In this blog post, we’ll explore the reflections on life, faith in humanity, and various questions about how one should live that are contained in Maxim Gorky’s “The Coachman.”
What Is Life, and How Should We Live?
Maxim Gorky rose to the ranks of the great writers without ever giving up his passion for life, despite difficult living conditions. Having lost his parents in childhood, he was forced to enter the workforce at the age of eleven to earn a living, yet he persevered through those hard times. He went on to become a champion of humanity, celebrating the greatness of the human spirit.
Since his literary debut in 1892, most of his works have been deeply rooted in a belief in humanity and an absolute trust in human passion. If God created humankind, then humankind has created magnificent works that nourish the soul. Therefore, to him, “Human” is an absolute entity, capitalized like “God.” His works are permeated with reflections on how such great human beings—possessing infinite potential—can live fulfilling lives without floundering in the quagmire of a misguided existence.
In his early works, which lean toward Romanticism, he often features vagabonds as protagonists—contrary to conventional social perceptions—to celebrate a free-spirited and dignified way of life. Later, in his works with a realist bent, he intensively highlights the awakened consciousness of workers and intellectuals. While the protagonist’s social status may vary from work to work, the questions that are constantly raised throughout his body of work are: How should one live? And what kind of life is truly desirable?
In ‘The Coachman’, the collection introduced here, questions such as “What is life?”, “How should one live?”, and “What is important in life?” are repeatedly posed. ‘The Coachman’ contains a total of ten short stories, all of which belong to his early period (1895–1896); with the exception of “The Old Woman of Isergil,” the remaining nine stories are being introduced in Korea for the first time.
Can Money and Power Be the Purpose of Life?
In “The Coachman” (1895), “The Vision” (1896), and “The Bell” (1896), the protagonists regard money as the highest value in life and engage in murder, greed, and exploitation without any sense of guilt. The three protagonists—Pavel, Poma, and Antip—are characters ensnared by the belief that all power in the world stems from money. These three works depict their inner worlds, which, despite possessing everything, are spiritually and morally empty.
In particular, “The Coachman” explores themes similar to those in Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” (1866), addressing the issues of money, power, and repentance. Pavel Nikolayevich, a protagonist who had been living an ordinary life, learns about a wealthy female merchant through a conversation with a coachman and commits murder. With her money, he lives a socially successful life for eight years. Although he committed murder, he feels no guilt or pangs of conscience. He is merely tormented by the fact that he has no emotions within himself. Eventually, on the day he is elected mayor, he confesses his sin and finds salvation through religion.
Unlike the protagonist of ‘Crime and Punishment’, the protagonist of ‘The Coachman’ commits murder not out of heroism but for money, thereby gaining social wealth and fame. However, neither protagonist feels any guilt whatsoever about the murder. Ultimately, after eight years have passed, both men repent religiously and find salvation. This work reveals Gorky’s religious inclinations—which were previously thought to be entirely unrelated to religion—and raises the question of how one should truly live.
What Do Love and Beauty Leave Behind in Life?
In ‘Romance’ (1896) and ‘Beauty’ (1896), the longing for love and beauty—emotions that emerge like a ray of hope in the midst of a weary and arduous life—is explored. The young woman who appears like a first love to Yashka, a printer’s apprentice, and the beautiful woman who enters the life of a Ukrainian man struggling through hardship leave an indelible and profound impression on their lives. Though their encounters are fleeting, these two women remain as sources of vitality in their lives, much like an oasis in the desert.
“The Woman with Blue Eyes” (1895) and “Grandmother Akulina” (1895) depict two women who sacrifice themselves for their children and others. The woman with blue eyes, who turns to prostitution to raise her children after her husband’s death, and Grandmother Akulina—Gorky’s maternal grandmother, who begged to feed the homeless—both exemplify a life of self-sacrifice.
Where Does a Life Deprived of Passion and Faith Lead?
“Last Year” (1896) and “Time” (1896) use aphoristic, concise phrases to reveal the inner world of humans who have fallen into boredom and emptiness amid the relentless passage of time. Human emotions have lost their function, becoming trite and distorted. Reason has grown weak and listless. Love has forgotten even its passionate words and grown cold. Faith has been shattered in every direction and completely ruined. Truth has been abused and ignored. Originality vanished long ago. People who have lost all these emotions go through life without knowing why they live. Like a declaration of eternity—“Why do worn-out people need a new year? There will be no new year until new people emerge, and until people renew their thoughts and feelings”—“Last Year” serves as a wake-up call to those living trite, timid lives devoid of passion. In “Time” as well, Gorky appeals to readers not to get bogged down in the swamp of empty, tedious time or flounder in a world filled with lies and hostility. He also extols a life of self-sacrifice dedicated to truth, justice, and beauty, along with the passion to move forward.
In “The Old Woman of Izhergil” (1895), he again presents various ways of life through three distinct protagonists. Through Lara, an extreme egoist who thinks only of herself; the Old Woman of Izhergil, who has lived a free-spirited and passionate life; and Danko, a self-sacrificing altruist, he conveys a message about how one should live.
The protagonists in Gorky’s works—who pursued diverse goals such as money, fame, greed, beauty, sacrifice, arrogance, and a free-spirited life—compel us to reflect once again on why and for what purpose we live. Within these works lies the author’s earnest wish to awaken our faith in humanity and the greatness of human passion, while praying for a wonderful life for all.
