I was intrigued by the reoccurrence of the three little sleigh bells and the troika sledges in The Snowstorm. I remembered the three visits to the village, Grishkino, in Master and Man and wondered about that. In an earlier post I mentioned the rainbow and the snow / white light that showed up in both stories. The similarities in the des…
I was intrigued by the reoccurrence of the three little sleigh bells and the troika sledges in The Snowstorm. I remembered the three visits to the village, Grishkino, in Master and Man and wondered about that. In an earlier post I mentioned the rainbow and the snow / white light that showed up in both stories. The similarities in the descriptions of the snowy landscapes and the roads that appeared in both stories must have been based on Tolstoy's memories.
But the character development and story line came from some other place. In Master and Man, I saw the foreshadowing and the character development of Vasili and Nikita, how Vasili was flawed, and how redemptive and forgiving Nikita was, unlike the characters in The Snowstorm who remained unchanged throughout the story.
As the main characters developed, a storyline emerged that didn't portend well for Nikita. Unlike the characters in The Snowstorm, we got to know Vasili and Nikita pretty well and I became interested in their relationship and the relationships of some of the other characters. And Tolstoy, instead of pulling a dead body out a pond as in The Snowstorm (as if every story needs onw) made the change of heart in Vasili seem believable and real. A real feat.
I found looking at the juxtaposition of the two stories worthwhile, just as studying the differences in the two Charlie Chaplin movies made clear, there is much to gain by developing and telling a good story.
I was intrigued by the reoccurrence of the three little sleigh bells and the troika sledges in The Snowstorm. I remembered the three visits to the village, Grishkino, in Master and Man and wondered about that. In an earlier post I mentioned the rainbow and the snow / white light that showed up in both stories. The similarities in the descriptions of the snowy landscapes and the roads that appeared in both stories must have been based on Tolstoy's memories.
But the character development and story line came from some other place. In Master and Man, I saw the foreshadowing and the character development of Vasili and Nikita, how Vasili was flawed, and how redemptive and forgiving Nikita was, unlike the characters in The Snowstorm who remained unchanged throughout the story.
As the main characters developed, a storyline emerged that didn't portend well for Nikita. Unlike the characters in The Snowstorm, we got to know Vasili and Nikita pretty well and I became interested in their relationship and the relationships of some of the other characters. And Tolstoy, instead of pulling a dead body out a pond as in The Snowstorm (as if every story needs onw) made the change of heart in Vasili seem believable and real. A real feat.
I found looking at the juxtaposition of the two stories worthwhile, just as studying the differences in the two Charlie Chaplin movies made clear, there is much to gain by developing and telling a good story.