Leo Tolstoy

“ Life and death are the same to genius. I'm dead during life and I live after death. You kill yourself in order to make a few people miss you, but I—but I—am going to kill myself to make the whole world know what it lost. I won't hesitate or think about it. I'll just take the revolver—one, two—and all is over—um. But I am premature. My hour is not yet struck. (He puts the revolver down.) But I shall write nothing. The world will have to understand all by itself. (FÉDYA continues to write.) ”

“ Masha. What's the use of me wondering about myself? I know when I'm in love, and I know that I sing best when my love is singing.
Fédya. Do you love me?
Masha (murmuring) . I love you.
Fédya. But I am a married man, and you belong to this gypsy troupe. They wouldn't let you leave it, and—
Masha (interrupting) . The troupe's one thing, and my heart's another. I love those I love, and I hate those I hate.
Fédya. Oh, you must be happy to be like that.
Masha. I'm always happy when handsome gentlemen come and say nice things to me. (Gypsies stop singing.) ”

“ Lisa, Victor, I write you both without using terms of endearment, since I can't feel them, nor can I conquer a sense of bitterness and reproach, self-reproach principally, when I think of you together in your love. I know, in spite of being the husband, I was also the barrier, preventing you from coming earlier to one another. C'est moi qui suis l'intrue. ”

“ Fédya. Nastasïa, Nastasïa, you've made a mistake. Your daughter is like a sister to me. I haven't harmed her at all. I love her, that's true. But how can I help it?
Iván. Well, why didn't you love her when you had some money? If you'd paid us ten thousand rubles, you could have owned her, body and soul. That's what respectable gentlemen do. But you—you throw away every kopek you've got and then you steal her like you'd steal a sack of meal. You ought to be ashamed, sir. ”

“ The world, what is it but a mass of preposterous creatures, who crawl around through life, understanding nothing— nothing at all—do you hear me? (FÉDYA looks up, rather exasperated.) Oh, I'm not talking to you. All this is between me and the cosmos. (Pours himself out another drink.) After all, what does humanity most lack? Appreciation for its geniuses. As it is, we're persecuted, tortured, racked, through a lifetime of perpetual agony, into the asylum or the grave. But no longer will I be their bauble. Humanity, hypocrite that you are—to hell with you. ”

“ I assure you, I can sympathize with such a repugnance, but how can one avoid it? You see, it's the only way out. But, my dear boy, you mustn't think I don't sympathize with you. It's a horrible situation for a sensitive man and I quite understand how you must hate it.
Fédya. Thank you, Prince Sergius. I always knew you were kind and just. Now tell me what to do. Put yourself in my place. I don't pretend to be any better than I really am. I am a blackguard but there are some things that even I can't do. ”

“ I didn't leave the troupe either. I'll go on singing just the same.
Iván. If you talk any more, I'll pull your hair all out for you, you loose little beast, you. (To FÉDYA, reproachfully.) And you, sir, when we were so fond of you—why, often and often we used to sing for you for nothing and this is how you pay us back.
Nastasïa (rocking herself to and fro) . You've ruined our daughter, our very own, our only one, our best beloved, our diamond, our precious one, (with sudden fury) . You've stamped her into the dirt, you have. Where's your fear of God? ”

“ I think it's a matter of feeling. If you can trust your heart, let it guide you. What extraordinary adjustments death brings about! I confess I used to think very unkindly of Fédya, when he seemed a barrier to all this. (She makes a gesture with her hand.) But now I think of him as that nice boy who was my son's friend, and a man who was capable of sacrificing himself for those he loved. (She knits.) I hope Victor hasn't forgotten to bring me some wool.
Lisa. Here he comes. (LISA runs to the edge of the veranda.) There's some one with him—a lady in a bonnet! Oh, it's mother! ”

