From Determinism to Volition: An Existentialist Study of Nilovna in Maxim Gorky’s Mother

Abstract

Women in the pre-revolution Russia lived in a miserable predicament. Relegated to subservient positions, they were denied volition, were often treated like slaves, and were left at the mercy of fate. This social crisis finds voice in Russian fiction which is on most occasions reflective of women’s plight: Maxim Gorky’s Mother is one such instance. It examines the tragic plight of the Russian women in the pre-revolution milieu. This paper reads the female protagonist of Mother, Nilovna in light of the existentialist notions, mainly those espoused by Jean-Paul Sartre, exploring how Nilovna finds her way out from sheer passivity and deterministic domesticity to the world of possibility and volition by marching forth with the revolutionaries, playing her significant role in the revolutionary movement. Using the broad theorization of existentialism, focusing precisely on Sartre’s notions of bad faith and choice of free will, the study explores how a miserable woman in her existentialist journey traverses from the mundane domesticity to the purposeful revolution as an active political worker committed to the cause of revolution. The study foregrounds how Nilovna finds a purpose in her meaningless and passive life by helping her son who becomes a socialist after his father's death.