Posted by
Horizon on Wednesday, August 27, 2008 1:11:11 AM
The story reminds me of Shakespeare--the one Tolstoy was anxious about (cf. Harold Bloom's "The Anxiety of Influence," but not that I've read it all). Shakespeare early and late. The "master"--let's call him V. for short--hears the "music of the spehere," like Pericles in a late play. Well, not exactly. But he definitely "sees the light" before he dies.
In early Shakespeare we find a merchant, Egeon, and his sons--twins, and their serfs--also twins. The masters and their men. This "comedy of errors" is about the true Master, just as surely as Tolstoy's short story is about the True Master, Christ. (Ironic that Tolstoy does not believe in Confession or Communion, to mention just the tip of the iceberg of his independence and autonomy.) But like Shakespeare in Comedy of Errors Tolstoy comes down on the side of a belief in the Children of God. All men are God's Children (as McCain likes to remind the real conservatives). In the short story, indeed, the master, V, is a merchant--like the Merchant of Venice or like Egeon, the patriarch of The Comedy of Errors. V reaches a point, however, when his business, not to mention his life, is about to be lost. Lost in the Russian snowstorm that in fact does take his life--but not before saving the life of Nikita, his alcoholic slave. I should say, his "recovering alcoholic" slave, the "man" to whom the literal level of the title refers. In the panic of near death, V somehow comes to think of Nikita, his slave, and not just of himself and his urgent business, which business drove him into the night, into the storm, contrary to common sense or any kind of good judgment. In the panic of near death, V's heart is opened to Nikita, his n'er-do-well, formerly drunken servant. Not only that. Tolstoy's genius brings V and Nikita together as twins, as two parts of the "same" identity, i.e., "children of God."
Interesting that alcohol is an issue both in Shakespeare and Tolstoy. More precisely, the dysfunctional family is an issue for both artists. The lie of excessive commercialism is arguably the enveloping action for both The Comedy of Errors and "The Master and Man." Shakespeare sees the development of Modernity right there in his first comedy, the product of his youthful, recently married and becoming-a-father genius-mind. Tolstoy's novella is the product of a seasoned artist at the beginning of the last fifteen years of his long life. Tolstoy, a member of the Alcoholics Anonymous of his time (a so-called "temperance league") at some point went totally on the wagon. At his 70th birthday, his wife would not allow a toast out of a misguided respect for her husband's abstinence from even a token drink. (See the astonishing, classic bio of Tolstoy by the Frenchman whose name I cannot remember.)
The seeds of "Hamlet" are already to be found in "The Comedy of Errors." Infidelity, drink, abuse of human dignity, the question of "mastery" and "masters" and "men." One example: In Errors, as in Hamlet, one person is mistaken for another in a way that leads to injury or death (Polonius is mistaken for Claudius, Hamlet's new and detested step-father; Polonius is killed, however, while Dromio of Syracusa, e.g., in Errors is only beaten unjustly.) In Tolstoy's story, the servant, Nikita, is mistreated badly by Vasili. Nikita lives while V finds "new life." At the end of Hamlet, eight are found dead on the stage. At the end of Errors, all are reconciled and the servants are singled out for their new sense of Human Dignity. The question of Humanity pervades both dramatist and novelist. Strangely, a kind of gnostic Christianity also pervades these made-up stories.
But Tolstoy's "master," Vasili, hears a strange "call" from HIS "master" right before he freezes to death. In responding to this "call," Vasili literally lays down his own life for his slave, Nikita--by using his own furs and body to shelter Nikita, to prevent him from freezing to death. He performs this heroic deed as naturally as breathing and utterly without fear. In fact, he finds himself in an unexpected, profound state of joy and bliss. No more fear. No more cares about "the deal," the business that drove him irrationally into the snow--along with the poor Nikita. I've compared this New Joy experienced by V to the New Bliss felt by Pericles, a character who, like John McCain, confesses his faults. The fact that Shakespeare's Pericles is given the great gift of this "music," this Indescribable Joy, is connected to the fact that Pericles realizes his weakness, his sin. So, in "The Master and Man," the boss realizes the absurdity of his life up till now. He realizes his errors, the many ways in which he has wandered from the truth. And the truth is that his obsession with his titles and status and stuff--well, he finally realizes that he has been living a lie. To make amends, to act on this truth, he finds he must help Nikita, whose plight has moved him, literally moved him out of himself and into, as it were, Nikita. The master is transported into the man; rather, the master is morphed into the man. He stretches himself out, like Jesus did, to identify with, to become one with, to die for, to be an act of self-giving.
Nikita not only continues to live--he flourishes for many, many more years. We have reason to believe that the "serfs" in Shakespeare's comedy will also not only live but live well in their new sense of human dignity. They, in their turn, will become merchants, yes, perhaps they will become merchants and owners--like Vasily did. Like many, in our dysfunctional time, have done and will continue to do. But like the magnificent, "The Merchant of Venice," a play about a merchant, that little play about "errors" teaches us Moderns a lesson in human dignity, a lesson even about the Rights of Man over against the "masters." The oppressors.
An interesting footnote: The "master of the house" in Hamlet, King Claudius, winds up on his knees asking God for forgiveness. Just as Nikita, fearing death, examined his life of drink, of error, so Claudius kneels down (not knowing that Hamlet is nearby and could kill him "in the state of grace"). As Professor Bloom discusses, for all we know, Claudius and Gertrude have been "one flesh" for a long, long time. In fact, Hamlet might even be the son of Claudius. The one thing Hamlet needed to know but does not know, it seems, is that he is a Child of God. Thus, to use one of Bill O'Reilly's favorite words, Hamlet bloviates like crazy. A scholar, an artist, even a "master artist," Hamlet's ignorance of the real calling makes him the most verbose character ever. A true candidate for alcoholism--had he lived.
Students of Shakespeare: Here's a project for you: Compare this theme of "master" and "man" in Tolstoy's "The Master and Man" and Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors."