52 pages 1 hour read

Leo Tolstoy

Master and Man

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1895

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Character Analysis

Vasily Andreevich Brekhunov

Brekhunov’s character is reducible to the singular preoccupation of his life up to the point of his conversion: money. Across various situations, from speaking to his wife to driving a horse, his tones and gestures are consistent with his favorite pastime of making a deal, as though there is nothing else that defines him. Brekhunov’s attachment to family pales in comparison to that of his social class; his memory of his father is reduced to the comparable poverty from which he had risen, and his son is viewed as a vessel for the furtherance of his achieved wealth. He is thus nearly completely defined by his status as a merchant of the second guild, the middle tier of merchants that suggests both how far Brekhunov has come, in his own terms, and how much more he has left to acquire.

As a social estate, merchants in 19th-century Russia were defined by legal status. They held a place in the social fabric of Russia long before the onset of capitalist practices after the abolition of serfdom in 1861, but the merchant nevertheless symbolized the new, money-based order of which many writers, including Tolstoy, were critical. Brekhunov is thus a negative type, symbolic of economic and social change.

Related Titles

By Leo Tolstoy

SuperSummary Logo
Study Guide
Leo Tolstoy
Guide cover image
SuperSummary Logo
Study Guide
Leo Tolstoy
Guide cover image
SuperSummary Logo
Study Guide
Leo Tolstoy
Guide cover image
SuperSummary Logo
Study Guide
Leo Tolstoy
Guide cover image
SuperSummary Logo
STUDY + TEACHING GUIDE
Leo Tolstoy
Guide cover image
SuperSummary Logo
Plot Summary
Leo Tolstoy
Guide cover placeholder
SuperSummary Logo
STUDY + TEACHING GUIDE
Leo Tolstoy
Guide cover image
SuperSummary Logo
Study Guide
Leo Tolstoy
Guide cover image
SuperSummary Logo
Study Guide
Leo Tolstoy
Guide cover image
SuperSummary Logo
Study Guide
Leo Tolstoy
Guide cover image