The Live Corpse (Illustrated)
Category: Kindle Store,Kindle Short Reads,Two hours or more (65-100 pages)
The Live Corpse (Illustrated) Details
The central character of the play, Fedor Protasov, is tormented by the belief that his wife Liza has never really chosen between him and the more conventional Victor Karenin, a rival for her hand. He wants to kill himself, but doesn't have the nerve. Running away from his life, he first falls in with Gypsies, and into a sexual relationship with a Gypsy singer, Masha. However, facing Masha's parents' disapproval, he runs away from this life as well. Again he wants to kill himself, but lacks the nerve; again, his descent continues.Meanwhile, his wife, presuming him dead, has married the other man. When Protasov is discovered, she is charged with bigamy, accused of arranging her husband's disappearance. He shows up in court to testify that she had no way of knowing that he was alive; when the judge rules that his wife must either give up her new husband or be exiled to Siberia, Protasov shoots himself. Hysterically, his wife declares that it is Protasov whom she always loved.
Reviews
During Tolstoy's lifetime divorce was considered improper. People thought that divorce is a violation of the Gospel teachings, husbands and wives were expected to live together despite any wrongs committed by their spouse and despite their misery; yet divorces were allowed, but only if the adulterer admitted his adultery and witnesses saw him perform the act. In this play in six acts a husband, Fdya, tells his wife he wants to separate from her. He feels that he is making her life wretched by his drinking and by being a spendthrift, and besides, he knows that his friend, Victor, loves his wife and feels that if he were not around his wife would love Victor, who she grew up with, and finally be happy. Fdya is being pursued by a gypsy who loves him, but Fdya has had no sex with her.Fdya promises his wife and Victor that he will arrange that they can marry. However, he finds that he cannot lie and say that he had sex and pay witnesses to lie that he did so. He decides to keep his promise by killing himself, but discovers that he cannot do this either. So he decides to fake his death by drowning.The final acts describe what happened as a result of this deceit, Fdya's feelings, the feelings of Victor and Fdya's wife and what they do, and how a blackmailer complicates matters, and about a trial and its outcome.