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Name: Manuel, Jesullyna C. Date: October 17, 2009
Subject: Introduction to Stylistics OP # 4
APPLICATION OF SYSTEMIC GRAMMAR IN THE ANALYSIS OF LEO
TOLSTOY’S SHORT STORY GOD SEES THE TRUTH, BUT WAITS
In this paper, I will attempt to analyze Leo Tolstoy’s short story God Sees the
Truth, But Waits using the rules of systemic grammar. The story is about a merchant
named Ivan Dmitritch Aksionov. Aksionov, a happy and successful merchant, leaves
home on a business trip. On the night of his first day on the road he shares a hotel room
with a stranger, a fellow merchant. During the night a thief enters the room and robs and
murders Aksionov's companion. Unaware of this, Aksionov departs early in the morning,
and, on the second day of his journey, he is overtaken by the police and charged with
murder. Although innocent, he is tried and convicted. He spends twenty-six years at
hard labor in Siberia. A new convict, Makar Semenov, then arrives at the prison, and
Aksionov learns that it was this hardened criminal who had committed the crime for
which he himself had been imprisoned. One night Aksionov observes Makar digging a
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tunnel. The prison authorities discover the tunnel before it is completed. The prisoners
are assembled for interrogation, and the warden questions Aksionov in particular.
Though he has good reason to hate Makar, Aksionov refuses to report him. Makar is so
moved by Aksionov's protection of him that he comes to him at night to seek his
forgiveness. On the next day Makar confesses to the authorities that he was the real
murderer. Aksionov is granted a full pardon, but by the time it arrives he has died.
The story relates the life story of a single individual. It is highly selective in
the events presented, and the structure of their arrangements is tightly controlled.
There are substantial accounts of only two brief periods in Aksionov’s life. The first half
of the story is devoted to the events surrounding the murder of the merchant. The
second half of the story recounts the events consequent upon the coincidental meeting
of Aksionov and the real murderer.
Aksionov tried to answer, but could hardly utter a word, and only stammered:
“I-I don’t know- not mine.”
Then the police officer said, “This morning the merchant was found in bed with
his throat cut. You are the only person who could have done it. The house was
locked from the inside, and no one else was there. Here is the bloodstained
knife in your bag, and your face and manner betray you! Tell me how you killed
him and how much money you stole.
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Aksionov swore he had not done it; that he had seen the merchant after they
had had tea together; that he had no money except eight thousand roubles of
his own, and that the knife was not his. But his voice was broken, his face pale,
and he trembled with fear as though he were guilty.
The passage has eight sentences. There are eight verbs in the sentence
that refers to Aksionov as a participant. There are also relational clauses that show the
circumstantial evidence that ties Aksionov to the murder of the merchant. When
Aksionov was trying to explain that he has not done it, we can see the use of verb of
cognition and perception. However, these verbs were not able to convince the police
that Aksionov is innocent because they are negated by the succeeding sentence “ But
his voice was broken, his face pale, and he trembled with fear as though he were guilty.
The protagonist's emotional response to his confrontation with the authorities is what
triggers the authority to think that he is really guilty. Aksionov is highly agitated, stunned,
stammering, and confused; hence he loses his self control.
His wife is in despair, and did not know what to believe. Her children were all
quite small; one was a baby at her breast. Taking them all with her, she went to
the town where her husband was in gaol. At first she was not able to see him;
but after much begging, she obtained permission from the officials, and was
taken to him. When she saw her husband in prison dress and in chains, shut up
with thieves and criminals, she fell down, and did not come to her senses for a
long time. Then she drew her children to her, and sat down near him. She told
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him of things at home, and asked about what happened to him. He told her and
she asked, “what can we do now?”
The passage above is lifted from the story when the wife of Aksionov found out
what happened to her husband. The passage above is composed of eight sentences
with different types of verbs. In the first sentence His wife is in despair, and did not
know what to believe we can see the effect of Aksionov fate to his wife. Aksionov here
is the causer of the process (although it is not implicitly implied in the sentence) the wife
on the other hand is the affected participant. The second sentence, her children were
all quite small; one was a baby at her breast shows that it is not only the wife who is the
affected participant but also the children. In the next sentence, taking them all with her,
she went to the town to see her husband in gaol. The wife and the children becomes the
actor, the process went and the beneficiary or recipient of the action is Aksionov. When
the wife came to the gaol and saw her husband, she was subjected to a humiliating
circumstance of begging just to see her husband. As the passage progresses we can
see the wife’s inner struggle upon seeing her husband chained and detained like a
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common criminal. When she saw her husband in prison dress and chains, shut with
thieves and criminals, she fell down, and did not come to her senses for a long time.
