"The Life of Vasily Fiveysky"

History of writing

The author wrote this work for 2 years; the reason for its creation was a conversation with Maxim Gorky about the confession of Alexander Appolov, who did not accept the rank of clergy because of “Tolstoy’s teachings.” Andreev wrote “The Life of Vasily Fiveysky” in 1904, the book aroused many reviews. During its discussion, more than 20 publications were written. Many critics rated the story as the most significant for the author and an important event in revolutionary literature.

Popular reviewers of the time included:

Minsky;
Gershenzon;
Korolenko;
Gippius.

Many critics agreed that the writer raised a pressing topic that stirs both close and distant people. Minsky said that this work “surpassed in the power of the word” everything that was written before it. The significant depth of the issues described in the story only emphasized Andreev’s talent; he fully described the stages of spiritual development and the change in the worldview of the main character.

But there were also people “offended” by their religious beliefs. They called this work “anti-Christian.” Some considered him pessimistic, seeing in him a meaningful call to battle.

Nastya

In addition to his idiot son, Vasily Fiveysky also had a daughter, Nastya. She is mentioned in passing in the first chapters as a girl with a gloomy and angry look. Father Vasily was so absorbed in his own grief that he not only did not pay attention to his daughter, but even seemed to forget about the existence of other people on earth.

But one day during confession, talking with an old woman, he suddenly realized that, in addition to his grief, each of the parishioners had their own sorrows. The priest, deafened by his own suffering, did not think about them. And in the world, it turned out, there is so much other people’s grief. And after this realization, he looked into the eyes of his daughter for the first time - a sad, embittered and useless girl.

Summary of “The Life of Vasily of Thebes” by Andreev resembles the parable of the righteous Job. However, the main character of this story, unlike the biblical character, more than once tries to rebel against fate. In conclusion, he tries to change something. He wants to leave and plans to take his son Vasya to an orphanage. But the wife dies in a fire. Father Vasily himself also dies. The last thing he sees is the sky on fire. The death of Fiveysky is a symbol of an idea that Andreev expressed more than once in his work. According to the Russian classic, there is no point in resisting omnipotent fate. There is meaning only in faith and love.

Summary

From a young age, Vasily bore the burden of grief and misfortune. The protagonist's heart could never heal from its wounds. Being the son of a reverent village clergyman, he himself was humble, as if he did not see the misfortunes that rained down on him. He fell and got up, slowly, but like an ant, twig by twig he tried to build his own life.

He married a beautiful woman, became a clergyman, and his wife gave birth to a daughter and a son. And, it seems, life returned to him, and God blessed him. But after a while his son drowned . Popadya was heartbroken and could not find a place for herself.

She began to reach for a glass in order to forget everything, and often began to get drunk until she completely lost consciousness. Her husband did not give up - he prayed to God and believed that he could return his favor again. He himself looked after his wife and went to the doctor for advice on her illness.

The parishioners did not really like Vasily , because he conducted the service dryly and in a hurry. And they found out that he was unhappy in his personal life, and therefore they avoided him. They even asked me to take my rank. Headman Porfiry tried to drive the priest out of the world, so the latter was afraid of him, and the first thing the frightened priest saw when looking at the village was the metal roof of the old man’s tall house. And only then did he find it difficult to find the dark thatched roof of his own home.

One day, the elder in the church, after Vasily’s wife came to the service, said that this drunkard should not be allowed in. She got drunk that evening and started telling her husband that she wanted to give birth to a boy. And poor Vasily fell under the frantic passion of his wife, and late at night, when everyone was already asleep, he went into the field and prayed. A voice was heard: “I believe,” and hope glimmered in the priest.

My wife got pregnant, didn’t drink for the whole summer , and peace returned to the family. She became prettier and was no longer afraid of Porfiry. Winter came also in joy and tranquility. At Epiphany, a son was born with a huge head and thin legs. The parents spent several years in doubt. And it turned out that the boy was born an idiot.

The family spent a long time in grief, it came from all sides, and there was a feeling that someone was sitting in a dark room, born in madness. The boy turned 4 years old, but he just said “Give”, shouted loudly and with anger. And it was hard to feed the child. The exhausted wife started drinking again. The priest began to have fits of madness. The whole family somehow managed to cope with her, they tied her with ropes.

Thy will be done

Everything became alien to the priest. It seems that he is among people and does everything like they do, but he is not visible, as if he is some kind of shell and not a person. Once during confession, when the old woman spoke to him sincerely and fearfully, the scales fell from the priest’s eyes. And he realized that there are people on earth who are like him. Unusual days began to happen in his life. He was a lonely tree, and suddenly a dense forest grew up near Vasily. But at the same time the darkness of the night became denser.

