Utopian Society in Tolstoy’s Resurrection1

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1、Utopian Society in Tolstoys Resurrection论复活中托尔斯泰思想中的乌托邦式社会Utopian Society in Tolstoys Resurrection第 11 页 共 11 页ContentsAbstract.1Key Words.1I. Introduction2II. General Theme of Tolstoys Works.4III. The Writing Background .5IV. A Brief Introduction to Resurrection.61. The story.62. The resurrection o

2、f Nekhlyudov and Maslova.73. Main Reason for the Tragedy.8V. Introduction to Tolstoys Mind.81. The bases for Tolstoys mind.82. Non-resistance to violence.93. The infeasibility of his mind.9VI. The Differences between His Mind and Our Legal System.91. The function of law and legal system.92. The adva

3、ntages and disadvantages of his theory.10VII. Conclusion.11References.11Utopian Society in Tolstoys ResurrectionAbstract: Leo Tolstoy is one of the greatest writers in Russia history. At the same time, he was regarded as a mirror of Russia Revolution and the spokesman of the peasants. He contributed

4、 all his life to figure out a way to solve the contradictions between different social classes, and at last he formed a unique theory about non-resistance to violence to improve the society. His theory was progressive at that time, but also has some limitations. The author will analyze the advantage

5、s and disadvantages of his theory and its relationship with law and legal system, and will also prove its infeasibility in that social background. That is, his way of solving social problem was Utopian.Key words: Class contradiction; infeasibility; legal system摘要：列夫.托尔斯泰被认为是俄国文学史上最伟大的文学家之一，同时也被认为是俄国

6、革命的镜子和中下贫民的代言人。他一生致力于解决地主阶级与农民及农奴的矛盾。他最终形成了不抵抗去获得社会改良的思想。他的思想在当时是进步的，但是同时也具有一定的历史局限性。该论文作者主要就其思想的积极因素，消极因素与现代法制的关系进行辩证的分析，并证明其思想在当时社会条件下的不可行性。既列夫.托尔斯泰关于解决当时社会矛盾的理论思想是乌托邦式的。关键词：阶级矛盾；不可行性；法制体系；I. Introduction to TolstoyLeo Tolstoy is one of the greatest writers in Russia history. He was born on 28 Aug

7、ust 1828 into a long line of Russian nobility. He was the fourth child of Countess Maria Volkonsky (who Tolstoy does not remember, as she died after giving birth to his sister Mariya in 1830) and Count Nicolay Ilyich Tolstoy (1797-1837) . His mother died when he was just 2 years old, after his mothe

8、r died, the Counts distant cousin Tatyana Aleksandrovna Yergolskaya Aunt Tatyana, who already lived with them helped him in running the household, raising the children and overseeing their tutoring. By the time Leo was born, the Tolstoy fortunes had dwindled and the newlyweds settled at the Volkonsk

9、y family estate Yasnaya Polyana (meaning Clear Glade) located in Tula Region, Shchekino District of central Russia., which Leos maternal great grandfather Prince Nikolas Sergeyevich Volkonsky had established in the early 1800s, upon his death his daughter Countess Volkonsky inherited it. Upon there

10、Leo had a great time with father and aunts. From Leos Introduction to biographer Paul Birukoff, we gather the very clear and fond memories he had of his early years and his loved ones:” my father never humbled himself before any one, nor altered his brisk, merry, and often chaffing tone”. Count Tols

11、toy was a gentle, easy going man. Quick to tell a joke, he was reluctant to use corporal punishment that was so common at the time to the hundreds of serfs on their estate. He disliked wolf-baiting and fox-hunting, preferring to ride in the fields and forests, or walking with his children and their

12、pack of romping greyhounds. Leo recounts outings with his siblings, friends, and paternal grandmother Pelageya Nikolayevna Tolstoy (d.1838) to pick hazelnuts; she seemed a dreamy magical figure to him. Sometimes he spent the evening in her bedroom while their blind story-teller Lev Stepanovich narra

13、ted lengthy, enchanting tales. The Tolstoy House was a bustling household, often with extended family members and friends visiting for dinner or staying for days at a time. The children and adults played Patience, the piano, put on plays, sang Russian and Gypsy folk songs and read stories and poetry