“ I know she loves Victor Karénin, let her. Personally, I think he is a bore, but he is a good bore. So they'll probably be very happy together, at least in the ordinary sense and que le bon Dieu les bénisse.
Prince Sergius. Yes, but we——
Fédya (rising, goes L., leans on table) . Please don't think I'm jealous. If I just said Victor was dull, I take it back. He's splendid, very decent, in fact the opposite of myself, and he's loved her since her childhood (slowly) and maybe she loved him even when we were married. After all, that happens, and the strongest love is perhaps unconscious love. ”

“ I would hear him, pushing open the door, crawling into the room, coming to me on his hands and knees, grovelling, whining, begging me (he is almost shouting) for her, for her, imagine it! And I, I had to get up and give my place to him. (He covers his eyes with his hands in a. convulsive moment.) Phew! Then I'd come to myself.
Petushkóv. God! It must have been horrible.
Fédya (wearily) . Well, later on I left her—and after a while, they asked me for a divorce. I couldn't bear all the lying there was to be got through. Believe me it was easier to think of killing myself. ”

“ Anna Pávlovna. It would be if only he'd give her a divorce.
Sasha. To what end?
Anna Pávlovna. Because she's young and has the right to look for happiness.
Sasha. It's awful to listen to you. How could she love some one else?
Anna Pávlovna. Why not? There are thousands better than your Fédya, and they'd be only too happy to marry Lisa.
Sasha. Oh, it's not nice of you. I feel, I can tell, you're thinking about Victor Karénin.
Anna Pávlovna. Why not? He loved her for ten years, and she him, I believe.
Sasha. Yes, but she doesn't love him as a husband. They grew up together ”

“ Anna Pávlovna. Her love has been tried out of existence. Remember she had everything to contend with: drunkenness, gambling, infidelity—what was there to go on loving in such a person?
Karénin. Love can do anything.
Anna Pávlovna. How can one love a rag torn by every wind? Their affairs were in dreadful shape; their estate mortgaged; no money anywhere. Finally his uncle sends them two thousand rubles to pay the interest on the estate. He takes it, disappears, leaves Lisa home and the baby sick—when suddenly she gets a note asking her to send him his linen. ”

“ How can a good woman leave her husband?
Prince Sergius. Ah, that's not like you. You're unkind and you're harsh. Her husband is the sort of man—well, he's his own worst enemy. A weakling, a ne'er-do-well—he's spent all his money and hers too. ”

“ Fédya (takes him by the arm) . Tell me, what'll the worst be?
Petrúshin. I've already told you. Exile to Siberia.
Fédya. Who'll be exiled to Siberia?
Petrúshin. You and your wife, naturally.
Fédya. And at the best?
Petrúshin. Religious pardon and the annulment of the second marriage.
Fédya. You mean—that we should be bound again—to one another——
Petrúshin. Yes. Only try to collect yourself. Keep up your courage. After all, there's no occasion for alarm.
Fédya. There couldn't be any other sentence, you're sure?
Petrúshin. None other. None other. ”

“ Fédya (breaking out passionately) . The truth—Oh, God! what do you know about the truth? Your business is crawling up into a little power, that you may use it by tantalizing, morally and physically, people a thousand times better than you.... You sit there in your smug authority torturing people.
Magistrate. I must ask you——
Fédya (interrupts him) . Don't ask me for I'll speak as I feel. (Turning to CLERK.) And you write it down. So for once some human words will get into a deposition. ”

“ A POLICE OFFICER enters from up R., kicks a man who is lying on the floor—walks down stage, looks at FÉDYA and PETUSHKÓV, then exits.
Petushkóv. Your life's wonderful. I believe you're a real idealist.
Fédya. No. It's awfully simple. You know among our class—I mean the class I was born in—there are only three courses: the first, to go into the civil service or join the army and make money to squander over your sensual appetites. And all that was appalling to me—perhaps because I couldn't do it. The second thing is to live to clear out, to destroy what is foul, to make way for the beautiful. ”

