World Literature 118 - Tolstoy: Works Great and Small -Take home exams

All exams must be typed (printed) DOUBLE-SPACED and turned in on time. Without a previously approved extension, late exams may be docked one letter grade for each class meeting that the exam is late. Exams are due at the beginning of class

1. "Eight years after The Death of Ivan Ilych, Tolstoy wrote Master and Man. These two stories are, in spite of their surface dissimilarity, so intimately connected with one another that they seem to be only variations on a single theme… Tolstoy begins by describing to us, in these two stories, a man in the ordinary circumstances of existence, circumstances, which are well known and universally admitted... He transports his characters to that solitude which could not have been more complete in the bowels of the earth or in the depths of the sea" (Leo Shestov, The last Judgement: Tolstoy's Last Works). Use the citation as a springboard to compare the two works.

2. In The Death of Ivan Ilych “The hero discovers a shattering truth just before he dies: his entire life has in a real sense been a protracted death’” (William Rowe, Leo Tolstoy, p. 102). Elucidate.

3. The central theme of The Death of Ivan Ilych is based on the concept that the imminence of death brings one to a keener understanding of one’s own life. Discuss the idea.

4. Discuss the following citation: “Eight years after The Death of Ivan Ilych, Tolstoy wrote Master and Man. These two stories are, in spite of their surface dissimilarity, so intimately connected with one another that they seem to be only variations on a single theme. (Leo Shestov, The Last Judgment: Tolstoy’s Last Works).”

5. The actual story of Father Sergius “…is a study of spiritual pride…and carnal desires” (A. S. Mirsky, A History of Russian Literature. p. 329). Use various items from the text to prove this premise.

6. A Spark Neglected Burns the House is simply “…a retelling of popular folk tales, for which Tolstoy) had a major gift. The "…clear religious or moral lesson is not permitted to intrude upon the narrative interest” (E. J. Simmons, Leo Tolstoy, vol. II, p. 76). Discuss the didactic nature of this piece.

7. Discuss A Spark Neglected Burns the House from the point of view of the following quotation: “There is no subject so trivial that it will not grow to infinite proportions if one’s entire attentions are devoted to it.”(From War and Peace EP I, 3.)

8. Discuss the themes of guilt and repentance in The Forged Coupon.

9. Discuss the proverb that “Evil begets evil” as a recurrent theme in The Forged Coupon.

10. After the Ball contrasts beauty and (military) cruelty. Discuss the cruelty, which Tolstoy presents in this work.

11. The story Alyosha Gorshok presents one of the “meek” character types. Discuss what defines this archetype and how this definition relates to the message of the story.

12. In Tolstoy's "Death of Ivan Illych," we are presented with a character who undergoes a radical shift in his perceptions regarding
his life as his awareness of his approaching death becomes more prevalent. Discuss the role/necessity of pain in enhancing this process
of self-realization in the face of death (Kaitlynne Ward).

Second Take-home Exam

Please answer TWO questions from among the following. Please DO NOT write about the same ideas or works in BOTH essays. If you choose, you may pose your own question and proceed to answer it. (If you decide upon this option, be sure you actually write out the question and clear it with me before you proceed. Failure to run through this simple process might result in my refusal to accept your question and answer.) Be sure that your essays are analytical. There should be NO narration of plots. Please be sure to indicate which questions you are answering.

All exams must be typed (printed) DOUBLE-SPACED and turned in on time. Without a previously approved extension, late exams may be docked one letter grade for each class meeting that the exam is late. Exams are due at the beginning of class

1. Discuss the way that we are desensitized to the "banality of evil" in our own lives - the way we tend to justify acts that we might normally pinpoint as evil as being part of a job or some other responsibility. Relate the idea to Resurrection (Dennis Robillard).

2. The fact that in his youth, Prince Dmitrii Ivanovich Nekhliudov abandoned the prostitute Ekaterina Maslova remains the basis for Tolstoy's most remarkable novel, Resurrection. Discuss Nekhliudov's status as landed gentry and how that relates to the manner in which he initially treated Maslova.

3. Comment on the following citation. For Tolstoy, “…there are many new departures in Resurrection. Nekhliudov is the first Tolstoyan hero to denounce his class. Maslova is the first heroine who is not an aristocrat. For the first time in his novels, the representatives of ‘the people’ far outnumber those of the aristocracy” (R. F. Christian, Tolstoy, A Critical Introduction, p. 222).

