Tolstoy wrote his last novel, Sunday, for 10 years. The work was a kind of creative result, and also opened up new prospects for the further development of 20th century art.
Composition
The composition of the work that Tolstoy wrote - "Sunday" - its content is based on a diverse and consistent opposition of the life of the people and gentlemen. The author directly contrasts the conditions of existence of Dmitry Nekhlyudov and Katyusha Maslova. For each element of the hero’s clothing, furnishings, and everyday objects, there is an idea of the labor of others by which they were obtained, which L.N. notes in his work. Tolstoy ("Sunday"). Thus, the author gives a brief description of these and other household items, therefore, not by accident.
Nekhlyudov completes the gallery of images created by Tolstoy throughout his work. However, now the hero completely departs from his environment, society, realizing over time the unnaturalness, abnormality, cruelty of the world around him. The meeting with Katyusha Maslova evokes a feeling of remorse, the desire to make amends. All his subsequent life and actions are correlated with the worlds of the people and the masters - two opposite poles.
Narrative features
The novel "Sunday" Tolstoy wrote in a peculiar manner. The narrative is completely devoid of epic calm. Antipathies and sympathies are expressed openly and clearly. Which allows us to talk about some return to the narrative style of "War and Peace." The incorruptible and harsh voice of the author-judge is heard, which blames not specific representatives of society, but the whole world, mutilating human souls and also trying to mutilate nature.
This was the last novel that L.N. created Tolstoy. "Sunday", a brief summary of the chapters of which is given in the article, is not built at all on a love story, as it might seem at first glance. The work is determined by social, social issues. The panoramic, panoramic principle of narration captures various areas of life. One gets the impression of the close connection of all persons and events that are responsible for everything that happens in the world, to each other. This principle will be used in subsequent works of Tolstoy.
Book 1
The novel "Sunday" Tolstoy begins the following events. One spring day, April 28, in one of the 1890s, a warden in a Moscow prison unlocks the castle in a cell and calls out: “Maslova, to the court!”
The background of the heroine
The second chapter of the first book tells the story of this prisoner. The prisoner Maslova had the most ordinary life. She was born as an unmarried courtyard girl from a passing gypsy in a village of two landowner sisters. When her mother fell ill and died, Katyusha was only three years old. She was taken to her by old ladies as a maid and pupil. When Katyusha was 16 years old, a rich prince, a nephew of sisters, an innocent young man, a student, Nekhlyudov, came to their village. The girl, not even daring to admit it to herself, fell in love with him.
And this is only the beginning of the events of the novel that Tolstoy wrote - Sunday. A summary of them is as follows. After several years, Nekhlyudov, already promoted to officer and corrupted by military service, drove into the landowners on the way to the war and stayed in their house for 4 days. On the eve of his departure, he seduced Katyusha and left, having thrust a piece of paper into her a hundred rubles. After five months after his departure, the girl found out for sure that she was pregnant. She asked for a calculation, telling the sisters rudeness, in which she later repented, and they were forced to let her go. Katyusha settled in the same village with a midwife who sold wine. Childbirth was easy. However, the midwife infected the heroine with a maternity fever from a sick village woman, and they decided to send the boy and her child to an educational home, where he died immediately after arrival.
On this, the backstory of the main character of the novel does not finish describing Leo Tolstoy. The Resurrection, which we are reviewing briefly, continues with the following events.
Maslova, who had already replaced several patrons by that time, was spotted by a detective who delivered the girls to tolerance houses. With the consent of Katyusha, she took her to Kitaeva’s house, which was popular at that time. She was jailed in the seventh year of work in this institution, and now, together with thieves and murderers, they are being taken to court.