“ Lisa (R. of table) . Victor!
Karénin (reading) . Must be removed? "By the time this letter reaches you, I shall no longer exist. All I ask you is to be happy, and whenever you think of me, think tender thoughts. God bless you both. Good-bye. FÉDYA."
Lisa. He's killed himself!
Karénin (going hurriedly up stage L. and calls of) . My secretary! Call back my secretary!
Lisa. Fédya! Fédya, darling!
Karénin. Lisa!
Lisa. It's not true! It's not true that I've stopped loving him! He's the only man in all the world I love! And now I've killed him! ”

“ So trying to play I crawled in every sort of muck there is. And you know, it's a funny thing, but we love people for the good we do them, and we hate them for the harm. That's why I hated Lisa. That's why she seemed to love me.
Petushkóv. Why do you say seemed?
Fédya (wistfully) . Oh, she couldn't creep into the center of my being like Masha. But that's not what I mean. Before the baby was born, and afterwards, when she was nursing him, I used to stay away for days and days, and come back drunk, drunk, and love her less and less each time, because I was wronging her so terribly. ”

“ That's my system. (Picks up box that FÉDYA has placed on table—opens it and takes out a revolver.) Hallo! What's this? Going to shoot yourself. Of course, why not? I understand. They want to humiliate you, and you show them where the courage is—put a bullet through your head and heap coals of fire on theirs. I understand perfectly. (The waiter enters with champagne on tray, pours a glass for FÉDYA, then exits. PETROVICH takes up the glass of wine and starts to drink. FÉDYA looks up from his writing.) I understand everything and everybody, because I'm a genius. ”

“ And her husband?
Sophia Karénina. He agrees to a divorce.
Prince Sergius. Really?
Sophia Karénina. And Victor is willing to put up with all the sordidness, the vulgarity of the divorce court, the lawyers, evidences of guilt ... tout ça est dégoûtant. I can't understand his sensitive nature not being repelled by it.
Prince Sergius (smiling) . He's in love, and when a man's really in love—
Sophia Karénina (interrupting) . In our time love could remain pure, coloring one's whole life with a romantic friendship. Such love I understand and value. ”

“ And yet we're all alive. When suddenly a bastard adventurer appears, who demands that I abet his filthy scheme. I drive him off as I would a diseased dog, but he finds you, the defender of public justice, the appointed guardian of morality, to listen to him. ”

“ Petushkóv. Yes, but what about the body? They didn't find that?
Fédya (smiling drunkenly) . Oh yes, they did! You just listen! About a week afterwards some horror was dragged out of the water. My wife was called in to identify it. It was in pretty bad shape, you know. She took one glance. "Is that your husband?" they asked her. And she said, "Yes." Well, that settled it! I was buried, they were married, and they're living very happily right here in this city. I'm living here, too! We're all living here together! ”

“ I say was, because now I don't consider myself her husband at all. She's perfectly free. There, does that satisfy you?
Prince Sergius. Yes, but you know how strictly orthodox Victor and his family are. Of course I don't agree with them—perhaps I have broader views— (with a shrug) but I understand how they feel. They consider that any union without a church marriage is—well, to put it mildly, unthinkable.
Fédya. Yes, I know he's very stu—I mean strict. (With a slight smile.) "Conservative" is the word, isn't it? But what in God's name (crossing to C.) do they want, a divorce? ”

“ I've never seen her, but I'm afraid of her. No good woman leaves her husband, especially when there's nothing obviously intolerable about him. Why, I've seen Protosov often with Victor, and found him even quite charming. ”

“ The room of the examining magistrate, who sits at a table talking to MÉLNIKOV, a smartly dressed, languid, man-about-town.
At a side-table a CLERK is sorting papers.
Magistrate. (sitting R. of table R. C.) . Oh, I never said so. It's her own notion. And now she is reproaching me with it.
Mélnikov. (sitting C. back to audience) . She's not reproaching you, only her feelings are awfully hurt. ”