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276 Tolstoy
The only reason Tolstoy himself escaped the
fate of other great Russians was that he was
mightier than the Church, mightier than the ducal
clique, mightier even than the Tsar. He was the
powerful conscience of Russia exposing her
crimes and evils before the civilized world.
How deeply Tolstoy felt the grave problems
of his time, how closely related he was to the peo
ple, he demonstrated in various works, but in
none so strikingly as in
"
The Power of Dark
ness."
THE POWER OF DARKNESS
"
THE POWER OF DARKNESS "
is the tragedy of
sordid misery and dense ignorance. It deals with
a group of peasants steeped in poverty and utter
darkness. This appalling condition, especially in
relation to the women folk, is expressed by one
of the characters in the play:
Mitrich. There are millions of you women and girls,
but you are all like the beasts of the forest. Just as one
has been born, so she dies. She has neither seen or heard
anything. A man will learn something; if nowhere else,
at least in the inn, or by some chance, in prison, or in the
army, as I have. But what about a woman? She does
not know a thing about God, nay, she does not know
one day from another. They creep about like blind pups,
and stick their heads into the manure.
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