NAME: PAVITHRA.

REG. NO: PRK19EN1015

ESSAY ON LEO TOLSTOY’S SHORT STORIES:

Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy born on 9 September 1828 to Princess Marie Volkonsky and
Count Nicolas Tolstoy, at Yasnaya Polyana, Tula Governorate, Russian Empire. He was the
fourth and last son of the family. He is a Russian novelist, short story writer, playwright and
an essayist. Tolstoy is considered one of the giants of Russian literature; his works include
the novels and novellas, autobiographical novels.He attended the University of Kazan,
studied law, he became a soldier. He had primary education by French and German Tutors,
after education came back to his parents, and fought in the Crimean war of 1855. He has
mentioned briefly about his childhood and some memories in his autobiography, ‘Cossacks’
(1862) about his day to day life, ‘Sevastopol Tales’ a three-part series briefing the
contradictions of war and the soldier’s stream of consciousness, ‘Youth’ (1857) the third part
of his autobiographical trilogy.

By 1877 Leo Tolstoy was finished with the long-form novel, he decided that no other
vast work would flow from his pen to join ‘war and peace’ and ‘Anna Karenina’. In the rest
of his life he spent writing some of the greatest short stories of his career. Tolstoy’s
understanding of death, informed by his wartime experiences in Silistria and Crimea, seems
to be unrivalled in literature. His Short stories include “After The Ball; Albert; Alyosha The
Pot; The Big Oven; Croesus And Fate; Father Sergius; The Forged; Coupon; God Sees The
Truth, But Waits; The Grain; How Much Land Does A Man Need?; Ivan The Fool;
Kholstomer; Alost Opportunity; Master And Man; The Prisioner Of The Caucasus;
Promoting A Devil; Quench The Spark; The Raid; Repentance; The Snowstorm; Three
Deaths; The Three Hermits; Too Dear!; What Men Live By; Where Love Is, God Is; Wisdom
Of Children; Work Death And Sickness”.

In his short stories we can find themes of control, freedom, selfishness, responsibility,
and change. He uses a lot of symbolism in his stories, for example in ‘The Bird’ the cage
represents the loss of freedom, the tools and the looking after the bird symbolise the trap or
control of an animal and lack of care a man can provide to a wild animal. Some stories like
‘Three Questions’ have the themes of wisdom, knowledge, awareness, kindness, forgiveness,
and acceptance, and other themes like guilt, forgiveness, faith, conflict, freedom, and
acceptance, connection, friendship, fear, conflict, shame and control, grief, doubt, struggle,
hope, growth, contentment and connection, governance, justice, morality, and power, war, the
emotions of soldiers, etcetra. All the stories, if not all atleast some are narrated in the third
person by an unnamed author, the reader realises the after reading the story that Tolstoy may
be exploring any of the above themes. Hence the short stories of LeoTolstoy make him the
best of his time and all time and the most favourite writer not only in Russian but every
language translated.