A SILENT SONG ESSAY QUESTION
One can cope with the misery of unfair treatment by forgiving his oppressors. Write a composition to validate this statement basing your illustrations on Leo Tolstoy’s God Sees the Truth, but Waits.

You should not do harm to a person who has done harm to you, even if you think that person deserves it. We can deal with the pain of injustice by forgiving those who wrong us, instead of seeking vengeance. Aksionov finds peace and solace during his misery when he chooses to forgive those who wronged him.

Aksionov is treated unfairly by the police when they arrest him for a crime he did not commit. When the police arrest Aksionov for allegedly killing a merchant, he crosses himself and weeps painfully. The police officer orders the soldiers to bind him and put him in the cart. They tie his feet together and fling him into the cart. His money and goods are taken away from him. He is then locked up in the nearest town. The police investigate about his past and find out that Aksionov is a good man but he was predisposed to drinking and wasting time during his younger days. The truth is Aksionov met the merchant and they put up together that night in the same inn. Aksionov paid his bill and left before dawn. When he had travelled for about 25 miles and was resting, he is accosted by an official and two soldiers who crisscross him as if he were a thief or a robber. Oblivious of the fate that awaited him, he even offers the officer a cup of tea. When they search his bag, they find a blood-stained knife and accuse him of killing the merchant. Aksionov is frightened. The policeman says his face and manner betrays his guilt. They demand to know how he killed him and how much money he stole. When the trial comes, he is wrongly charged with murdering the merchant and stealing his money. He gives up all hope and only prays to God. He accepts his fate and expects mercy only from God. He does not blame the police for his predicament.

Aksionov faces further injustice when he is wrongly charged with murdering the merchant from Ryazan and robbing him of 20,000 rubles. He is locked up with thieves and criminals. This is after a blood-stained knife is found in his possession. At the time of his arrest, Aksionov only had eight thousand rubles of his own. He swears that the knife is not his. Although Aksionov is innocent, he is wrongly convicted and charged for murder. He tries to appeal but his petition to Czar is declined. His wife reminds him about her dream about his hair turning grey and beseeches him to tell her the truth if he indeed killed the merchant. Aksionov begins to weep hiding his face in his hands. He is dejected by the thought of his wife suspecting him too. Only God can know the truth. Instead of begrudging and fighting the justice system, he let’s go and decides to appeal for mercy from God alone.

Aksionov is treated unfairly when he is torn away from his family at a prime age, and locked up for a crime he did not commit. His wife is in despair when Aksionov is charged with murder and she does not know what to believe. Her children are small and one is still breastfeeding. She takes them all with her when she visits her husband in jail. She is refused from seeing him at first but after ceaseless entreaties she obtains permission from the official and gets the chance to see him. She collapses and does not come to her senses for a long time when she sees her husband in prison-dress and in chains, shut up with thieves and criminals. She had tried to dissuade him from going to the Nizhny Fair. She had had a bad dream about him. In her dream, he returned from the town when his hair was quite grey. Aksionov laughs it off and promises to bring her some presents from the fair. That was the last time she saw him as a free man. Aksionov tells her that they must petition the Czar and not let an innocent man perish. His wife informs him that the petition she had sent had been declined. While serving his lengthy jail time, no news reaches him about his family. He remains in the dark concerning the well-being of his wife and children. When a fresh gang of convicts comes to the prison, Aksionov asks one of them about his family: the merchants of Aksionov of Vladimir. He tells him that they are rich though their father is in Siberia; a sinner like themselves. In his gloom, he nostalgically remembers the image of his wife when he parted from her to go to the fair. Her face and her eyes rise before him. He hears her speak in love. Then he sees the image of his children quite little as they were at the time. One with a little cloak on, another at his mother’s breast. Nonetheless, he forgives Makar Semyonich, the man responsible for his anguish. His heart grows light and the longing for home leaves him.

Aksionov suffers more injustice when he is condemned to be flogged and sent to the mines. He is flogged with a knot and when the wounds made by the knot are healed he is driven to Siberia with other convicts. Aksionov lives in Siberia as a convict for 26 years. His hair turns white as snow and his beard grows long, thin and grey. All his mirth goes, he stoops, he walks slowly, speaks little and never laughs, but he often prays. He becomes a pale shadow of his former self: a handsome, fair-haired, curly headed fellow, who was full of fun and loved singing. He learns to make boots and earns a little money with which he uses to buy ‘The Lives of the Saints’. He reads the book in prison and on Sundays in the prison-church, and sings in the choir. Despite his predicament, Aksionov is likeable since he is meek. The prison authorities like him and his fellow prisoners respect him. They call him ‘Grandfather’ and ‘The Saint’. He acts as an arbitrator and puts things rights whenever there are quarrels among prisoners, and he also acts as the prisoners’ spokesman. His contentment helps him to cope with his agony. Instead of holding a bitter grudge, he remains patient, restrained and affable.

