"Long Exile" By Leo Tolstoy
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The "Long Exile'' by Leo Tolstoy is a short story written about Ivan Dmitrich Aksionov. Ivan lives in the town of Vladimir; he lives with his wife and two small children. One day, Ivan decides to travel to the fair. On his way there, he spends the night with a merchant he knows. When Ivan wakes up in the morning, he is accused of murdering the merchant and is taken to Jail. During the story, Tolstoy uses a sorrowful tone towards Ivan in order to get the readers to feel sorry for the main character's predicament. Tolstoy then uses a bitter tone towards the villain to get the readers to dislike him.
Tolstoy uses a sorrowful tone towards Ivan to get the readers on Ivan's side and feel sorry for him. For example, Tolstoy writes, " hiding his face in his hands, he began to weep. Then a soldier came to say that the wife and children must go away; and Aksionov said good-bye to his family for the last time"(Tolstoy).
This quote describes Ivan's sadness as he has to say good-bye to his family for the last time. The readers, knowing that Ivan did not commit the crime, feel sorry for him and his family. Later in the story while Ivan is in prison Tolstoy describes Ivan's reaction when he finds out the person who killed the merchant and framed him:
He felt terribly unhappy, and all sorts of images rose in his mind. There was the image of his wife as she was when he parted from her to go to the fair. He saw her as if she were present; her face and her eyes rose before him; he heard her speak and laugh. Then he saw his children, quite little, as they were at that time: one with a little cloak on, another at his mother’s breast. And then he remembered himself as he used to be—young and merry. ...The thought of it all made him so wretched that he was ready to kill himself.
The quote shows the extent of Ivan's sadness and how far it has pushed him. The thoughts of not ever seeing his children or wife again almost make Ivan commit suicide. This makes the reader care for Ivan even more and begin to dislike the villain.