The Light Shines in Darkness
1890
The Light Shines in Darkness is an unfinished play by Leo Tolstoy, written in 1890, that explores the conflict between individual conscience and societal expectations. The narrative centers on Nicholas Ivánovich Sarýntsov, who challenges family responsibilities and societal norms through his radical beliefs about property and Christianity. This work, notable for its semi-autobiographical elements, addresses themes of morality and duty while reflecting Tolstoy's personal dilemmas regarding wealth and social obligations. The play was banned in Russia due to its allusions to the refusal of military service.
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“Each one of us has to save his own soul, and has to do God's work himself, but instead of that we busy ourselves saving other people and teaching them. And what do we teach them? We teach them now, at the end of the nineteenth century, that God created the world in six days, then caused a flood, and put all the animals in an ark, and all the rest of the horrors and nonsense of the Old Testament. And then that Christ ordered everyone to be baptized with water; and we make them believe in all the absurdity and meanness of an Atonement essential to salvation; and then that he rose up into the heavens which do not really exist, and there sat down at the right hand of the Father. We have got used to all this, but really it is dreadful! A child, fresh and ready to receive all that is good and true, asks us what the world is, and what its laws are; and we, instead of revealing to him the teaching of love and truth that has been given to us, carefully ram into his head all sorts of horrible absurdities and meannesses, ascribing them all to God.””
— Leo Tolstoy