During Lent, a beggar came to the priest for confession. He told how he abused a young girl, killed and buried her. Over the course of several years, he told many priests about the terrible act. But no one believed it, except Vasily, the priest fell to his knees and shouted: “There is hell in heaven and on earth.” At that moment the life of the priest changed. He experienced mental anguish, as if everything had turned upside down inside. He began to assure the beggar that he would be higher in heaven than any righteous person.

He returned home dirty and tired, as if he had been walking through the fields for a long time, and told his wife that evening that he would not be able to go to church. I decided to wait out the summer one day, and in the fall to renounce my rank and leave the village. This decision brought peace to the family. But a month later, when the priest was out haymaking, his house burned down, and his wife died in the fire .

Vasily walked through the garden of the deacon, who sheltered him and the children, and wondered what the fire was - a pillar showing the way, or did God want to turn his life into a desert so that he would not wander along the beaten paths? And for the first time, humbly bowing his head, he said: “Thy will be done!”

And the villagers who looked at him that day saw the unfamiliar man as a shadow not from this world. “What are you looking at? Am I a miracle?” Vasily says, laughing.

With this phrase the writer ends the next chapter of the work, as if ending with the past, opening a blank page in the life of the priest.

Right to a miracle

Vasily sent his daughter to his sister, rebuilt the house, reads the Bible to his son, holds church services every day, and observes fasting. The priest’s other life scares people, and after the death of the peasant Mosyagin, everyone agrees that Vasily is to blame. The headman came to him and told him to leave, because only troubles come from him. And the priest, who was always afraid of the elder, kicks him out of the church.

During the funeral service for the dead man, Vasily suddenly stops reading the prayer, laughs quietly, approaches the dead man and screams: “I tell you, get up!” The deceased does not rise from the grave. Then the priest pushes him out of there. People run away in panic, and Vasily continues to call out to the deceased. But the walls will collapse faster than he will rise from the coffin.

He is not fighting with the dead, but with Him in whom he has boundless faith and has the right to ask to perform a miracle. However, the answer is silence. In anger, the priest runs into the field, where he had prayed many times and complained about his unfortunate fate.

Here the next day people will find Vasily stretched out. “It’s as if even dead he continues to run.” The writer ends his story with this phrase.

Life of Vasily Fiveysky

Like an ant - grain of sand to grain of sand - Father Vasily built his life: he got married, became a priest, gave birth to a son and a daughter. Seven years later, life crumbled to dust. His son drowned in the river, his wife began to drink out of grief. Father Vasily does not find peace in the church either - people shun him, the elder openly despises him. Even on his name day, only the clergyman comes to him; respectable fellow villagers do not deign the priest any attention. At night, his drunken wife demands affection from him, hoarsely begging: “Give me your son, priest! Give it back, you damned one!” And her passion overcomes her chaste husband.

A boy is born, and in memory of his late brother he is named Vasily. It soon becomes clear that the child is an idiot; Life becomes even more unbearable. Before it seemed to Father Vasily: the earth was tiny, but on it he was alone, huge. Now this land is suddenly populated by people, they all go to him for confession, and he, mercilessly and shamelessly demanding the truth from everyone, repeats with restrained anger: “What can I do? That I am God? Ask him!” He called grief to him - and grief comes and comes from all over the earth, and he is powerless to reduce earthly grief, but only repeats: “Ask him!” — already doubting God’s desire to alleviate human suffering.

One day during Great Lent, a crippled beggar confessed to him. He makes a terrible confession: ten years ago he raped a girl in the forest, strangled her and buried her. The villain told many priests his secret - and no one believed him; he himself began to think that this was an evil tale, and, telling it the next time, he came up with new details and changed the appearance of the poor victim. Father Vasily is the first to believe what he hears, as if he himself had committed a crime. Falling to his knees in front of the killer, the priest shouts: “Hell on earth, hell in heaven! Where is heaven? Are you a man or a worm? Where is your God, why did he leave you? Don't believe in hell, don't be afraid! There will be no hell! You will find yourself in paradise, with the righteous, with the saints, above everyone else - I’m telling you this!..."

That night, on the eve of Good Friday, Father Vasily admits to his wife that he cannot go to church. He decides to survive the summer somehow, and in the fall to remove himself from the rank and leave with his family wherever his eyes look, far, far away...

This decision brings peace to the house. The soul rests for three months. And at the end of July, when Father Vasily was out haymaking, a fire breaks out in his house and his wife burns alive.

He wandered for a long time in the garden of the old deacon, who served with him and gave shelter to his daughter and son after the fire. And Father Vasily’s thoughts are wonderful: the fire—wasn’t it the same pillar of fire as the one that showed the Jews the way in the desert? God decided to turn his whole life into a desert - wasn’t it so that he, Basil of Thebes, would no longer wander along the old, well-trodden paths?..

