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BA ENGLISH LITERATURE
FIRST YEAR - SEMESTER I
CORE I – INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH LITERATURE
UNIT - V : SHORT STORY
“How
Much Land Does a Man Need?” by Leo Tolstoy
Click the above video link for Detailed story explanation in Tamil
About
Author:
Leo Tolstoy (1828 - 1910)
was a Russian author best known for his novels War and Peace (1862) and Anna
Karenina (1878) which are considered to be the greatest novels of realist
fiction.
In addition
to writing novels, Tolstoy also authored short stories, essays and plays. Also
a moral thinker and a social reformer, Tolstoy held severe moralistic views.
His later
works such as The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886) and What Is to Be Done? (1901)
focus on Christian themes.
About
Story:
How much land does a man need? is a short story written by Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910). In the story, Tolstoy reflects critically on the hierarchy of 19th century Russian society where the poor were deprived and the rich stayed wealthy. Personal belongings, property, and other forms of material wealth were measures of an individual’s worth and determined social class. Land shortage was a major issue in 19th century Russia, and in his story, Tolstoy associates the Devil with the main character’s greed for land.
Summary:
“How Much Land Does a Man Need?” by Leo Tolstoy is a short story about the corrupting power of greed.
An elder sister from the
city visits her younger sister, the wife of a peasant farmer in the village. In
the midst of their visit, the two of them get into an argument about whether
the city or the peasant lifestyle is preferable. The elder sister suggests that
city life boasts better clothes, good things to eat and drink, and various
entertainments, such as the theater. The younger sister replies that though
peasant life may be rough, she and her husband are free, will always have
enough to eat, and are not tempted by the devil to indulge in such worldly
pursuits.
Pahom, the husband of the
younger sister, enters the debate and suggests that the charm of the peasant
life is that the peasant has no time to let nonsense settle in his head. The
one drawback of peasant life, he declares, is that the peasant does not have
enough land: “If I had plenty of land, I shouldn’t fear the Devil himself!” The
devil, overhearing this boast, decides to give Pahom his wish, seducing him
with the extra land that Pahom thinks will give him security.
Pahom’s first opportunity
to gain extra land comes when a lady in the village decides to sell her three
hundred acres. His fellow peasants try to arrange the purchase for themselves
as part of a commune, but the devil sows discord among them and individual
peasants begin to buy land. Pahom obtains forty acres of his own. This pleases
him initially, but soon neighboring peasants allow their cows to stray into his
meadows and their horses among his corn, and he must seek justice from the
district court. Not only does he fail to receive recompense for the damages but
also he ruins his reputation among his former friends and neighbors; his extra
land does not bring him security.
Hearing a rumor about more
and better farmland elsewhere, he decides to sell his land and move his family
to a new location. There he obtains 125 acres and is ten times better off than
he was before, and he is very pleased. However, he soon realizes that he could
make a better profit with more land on which to sow wheat. He makes a deal to
obtain thirteen hundred acres from a peasant in financial difficulty for one
thousand rubles and has all but clinched it when he hears a rumor about the
land of the Bashkirs. There, a tradesman tells him, a man can obtain land for
less than a penny an acre, simply by making friends with the chiefs.
Fueled by the desire for
more, cheaper, and better land, Pahom seeks directions for the land of the
Bashkirs and leaves on a journey to obtain the land that he thinks he needs. On
arrival, he distributes gifts to the Bashkir leaders and finds them courteous
and friendly. He explains his reasons for being there and, after some
deliberation, they offer him whatever land he wants for one thousand rubles.
Pahom is pleased but concerned; he wants boundaries, deeds, and “official
sanction” to give him the assurance he needs that they or their children will
never reverse their decision.
The Bashkirs agree to this
arrangement, and a deal is struck. Pahom can have all the land that he can walk
around in a day for one thousand rubles. The one condition is that if he does
not return on the same day to the spot at which he began, the money will be
lost. The night before his fateful walk, Pahom plans his strategy; he will try
to encircle thirty-five miles of land and then sell the poorer land to peasants
at a profit. When he awakes the next day, he is met by the man whom he thought
was the chief of the Bashkirs, but whom he recognizes as the peasant who had
come to his old home to tell him of lucrative land deals available elsewhere.
He looks again, and realizes that he is speaking with the devil himself. He
dismisses this meeting as merely a dream and goes about his walk.
Pahom starts well, but he
tries to encircle too much land, and by midday he realizes that he has tried to
create too big a circuit. Though afraid of death, he knows that his only chance
is to complete the circuit. “There is plenty of land,” he says to himself, “but
will God let me live on it?” As the sun comes down, Pahom runs with all his
remaining strength to the spot where he began. Reaching it, he sees the chief
laughing and holding his sides; he remembers his dream and breathes his last
breath. Pahom’s servant picks up the spade with which Pahom had been marking
his land and digs a grave in which to bury him: “Six feet from his head to his
heels was all he needed.”
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