God Sees the Truth, but Waits

Akiosonov was a young merchant who lived in the town of Vladimir. He was a good looking gentleman, with fair and curly hair.  In his youthful years he loved music, to have fun and drink and sometimes when he was drunk he would become incontrollable. He was a contrite man for when he married he decided to give up drinking and would drink only occasionally. He was also a loving man who cared for his family greatly for we see him enthusiastic about how he would sell all his goods and bring presents home to his wife and children. He was a God fearing and strongly believed in virtues like honesty, compassion, and forgiveness. When he was questioned by the district police official, he narrated everything truthfully from whence he had left home to when he arrived in the inn where he had spent the night with his fellow merchant before the ill ordeal occurred without him realizing. While in prison, he had found out that Makar had been digging a tunnel on the wall to escape through but when the guards interrogated him about it after every prisoner refused to talk, he chose not to tell on Makar despite the threats he had received from him and the bitterness that was in his heart knowing that it was him who had slain his fellow merchant. In his last days in prison where we see Makar confessing about the heinous crime he had committed which had made Akisionov to be unjustly imprisoned and had already served twenty six, he calmly listens to him and answers that God would forgive him. He immediately releases all bitterness against Makar and does not wish him any harm.

There are three main themes in the story. The theme of crime is well portrayed when Akisionov is found by the district official outside his second inn where he had stopped to rest on his trip to the trade fair and he found out that his fellow merchant had been slain in the previous inn. He is immediately put on knots after the police searched him and his entire luggage after questioning him, where apparently they found a blood stained knife in his bag. He is astonished for he was innocent of the crime committed to his colleague and wondered who could have put the knife in his items. He tried to explain he had not done it but the police were convinced that nobody else could have killed the man except him for they were the only two in the house and it was locked form outside. He was bonded up by the soldiers and carried to the nearest town and jailed. Makar is another character who helps one to reflect on this theme clearly. When the new convicts are taken to Siberia, we see him narrating that he had been there before but he didn’t stay long and had left but he is quick to say that by rights he should have been there long ago for he had done something wrong but apparently he was not found out. We see a little later in his confession that he was referring to the death of the merchant and he even disclosed to Akisionov that he in fact had intended to kill them both it is only that he heard some noise outside and escaped just before he had slaughtered Akisionov, and he hid the blood stained knife in his things.

The unjust imprisonment of Akisionov opens up to the theme of injustice. The officials after they had imprisoned Akisionov did not further investigate the matter to find out if he really was the culprit. He and his wife sent petitions to Czar to appeal his case but they are not accepted. We see him giving up writing more petitions and only prayed to God but he is then condemned to be whipped and is sent to the mines in Siberia along with other convicts. He serves in Siberia for twenty six years and grows old there where by his hair turned white as snow and his beard very long and would walk very slowly and only then does a glimmer of light shine, when new convicts are brought in and the merchant assassin, Makar, is among them who turned himself in and confessed his guilt but by the time the order for his release came he was already dead. Akisionov suffered unjustly for a crime he had not committed. He lived lonely and sad having left his wife and three young kids to serve a lifetime imprisonment and never heard from them again.

The theme of religion is reflected when Akisionov’s wife wakes up the day before his husband left for the fair trade and tells him that it was not safe to start his journey that day for she had had a bad dream where she saw him with grey hair after his return from the town. She believed the dream was a warning that something unpleasant would befall his husband. Akisionov laughs it off thinking that maybe she was afraid that if he went and sold much he would go on a spree and forget to return home. However, it turns out later that the dream was actually screaming out some danger ahead as they even talk about it in the prison when the wife finally gets permission to see him. Akisoinov believes in God. When he sends petitions to the Czar and they are not accepted he gave up and prayed to God to appeal his case. He said that only God knows the truth and to him alone should we appeal and expect mercy from. When Makar confessed that he had killed the merchant and asked for his forgiveness he wept along with him and told him that God would forgive him. He also added that he could have been even a hundred times worse than Makar and only hoped on God’s mercy. Finally, he released all the vengeance in his heart, lost the desire to leave jail and only wished for his last hour to come.

2. The Christmas Tree and a Wedding

 The writer of this story has narrated it at an observers point. And he has brought out the culture of this society as one that practices marrying off young girls to elder rich men as long as they pay a handsome amount of money for their dowry.  In this case, three hundred thousand rubles were set aside already as the young girl’s dowry. He talks of Mr. Yulian, who is the guest at a ceremony held by his host who is a wealthy contractor to negotiate the bride price of their eleven years old daughter who we see being married five years later to this man in a church wedding against her will for she was sad and her eyes were red from recent weeping. The society affects the young girl’s life by agreeing to this practice. Everyone at the party is attentive to the proceedings so that an awesome amount is paid and afterwards as guests dispersed everyone was pouring out flattering comments especially at Mr. Yulian. At the church people were still talking about the heiress bride price which was five hundred thousand. The girl was an heirless but due to the cultural practice which everyone seemed so staunch about it must have influenced the father to agree to marry her off to the ridiculous man. The father also is a selfish and a money loving man for despite being a wealthy contractor he gave up the daughter for marriage at sixteen to get the dowry and bridal goods worth a lot.

Works Cited

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. ‘A Christmas Tree And A Wedding’. The University of Adelaide Library. N.p., 2015. Web. 12 Dec. 2015.

Tolstoy, Leo. ‘God Sees The Truth, But Waits’. Literature Network. N.p., 1995. Web. 12 Dec. 2015.