"Three Deaths"
"Three Deaths" was originally intended as a "robust draft" of conference paper written for a Russian literature class while I was at the University of Missouri. The idea that I was working off, and am still working on, is that by looking at death scenes in Lev Tolstoy’s works, one would be able to trace the systematic chronological evolution of his spiritual philosophy. This notion first struck me after finishing Sevastopol Sketches, Anna Karenina and the Death of Ivan Ilych over a six month period. Each story seemed Tolstoian in their masterful construction and exquisite language, yet in each story the depiction of the events leading up to death, and the final death scene itself, all had their own unique revelations on death. After rereading the death scene of Prince Andrei Bolkonsky in War and Peace, I felt like I had gathered enough depictions of death to attempt to formulate a correlation between Tolstoy's spiritual evolution and his depictions of death. In the following posts, I will present each example of death as I complete them, finally posting the composition in its entirety upon completion. I would be grateful for any suggestions or insights!
Sevastopol Sketches (May) 11/19/15:
When beginning the chronological examination of deaths scenes in Tolstoy, the first example which is pertinent to this discussion is the deaths of Praskukhin and Mikhayl19ov in his 1855 Sevastopol in May. What follows is an excellent illustration of Tolstoy’s incredible ability to portray a scene with a focused attention to detail while focalizing the last conscious thoughts and digressions of a mortally wounded soldier. The young officer Praskukhin’s thoughts include speculation about whether the fatal shell will hit his fellow officer Mikhaylov or himself, “Whom will it hit-Mikhaylov or me? Or both of us…? (126)”, later digressing to memories of his pre-war life, money owed to Mikhaylov and images of women, all overshadowed by the specter of potentially imminent death in the guise of a mortar shell. Finally these thoughts give way to Praskuhkin’s denial of a mortal wound, insisting to himself that it is merely a bruise and voicelessly behooving his retreating comrades to take him with them. The final moment in which his impending death is made abundantly clear is never shown, rather the last lines indicate the gripping fear and his desire to survive whilst slowly fading into oblivion, “Then some other red fires began dancing before his eyes, and it seemed to him that the soldiers put stones on him. The fires danced less and less but the stones they put on him pressed more and more heavily. He made and effort to push off the stones, stretched himself, and saw and heard and felt noting more. He had been killed on the spot by a bomb-splinter in the middle of his chest (127).” One notable element that is absent from Praskukhin’s death scene is the lack of any spiritual or religious undertones or references. What can be seen from the above quote is the writings of a young Tolstoy, almost two decades prior to his “spiritual crisis” of the 1870’s. At this time his focus is on depicting the final act of death as truthfully as he can in keeping with the “realism” tradition. This lack of any spiritual discourse, which is such a staple of his later works, is what makes this scene such an interesting moment. What a reader can conclude about death through the focalization of Praskukhin is that it is characterized by a slow descent into unconsciousness, the only thing one feels or notices is a physical release from one’s body.
The lack of religion or spirituality in Praskuhkin’s death is highlighted by the inclusion of religious rituals on very next page, which continues with the story of Mikhaylov. Tolstoy escorts the reader through Mikhauylov’s interiority as well, and this time there are several instances of religious dialogue, such as “He prayed mentally and repeated, ‘Thy will be done. (128)’”, “when he came to, his first sensations were that of blood trickling down his nose, and the pain in his head which had become much less violent. ‘That’s the soul passing’ he thought. ‘How will it be there? Lord, receive my soul in peace!...Only, it’s strange,’ thought he, ‘that while dying I should hear the steps of the soldiers and the sounds of the firing so distinctly. (128)” As fate, or Tolstoy, would have it, Mikhaylov does not die, and is instead saved by the author’s pen. When looking at the religious language in this scene, it is important to note its clichéd nature. The initial bouts of prayer seem to be indicative of Mikhaylov’s sense of propriety, by reciting the Lord’s Prayer Mikhaylov is doing exactly what a person with any religious inclinations would do to prepare their mind for death while the question “how will it be there?” is also a rather standard inquiry for one on the cusp of eternal rest. Neither of these moments belay any deeper spiritual significance, nor are there any moments of epiphany bequeathed to the reader. The absence of any religious revelations in the highly focalized accounts of Praskukhin and Mikhaylov’s deaths seems to suggest a Tolstoy who is not interested in the topic, his use of the Lord’s Prayer is simply a function of the realism that he is depicting.
