Master and Man is seemingly designed to illicit a strong response. Every point in the story is very potent, especially the end, and they all make you ask many questions. As the story progresses, I would like to shed some light on two main elements make themselves very evident. The two main elements I would like to shed some light on are the theme of peasant vs. master and the way the ending of the story completely changes that theme.
The strongest element in this story is the concept of differences and injustices between peasants and the wealthy. While Vasili cheats Nikita out of his money, Nikita is moral, honest, and works hard, even though his wages don’t even go to him. It’s Vasili’s greed that pushes the story forward: From the loathing we feel for his dishonest practices in the beginning, to the sudden, radical change we see in his mannerisms. On the side of Nikita, he is complacent with all of the horrible decisions Vasili makes, and feels sorry for him when he meets his doom, even though he had cheated Nikita for years.
But what if the theme was not differences between the poor and the rich? What if the theme was humans and God? After all, nearing the end of the story, God is referred to as the Great Master. Thinking this way, we could reason that the story is about humans and God, and the characters’ relationship with religion. Maybe Vasili’s sudden change in heart was by the will of God, or maybe his faith was restored, or maybe, while watching Nikita freeze to death, he found some decency buried deep in his soul.
Throughout the story, throughout all of the emotions it evokes, and everything that is up for interpretation, there are two element’s I’m sure of: the theme of the poor and the rich, and how the ending completely changes that theme into god and man. Although I am sure of these elements, they may not be part of the story, and we will never know if they are, or if Leo Tolstoy even intended to look into the story this way. Even though we will never know what Leo Tolstoy intended for the story, we can still appreciate his storytelling prowess, and wonder what his intentions were.