Meeting Nekhlyudov with Maslova
Dmitry Ivanovich Nekhlyudov, the prince, the same nephew of the landowners, lying in bed in the morning at this time, recalls the events of yesterday evening at the famous and wealthy Korchagins, whose daughter, as planned and planned, he should soon marry. A little later, after drinking coffee, he drives up to the court entrance and, putting on his pince-nez, as a juror examines the defendants in the building who are accused of poisoning one merchant with the purpose of robbery. Suddenly his gaze stops at one girl. “It cannot be,” Nekhlyudov says to himself. The black eyes that look at him remind the hero of something black and scary. This is she, Katyusha, whom he saw for the first time, while still a third-year student, when, preparing an essay on land ownership, he spent the summer with his aunts. This is the same girl with whom he was once in love, and then seduced into a child of madness, abandoned and never again remembered, because the memory of the conviction of a young man proud of his decency. But he still does not want to submit to the feeling of remorse that arose in him. Events are only an unpleasant accident, which cannot disrupt today's happy life.
Court
However, the trial continues, the jury must announce their decision, Tolstoy tells. Sunday, the brief summary of which you are reading, continues as follows. Maslova, innocent of what she was suspected of, was recognized as such, as well as her comrades, albeit with certain reservations. But even the chairman himself is surprised that, having specified the condition “without the intent of robbery”, the jury forgets to announce another thing - “without the intention to take the life”. By their decision, it turns out that Maslova did not steal or rob, but nevertheless poisoned the merchant without any apparent purpose. She is sentenced to hard labor as a result of this gross miscarriage of justice . The lawsuits are described in chapters 9 to 11, as well as from 19 to 24 of the first book (Leo Tolstoy, “Resurrection”).
Nekhlyudov is disgusted and ashamed after he returned home from his rich bride Missy Korchagina (who really wants to get married, and Nekhlyudov is a suitable party), and his imagination very clearly and vividly depicts a prisoner with squinting black eyes. Recently seemed so inevitable and close marriage to Missy now seems to the hero absolutely impossible. Nekhlyudov asks in prayer to help the Lord, and God who lives in him wakes up in his mind. He feels capable of all the best that a person can do. The hero especially likes the idea of sacrificing everything for the sake of his moral satisfaction and marrying Maslova.
Meet Maslova
We continue to talk about the novel that Tolstoy wrote - "Sunday." A summary of it is as follows. The young man seeks a meeting with the defendant and, as a learned lesson, without intonation, tells her that he would like to atone for his sin and achieve her forgiveness. Katyusha is surprised: "What was, then passed." The hero, however, expects that, having learned of his repentance and intention to serve her, Maslova will be touched and happy. To his horror, he notices that there is no former Katyusha, and there is only one prostitute Maslova. He is frightened and surprised that she is not only not ashamed of her current position as a prostitute (while the position of a prisoner seems to her humiliating), but even proud of him as a useful and important activity, because so many men need her services.
The next time, having made her drunk on a visit to prison, the hero reports that, in spite of everything, he feels obligated to marry her in order to atone for his guilt. Katyusha replies: "I will hang myself soon." So, in chapter 48 of the first book of the novel, written by Leo Tolstoy - “Resurrection”, Maslova refuses to get married. But Nekhlyudov decides to serve her and begins to bother for correcting the mistake and pardon. He even refuses from now on to be a jury, since he considers the court to be immoral and useless. The feeling of joy and solemnity of moral renewal disappears. He decides that he will not abandon Maslova, will not change his decision to marry her if she herself wants, but this is painful and difficult for him.
Book 2
We continue to talk about the work that Leo Tolstoy wrote - Resurrection. Its summary also includes the second book. The events described in it are as follows. Nekhlyudov goes to Petersburg, where the case will be considered in the Senate Maslova. In case of failure, it is proposed, on the advice of a lawyer, to file a petition in the name of the sovereign. If this does not work, you need to prepare for a trip to Siberia for Maslova. Therefore, the hero goes to the villages belonging to him in order to regulate relations with the peasants. This was not abolished in 1861, living slavery. Not specific individuals, but the general slavery of landless and landless peasants in relation to large landowners. Nekhlyudov understands how cruel and unfair. While still a student, he gave the peasants the land of his father, believing that owning it was just as serious a sin as the possession of serfs had previously been. However, the inheritance left by the mother again raises the issue of ownership. Despite the upcoming trip to Siberia, for which money is needed, he decides at the expense of himself to lease land to peasants for a small fee, giving them the opportunity to not depend on landowners at all. However, the hero sees that the peasants expect more, despite the words of thanks. He is unhappy with himself. She cannot say exactly what, but for some reason Nekhlyudov is ashamed and sad all the time.