The verb of perception saw make the wife realizes the enormity of the problem that his
husband is currently facing. The verb fell gives a hint as to the action that the wife will
take about his husband. She told him of the things at home and asked him what
happened to him. Two transitive verbs are given here. But the objects of these transitive
verbs are both him. We can now surmise that the wife is putting all the blame for what
happened to his husband. On the latter part of the passage, the wife asked” What can
we do now?” This shows inaction on the part of the wife and total dependency to the
husband. Despite the fact that the husband is already in jail, the wife cannot make his
own decision as to what to do for her husband and for the family.
When Aksionov heard these words, he felt sure this was the man who had killed
the merchant. He rose and went away. All that night Aksionov lay awake. 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. He remembered how he sat playing
the guitar in the porch of the inn where he was arrested, and how free from
care he had been. He saw, in his mind, the place where he was flogged, the
executioner, and the people standing around; the chains, the convicts, all the
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twenty-six years of his prison life, and his premature old age. The thought of it
all made him so wretched that he was ready to kill himself.
The passage above was lifted on the part when Makar Semyonich arrived
in the prison and Aksionov learned that he was the one who killed the merchant that he
was accused of killing. In the passage we can see sixteen verbs, all are mental process
verb. The verb of perception heard and felt in the first sentence Aksionov fully realized
all the pains that he suffered only because he was wrongly accused. Upon perceiving
the truth, Aksionov didn’t do anything; instead, He rose and ran away. The second
sentence indicates inaction on the part of Aksionov as shown by the verb. He just rose
and ran away instead telling them the truth, or blame Makar or hurl something at Makar
for what he did to him for twenty six years. He didn’t verbalize his fury instead; Aksionov
became a participant in the mental process. The verb remembered, which is ideational
was twice repeated in this passage. His agonies rested on the verb remember as he
saw in his mind the face of his wife, his children and what he has suffered for twenty six
years. The reader knows from the beginning what the truth is and the entire interest of
the story is in the observation of Aksionov's reactions against the injustice of his
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situation. Aksionov's despair and later his resignation are, one would think, universally
comprehensible. His ultimate joy is the fact in his development as a character that is
difficult to understand; and whatever the explanation of this joy may be, it is certainly not
to be found in his coming to know the truth about the crime. Who knows better than the
protagonist himself that it was not he who committed the murder? And when his
knowledge is expanded by the certain belief that in Makar he has discovered the real
murderer, his immediate reaction is not one of joy and satisfaction but rather of hatred
and bitterness.
The theme of spiritual triumph and liberation is reinforced in the story through
interplay of symbols. The first of these is Aksionov's home. The context of its use
identifies his home very closely with the material aspect of Aksionov. One of the first
things the reader learns about Aksionov is that he has two shops and a home. While in
prison Aksionov received no word from home, but it is clear that he retained an interest
in it since it was the first question he asked of Makar when he learned that they were
both from the same town. Having guessed that Makar was the real murderer, he was
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consumed by longing for his former life. He conjured up that life in terms of the images
of his wife and children, the very essence of his home. His forgiveness of Makar marked
his release from the power of this emotion: "And Aksionov ceased longing for home . . ."
Taking Aksionov's home as the symbol of his material life, we find that references to the
importance of the home exactly parallel the initial dominance and final surrender of the
material aspect of Aksionov's character. Closely related to the symbol of Aksionov's
home is that of the prison. Since the prison replaces the home as the center of
Aksionov's material existence, it is natural to look upon it as a contrast to the home.
That was precisely what Aksionov did. The prison was the setting of his tragedy and
grief, while home was the object of his longing and desire. This opposition is maintained
until the act of forgiveness that is the climax of the story. After that, prison and home are
no longer opposed but are rather joined in relation to a third and more important
consideration. "And he ceased longing for home and no longer wanted to leave the
prison, and he only thought about his final hour." Aksionov's ceasing to distinguish
home and prison has come about through transference of his attention from the material
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sphere in general to the spiritual one. He began to think only of his "final hour," his
complete departure from the material world into that of the spiritual. "God Sees the
Truth, But Waits" portrays the spiritual development of the protagonist in material terms.
The relationship between these two planes of existence is wholly symbolic; the spiritual
does not emerge as a directly stated phenomenon. That the total disregard for material
values which characterizes Aksionov at his death is a desirable quality but it is a hard
lesson to teach. It seems to confront reason and human nature with hostility. To avoid
this hostility the spiritual plane of the story and the lesson that it suggests are masked,
but in such a way that they can be discovered. The narrative, by including no specific
mention of the spiritual plane or lesson, masks their existence. The structure of the
narrative, however, produces a tension in the story that can be resolved only by
discovering what has been hidden.
Application of Systemic Grammar to Leo Tolstoy’s short story God Sees the Truth, but Waits