14、 aloud. A voracious reader, Leo would visit his father in his study as he read and smoked his pipe. Sometimes the Count would have young Leo recite memorised passages from Alexander Pushkin. The family home still contains the library of over twenty thousand books in over thirty languages. When not i

15、ndoors, there was no shortage of outdoor activities for the children: tobogganing in winter, horseback riding, playing in the orchards, forests, formal gardens, greenhouses and bathing in the large pond which Leo loved to do all his life . In 1937 Tolstoys father died suddenly and Leo had a hard tim

16、e accepting this inevitability of life. Despite the pall of death, loss of innocence and upheavals in living arrangements, Leo started preparations for the entrance examinations to Kazan University, wanting to enter the faculty of Oriental languages. He studied Arabic, Turkish, Latin, German, Englis

17、h, and French, and geography, history, and religion. He also began in earnest studying the literary works of English, Russian and French authors including Charles Dickens, Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol, Mikhail Lermontov, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Laurence Sterne, Friedrich Schiller, and Francois-Marie Aro

18、uet Voltaire. From these introduction we can see that Leo Tolstoy had a happy childhood and he had formed a good habit of studying, and this laid a solid foundation for his latter success. But his boyhood was not as successful as his childhood. In 1844, at the age of sixteen he entered the Universit

19、y of Kazan to study Turco-Arabic literature. Unfortunately he left his university without a degreed due to his quit. He and his brothers moved out of their uncles home. There were balls and galas to attend and other many pursuits as drinking, gambling and visiting brothels. Tolstoy did not have much

20、 success as a student, he did not respond to the universities conventional system of learning and left in 1847 without obtaining his degree. Back at Yasnya Polyana and during the next few years, Tolstoy agonized about what next to do with his life. He expressed his aspirations, confusion and disappo

21、intments in his diary and correspondence with his brothers and friends. He attempted to set the estates affairs in order but again was caught up in the life of a young nobleman, travelling between the estate and Moscow and St. Petersburg. He was addicted to gambling, racking up huge debts and having

22、 to sell possessions to pay them off including parts of his estate. He would go on drinking binges, associating with various characters of ill-repute that his Aunt Tatyana repeatedly warned him about. To her and a few other confidantes he often confessed his remorse when sober and wrote in his diary

23、:” I am living a completely brutish life”. I have abandoned almost all my occupations and have greatly fallen in spirit. (ibid, Ch. VI) Later he again attempted university exams in the hope that he would obtain a position in the government, but got a chance to serve in the army. When his brother Nik

24、olay, who was an officer in the Caucasian army, came to visit Yasnya Polyana for a short while, Tolstoy seized the opportunity to change his life, and enrolled in the army. In September of 1862, at the age of thirty four, Tolstoy married the sister of one of his friends, nineteen year old Sofia Sony

25、a Andreyevna Behrs (b.1844). Before their marriage, Tolstoy did not lie to his wife but told every bad things he had done to his wife and even showed his dairy to his wife. Even though she consented to marriage it took her some time to get over the initial shock of their content. In other matters, C

26、ountess Tolstoy proved helpful to her husbands writing career: she organized his rough notes, copied out drafts, and assisted with his correspondence and business affairs of the estate. Thus Tolstoy plunged into his writing: he started War and Peace in 1862 and its six volumes were published between

27、 1863 and 1869. He started writing his next epic Anna Karenina in 1873. The first chapters appeared in the Russian Herald in 1876. The same year it was published in its entirety, 1878. Tolstoy wrote his Resurrection in 1879, and these three greatest works have great impact even nowadays.II. General

28、Theme of Tolstoys WorksLeo Tolstoy is great, famous and productive, which made himself a lot of follow researchers. Currently there are a lot of translation about his work, his views toward life and writing. In his book Leo Tolstoy on life, he mainly talked about his thoughts and views about peoples

29、 life and to the book Leo Tolstoy on writing, he expressed how he wrote his own books and how a writer should write. Rosemary Edmonds said in his book Tolstoy turns a highly critical eye on the law, the penal system and, above all, the Church. That was enough to get my attention. “Though men in thei

