The Secret City · Chapter
Markovitch's Confidences explained
As Christmas approaches, the narrator describes the beautiful winter weather and the strange relationship that develops between himself and Markovitch.
What happens
As Christmas approaches, the narrator describes the beautiful winter weather and the strange relationship that develops between himself and Markovitch. Markovitch begins visiting frequently, sharing his life story: his impoverished youth, his work as a secretary for an old man writing a biography, his 'amazing ideas' for transforming the world, and his struggles with ambition and resolution. He confesses his love for Vera and his belief that she could inspire him to greatness, but ultimately expresses despair about Russia's future and his own inability to act.
Themes in this chapter
Identity and Self-Discovery
Markovitch's confessions reveal his struggle to define himself through his ambitions, his love for Vera, and his sense of failure.
Class and Social Contrast
Markovitch's impoverished background and his resentment of those who despise him highlight class tensions in Russian society.
Revolution and Disillusionment
Markovitch expresses disillusionment with Russia's war effort and its future, foreshadowing revolutionary sentiments.
Characters to notice
- Nicolai Leontievitch Markovitch
Visits the narrator frequently, sharing his life story, ambitions, and despair; speaks of his love for Vera and his frustration with his own lack of resolution.
- Ivan Andreievitch
The narrator, who listens to Markovitch's confessions and reflects on his own passive interest in life.
- Vera Michailovna
Mentioned as the object of Markovitch's love; he believes she could inspire him to achieve great things.
- Boris Nicolaievitch Grogoff
Referenced by Markovitch as someone who shouts about 'cheap Socialism'.
- Old Feodor Stepanovitch
The old man for whom Markovitch worked as a secretary, described as mean and sadistic.
Key passages
“We were approaching Christmas. The weather of these weeks was wonderfully beautiful, sharply cold, the sky pale bird’s-egg blue, the ice and the snow glittering, shining with a thousand colours.”
It was nearly Christmas, and the weather was stunningly beautiful—bitterly cold, with a pale blue sky and ice and snow sparkling in many colors.
Sets the wintry scene in Petrograd.
“There began now a strange relationship between Markovitch and myself. There was something ineffectual and pessimistic about me that made Russians often feel in me a kindred soul.”
A peculiar friendship started between Markovitch and me; my own passive and gloomy nature made Russians see me as a sympathetic spirit.
Describes the narrator's connection with Markovitch.
“His stiff collar jutting sharply into his weak chin was perhaps his most striking feature. Most Russians of his careless habits wore soft collars or students’ shirts that fastened tight about the neck, but this high white collar was with Markovitch a sign and a symbol, the banner of his early ambitions; it was the first and last of him.”
The most notable thing about Markovitch was his stiff collar, which pressed into his chin—a symbol of his early ambitions, unlike the soft collars most Russians wore.
Highlights Markovitch's symbolic collar.
“Ideas came like flocks of birds, so many that I couldn’t gather them all but had sometimes to let the best ones go.”
Ideas came to him in great numbers, like flocks of birds, and he couldn't capture them all, sometimes losing the best ones.
Markovitch describes his creative but overwhelming thoughts.
“We Russians have no conscience, you know, about anything, and that’s simply because we can’t make up our minds as to what’s wrong and what’s right, and even if we do make up our minds it seems a pity not to let yourself go when you may be dead tomorrow.”
Russians lack a sense of conscience because they can't decide what is right or wrong, and even when they do, they feel it's better to indulge themselves since life is uncertain.
Markovitch's cynical view of Russian morality.
“I love Vera, and if she loved me I could do great things. I could astonish them all.”
I am in love with Vera, and if she loved me back, I could achieve great things and amaze everyone.
Markovitch expresses his love for Vera and his belief in her power to inspire him.
