Resurrection · Chapter
LII explained
Nekhlúdoff visits the prison cells, looking through the peepholes at various prisoners.
What happens
Nekhlúdoff visits the prison cells, looking through the peepholes at various prisoners. He is particularly struck by the hopeless dejection of one inmate and the frightened, kind eyes of another, Menshóff. Menshóff tells his story: his wife was enticed by the village public-house keeper, who bribed officials to avoid justice; after a violent confrontation, the public-house was set on fire, and Menshóff and his mother were falsely accused. Nekhlúdoff promises to consult a lawyer and help.
Themes in this chapter
Injustice of the Legal System
Menshóff's story illustrates how bribery and corruption allow the guilty to escape while the innocent are imprisoned without cause.
Social Class and Inequality
The peasant Menshóff is powerless against the public-house keeper, who uses wealth to manipulate the system, highlighting class-based injustice.
Characters to notice
- Prince Dmitri Ivanovich Nekhludoff
Visits the prison cells, listens to Menshóff's story, and promises to help.
- Menshoff
A young peasant prisoner falsely accused of arson; tells Nekhlúdoff his story with a good-natured but desperate demeanor.
Key passages
“His face, especially his large eyes, bore the expression of hopeless dejection. One could see that it did not even interest him to know who was looking into his cell. Whoever it might be, he evidently hoped for nothing good from him.”
The prisoner's face showed such despair that he no longer cared who was at the door, expecting no help from anyone.
Highlights the crushing hopelessness of the prison system.
“It seemed too dreadful to think that men could do such a thing as to take a man, dress him in convict clothes, and put him in this horrible place without any reason only because he himself had been injured.”
Nekhlúdoff found it horrifying that an innocent man could be imprisoned solely for being a victim of injustice.
Reflects Nekhlúdoff's growing moral outrage at the legal system.