It is unfair that Aksionov suffers for the sins of Makar Semyonich, who gets arrested for less serious crime of stealing a horse. When Aksionov asks Semyonich if he had had about the affair of the murder of the merchant, Semyonich’s response makes him feel sure that he had killed the merchant. That night he could not get any sleep. He felt so unhappy. He remembers the image of his wife when he parted from her to go to the fair. Her face and her eyes rise before him. He hears her speak in love. Then, he sees the image of his children quite little as they were at the time. One with a little cloak on, another at his mother’s breast. He also remembers how he used to be himself, young and merry. He remembers the day of his arrest while he was seated in the porch playing the guitar. He bitterly remembers the flogging, the executioner and the people who were standing around him. He remembers the chains, the convicts and all the 26 years of his prison life, and his premature old age. These thoughts make him so wretched that he contemplates suicide. His anger against Makar Semyonich is so great that he longs for revenge even if it would mean perishing for it. He repeats his prayers all night but he does not get peace. During the day he avoids going near Makar Semyonich and avoids even glancing at him. For two weeks, Aksionov cannot sleep at night and he’s so miserable and does not know what to do considering the fact that the man who was responsible for his imprisonment was right there but he had been locked up for a less serious crime. Despite this, he does not seek revenge. He had accepted his fate. He says for his sins, he had been in prison for those 26 years. He did not like to speak of his misfortune. He says that he must have deserved the punishment. This attitude helps him to cope with the misery of the injustice the state had meted upon him.

Even when he gets a chance to avenge against Semyonich, Aksionov chooses to spare him the pain and retribution instead. Aksionov catches Semyonich digging a hole under the wall with a view of escaping from prison. Makar Semyonich threatens Aksionov and tells him to keep it a secret or else he would kill him. Aksionov trembles with anger looking at his enemy. He tells Makar Semyonich that he had no need to kill him for he killed him long ago. He adds that he will do as God shall direct. When the prison officials find out about the hole and they question the prisoners about it, all of them deny it. Those who knew would not betray Makar Semyonich, for they knew he would be flogged almost to death. The governor at last turns to Aksionov, a just man, and says: “Tell me before God who dug the hole?” Makar Semyonich ruined Aksionov’s life and he contemplates letting the cat out of the bag so that Makar Semyonich can pay for what he had suffered. However, he knows that if he opens his mouth, the officers would flog the life out of Semyonich. Maybe he suspects him wrongly. Also he stands to gain nothing. He surrenders in the hands of the Governor but refuses to tell him the truth, when he says that it is not God’s will that He should tell. He knows that two wrongs don’t make a right. He keeps his mouth shut and spares his arch nemesis potential thorough flogging. The liberation of forgiveness is more fulfilling than the temporary delight of revenge.

Semyonich is unjust to Aksionov when he chooses to confess his sins long after Aksionov had endured untold retribution for a sin he did not commit. Nevertheless, Aksionov forgives Makar Semyonich even after he confesses to killing the merchant and framing Aksionov. He confesses that he meant to kill him too but fled when he heard a noise outside. Semyonich kneels on the ground and cries asking Aksionov to forgive him. He promises to confess to the authorities that he killed the merchant so that Aksionov could be released. Aksionov has suffered for 26 years. He has nowhere to go. His wife is probably dead and his children may have forgotten him by now. He has nowhere to go even if he is released. Makar Semyonich beats his head on the floor and begs Aksionov to forgive him. The guilt in his heart is unbearable. He remembers that Aksionov had screened him concerning the hole he was digging trying to escape. He sobs bitterly. When Aksionov hears him sobbing he begins to weep too. He says, “God will forgive you”. He also says that he may be a hundred times worse than Makar Semyonich. His heart grows lighter and he does not long to go home anymore. He has no desires to leave the prison and only hopes for his last hour to come. Forgiveness is liberating. It supersedes freedom. Semyonich confesses, and an order for Aksionov’s release comes: too little too late. He was already dead.

The fact that someone has done something unjust does not justify revenge. When we forgive our oppressors, we are contented and we can bear the anguish of the oppression.