The Empty Drum - Leo Tolstoy

Main idea

This story shows the conflict between an ordinary individual and the authoritative power of the state. It presents a picture of the society where an individual is dominated by the power of the state and he has to suffer a lot of struggling against the greater power. There is an ordinary peasant who marries a beautiful woman, but his wife is eyed by the king. The king tries to kill him offering a job in the palace and giving difficult tasks. But the idea of his wife and an old grandma saves them all. Finally, the peasant and his wife are left out of the king's target, and they live happily ever after. Therefore, this beautiful story, written in the form of folktale shows disparities between the higher class people like the King and an ordinary peasant who has to suffer without a fault under the domination of the state's authoritative power.

Short Summary

There was an ordinary labor named Emelyan who worked for his master. One day, he was going across the meadows to work, when he nearly trod on a frog that jumped right in front of him. Suddenly he heard a lovely young lady calling him from behind. She told him that he could marry her even though he had nothing to feed or clothe her. They married each other and went to the town looking for some work. They lived in a small hut at the far edge of the town.

One day, the king came by that way and saw the beautiful woman. He thought how such a beautiful lady became the peasant's wife. She would have been his queen. But she said that her husband was good enough for her. The king remembered her all the time when he went back to his palace. He wanted to take the beautiful woman to the palace offering some work. His wife also sent him in the hope of earning some living. The king's servants gave him too much hard work because they wanted to kill him by the rough work. But her husband, Emelyan did the work easily. When they could not crush him by rough work, they tried giving skilled work. They told him to build a cathedral in front of the palace in a single day. The king said that if he could do the work in a single day, he would be rewarded, but if he could not do the work, his head would be cut off.

Emelyan was afraid of his work. He told his wife to run away from the town. But she encouraged him that he could do it. To their great surprise, he really built the cathedral in a single day. Next, the king's men told him to make a river round the palace with ships sailing on it. He also did it as they had ordered. When they could not kill him by the work, the king's servants suggested the king to tell him to "go there, don't know where" and "to bring that, don't know what". They wanted to make him failed whatever he did.

Then, he went back home and told his wife everything. Both wife and husband knew that the king wanted to kill him and take the wife. Then the wife told her husband to go to meet an old peasant Grandma, a mother of soldiers who would tell him what to do. He met the Grandma living in a hut in the wood. She told him to bring such a thing which men obey more than their father or mother. He went to a city beside the sea according to the instruction of Grandma and he saw that it was a "Drum" which men obeyed more than they obeyed their parents. At the same time, the king's servants had already taken his wife to the palace. He took the drum from a street drummer and went to the palace to reply the king. But the king said that it was not the place where he went and it was not the thing which he wanted.

Emelyan left the palace beating the drum. When he started beating the drum , all the king's soldiers ran out and followed him saluting. The king saw all this from his window, and he called them to come back. But his soldiers did not listen anything. When all soldiers left the king, he felt powerless and he was ready to send his wife back to him. Emelyan got his wife back, went down to the river and smashed the empty drum into splinters. Then all the soldiers left him. He took his wife back home. After that, the king stopped giving trouble to them, and they lived happily ever after.