MASTER AND MAN
BY LEO TOLSTOY

Read and surveyed by Julie Bradley

Master and Man is a short story about a peasant Nikita and his master, a wealthy merchant Vasilii Andreich Brekhunov. The story begins as Vasilii who deals with property and livestock plans a business trip to close a deal. Despite the dangerous Russian winter, Vasilii departs with his horse, Dapple, and his man, Nikita to guide him.
Tolstoy describes Vasilii as a greedy merchant, a calculating business man who does not appreciate the finer things in life. Vasilii is never in need but never knows it. He is crooked, and cheats Nikita out of proper wages for a 19th century peasant. Nikita is quite the opposite of Vasilii. Simple minded, at home with nature, an animal lover - Nikita is accepting of his life in servitude. Nikita has a wife that cheats him too, I think he overlooks this because he knows it’s because of his past drinking and gambling habits. Nikita has sworn off drink as we begin the story, it is only after we begin that we find out about his past habits. I think this is written to encourage the readers opinion about him and personify the character.
Throughout their journey, Tolstoy describes the snowy weather "He was blinded by the snow, the wind seemed anxious to hold him back . . . " and "the snow came down, sometimes too, it rose upwards . . . " And "sometimes they drove into deep, even snow, uniformly white, its surface unmarked by anything at all." In fact, the weather was so bad they deterred off the road three times. It was this third time that was of most significance in the story.
Their horse Dapple, exhausted from all the times getting lost because of Vasilii has to quit for the night. After numerous times getting out of sledges, gullies, and deep snow Dapple was ‘done in’ according to Nikita. So they set up things to spend the night in weather where they ‘might freeze to death.’ Tolstoy writes; "Vasilii Andreich felt quite warm in his two fur coats, especially after his exertions in the snowdrift, but a chill ran down his spine when he realized that he actually had to spend the night here. To steady his nerves he sat in the sledge and reached for his cigarettes and matches." Meanwhile Nikita, after building the sledge for his master to lay, affixed a flag so that if buried alive, they would be found. Then he unharnessed the horse, covered him with cloth, all the while talking to the horse to cheer it. Nikita then made a little hole in the snow and put straw in it and retired for the evening.
Vasilii, however, couldn’t sleep. Tolstoy writes what is going on inside Vasilii’s head. This consists of a fear of dying and then comforting himself by thinking about money and material items. This continues until Vasilii decides to leave Nikita and takes the horse determined to find shelter. Upon leaving, Nikita is awakened. Finding out what his master had done his only request was that Vasilii leave the cloth that was on the horse since it wasn’t in use anymore. But his master had already gone to far and could not hear him.
Eventually Vasilii ends up lost in the blinding weather again and poor Dapple collapses under him caught in a drift. As Vasilii frees Dapple, the horse takes off, leaving Vasilii behind. Determined to escape death he followed the horse tracks before they were hidden with snow. He is lead back to the shafts where Nikita was still laying. All of a sudden he was concerned seeing Nikita get up and confess that he was dying and to give his wife or son his wages. "Then suddenly, with the same decisiveness as when he shook hands to clinch some advantageous deal, he moved back a step, turned up the sleeves of his top-coat and with both hands began digging the snow off Nikita and out of the sledge. When he had got it clear, Vasilii Andreich hastily undid his belt, opened out his coat and, giving Nikita a shove, lay on top of him, covering him not only with the coat, but also with his body which was warm and heated form moving about." It is here that our antagonist turns into the protagonist. Vasilii, upon contemplating what he has done for Nikita, begins crying. ". . . it gave him a special feeling of happiness such as he had never had before." Thus he realizes that life is not about money, but life is about life. This becomes more evident when the reader discovers that Vasilii then gives up his own life for his poor peasant. Master and Man’s themes include money or wealth, the meaning of life and spiritual redemption. The end of the story describes Vasilii’s dream (which is one of my favorite parts of the story) which reveals that God had called him to save Nikita’s life and called him to be with him. The end of the story is filled with pensive thoughts on life, death and bliss.




John 15:13 "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends."