Lazarus (short story)

In section IV, the story then introduces Aurelius, a renowned sculptor from Rome, who is drawn to Lazarus out of curiosity and a desire to understand the nature of life and death.

The once-great sculptor is left in despair, unable to find inspiration or joy in his art, ultimately leading him to a state of indifference toward beauty and life itself.

In the final sections (V and VI) of Leonid Andreyev's Lazarus, the eponymous protagonist is summoned to Rome by Emperor Augustus, where he is met with fear rather than admiration.

In a moment of confrontation, Augustus gazes into Lazarus's eyes and is overwhelmed by the horror of the Infinite, leading to a vision of the destruction of Rome and the futility of life.

Rather than focusing on the circumstances surrounding Jesus’s restoration of Lazarus to life, Andreyev creates a vivid and starkly pessimistic account of the consequences of an event usually cast as miraculous.

[2] According to the Russian naturalist, Lazarus found only coldness and darkness in the tomb; death meant bodily decay and a cruel severance from life and the living.

Holding tight to these material facts, Andreyev imagines the arisen Lazarus, under the handicap of partial decay, forced into an existence for which he is thus maladjusted.