know you now. You have ruined my son, but you don't care; and you go giving balls; and your daughterâmy son's betrothedâis to be married and make a good match, that you approve of; while you pretend to lead a simple life, and go carpentering. How repulsive you are to me, with your new-fangled Pharisaism.
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH. Don't excite yourself so, Princess. Tell me what you have come forâsurely it was not simply to scold me?
PRINCESS. Yes, that too! I must find vent for all this accumulated pain. But what I want is this: He is being removed to the Disciplinary Battalion, and I cannot bear it. It is you who have done it. You! You! You!
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH. Not I, but God. And God knows how sorry I am for you. Do not resist this will. He wants to test you. Bear the trial meekly.
PRINCESS. I cannot bear it meekly. My whole life was wrapped up in my son; and you have taken him from me and ruined him. I cannot be calm. I have come to youâit is my last attempt to tell you that you have ruined him and that it is for you to save him. Go and prevail on them to set him free. Go and see the Governor-General, the Emperor, or whom you please. It is your duty to do it. If you don't do it, I know what I shall do. You will have to answer to me for it!
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH. Teach me what to do. I am ready to do anything.
PRINCESS. I again repeat itâyou must save him! If you do notâbeware! Good-bye. [Exit].
Nicholas IvĂĄnovich (alone). Lies down on sofa. Silence. The door opens and the dance music sounds louder. Enter StyĂłpa.
STYĂPA. Papa is not here, come in!
Enter the adults and the children, dancing in couples.
LYĂBA [noticing Nicholas IvĂĄnovich] Ah, you are here. Excuse us.
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH [rising] Never mind. [Exit dancing couples].
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH. VasĂly NikonĂłrovich has recanted. I have ruined BorĂs. LyĂșba is getting married. Can it be that I have been mistaken? Mistaken in believing in Thee? No! Father help me!
Curtain.
Tolstoy left the following notes for a fifth act which was never written.
Disciplinary Battalion. A cell. Prisoners sitting and lying. BorĂs is reading the Gospel and explaining it. A man who has been flogged is brought in. âAh, if there were but a Pugachev[41] to revenge us on such as you.â The Princess bursts in, but is turned out. Conflict with an officer. Prisoners led to prayers. BorĂs sent to the Penitentiary Cell: âHe shall be flogged!â
The Tsar's Cabinet. Cigarettes; jokes; caresses. The Princess is announced. âLet her wait.â Enter petitioners, flattery, then the Princess. Her request is refused. Exit.
Mary IvĂĄnovna talks about illness with the doctor. âHe has changed, has become more gentle, but is dispirited.â Enter Nicholas IvĂĄnovich and speaks to Doctor about the uselessness of treatment. But for his wife's sake he agrees to it. Enter TĂłnya with StyĂłpa. LyĂșba with StarkĂłvsky. Conversation about land. Nicholas IvĂĄnovich tries not to offend them. Exeunt all. Nicholas IvĂĄnovich with Lisa. âI am always in doubt whether I have done right. I have accomplished nothing. BorĂs has perished, VasĂly NikonĂłrovich has recanted. I set an example of weakness. Evidently God does not wish me to be his servant. He has many other servantsâand can accomplish his will without me, and he who realises this is at peace.â Exit Lisa. He prays. The Princess rushes in and shoots him. Everybody comes running into the room. He says he did it himself by accident. He writes a petition to the Emperor. Enter VasĂly NikonĂłrovich with Doukhobors.[42] Dies rejoicing that the fraud of the Church is exposed, and that he has understood the meaning of his life.
This play was begun in the 'eighties, and continued in 1900 and 1902.
END OF âTHE LIGHT SHINES IN DARKNESS.â
[1] I should have considered it all very pretty.
[2] I will tell him the plain fact, my dear.
[3] At the rate things are going.
[4] There is no reason for it to stop.
[5] I should put an end to all these fads.
[6] And plays the bountiful left and right.
[7] We know something about it.
[8] All the rest of it.
[9] He was very nice, and like everybody else.
[10] Everything will be lost.
[11] To take measures.
[12] God helps those who help themselves.
[13] I'll tell him the truth.
[14] But do stop, for heaven's sake. What right have you?
[15] There are limits to human endurance.
[16] Speak of the sun and you see its rays.
[17] Fixed idea.
[18] She scents it from afar.
[19] In Russia the relationships that are set up by marriage debar a marriage between a woman's brother-in-law and her sister.
[20] The princess has her eye on LyĂșba for her son. She is a knowing one, and scents a nice dowry.
[21] One must do her that much justice.
[22] AlĂna is an abbreviation, and a pet name, for AlexĂĄndra.
[23] And you contradicted them.
[24] YefĂm was the peasant who had cut down the tree.
[25] It's too fine spun.
[26] What energy, I do admire her.
[27] Oh, as far as that goes, we are not lacking.
[28] The woman, for all her roughness, is sorry to part from her husband.
[29] People shake hands much more often in Russia than in England, but it is quite unusual to shake hands with a servant, and Nicholas IvĂĄnovich does it in consequence of his belief that all men are brothers.
[30] Father GerĂĄsim is modelled on the lines of the celebrated Father John of Cronstadt.
[31] He knows that the priest is Father GerĂĄsim, but wishes to address him not as a priest, but by his Christian name and patronymic, as one gentleman would usually address another.
[32] Father GerĂĄsim attributes to Pilate what was said by Caiaphas the high priest.
[33] The period of compulsory service for a University graduate would be short in any case.
[34] It is not unusual among Russians for
Comments (0)