IV: Evening explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Isolation and Loneliness

  Anna Akimovna feels profoundly lonely despite being surrounded by people; she has no one to talk to or consult, and her wealth and status do not alleviate her emotional isolation.

• Hypocrisy and Moral Failure

  Anna Akimovna's lofty talk about marrying a workman is revealed as false and self-deceptive; she is repelled by Pimenov and feels closer to the vulgar Lysevitch and Krylin, exposing her own hypocrisy.

• Illusion vs. Reality

  Anna Akimovna's dreams of a meaningful life with a workman are shattered by the reality of her own feelings and social position; the evening's festivities and Stinging Beetle's advice underscore the gap between her ideals and her actual desires.

• Social Class and Inequality

  The chapter highlights the divide between Anna Akimovna's wealthy household and the workers like Pimenov, as well as the condescension of servants like Mishenka toward the lower classes.

Characters to notice

• Anna Akimovna

  Experiences a crisis of self-awareness, realizing her dreams of marrying a workman are false and that she is fundamentally aligned with the vulgar society she despises. Ends the night in tears, feeling lonely and foolish.

• Mishenka

  The footman who laughs at Pimenov's imagined awkwardness at dinner, prompting Anna Akimovna's disgust and self-reproach.

• Spiridonovna

  The pilgrim woman nicknamed 'Stinging Beetle' who arrives late, eats, drinks, and gives cynical advice to Anna Akimovna about marrying for appearances and living freely.

• Varvarushka

  A servant who responds to Stinging Beetle's hints with sighs and looks toward the icons, displaying Christian meekness.

• Masha

  Red-haired Masha, Anna Akimovna's maid, who is exhausted and sleepy, and later cries with her mistress in shared misery.

• Tchalikov

  A drunken man who comes again in the evening, but Anna Akimovna refuses to see him, feeling he reminds her of her absurd life.

• Auntie

  Anna Akimovna's aunt who argues against marrying a merchant, insisting on a gentleman, and becomes flushed and angry during the discussion.

• Lysevitch

  Mentioned as one of the dinner guests; Anna Akimovna feels he and Krylin are nearer to her than Pimenov and the workers.

Key passages

• “She made up her mind she had no one left in life but this Tchalikov, that he would never leave off persecuting her, and would remind her every day how uninteresting and absurd her life was.”

  Anna Akimovna concluded that Tchalikov was her only remaining companion, and that his constant presence would forever remind her of the emptiness and absurdity of her existence.

  Highlights her despair and sense of being trapped in a meaningless life.

• “She thought that if the long day she had just spent could have been represented in a picture, all that had been bad and vulgar—as, for instance, the dinner, the lawyer’s talk, the game of 'kings'—would have been true, while her dreams and talk about Pimenov would have stood out from the whole as something false, as out of drawing.”

  She imagined that a painting of her day would show the vulgar parts as real, while her noble dreams about Pimenov would appear artificial and out of place.

  Reveals her self-awareness of the hypocrisy in her own ideals.

• “I’ll find you, you know, some trumpery and simple-witted man. You’ll marry him for appearances and then have your fling, bonny lass! You can hand him five thousand or ten maybe, and pack him off where he came from, and you will be mistress in your own house—you can love whom you like and no one can say anything to you.”

  Stinging Beetle advises Anna Akimovna to marry a simple, insignificant man for show, pay him off, and then live freely as she pleases.

  Exemplifies the cynical, pragmatic advice that contrasts with Anna Akimovna's earlier idealism.