# Narrator — A Confession character guide > Narrator in A Confession by Leo Tolstoy. **Role:** major **Also known as:** I, myself, mine **First appearance:** 0000-i ## Snapshot A decorated landowner and celebrated writer who has tasted every success and found each one hollow, he turns on his own life like a prosecutor building a case. ## Who they are He moves through drawing rooms, regimental camps, and editorial offices as a man others praise, yet he cannot stop auditing his own conduct and finding it fraudulent. His sharpest quarrel is not with society but with himself: he wrote to be admired, taught without knowing what, and now suspects the whole enterprise was a lunatic asylum. That self-interrogation is the engine of the book — every early anecdote is evidence in a trial whose verdict he does not yet know. ## Relationships ### [Solomon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_confession_se/characters/solomon) _psychological_ The narrator is deeply obsessed with Solomon's wisdom and existential despair, using his words to fuel his own crisis of meaning. ### [Schopenhauer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_confession_se/characters/schopenhauer) _psychological_ The narrator is drawn to Schopenhauer's pessimistic philosophy, which reinforces his own sense of life's futility and suffering. ### [Buddha](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_confession_se/characters/buddha) _psychological_ The narrator examines Buddha's teachings as a potential solution to his existential despair, but struggles with their renunciatory demands. ## In the story ### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_confession_se/chapters/i) Reflects on his childhood faith, its loss, and his subsequent belief in self-perfection. ### [Chapter II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_confession_se/chapters/ii) Reflects on his past life of debauchery, crime, and literary vanity, and his growing doubt about the writers' creed. ### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_confession_se/chapters/iii) Describes his own spiritual journey, from faith in progress to existential despair. ### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_confession_se/chapters/iv) Describes his profound existential crisis, loss of meaning, and suicidal impulses. ### [V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_confession_se/chapters/v) The narrator recounts his exhaustive and painful search for life's meaning in science, leading to the conviction that knowledge cannot answer the question of why to live. ### [VI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_confession_se/chapters/vi) The narrator recounts his personal journey through science and philosophy, concluding that life has no meaning. ### [VII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_confession_se/chapters/vii) Observes four ways out of despair among his educated peers; places himself in the 'weakness' category; begins to doubt his own reasoning by contrasting his despair with the common people's ability to live meaningfully. ### [VIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_confession_se/chapters/viii) Describes his inner conflict between reason and faith, and his realization that the common people's faith offers a meaning that rational knowledge denies. ### [IX](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_confession_se/chapters/ix) Reflects on his own crisis and the inadequacy of reason to find life's meaning. ### [Chapter X](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_confession_se/chapters/x) The narrator recounts his search for a faith that does not deny reason, his rejection of the faith of the learned, and his eventual turn to the common people. ### [Chapter XI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_confession_se/chapters/xi) Reflects on his past error in judging all life by his own corrupt existence, and comes to see himself as a parasite and madman. ### [XII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_confession_se/chapters/xii) The narrator undergoes a profound spiritual crisis, seeking God and meaning, and ultimately finds renewal through faith. ### [XIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_confession_se/chapters/xiii) The narrator describes his turn from the life of his circle to the faith of the simple laboring people, his struggle with Church rituals, and his attempt to humble his reason. ### [XIV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_confession_se/chapters/xiv) Describes his internal conflict and painful experience with the Eucharist, his humility, and his turn to peasant faith. ### [Chapter XV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_confession_se/chapters/xv) Envies peasants' illiteracy; struggles with doctrinal absurdities; seeks faith but finds church practices contradictory; consults church officials; renounces Orthodoxy. ### [XVI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_confession_se/chapters/xvi) Resolves to study theology and scriptures to separate truth from falsehood in religious doctrine. ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_confession_se/characters/narrator - Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_confession_se - All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_confession_se/characters