30、r hundreds of thousands had tried their hardest to disfigure that little corner of the earth where they had crowded themselves together, paving the ground with stones so that nothing could grow, weeding out every blade of vegetation, filling the air with fumes of coal and gas, cutting down the trees

31、 and driving away every beast and every bird - spring, however, was still spring, even in the town. All were happy - plants, birds, insects and children. But grown-up people - adult men and women - never left off cheating and tormenting themselves and one another”.From these words we can see that as

32、 a great writer you should have the ability to see people through and notice the original face and soul of the people and Tolsoty had set a good example for his following writers. The story is about the rebirth of Prince Nekhlyudov. During this process, we are exposed to some of Tolstoys reservation

33、s concerning how things generally work. There is a description of several prisoners dying from heat exhaustion on a march from their prison to the train that is to take them into exile. The description of the train ride is reminiscent of the cattle cars used in Europe during the Holocaust. At the sc

34、ene of one mans death, Tolstoy gives us the following description. .one could see by the powerful muscles and well proportioned limbs what a fine vigorous agile human animal this had been - a far more perfect animal of its kind than the bay stallion, the laming of which had roused the captain of the

35、 fire-brigade to such fury. And yet he had been done to death, and no one regretted him as a human being - no one even regretted him as a working animal that had perished uselessly. The only feeling evoked by his death was a unanimous one of annoyance at the bother of having to dispose of this body

36、which was threatening to decompose. Tolstoy is a great writer, as K.T Flubacker said Leo Tolstoy, in the thick of his spiritual journey, attempts a dangerous and potentially offensive act: re-interpret the gospels of the Christian new testament. Abandoning the miraculous claims of the Christian doct

37、rine (Jesus divine birth, numerous miracles of ministry, the resurrection, etc.), Tolstoy shifts his focus onto the social message of Christ. Whereas most orthodox and modern day Christian churches emphasize the authority of Christ, Tolstoy considers such blasphemy and instead, emphasizes the spirit

38、 of truth, which dwells within every man, and its power towards transformation of the individual and the societal standards. Combining the four gospels into one account, Tolstoy creates a concise and appropriate representation of the teachings of the social philosopher Christ. A must read for Christ

39、ians and non-Christians alike. Like Tolstoy, we must search for truth first and Christianity second.” From all this we can see the greatness of Tolstoy and his influence to the following generations. Toward Tolstoys mind there are many different views. Some people think that Tolstoy was a perfect ma

40、n, he is a philosopher about life. But others just take Tolstoy as a totally idealist and his idea about non-resistance to violence was nonsense and never can be realized. III. The Writing BackgroundAs I mentioned before, Tolstoy had a very happy childhood though both of his parents died before he w

41、as ten. He was born a noble man for the wealth his parents had gathered. He lived without worrying about money but the time when he was born was full of different contradictions. The peasants and serf were living under exploiting of landowners, the serf and peasants were living under pressure, they

42、worked everyday but still lived in poverty. In the contrast all the nobleman and landowner lived luxuriously. These two different classes were hostile to each other. Even the author himself had once lived a degenerated life. In the army he killed many people. He said in his diary :”I put men to deat

43、h in war. I fought duels to slay others. I lost at cards, wasted the substance wrung from the sweat of peasants, punished the latter cruelly, rioted with loose women, and deceived men. lying, robbery, adultery of all kinds, drunkenness, violence, and murder, all were committed by me, not one crime o

44、mitted, and yet I was not the less considered by my equals to be a comparatively moral man. Such was my life for ten years.” and in his own confession he said that” I can not recall those years about horror, loathing, and heart-rending pain. I killed people in war, challenged men to duels with the p

45、urpose of killing them, and lost at cards; I squandered the fruits of the peasants toil and then had them executed; I was a fornicator and a cheat. Lying , stealing, promising of every kind, drunkenness, violence, murder. There was not a crime I did not commitThus I lived for ten years”. From all th

46、ese words we can see that Leo Tolstoy led an immoral life in his youth. After his back to his hometown he began to realize the serious problems that existed in different social classes. He tried his best to improve the living condition of his peasants and serfs, he wanted all his people to live in h

47、armony, but his ideal way of living failed at last for the lack of trust to each other. His first concern to the poor people was happened in his boyhood, when he was young he began to sense the inequality between different social classes and he had a deep compassion for the low classes . After his m

