Buxoro davlat universiteti xorijiy tillar fakulteti ingliz adabiyotshunosligi kafedrasi

Leo Tolstoy is considered to be Russia’s greatest novelist. However, during 
his youth he was quite an infamous young man as he had a drinking problem, was a 
gambling addict, and was commonly seen at brothels. Tolstoy, who was born to 
nobility, was quite a disappointment at this point in his life. Eventually, he turned 
his life around by becoming sober, and joining the army. He also tired to associate 
himself with the commoners of Russia by wearing tattered clothes which were later 
named after him. He started writing soon after he joined the army, and quickly 
became a successful man. When he left the army he tried to educate the commoners 
who worked on his fields, and tried opening a school for the uneducated children, 
but both these attempts to help the less fortunate people of Russia failed. Later on in 
his life, Tolstoy tried to promote peace in Russia by helping a Cristian sect flee to 
Canada as they were set to be prosecuted. Tolstoy’s main ideas that prevailed in 
most of his books were his ideas of pacifism, his rejection of wealth, and his belief 
in self-improvement. Another theme that was present in his famous novel, Anna 
Karenia, revealed the prominent idea relating to suicide in 19th century Russia. A 
man who commited suicide was believed to have done this for certain heroic 
purposes, but a woman who committed suicide was believed to have done this 
because of her attempt to run away from problems she faces in life. This revealed 
the idea that women were commonly seen as weak characters, unable to face certain 
problems, whilst men were seen as martyrs. This is similar to the ideas of women 
set in Heart of Darkness, as Conrad continually portrays them as being weak and 
not being able to handle the truth. Similarly, Tolstoy shows that women are unable 
to handle truths as they would rather take the easy way out by killing 
themselves.Whilst men may also commit suicide, they're reasons were seen to be 
justifiable as they had a lot to think about and in committing suicide Tolstoy states 
that they are not succumbing to pressure, but instead are simply giving themselves 
up due to legitimate reasons. Hence we can only view men as martyrs and nothing 
less. Just like in the Heart of Darkness, women and men are not seen as being on the 
same levels of intellectual and emotional complexes. "They were men enough to 
face the darkness.." (6, Conrad) Here, Conrad effectively presents the conventional 
association with men and bravery as they are capable of facing the unknown. Conrad 
builds on this idea by continually down playing the proficiency and knowledge that 
women retain. "Then-would you believe it- I tried the women. I Charlie Marlow, set 
the women to work- to get a job! Heavens!" (8, Conrad) Both these writers 
continually portrayed women as being inferior and menial in comparison to men. 

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