What Is to Be Done? · Chapter
XXIV: A Word of Praise for Marya Alekséyevna explained
The narrator addresses Marya Alekséyevna directly, offering a backhanded tribute to her intelligence and strength of character despite her moral failings.
What happens
The narrator addresses Marya Alekséyevna directly, offering a backhanded tribute to her intelligence and strength of character despite her moral failings. He argues that her cynical view of people as either fools or rascals was justified by her environment, and that her mistakes in judging Vera and Lopukhóf were understandable. He praises her pragmatism, her ability to recognize when a fight is unwinnable, and her restraint from pointless spite. Though she is a bad woman, she is not a hopeless wretch; under better circumstances, she could be useful and even honorable.
Themes in this chapter
Critique of Bourgeois Society
The narrator dissects Marya Alekséyevna's mercenary worldview as a product of her oppressive social environment, neither fully condemning nor excusing her.
Freedom and Individuality
The chapter implies that even a flawed person like Marya Alekséyevna could act honorably if circumstances allowed, suggesting the potential for moral transformation through changed conditions.
Characters to notice
- Marya Alekséyevna
The narrator delivers a direct, ironic eulogy of her practical intelligence and moral limitations, acknowledging her as a product of her environment.
- Viéra Pavlovna
Mentioned indirectly as the first woman Marya Alekséyevna encountered who was neither stupid nor villainous, causing her confusion.
- Dmitri Sergéitch Lopukhóf
Referenced as the first noble-minded man Marya Alekséyevna met, whom she mistakenly judged as a scoundrel.
Key passages
“Your method was bad, but your environment gave you no other method. Your methods belong to your environment, and not to you personally, and hence it is not to your dishonor, but it is a credit to your intellect and strength of character.”
Your actions were wrong, but you had no alternative given the world you lived in. The blame lies with your surroundings, not with you, and your cleverness and resilience deserve recognition.
The narrator absolves Marya Alekséyevna of personal moral responsibility, attributing her behavior to environmental determinism.
“If it is impossible to conquer an enemy; if, in causing him a trifling loss you are causing yourself a greater, then you had better not begin the battle; you understood this, and you had the common sense and courage to yield to an impossibility, without unnecessarily causing harm to yourself or anybody else.”
When fighting is futile and would cost you more than your opponent, you wisely chose to back down. That takes both sense and bravery.
The narrator praises Marya Alekséyevna's pragmatic restraint, framing it as a rare and admirable quality.