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
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NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH. Why?
FATHER GERĂSIM. Because God has placed you in that position. If you wish to be charitable, be charitable by giving away part of your property and by visiting the poor.
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH. But how is it that the rich young man was told that the rich cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven?
FATHER GERĂSIM. It is said, âIf thou wouldest be perfect.â
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH. But I do wish to be perfect. The Gospels say, âBe ye perfect as your Father in Heaven âŠâ
FATHER GERĂSIM. But we have to understand in what connection a thing is said.
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH. I do try to understand, and all that is said in the Sermon on the Mount is plain and comprehensible.
FATHER GERĂSIM. Spiritual pride.
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH. Where is the pride, since it is said that what is hidden from the wise is revealed to babes?
FATHER GERĂSIM. Revealed to the meek, but not to the proud.
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH. But who is proud? I, who consider myself a man like the rest of mankind, and one who therefore must live like the rest by his own labour and as poorly as his brother men, or those who consider themselves to be specially selected sacred people, knowing the whole truth and incapable of error; and who interpret Christ's words their own way?
FATHER GERĂSIM [offended] Pardon me, Nicholas IvĂĄnovich, I did not come here to argue which of us is right, nor to receive an admonition, but I called, at AlexĂĄndra IvĂĄnovna's request, to talk things over with you. But since you know everything better than I do, we had better end our conversation. Only, once again, I must entreat you in God's name to come to your senses. You have gone cruelly astray and are ruining yourself. [Rises].
MARY IVĂNOVNA. Won't you have something to eat?
FATHER GERĂSIM. No, I thank you. [Exit with AlexĂĄndra IvĂĄnovna].
MARY IVĂNOVNA [to young Priest] And what now?
PRIEST. Well, in my opinion, Nicholas IvĂĄnovich spoke the truth, and Father GerĂĄsim produced no argument on his side.
PRINCESS. He was not allowed to speak, and he did not like having a kind of debate with everybody listening. It was his modesty that made him withdraw.
BORĂS. It wasn't modesty at all. All he said was so false. It was evident that he had nothing to say.
PRINCESS. Yes, with your usual instability I see that you are beginning to agree with Nicholas IvĂĄnovich about everything. If you believe such things you ought not to marry.
BORĂS. I only say that truth is truth, and I can't help saying it.
PRINCESS. You of all people should not talk like that.
BORĂS. Why not?
PRINCESS. Because you are poor, and have nothing to give away. However, all this is not our business. [Exit, followed by all except Nicholas IvĂĄnovich and Mary IvĂĄnovna].
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH [sits pondering, then smiles at his own thoughts] Mary! What is all this for? Why did you invite that wretched, erring man? Why do those noisy women and that priest come into our most intimate life? Can we not settle our own affairs?
MARY IVĂNOVNA. What am I to do, if you want to leave the children penniless? That is what I cannot quietly submit to. You know that I am not grasping, and that I want nothing for myself.
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH. I know, I know and believe it. But the misfortune is that you do not trust the truth. I know you see it, but you can't make up your mind to rely on it. You rely neither on the truth nor on me. Yet you trust the crowdâthe Princess and the rest of them.
MARY IVĂNOVNA. I believe in you, I always did; but when you want to let the children go begging âŠ
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH. That means that you do not rely on me. Do you think I have not struggled and have not feared! But afterwards I became convinced that this course is not only possible but obligatory, and that it is the one thing necessary and good for the children themselves. You always say that were it not for the children you would follow me, but I say that if we had no children we might live as we are doing; we should then only be injuring ourselves, but now we are injuring them too.
MARY IVĂNOVNA. But what am I to do, if I don't understand?
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH. And what am I to do? Don't I know why that wretched manâdressed up in his cassock and wearing that crossâwas sent for, and why AlexĂĄndra IvĂĄnovna brought the Notary? You want me to hand the estate over to you, but I can't. You know that I have loved you all the twenty years we have lived together. I love you and wish you well, and therefore cannot sign away the estate to you. If I sign it away at all, it can only be to give it back to those from whom it has been takenâthe peasants. And I can't let things remain as they are, but must give it to them. I'm glad the Notary has come; and I will do it.
MARY IVĂNOVNA. No, that is dreadful! Why this cruelty? Though you think it a sin, still give it to me. [Weeps].
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH. You don't know what you are saying. If I give it to you, I cannot go on living with you; I shall have to go away. I cannot continue to live under these conditions. I shall not be able to look on while the life-blood is squeezed out of the peasants and they are imprisoned, in your name if not in mine. So choose!
