God Sees the Truth But Waits Summary

The short story written by Leo Tolstoy, launched in 1872, is a lesson about forgiveness that gives way to religious and spiritual themes. The lesson tells of a man sent to jail in Siberia for a murder he did not commit. The story is also chosen for films and radio programs.

Summary

The story is put forward in the third person simply and logically. The primary character in the story is Ivan Dmitritch Aksenov, a very successful merchant, mainly from Vladimir. He is a very non-care man who is a very energetic wild youth before settling and starting the family.

In the summer season, when Ivan is leaving home, his wife asks him and begs him to stay more with her to delay the time for leaving because she keeps on reminding herself of the dream in which when Ivan, her husband, comes back from business work and opens the cap and they saw the gray hair instead of black hair. But Ivan is very carefree; he doesn't take this seriously and sets out for work.

During his journey, Ivan meets other merchants; he does not know anyone on his journey on the road. They spend the night at the same hotel, and the next morning, he leaves for work without waking up the other merchant. So, on his way to his journey, the police stopped him and questioned him and told him that the merchant that you have stayed with the last night was murdered. So, the police checked the baggage of Ivan and found the bloody knife and stated that Ivan murdered the merchant and stole all his money.

Ivan tells the policeman that he is innocent and the weapon is not his, but the police do not believe Ivan and take Ivan to a nearby town after arresting him, where he is imprisoned.

Per the police statement, Ivan was charged with murder and robbing the merchant of about 20000 rubles. His wife came to meet him with his children. She then asks Ivan that he murdered the victim. Ivan was shocked and horrified that even his wife suspected him. After the meeting time is over, his family leaves, and he states in the inner mind that God is the only one who knows the truth, and the subconscious mind replies to Ivan to bend towards God's mercy.

Ivan was Sentenced and lashed to the hardest labor work in Siberia prison, where he spent his 26 years as a convict. He gains a reputation for gentleness and piety during this period, earning the nicknames "Grandfather" and "The Saint" from the other prisoners.

On a new day, a new prisoner was kept in jail named Makar Semenich. Ivan suspects that Makar is the man that murdered the merchant. He has a moral crisis and wishes to exact revenge on the cause of all his pain.

Makar starts to dig the tunnel out of the prison; he states his plan to Ivan. After digging the tunnel from the jail for the escape, he pushes Ivan that if he cooperates, he will also help him escape. But if he doesn't cooperate (report the tunnel to the police) to escape, he will kill Ivan (Threatens).

The next day the police find the tunnel and investigate all the prisoners; when they ask Ivan, he stands quiet because, in his mind, he thinks that if he tells the truth to the police, he will consider him betraying Makar and letting him pay for ruining his life. So he decided to keep silent and understood that it was not God's permission to speak.

Makar moves and approaches Ivan that night, begs for forgiveness, and confesses that he murdered the merchant that night and stole all the money. He told Ivan that he would tell the truth to all authorities so that Ivan could go home. Ivan states that he has no home to go back to. Makar, the murderer, cries and asks Ivan to forgive him. So, Ivan Wipes his tears and says finally that God will Forgive him for the sin. At these moments, Ivan losses all his desires except to die. Makar confesses all the sins to the authorities, and Ivan is died by the time the order for his release arrives.

Adaptations

Shyam Bengal turned it into the 1986 television series Katha Sagar in India. All Things Are Possible, a CBS Radio Mystery Theatre production directed by Human Brown, was created using the adaptation. The short story "God Sees The Truth But Waits" by Tolstoy was generally believed to be the inspiration for Stephen King's novella Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption. Another work influenced by "God Sees the Truth but Waits" was the 2016 Filipino movie The Woman Who Left.

About the Author

Leo Tolstoy is regarded as one of the best authors of all time. He was also nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature every year from 1902 to 1906 and for the Nobel peace prize. Born in 1828 to an affluent Russian family, Tolstoy is best known for his novels War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1878), frequently regarded as realist literature's heights. His semi-autobiographical trilogy Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth (1852-1856) and Sevastopol Sketches (1855), which were inspired by his experiences in the Crimean War, brought him literary success for the first time in his twenties. Numerous short stories, such as "After the Ball" (1911), and novellas, like The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886), Family Happiness (1859), and Hadji Murad (1912), are among his works of fiction.