The Varieties of Religious Experience · Character
Leo Tolstoy
The celebrated novelist whose midlife collapse and desperate search for meaning James treats as a clinical specimen of the divided, converting self.
supporting
Also known as Tolstoy, myself
First appearance: Lectures VI and VII: The Sick Soul
As a supporting figure in The Varieties of Religious Experience, Leo Tolstoy is not background color—the story leans on what they do once the chapter opens.
Mentioned as a case of objective melancholy, troubled by the purpose and meaning of life.
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Tolstoy arrives in the lectures not as a literary lion but as a case study in the transformation of aims, the kind of man whose old self is expelled when a single new aim takes possession. His crisis dramatizes James's…
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Relationship types
- Other
Character groups
- Conversion Case Studies
- Protagonist
- Exemplars of Religious Experience
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Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Exposition.
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- Breaking point
- Aftermath
- Closing
Alline’s psychological peak occurs as he confronts the utter futility of his own efforts—his seeking, praying,…
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See Leo Tolstoy in Lectures VI and VII: The Sick Soul