Leo Tolstoy’s Mother Earth Worship And The Crisis Of Belief

Leo Tolstoy was a Russian aristocratic author who dwelt in the countryside in most of his life time. He had a deep love for Mother Earth. The vast Russian land provided him his faith in Mother Earth and he was inspired by its nature and culture. His works did not only include discussions of natural objects, they also included discussions of emotions, customs, morality, and faith. Tolstoy was the most important one to express the faith in Mother Earth among Russian writers. For Tolstoy, the earth was not only the land we live in, but also the symbol of our faith in ideal world.Tolstoy’s faith in Mother Earth includes three main points:Firstly, it means the human’s worship for the nature around him/her. All humans have in them an innate desire to be one with nature from the very beginning of our history. The link between humans and earth is a very primal and spiritual one that is inherent in all people 。 As humans we cannot fully separate us completely from the earth. According to Hegel’s art theory, the primal emotion to nature is religious and symbolic. The traditional value was built on the basis that nature was a symbol of value human appreciated in social life when human submitted himself to the rule of nature. The worship for nature helped the modern writers to describe the nature around him vividly and made more aesthetic sense.Secondly, nature is influenced by the western enlightenment thought. The natural liberation also means the liberation of humanity, which means the ideas of human awakening and individual liberation. Although in the name of nature, the initial abruption between human and nature is the advocate of freedom and democracy on the political system level. Tolstoy explore the main world of humans to reflect it.Thirdly, nature became a weapon to fight the humanity alienation in modern world with the development of capitalism. Tolstoy aimed to criticize the city life and moral corruption in his works. For Tolstoy, nature had a deep relation with human being and beauty.The three concepts inter-weaved in Tolstoy’s faith in Mother Earth, while the worship for nature was basically important. Earth worship complex on Russian intellectuals have universality, but really down to the earth, through its literary creation show on earth fetish, and made the great achievements is Tolstoy. Like hercules antai in Greek mythology the inexhaustible strength from the earth, Tolstoy obtained continuous creation source and passionate creative inspiration from the land worship, to complete a series of famous novels such as War and Peace (1863-1869), Anna Karenina (1873-1877)、Resurrection(1891-1991)and many brilliant stories such as The Cossacks(1862)、The Death of Ivan Ityich(1886)、Hadji Murad(1905).Tolstoy’s faith in Mother Earth affected the artificial structure of his novels. With the development of his faith in Mother Earth and Christian morality, his works’ main style changed. The manifestation of the changes are as follows:When Tolstoy had faith in Mother Earth, the style of his literary creations were pure, thick and quiet; when he admired ethic of family and country, the style of his novels were plentiful, profound and vivid; when he admired the Christian ethic, the style changed into simple, abstract and superficial, which leads to the weakening of their artistic value.Also, along with the progress of these changes, the structure of Tolstoy’s works and his realistic method showed great complexity. It is well known that Dostoyevsky also shared the faith in Mother Earth, the comparison between Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky would make it clearer that Tolstoy’s creation thought had both the advantages and limitation.This dissertation will be divided into nine chapters to argue Tolstoy’s faith in Mother Earth, its crisis and transformation.Chaperl will focus on War and Peace and try to describe the complexities of Tolstoy’s faith in Mother Earth.War and Peace describes the life and fate of four lord clans:Rostov, Kula, Bizuhov, and Boltonsi. But the novel revolved around Rostov. As a country lord, the family of Rostov presented Tolstoy’s worship of nature. They lived in countryside for a long time, and their temperament are featured as kind, optimistic, generous and passionate as well as conservative. In short, this family is the one Tolstoy pay most attention, the other families are mentally influenced by them. But when Tolstoy fell in the most intensity of nature worship, his faith crisis appeared. Natasha, who was the proud of the whole family, was tempted by a play boy, which made the whole family feel shameful. The temptation exampled the brittleness of classical ethic. The wane of economy in Rostov’s manor also indicated that the nature value which Tolstoy admired had already