Why is it that we as human beings are compelled to do what is right?

Where we are compelled

to do good on to others, to follow a life defined by what is ethically right? Then what is this definition
of right? Who made it, or how did it come about? These questions we can bring into our own society
and see that various sources have created our ethics: our parents, our mentors, our friends and siblings,
and our stories and texts. It is the latter of these that I choose to focus on, stories and texts have
influence over a persons core beliefs, their identity and their soul's, or this concept of someone's “self”
composition. In Russia, Russian religious texts have set the standard for ethics within their society and
how a person should fashion their “self” to be live a life of piousness, asceticism, enlightenment, and
practice kenosis if they wish for their “self” to reach a higher state of live and live in bliss and
happiness. Brother Isaac and the Demons is one of these religious texts in which we will see the
repetition of the ideas of piousness, asceticism and kenosis develop within this monk and how it leads
him to become a saint and live a holy after life. In Misery, a folktale, we will see the response of
peasants to these religious texts in how their folktales silently mirror those of religious stories and
vitae.
Brother Isaac and the Demons is a Russian vitae, or more commonly known as a Russian
written story of a saint's life in Russia. Since it is a vitae, it is revered as a religious texts by Russians
and will be a huge influence over their lives as we will see later in Misery. It is in this mindset, we will
examine the vitae of Brother Isaac and see how it lays out how a person's “self” can be cultivated to
live a happy future life. We are introduced to Brother Isaac in the beginning of the vitae with just an
outlining of Isaac's traits. He was a rich man who emptied out his fortune, wears a hair coat, and goes
to live among the monks at the Crypt Monastery. Here he both embodies the principles of kenosis,
which means to empty yourself to be able to fully receive God and Jesus, and that of asceticism, or the
act of repentance for ones sins.
What we see happen later is that he does really well in his life of asceticism, but begins to grow
almost boastful of his “holiness” and ends up falling victims to the demons when they come. These
demons come looking like angels and tell him that Christ is coming and that he needs to get down on
his knees and worship him. Sadly, “He did not understand their devilish artifice nor remember to cross
himself, but knelt before the work of the demons as if to Christ himself.” In this way, in his foolish bid
of thinking that he was important, that he was the one that God wanted, he jumps the gun and worships
instead Satan and the demons. It's important to note here though that he “did not understand [them]”,
that he is ignorant in this situation and is not smart in his decision. This is important as there is a
repetition of the theme of knowledge within Russian lives and how one needs to be enlightened to fully
develop their “self, their soul, and really began to understand. He acts irrational in this piece of text in
his bid to gain with what he believes favor with God, when he is instead damning himself.
He now must regrow his asceticism and piousness to be able to fully reintegrate himself into the
monastery and get out of the grip of demons. This is where the vitae speaks most strongly to the
Russian people as many of them have probably been guilty of the same sins as that of Brother Isaac,
and they are looking for a solution. This vitae shows these people that they need to do what Brother
Isaac does as he is “not […] desirous of human glory, he begin[s] to act strangely...” The vitae is clear
that for one person to live past this, they need to not be boastful, not try to raise themselves above other
Russians, but instead live piously and act strange in the way that Isaac acts strange. This “strange
acting” is that of the stern refashioning of himself in which he begins to act foolish to show that he is
low among the people. His foolishness leads him to be low among the people, but powerful over the
demons. He does defeat them and lives happily after his death as a saint, revered in Russian history and
loved by all, including God. It is here that we take the vitae all in, all the lessons and apply them to
Russian ethics. In all, this idea of piousness, asceticism and kenosis will lead a person's “self” to a
heaven and happy and blissful after life, is revered by the Russian people. They will change their lives
to better model those of these saints and religious texts in a hopeful chance to better change their lives.
Some might argue that this is false, that these values taught by the vitae and other religious texts
are not impacting on the ethics of Russians and will not alter the future generations of Russian people.
I'm sorry to say but the truth is that they are embodied within the future generations of Russian people,
as we will see in their folk tales. The fact is that these values are instilled inside Russian fairy tales
which are all oral folk tales that peasants have passed around. In this way, the folktales are a glimpse
into the root culture of Russian society and what much of Russian society views is right and what is
wrong, basically their ethics. [weird WORDING]. In this way, we are able to see what the ethics are the
people are, and we will see that they do mirror those values from religious texts before. In Misery, a
Russian fairy tale that embodies many of the key elements of oral folktales at that time, we will see
asceticism, piousness, and kenosis and see how they transform this poor man's life, to a better future
future life. It is true that these fairy tales do not focus on their after lives and the bliss of heaven like
religious texts concerns themselves with, but they do focus on the future of these people from their
current lives; it focuses on their own heavens, and their own hells.
The man in Misery is an extremely poor man who lives in terrible hunger; his children are
starving and his wife is discontented. After he is left unfed at his brother's dinner party, he has to walk
home with his wife both starving, and this is where the most normal becomes the fantastic. He hears
someone else whistling and guess that it belongs to Misery, whom misery says to him “Aye, master, I
am [...] with you [...] I will never desert you now.” This part is compelling in the story because the man
accepts him to be this real thing, this real creature, and not something just made up. When reading this,
you are compelled to reach again, this doesn't make sense, Misery is a feeling, it can't be a real creature,
yet it is born out of this terrible situation for the man, out of his misery come Misery. The man
welcomes him and even accepts him as his master, his master. In common situations people see misery
as the master of them, yet here and throughout the fairy tale, Misery calls the man his master. This is a
paradox then as we expect this creature to be the master but it continues to call the man his master. The
solution to this paradox is that he controls Misery, meaning he has the power over his own misery.
If we take Misery to be true in this sense, then when Misery is harming the man by the way that
it makes him drink constantly and drain his money, we can see that the man is actually undergoing
kenosis, he is draining himself of everything that he has, in his own control as he does control Misery.
In this way we can see that at the end when he is completely drained, he is led to treasure by Misery,
and he gets a huge amount of rubles, enough to last for a long time. He traps Misery under a rock there
and leaves with the money, and then “he began to think how to establish himself in society.” I find this
part of the tale to be interesting. After the man has the money, has gotten rid of Misery, he decides to
move forward in his life and reach the “higher life”. Here, we see a mirror image of a vitae. This man
suffers, gives up everything, and lives horribly; when he's all done he's blessed with a treasure beyond
imagination and is able to live happily ever after, if you don't mind the idiom. This folktale, a quick
snapshot of Russian people's beliefs shows them to have these core values instilled in them. They do
believe that you must suffer and give up things before you get back a lot more for you and your “self”,
your soul.
Through the power of religious texts, Russians have defined what one should do for one's
“self”, what one should do to obtain a higher state of happiness, living, and pure bliss. Russians then
have fashioned themselves off of these values and kept them piousness, asceticism, and kenosis and
have lived happier lives. For Russia, the “self”, the soul comes first. To secure that they live all holy
lives.