The Prisoner of the Caucasus
The following are my notes on The Prisoner of the Caucasus, by Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy. These notes are subject to change in the future.
General Background Information
Tolstoy began to try to simplify his writing as he defined a standard that art should either:
- Expose religious truth
- Expose universal simple truth, available in any man’s life
He felt that his work didn’t really fit these standards, so he went out to try and write many basic Christian books.
Tolstoy criticized Gorky by calling him an inventor. This was a critique as he believed getting obsessed with form in art was pointless. One should seek truth.
As a critique of overly detailed prose: “take the details from the best novels of our time, what will remain?”
Tolstoy recounts a tale in his diaries when walking through a plowed field he spots a single Tartar thistle, broken down by the plow. This struck him as beautiful, and he wanted to write about how it clung to life even when everything around it had been decimated.
Gorky believes within this symbol, Tolstoy’s tendency towards artistic and inclusive creation is also reflected.
Hadji Murat represents a turn towards the thistle and its dignified defense of its life and values as the correct way for man to live. Not a sinner converted, or a holy fool, or a self conscious truth seeker, or sensually enslaved, or completely innocent, rather someone who is loyal to those dear to him, a natural warrior who goes about his life without clinging to any path.
Plot Summary
I & II
We are introduced to Zhilin and Kostylin. They are both soldiers in the Russian Tatar war. Zhilin’s mother writes him to come home and visit her before her death, and that she may have secured a bride and land for him.
They must travel by moving fortress, or they risk Tartar’s capturing them. Zhilin and Kostylin greedily go ahead, at Kostylin’s insistence. Zhilin is more cautious than Kostylin and spots a Tatar ambush, but they are both still captured.
Kostylin is a coward and writes for 5000 coins as his ransom. Zhilin, strategically, is boisterous and gets the sum down to 500 rubles, and even then writes the incorrect address as he’s sure he will escape.
III
Zhilin is comfortable and doesn’t write any more letters. He doesn’t want to bankrupt his mother, and so he gets to work finding meaning in his bondage. He begins making dolls, doing handiwork and occasionally being a doctor for the Tartars. They begin to like him, except Mohammed Kazi, the red bearded Tartar who captured him, and Hadji an old man who raided Russians till he was raided, his village destroyed, all his sons killed except for one who turned to the Russians side.
After this he went to the Russians side, found his son that turned coat, killed him and stopped engaging in war and began to pray.
IV
Zhilin begins to plan his escape. Be convinces his masters son to let him stray to the hill. From there he picks out the location he will try to escape too. This day the red bearded Tartar’s brother is killed. They perform a ritual burial and feast in his memory. Zhilin is resolute to escape and plans to bring Kostylin with him.
V
They try to escape but are held back by Kostylin being unable to go with speed or grace. Zhilin does not abandon Kostylin. Kostylin tells him he can but he still doesn’t. Zhilin takes Kostylin on his back, and they almost make it but are found, bound and returned to the village.
VI
Zhilin is able to escape, even though his conditions are made extremely dire by the Tartar’s who captured him. What follows is maybe the most beautiful description of love and humanity I’ve read. Amazing writing that depicts a man who attempts to stick to what he thinks is right, and is ultimately rewarded.
Final Thoughts
The story contains an eery parallel to the Tartar thistle that Hadji Murat was based upon. Regardless of what one’s beliefs are regarding Tolstoy’s first criteria for good art, this story gets as close to satisfying the second criteria as I could imagine any written work could.