MARY IVĂNOVNA. How cruel you are! Is this Christianity? It is harshness! I cannot, after all, live as you want me to. I cannot rob my own children and give everything away to other people; and that is why you want to desert me. Wellâdo so! I see you have ceased loving me, and I even know why.
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH. Very well thenâI will sign; but, Mary, you demand the impossible of me. [Goes to writing-table and signs] You wished it, but I shall not be able to go on living like this.
Curtain.
The scene is laid in Moscow. A large room. In it a carpenter's bench; a table with papers on it; a book-cupboard; a looking-glass and pictures on the wall behind, with some planks leaning in front of them. A Carpenter and Nicholas IvĂĄnovich wearing a carpenter's apron are working at the bench, planing.
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH [takes a board from the vice] Is that all right?
CARPENTER [setting a plane] Not quite, you must do it more boldlyâlike this.
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH. It is easy to say boldly, but I can't manage it.
CARPENTER. But why should your honour trouble to learn to be a carpenter? There are such a lot of us nowadays that we can hardly get a living as it is.
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH [at work again] I'm ashamed to lead an idle life.
CARPENTER. Yours is that kind of position. God has given you property.
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH. That's just where it is. I don't believe that God gave it, but that some of us have taken it, and taken it from our brother men.
CARPENTER [taken aback] That's so! But still you've no need to do this.
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH. I understand that it must seem strange to you that while living in this house where there is such superfluity, I should wish to earn something.
CARPENTER [laughs] No. Everybody knows that gentlefolk want to master everything. Well, now go over it again with the smoothing plane.
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH. You won't believe me and will laugh, but still I must tell you that formerly I was not ashamed to live in this way, but now that I believe in Christ's law, which tells us we are all brothersâI am ashamed to live so.
CARPENTER. If you are ashamed of it, give away your property.
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH. I wanted to, but failed, and gave it to my wife.
CARPENTER. But after all it would not be possible for you to do itâyou are too used to comforts.
[Voice outside the door] Papa, may I come in?
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH. You may, you always may.
Enter LyĂșba.
LYĂBA. Good-day, Jacob!
CARPENTER. Good-day, Miss!
LYĂBA. BorĂs has gone to his regiment. I am afraid of what he may do or say there. What do you think?
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH. What can I think? He will do what is natural to him.
LYĂBA. It is awful. He has such a short time to serve[33] and may go and ruin his whole life.
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH. He did well not to come to see me. He understands that I can't say anything to him but what he knows himself. He told me that he handed in his resignation because he sees that not only is there no more immoral, lawless, cruel and brutal occupation than this one, the object of which is to kill, but also that there is nothing more degrading and mean than to have to submit implicitly to any man of higher rank who happens to come along. He knows all that.
LYĂBA. That's just why I am afraid. He knows that, and may want to take some action.
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH. His conscienceâthe God that dwells within himâwill decide that. Had he come to me I should have given him only one piece of advice: not to do anything in which he is guided by his reason aloneânothing is worse than thatâbut only to act when his whole being demands it. Now I, for instance, wished to act according to Christ's injunction: to leave father, wife and children and to follow Him, and I left home, but how did it end? It ended by my coming back and living with you in luxury in town. Because I was trying to do more than I had strength for, I have landed myself in this degrading and senseless position: I wish to live simply and to work with my hands, but in these surroundings, with lackeys and porters, it seems a kind of affectation. I see that, even now, Jacob NikonĂłrych is laughing at me.
CARPENTER. Why should I laugh? You pay me, and give me my tea. I am grateful to you.
LYĂBA. I wonder if I had not better go to him.
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH. My dear, my darling, I know you find it hard and are frightened, though you should not be so. After all, I am a man who understands life. Nothing evil can happen. All that appears evil really makes one's heart more joyful; only understand that a man who has started on that path will have to choose, and it sometimes happens that God's side and the Devil's weigh so equally that the scales oscillate, and it is then that the great choice has to be made. At that point any interference from outside is terribly dangerous and tormenting. It is as though a man were making such terrible efforts to draw a weight over a ridge that the slightest touch would cause him to break his back.
LYĂBA. Why should he suffer so?
NICHOLAS IVĂNOVICH. That is as though a mother were to ask why she should suffer. There can be no childbirth without suffering, and it is the same in spiritual life. One thing I can tell you. BorĂs is a true Christian, and consequently is free, and if you cannot as yet be like him, or believe in God as he does, then believe in God through him.
MARY IVĂNOVNA [behind door] May
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