Faith, hope, and love in the three short stories of Leo Tolstoy

Abstract

This study examined three short stories by Leo Tolstoy-How Much Land Does a Man Need, God Sees the Truth but Waits, and What Men Live By- and how they depicted three spiritual values: faith, hope, and love. It was hoped that this research would benefit AB English students and others who study literature. Literature teachers may also use this to enrich their lessons or to provide their students with samples of literary analysis and criticism using the moral approach. To arrive at answers to the question of how these virtues were depicted, content analysis and the moral approach were used. A table was made to show clearly the way the characters were depicted. The close examination of the characters and themes revealed that the three short stories contain all the three spiritual values faith, hope, and love and how they were displayed in the stories reflected a Christian perspective. Tolstoy showed and emphasized those universal and spiritual values through the main characters and how they were affected by having or not having them. Since the three short stories of Leo Tolstoy have been found to show the Christian virtues- faith, hope, and love in action, it is recommended that these be used in World Literature and Religion and Ethics courses as a way of teaching the said Christian values. Moreover, other Leo Tolstoy literary works can be examined using the three values.