What Is to Be Done? · Chapter
Chapter X explained
Lopukhóf works tirelessly to find a governess position for Viéra Pavlovna, placing an advertisement and walking across the city to vet potential families.
What happens
Lopukhóf works tirelessly to find a governess position for Viéra Pavlovna, placing an advertisement and walking across the city to vet potential families. Kirsánov notices his friend's unusual absences and offers financial support. The chapter highlights the selfless, unromantic nature of their friendship and the practical difficulties of Vera's escape.
Themes in this chapter
Women's Emancipation
Viéra Pavlovna's struggle to become a governess and gain independence from her oppressive family situation.
The New People
Lopukhóf and Kirsánov's selfless, rational approach to helping Vera without romantic or aesthetic considerations.
Characters to notice
- Dmitri Sergéitch Lopukhóf
Devotes his time to finding a governess position for Viéra Pavlovna, walking long distances and placing advertisements.
- Viéra Pavlovna
Desperate to escape her situation, she asks Lopukhóf for help and begins calling him 'my friend'.
- Aleksandr Matvéitch Kirsánof
Notices Lopukhóf's absences, offers to give up his lessons and share his savings.
Key passages
“chance to free a person from a bad situation, it made very little difference whether that person possessed a handsome face or not, even though the person were a young girl; but in such a case there could be no discussion of falling in love or not falling in love.”
When there is an opportunity to rescue someone from a difficult situation, physical appearance and romantic feelings are irrelevant.
The narrator emphasizes the rational, non-romantic motivation of the 'new people'.
“In the two or three minutes used for the exchange of thought, without the fear of being overheard, they had hardly time to speak about the other subject, which was more important to them than their own thoughts and feelings; and this was in regard to the ways and means by which Viérotchka could escape her terrible situation.”
In their brief, private moments, they focused not on their feelings but on practical plans for Vera's escape.
The urgency of Vera's predicament overshadows any personal emotions.