XIII explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Hypocrisy and Social Facade

  Khripatch maintains a calm, liberal facade while privately doubting and questioning Sasha, and Peredonov spreads malicious rumors under the guise of concern for the school.

• Madness and Paranoia

  Peredonov's unfounded accusation that Sasha is a girl reflects his paranoid delusions and obsession with perceived threats.

Characters to notice

• Peredonov

  Visits the Headmaster to accuse Sasha Pilnikov of being a girl in disguise, then spreads the rumor to colleagues.

• Nikolai Khripatch

  The Headmaster, who dismisses Peredonov's accusation with mechanical laughter but later questions Sasha about his fatigue.

• Sasha Pilnikov

  The new student accused by Peredonov of being a girl; later questioned by the Headmaster about his tiredness and bursts into tears.

Key passages

• “You haven’t noticed that there’s a possibility of a scandal in our gymnasia. No one has noticed it—I alone have detected it.”

  Peredonov claims he is the only one who has noticed a potential scandal in the school.

  Peredonov's paranoid self-importance and desire to expose a supposed threat.

• “Of course, you think Pilnikov’s a boy, but he’s not a boy at all, but a girl, and what sort of a girl!”

  Peredonov asserts that Sasha Pilnikov is actually a girl in disguise.

  The central accusation that drives the chapter's conflict.

• “Khripatch laughed so confidently and so indifferently that all three became convinced that the whole thing was an invention.”

  Khripatch's dismissive laughter convinced the visiting teachers that Peredonov's rumor was false.

  Khripatch's attempt to quash the rumor through confident indifference.