The power of darkness
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| Title: | The power of darkness |
| Genus: | drama |
| Original language: | Russian |
| Author: | Leo Tolstoy |
| Publishing year: | 1886 |
| Premiere: | December 5, 1902 |
| Place of premiere: | Moscow |
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The Power of Darkness ( Russian Власть тьмы , German transcription Vlast 't'my ) is a five-act drama, written by Leo Tolstoy . Tolstoy finished the drama in 1886, but it was not allowed to be played in Russia until 1902. It was created in 1887 by August Scholz as the first German translation for S. Fischer Verlag.
Brief description
The main character, a young servant, Nikita, seduces and leaves the orphan girl Marinka in order to approach the beautiful wife of the farmer for whom he is employed. Anisja poisons her sick and hated husband so that she can marry Nikita. Nikita gets his new stepdaughter pregnant. Under the influence of his mother and wife, he murders the newborn. On the day of his stepdaughter's wedding, he surrendered to the police and confessed to what he had done.
action
The play takes place in a large village and begins in autumn. Petr, a rich farmer, is sick and tied to bed. The farm seems to be neglected under the leadership of its young servant Nikita. The peasant woman and the farmhand take advantage of Petr's illness and start an affair. But Nikita can't get enough of the women and begins an affair with the farmer's daughter, Akulina, who has stayed behind. One day Akim, Nikita's father, comes to the farm and wants to fetch his boy from the farm and marry him off to the orphan girl Marinka, whom he allegedly impregnated months ago. Matrjona, Nikita's mother, can successfully prevent this, especially since Nikita denies everything. Nikita stays in the yard. His mother procures a poison for the desperate farmer's wife, which she is supposed to put in her old man's tea to hasten his demise. The two biggest worry is that the farmer might take his wealth with him to the grave. Because he doesn't want to leave the money to his wife or daughter. On the day of his death, the farmer had his sister, Marfa, sent for. Anisja can prevent Marfa from arriving before she and Matryona find the money. Nikita is now assigned to hide the money well. After the painful death of the farmer, Nikita marries the now rich widow and heiress of the farm. In the meantime, however, he has given himself up to the farmer's daughter, who is now pregnant by him. Anisja's greatest concern is to get the stepdaughter off the farm, as her pregnancy stands in the way of a wedding. So it has to be veiled and the newborn has to be killed as soon as it is born. On the day of the birth of the child, which Akulina gives birth in the attic, it should also be killed immediately, so that the whole sin does not be exposed. Matrjona and Anisja force Nikita to kill his own flesh and blood and then to bury it in the cellar. Nikita begins to break down because of his deeds and at the wedding of his stepdaughter he makes confession about the deeds he has committed in front of everyone present.
literature
- Georg Hensel: Schedule - a drama guide from antiquity to the present , Propylaea, Frankfurt am Main 1966, ISBN 3-899-96612-0 . (Two volumes, last revised in 1978.)