And for the first time in many years, bowing his head humbly, he said that morning: “Thy holy will be done!” - and the people who saw him that morning in the garden meet a stranger, a completely new man, as if from another world, asking them with a smile: “Why are you looking at me like that? Am I a miracle?

Father Vasily sends his daughter to the city to live with his sister, builds a new house, where he lives alone with his son, reading the Gospel aloud to him and, as if for the first time, hearing about the healing of a blind man, about the resurrection of Lazarus. He now serves in church every day (and previously only on holidays); imposed monastic vows and strict fasting on himself. And this new life of his worries his fellow villagers even more. When the man Semyon Mosyagin, appointed by Father Vasily as a worker for the church elder, dies, everyone agrees that the priest is to blame.

The headman enters Father Vasily at the altar and directly declares: “Get out of here. There's nothing but misfortune here from you. Even a chicken doesn’t dare die for no reason, but people die because of you.” And then Father Vasily, who had been afraid of the elder all his life, who was the first to take off his hat when meeting him, expels him from the temple, like a biblical prophet, with anger and flame in his eyes...

Semyon's funeral service takes place on Spiritual Day. There is a smell of decay throughout the temple; outside the windows it is dark as night. Anxiety runs through the crowd of worshipers. And a thunderstorm breaks out: interrupting the reading of the funeral prayers, Father Vasily laughs silently and triumphantly, like Moses who saw God, and, approaching the tomb where the ugly, swollen body lies, loudly proclaims: “I tell you, get up!”

The dead man does not listen to him, does not open his eyes, does not rise from the grave. "Do not want?" - Father Vasily shakes the coffin and pushes the dead man out of it. The people run out of the church in fear, believing that their quiet and absurd shepherd has been possessed by demons. And he continues to cry out to the dead man; but the walls would sooner collapse than the dead man would listen to him... Yes, he is not fighting a duel with a dead man - he is fighting with God, in whom he has infinitely believed and therefore has the right to demand a miracle!

Seized with rage, Father Vasily runs out of the church and rushes through the village, into an open field, where he more than once mourned his bitter fate, his incinerated life. There, in the middle of the field, the men would find him the next day - spread out in such a position, as if he was still running even if he was dead...

Image of Vasily

The life of the main character is a chain of difficult tests of his faith: his son drowned, his wife drinks. But the priest never tires of saying: “I believe.” Vasily's faith is “simple and solemn.” Life shows him hidden depths: the joy of expecting another son is replaced by a cruel reality - the boy is sick, the family is dominated by the terrible image of an idiot. It was at that time that the priest became indifferent and humble, thinking “about God.” He demands the same from parishioners who have applied for confession, but doubts and sadness in their souls ask him: “Where is your God?”

The house burns down, the wife dies. He exclaims: “Thy will be done.” And again indestructible. His faith is strengthened so that Vasily feels himself chosen by God, and in this ecstasy he subjected himself to a difficult test - he wants to resurrect the deceased. Shouting three times: “I tell you, get up!” However, the deceased answered him with the cold breath of death.

The priest is surprised: “Why did I believe?” The terrible truth about the emptiness and futility of his torment kills the main character. His world is destroyed, but even after dying, he seems to be running, looking for an answer.

Grief in the family of Father Vasily

There was happiness in his life. But it was very short-lived. Only the first years of marriage were cloudless and bright. But his beloved son Vasya died, and the priest, who was still young at that time, seemed to have died too. She became absent-minded, as if she did not see anything else around her: neither her husband, nor her daughter, nor any other people. And in order to finally immerse herself in her world, where there was no place for anything else except longing for the dead child, she began to drink bitterly. The author says that after the first drops drunk by the priest, it became clear to Father Vasily that this would always be the case. Realizing this, he got scared, brought medicine from the doctor for a serious illness and, having resigned himself, began to simply move on with his life.

Joy and light left the life of Vasily Fiveysky forever. The summary of the first chapter is the loss of his son and the grief that the main character cannot share with anyone else. He utters the phrase: “I believe,” and as if with these words he is trying to kill doubts in himself about divine power and justice.

Analysis of the work

The plot of the work is often compared with the Book of Job. But the story is only superficially similar to the story from the Bible. Job suffered misfortunes and realized that he could not comprehend God. He became humble. And Vasily shouts in rage: “Why did I believe?” Andreev’s work is a bold attempt to shake the basic religious beliefs - the belief in miracles. The author wrote a story filled with drama, where a priest, tormented by grief, turns into a fighter against God.

He decides to use his faith to resurrect the deceased . But there is no miracle, faith is destroyed. In Andreev’s work one can feel a feeling of dissatisfaction and misunderstanding, a spirit of protest and rage. Above the symbolic layers of the work is a realistic note that dispels illusions and ghosts. Analysis of the story allows us to see symbolism through it, that the writer calls for a conscious and reasonable battle.