been shaken.Tolstoy’s faith in Mother Earth was full of mystery, which lead to the irrational aesthetics of War and Peace. It was showed in three aspects. Firstly, the characters of the heroes appeared liquidity. Secondly, the representation of war told the contingency in the victory. Thirdly, the author’s historical attitude turned to believe in the mystery in history development. The obvious irrational characters in War and Peace strengthened its glamour of art.the beginning of Tolstoy’s faith in Mather Earth and its crisis before his writing of War and Peace.This dissertation will argue that Tolstoy’s faith in Mather Earth appeared firstly in his stories Family Happiness and The Cossacks, which took the form of the worship of pantheism. Meanwhile, the faith crisis was represented by the betrayal of newly-married wife and her timely repentance. The theme and characters in these two stories foretold the coming of War and Peace.Chapter2 is based on the analysis of Anna Karenina which highlighting Tolstoy’s faith crisis.Anna Karenina was the most important work to show the author’s complex and contradict faith. The novel told two different love stories of the heroine Anna who lived in city and the hero Levin who lived in countryside, the different characters and fate of Anna and Levin expressed Tolstoy’s deep thought of the essences of life. Levin’s puzzled life and Anna’s tragic ending directly or indirectly showed us how hardness the author experienced in his own thought. His contradict mind seemed to doubt his faith in nature humanity and the turn to Christian ethic.Chaper3 will describe the growth of Tolstoy’s faith crises after finishing Anna Karenina.After publishing Anna Karenina, Tolstoy was drown in his contradict thought and experienced faith transformation. In this period, it is difficult for him to writing a long story with a unitary mind, consequently he chose to create a series of stories, such as The Death of Lvan Ilyich, The Kreutzer Sonata and After the Dance. We can see the highlighting of Tolstoy’s complexity to choose faith of life and morality. In these works, the worship of nature was weakened, which predicted that Tolstoy was ready to give up the faith in Mother Earth.Chaper4 will argue the transformation of Tolstoy’s faith in Resurrection.In the period of Resurrection, Tolstoy gave up the worship of nature and changed his faith to Christian morality. The contradiction in Tolstoy’s thought had disappeared and his morality tended to be steady, which was called Tolstoyism. In Resurrection, Tolstoy as a moralist defeated the former as an artist, the change of Tolstoy’s faith and writing view had some disadvantages for his novel’s thoughts and artistic quality.Chapter 5 is going to analyze the last radiance of Tolstoy’s faith in Mother Earth in his last life period.Although Tolstoy had gave up the worship of nature, as an artist, the feeling and emotion can not be canceled thoroughly by morality. After Resurrection, Hddji Murad’s appearance seemed to be a proof.This work created a character called Hadji Murad who was an Islam hero, rather than a Christian that people speculate from Resurrection. Hadji Murad shocked the literary world again. It should be said this work was the last radiance of the setting sun of Tolstoy’s creation in art and faith in Mother Earth.Chapter 6 is going to argue the influences of Tolstoy’ faith on the structure of his works.The inner contradiction of Tolstoy’faith could be summarized as conflicts between Naturalism [poetic] and Moralism [tolstoyism]. Along with the development of Tolstoy’s faith in Mother Earth and Christian morality, the structure of his works changed apparently, which turned form multiple clues in War And Peace to double clues of Anna Karenina, and to single clue of Resurrection.Chapter 7 will argue the influences of Tolstoy’faith on his realistic method. The change of Tolstoy’s faith also affected his realistic method. Tolstoy was a great realist writer, and his realistic method developed through his creation life. Tolstoy deepened the realistic method to three directions, which is naturalistic realism, the realism of psychology and classical realism. The different realistic method offered Tolstoy’s work with different art value.Chapter 8 is going to compare Tolstoy with Dostoevsky on their common faith in Mother Earth.Tolstoy and Dostoevsky shared the faith in Mother Earth, but there were more differences between their creations. The comparison will show the special characters of each writer.In a word, Tolstoy’ faith in Mother Earth experienced different stages, from the worship of nature to the admiration of Christian ethic, during which Tolstoy experienced deep pains. This process ran though his life and affected his work profoundly. To describe this process is to pursue Tolstoy’s creative secrets.