Petersburg
We consider the summary below. The "resurrection" of Tolstoy continues as follows. After a trip to the village, Nekhlyudov disgusted the environment in which he lived until now, allowing the suffering of millions for the pleasure and convenience of several people. In St. Petersburg, cares for Maslova are added to trouble for some other political, as well as sectarians who want to be exiled to the Caucasus because they misinterpreted the Gospel. Once, after numerous visits, Nekhlyudov wakes up with a feeling, as though he were making some kind of muck. He begins to pursue the idea that the current intentions: giving the land to the peasants, marrying Katyusha are unrealizable dreams, unnatural, artificial, and he should live as he always did. However, the hero realizes that the present life is the only possible for him, and returning to the old means death. Upon arrival in Moscow, he passes Maslov's decision to the Senate and reports on the need to prepare for departure to Siberia. The hero himself goes after her. The second book is completed, so its summary ends. The "Resurrection" of Tolstoy continues the third book.
Book 3
Already about five thousand versts passed the party with which the prisoner comes. Part of the way she goes with the criminal, but Nekhlyudov seeks to move to the political, which are better settled, eat and are less rude. Such a transfer improves Katyusha’s position by stopping the harassment of men and finally giving her the opportunity to forget about the past, which she was constantly reminded of.
Two political go near her: Marya Shchetinina, a good woman, as well as Vladimir Simonson, exiled to the Yakutsk region. The history of this hero is the subject of the fourth chapter of the third book (Tolstoy, Sunday). The current life after the luxurious, depraved and pampered, which led Katyusha in recent years in the city, despite the difficult conditions, it seems to her better. With good food, transitions physically strengthen it, and communication with friends opens up new interests in life. She could not even imagine such wonderful people.
Maslova's new love
Vladimir Simonson loves Katyusha, and thanks to her feminine instinct, she soon realizes this. The consciousness that she is able to cause love in such an extraordinary person raises the heroine in her own opinion, makes her strive to be better. Simonson loves her for who she is, just like that, unlike Nekhlyudov, who offers marriage by generosity. When the latter brings the news of the pardon he has procured, she decides to stay where Vladimir Ivanovich Simonson will be. Maslova’s decision is described in Chapter 25 of Book 3 (Tolstoy, Sunday).
Nekhlyudov, feeling the need to stay alone and think about everything that happened, arrives at one of the local hotels and walks around the room for a long time. Katyusha is no longer needed, the matter is over, but it’s not this that torments him, but all the evil that he has seen lately. Nekhlyudov is aware of him, it torments him, requires activity. However, he does not see the possibility of not only defeating evil, but even learning how to do it. The last, 28th, chapter 3 of the book (the novel "Sunday", Tolstoy L.N.) is dedicated to the new life of Nekhlyudov. The hero sits down on the couch and mechanically takes out the Gospel given by one passing Englishman. Opens chapter 18 from Matthew. Since then, a completely different life begins for Nekhlyudov. The end of this new period for him is unknown, since Leo Tolstoy did not tell us about this.
Such is the content of the novel that L. N. Tolstoy wrote - "Sunday" (short). This work immediately received positive reviews, and to this day, interest in it does not fade among both readers and critics, since it leads to deep thoughts.
Output
After reading the work that Tolstoy wrote - "Sunday", a brief summary of it, we can conclude that it is necessary to fundamentally destroy the bourgeois "cannibalistic" system and liberate the people through revolution. However, the writer does not do it, because he did not understand and did not accept the revolution. Tolstoy preached the idea of non-resistance to evil by violence. He wanted to shame the representatives of the ruling classes, persuade them to voluntarily give up wealth and power.
The novel "Resurrection" of Tolstoy, a brief summary of which was presented in this article, ends with the author prompting Prince Nekhlyudov to seek salvation in the Gospel. However, the whole content of the novel calls for a different conclusion - to destroy the vicious system of oppression and violence of the people and replace it with a fair social system, in which all people will be free and equal, strife, poverty and war will disappear, and exploitation of one person by another will become impossible.