Selfless Love Theme Analysis

As its several biblical epigraphs foretell, Tolstoy’s “What Men Live By” is fundamentally a parable about Christian love, as it  strives to show that God is manifested in people’s selfless compassion toward one another. This idea is advanced in part by the characters’ fates: those who are greedy and selfish are punished, while those who love each other selflessly are rewarded. However, it is also supported by the protagonists’ emotional experiences: at key moments throughout the story, various characters experience a sudden change of heart, deciding to act out of love and compassion rather than selfishness and fear. Whenever these inner changes occur, the characters are flooded with feelings of inexplicable joy and happiness. The three lessons elaborated by the angel Mikhail at the end of the story further contribute to the story’s point about Christian love. Although each part of Mikhail’s story illustrates a slightly different spiritual truth, the three components together drive home the general point that “what men live by” is not physical nourishment but divine love.

Throughout the story, bad outcomes await characters who are greedy. At the beginning of the story, Semyon and Matryona have a strict budget, but this doesn’t get them anywhere: even after saving money for a year, they don’t have enough to buy a winter coat. This begins to suggest that self-interest isn’t rewarding, even if looking out for oneself rather than sharing with others seems like the most practical option. An even more extreme example of selfishness is the gentleman who visits Semyon’s  shop midway through the story. This gentleman represents the antithesis of selfless love: he is obsessed with his own financial interests, determined to pay only 10 rubles for a pair of boots that will last an entire year without showing any signs of wear. He is also cruel, snapping at Mikhail, yelling at his servant, and threatening to put Semyon in jail if his boots do not meet impossibly high standards. This rich gentleman is met with one of the worst fates in the story: an early and unexpected death. The man’s stingy management of his own money yields nothing for him: he is unable to enjoy the expensive boots for even one day, much less a whole year.

By contrast, acting with selfless love is shown to be emotionally rewarding and even draws characters closer to God. For example, when Semyon and Matryona feed Mikhail their last slice of bread—acting lovingly, selflessly, and in fact against their own financial interests—they find prosperity. This simple act of kindness leads them to take Mikhail in, and Mikhail’s knack for shoemaking ends up drawing unprecedented levels of business and financial security to the family over the next several years. Moreover, when Semyon first encounters Mikhail on the roadside, he feels bitter and angry. However, once he goes over to help the naked man, his “heart fill[s] with joy.” Matryona experiences a similar flooding of good emotions when she decides to show compassion for Mikhail. Her feelings of anger and resentment vanish as soon as she decides to feed and care for Mikhail: her heart “melts,” and she immediately resolves to “banish her spiteful feelings.” For Marya, too, selfless love brings emotional fulfillment: the twins she adopted have become “the apples of her eye,” and her love for them even moves her to tears. She realizes that she would have been much lonelier and more unhappy if she didn’t have the twins to love and care for. Through these transformations, the story suggests that selfless love is what imbues life with happiness and meaning.

Finally, Mikhail’s lessons at the end of the story point to selfless love as the most important divine truth. The first divine truth that Mikhail learned—“what dwells in man”—explicitly concerns selfless love. The angel describes how, when Matryona and Semyon were acting selfishly, their faces appeared terrifying to him because he could see death in their expressions. By contrast, once they started to behave selfishly and lovingly, he could see God and life in their faces. This showed Mikhail the answer to the first question, what dwells in man: the answer, he says, is love. The third and most important divine truth—“what men live by”—also concerns selfless love. Mikhail recalls that when he was abandoned by the side the chapel, he didn’t survive through any actions or bravery of his own. Instead, it was a stranger’s love that allowed him to survive. Likewise, he points out that baby twins were saved by a stranger’s love—that of Marya, their birth mother’s neighbor. Mikhail also connects this truth to the episode with the wealthy gentleman, who did not know his own future. Mikhail says that God wants people to help one another and love selflessly, which is why He does not show each person what they themselves needs, but instead what all people need. With this, the story suggests that selfless love is the essence of life itself, and that honoring God means extending unconditional love and generosity to other people.