War and Peace 11/19/15:
Chronologically the next notable death focalized by the person dying is the death of Prince Andrey Bolkonsky in War and Peace. This death scene is pivotal for being able to extract the beginning of Tolstoy’s exploration of spirituality in death. What is important for this scene is not the nature of the entirety of Prince Andrey’s late-forming spirituality, the genesis of which begins with his wounding at Borodino, but rather how the theme of spirituality materializes at the moment of death, and what larger notions can be extrapolated from it. For this reason this paper is limiting its scope to volume IV, part I chapter XVI. As will be a repeated theme in Death of Ivan Ilych, Prince Andrey’s last moments oscillate between his new found outlook on life which requires him to live, and a striking fear of death. This comes to a head when he has a dream outlining the specific fear of death, “And he is filled with a ghastly feeling of terror. This terror is the fear of death: Beyond the door there is It. But while he is flailing helplessly towards the door, that horrible something is already pushing from the other side, forcing the door open. Something inhuman-death-is pushing from the other side, and he must hold it back…Under pressure from the ghastly thing outside, the door opens and shuts again. (1093)” This disturbing dream shocks Prince Andrey back awake, “At the moment of death itself he summoned all his strength and forced himself back to consciousness (1093).” This reawakening is what defines the last moments of his life, and the last moments that the reader are allowed to be a part of. The next paragraph is the most crucial for understanding the importance Prince Andrey’s death holds for the continuing chronological development of Tolstoy’s exploration of spirituality and death. “’Yes, that was death. I have died and woken up again. But that’s what death is- a reawakening!’ His soul was suddenly ablaze with light, and the veil that had hidden the unknown from him was half lifted for his spirit to see beyond. He had sensed the pent-up forces within him, and he felt the curious lightness of being that had not felt him since. (1094)” At this moment Tolstoy allows the reader to share a moment of revelation with Prince Andrey, revealing that death is not to be feared, that death is simply a reawakening of the soul. Yet even though Prince Andrey seems to understand some sort of epiphany, what he completely comprehends is obscured by two things, first the half lifted veil which only allows the reader the knowledge that Prince Andrey has a partial understanding of the beyond, and secondly the almost instantaneous shift in focalization to Natasha and Princess Marya, leaving the epiphany only partly revealed to the reader. His only subsequent moment of focalization comes three paragraphs later, stating “For Prince Andrey that day marked more than a reawakening from sleep it was a reawakening from life. And in relation to his own life-span it seemed to take no longer than waking up does in relation to the span of a dream. It was a relatively slow reawakening, but there was nothing violent or terrible about it (1094).” The issues is that what this reawakening is and what greater significance it has for Prince Andrey is not stated, the reader is simply left with the notion that something important had occurred, and the spiritually Prince Andrey now understands something deeper and more important that he did. The shift in focalization to Natasha and Princess Marya helps to obfuscate this epiphany, their focalization relaying the physical degradation of his physical state and his seemingly serene and ambivalent state of being. This is shown in the line “They could both see him slowly and gently slipping further and further down into another realm. They this had to be, and it was goodbye (1094).” The culmination of this scene which helps to accentuate the notion of the ambiguity of Tolstoy’s understanding of the spiritual as conveyed through this depiction of death occurs from one of the last lines of the chapter. After his death, the focalization comes from Natasha:
“Natasha came up close, glanced down at the dead eyes, and closed them with a quick movement. She closed them without kissing them, hanging on to her closest memory of them.
‘Where has he gone? Where is he now?’” (1095)
While ostensibly this last question comes from Natasha, there is nothing to directly link it to her. The ambiguity of the ownership of the question and its physical separation from the rest of the sentence, occurring in both the Russian and English editions, seems to suspend it in a veritable no man’s land. This might suggest that the question is intended not just for the reader, but perhaps for Tolstoy himself, further supporting the notion that Prince Andrey’s death shows a developmental period in which Tolstoy’s own understand of mortality and spirituality is not fully formed.
In addition to the ambiguity of spiritual certainties which materialize in Prince’s Andrey’s death as seen in the preceding paragraph, what further lends credence to the notion that Prince’s Andrey’s demise comes from a Tolstoy still grappling with own conception of spirituality as seen through the medium of his death scenes is the lack of interaction between the internal world of Prince Andrey’s obscured spirituality and the external world of reality, something which plays a prominent role in Tolstoy’s later work Death of Ivan Ilych. Specifically this relates to how Prince Andrey acts towards his family right before he dies, and like Mikhaylov in Sevastopol in May, his external physical actions resonate as being requirements which propriety dictates he observe. One example of this occurs when his son comes to say goodbye, “When his son was brought in to see him he pressed his lips to the boy’s flesh and then turned away, not because he was in any pain or anguish (Princess Marya and Natasha could see this clearly), but simply because he thought he had done all that was necessary. When they told him to give the boy his blessing he did what was required of him and then looked around as if he was wondering whether there was anything else that needed to be done (1094).” From these lines it is clear that his reactions to the external world are reflexive, doing what must be done in order to be able to die, however their larger significance is not important to him, since his mind is now occupied with the impending transcendental journey which he has just been awakened to. However as seen above, what this new truth is and what deeper meaning it holds for the reader and Tolstoy himself is not known, only Prince Andrey fully comprehends this new knowledge.