48、arriage, for he support that he got from his wife he put all his energy to his writing career. Tolstoys writing can be divided into three stages. The first was between 1850s and the early 1860s, during this period he was influenced by the French enlightenment Rousseau, he left his university without

49、 a degree and returned to his hometown. The second stage was between1860s to 1870s, during this time he wrote war and peace and he changed to be the spokesman of peasants. In this period he still acted as one of those landowners, who just wanted to figure out a way to solve the contradictions betwee

50、n his own class and the peasants. The third stage was from 1870s to 1880s, in this period his theory both about his world and people had changed dramatically. He gave up his class identity and became a typical peasants spokesman. In his book he expounded all the cruelty and inequality in the feudal

51、society, peasant were living in great pain, during this time he wrote Resurrection.IV. A Brief Introduction to Resurrection1. The story The main characters of the great book Resurrection were Nekhlyudov and Maslova. In this book Nekhlyudov was the representative of the noble class, he was born in a

52、noble family and had a bright future, on the other hand Maslova was just a peasant girl who was also an orphan, and he was brought up by Nekhlydovs aunts. She was the maid to serve his aunts. The night before Nekhlydov went to serve in army he seduced and raped Maslova. After several months Maslova

53、became pregnant and this fact was discovered by his aunts. At last Maslova was driven away and failed to be very poor. At last she gave birth to a baby but that baby died at last. Due to the pressure of life she degenerated to be a prostitute. Once Maslova was called to serve a client but she was ca

54、ught to steal money from that client and this client wanted to take her to the court. when she was taken to the court for being accused of stealing, Nekhlyudov happened to be one of the jurors, both his heart and body were deeply shocked by this fact, he tried his best to save her from being put int

55、o jail and attempted to redeem the suffering from his youthful philandering inflict on that peasant girl. Finally Maslova fell in love with him again but refused to marry Nekhlydov, because they belonged to different social classes. This was the idealistic life mode for the author, he thought moral

56、power, conscience were the most powerful things, they can change a bad person into a good one .2. The resurrection of Nekhlyudov and MaslovaAs I said before, Nekhlydov and Maslova belonged to different social classes, in reality that kind of thing would never happen, because very deep contradiction

57、existed in these two classes. The story about Nekhlydov and Maslova gave a ideal way to solve the contradictions that existed in different social classes. The actual plot of Resurrection was based on a story Tolstoy had heard from a lawyer friend, about a wealthy man who seduced a serving girl. This

58、 had led to the serving girls dismissal, after which she fell into bad straits, years later, the man happened to serve on a jury that was trying the case of a prostitute accused of stealing money from a client. He recognized the prostitute as the girl he had seduced. His conscience sparked to life a

59、nd he decided to marry the girl, who was sentenced to four months in prison. They eventually did marry. This story touched Tolstoy deeply. He himself had seduced a serving girl once; this had led to her dismissal, and the girl eventually died. He therefore took the basic story and adapted it to his

60、own ends. As the work stands, it is a complex narrative story about the moral resurrection of a man, and manages also to be an interesting narrative argument against punishment. The argument is that no one has any right to punish anyone else at all. In my opinion the story about Nekhlydov and Maslov

61、a was not just a resurrection for Nekhlydov but also for the author himself,for his regain of his conscience and his redeem to Maslova but was also a kind of resurrection for the author himself because he did many immoral things when he was young. Including seducing and raping a serving girl who die

62、d at last. From this story the author tried to prove that as a nobleman he himself can also had his body and soul saved and everyone can had his lost conscience regained. 3. Main reason for the tragedyWhat had led this tragedy happen? The differences between different social classes are the basic re

63、ason for the tragedy that happened to Maslova. Class contradictions between different classes existed in the area of economic, political and other different fields. This is why class appeared to have social contradictions. Each class is in a certain mode of production, and a relationship of the mean

64、s of production therefore resulted in different interests and demands. Class contradictions, in a word, is due to the economic benefits arising from the different or antagonistic aspects. Class conflicts exists not only in the economic field but also in political and ideological aspects. All those contradictions existed in class society were the reflection of different interests. Nekhlydov was the spokesman of noble class but Maslova was just a member of peasants. They did not have the same right in society and also wou