The Power of Darkness - Leo Tolstoy

Tolstoy’s 1886 drama is true to the nature of his later works that were inspired by Christian teachings and his interest in educational reform, but, typically for Tolstoy, that doesn’t mean that there is anything at all comforting or idealised about the events that take place in The Power of Darkness, a drama that recounts the corrupt and depraved activities of one godless family.

The wife of the family, Anisya, has been carrying on with one of the servants, Nikita, who is a bit of a ladies man. Nikita’s father knows however that his son has been seeing a girl who works as a cook at an inn, and wants to marry him off to do the decent thing and “cover the sin”. Nikita’s mother however knows of his dealings with Anisya and knowing that there is money and a rise in position if her son can take the place of her husband. Knowing Anisya’s weakness for Nikita, she provides her with some powders to add to his tea to clear the way towards this end. There are however worse horrors to be enacted as the sins become compounded by other perverse unions.

Tolstoy doesn’t hold back from depicting the kind of corruption that occurs in those who have forgotten God - lust, debauchery, drunkenness, usury (the denunciation of bankers and their ill-gotten gains is tackled here long before it became fashionable to do so in the current economic climate) - all of it leading to the most heinous of murders and crimes. The worst transgressions however are those that are instigated by women, their lusts and machinations truly knowing no bounds. The fault, Tolstoy would seem to say, lies not in their nature, but in their poverty, upbringing, lack of education and the absence of God in their lives. The depths of depravity that follow from this lack of moral direction is depicted in a way that is realistic and true (one need only look at the recent press for many similar shocking child abuse and mortality cases), but Tolstoy offers the hope that the cycle can be broken and forgiveness can be achieved.