4. In Tolstoy's, "Resurrection," we are presented with a clear picture of the relationships that existed among and between the various social classes of the nineteenth century. Discuss the notion of community in this work -- how does Tolstoy's definition of community change in the narrative? Namely -- how is the sense of community presented in the early part of the work (the Jury's deliberation) different from the presentation of the community of political prisoners in Part 3? To what extent does Tolstoy imply that relations between human beings are necessarily strengthened by difficult circumstances? (Kaitlynne Ward).

5. The Kreutzer Sonata deals with the question of free will in Pozdnyshev's explanation to the curious narrator as to why he murdered his own wife. To what extent does Pozdnyshev take responsibility for the murder?

6. Kreutzer Sonata opens with the quote "But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart" (Matt. 5:28). Relate the biblical citation to Tolstoy's narrative.

7. In Kreutzer Sonata, Pozdnyshev makes remarks about his honeymoon as a precursor to his marriage -children , pregnancy, and sexual inequality. Choose one or more of these areas and discuss.

8. What for? is an extraordinary piece, so critical of those with power and so sensitive about the plight of those people controlled by subservience to power. Discuss the work from this point of view.

Final Take-home Exam

Please answer TWO questions from among the following. Please DO NOT write about the same ideas or works in BOTH essays.
If you choose, you may pose your own question and proceed to answer it. (If you decide upon this option, be sure you actually
write out the question and clear it with me before you proceed. Failure to run through this simple process might result in my
refusal to accept your question and answer.) Be sure that your essays are analytical. There should be NO narration of plots.
Please be sure to indicate which questions you are answering.

All exams must be typed (printed) DOUBLE-SPACED and turned in on time. Without a
previously approved extension, late exams may be docked one letter grade.

1. Tolstoy’s Resurrection is a scathing criticism of Russia’s criminal justice system, from the proceedings of its courtrooms at trial to the squalid conditions of its prisons. Abuse of power by those with it permeates the novel. Discuss one or more of these issues.

2. Pick one or more topic areas of interest from Tolstoy’s Confession and write an essay expounding his views and your perceptions of them.

3. “Ernest J. Simmons has described…Confession as ‘...one of the noblest and most courageous utterances of man, the outpouring
of a soul perplexed in the extreme by life’s great problem – the relation of man to the infinite...’” (E. J. Simmons, Leo Tolstoy, p. 326).

4. By 1889, (Tolstoy dies in 1910) the fifty-one year old Tolstoy had come to believe that he had accomplished nothing
in life. He poses the question “What will come of what I do today and tomorrow? What will come of my entire life?” (Confession, p. 34). How does Tolstoy answer his own question? How do you relate to his answer?

5. One of the fascinating characteristics we find in Confession is Tolstoy’s criticism of his own class and acceptance of the peasant class and everything it stands for. Discuss what the author is saying.

6. In Confession, Tolstoy rejects the comfortable life of plenty, and embraces the peasant acceptance of suffering and death.
For the peasant, death is simply a point on the continuum of life. Discuss the premise. (You might wish to compare some of
the ideas in The Death of Ivan Ilych – “…the imminence of death brings humankind to a greater understanding of life.”)

7. All of the shorter works we have read since the last exam fall into the category of “didactic literature.” Many of these items
are related with the same stylistic characteristics common to fairy tales. From among the following, choose several stories; discuss
and or contrast them, keeping in mind that their actual date of publication may play a serious role in what the author tells his
readers. Our readings have included the following:
Esarhaddon, King of Adsyria (1903), Work, Death and Sickness (1903). Three Questions (1903), Fedor Kuzmich (1905),
Walk in the Light While there is Light (1893), Francoise (1982), The Coffee house of Surat (1893), and Too Dear (1897),
Evil Allures, but Good Endures, Little Girls Wiser than Men, Ilyas (1885), Three Hermits, The Imp and the Crust (both 1886),
The Godson (both 1886

8. From the stories listed in question #6, choose one or more items that are mirrored in Confession and discuss what
Tolstoy means by making a similar statement in a short work and in the larger, philosophical one.

9. It may be possible to sum up what Tolstoy’s late works, great and small, have in common. Propose a thesis and
support it with your discussion.