What Is to Be Done? · Chapter
XXIX: An Extraordinary Man explained
Viéra Pavlovna, recovering from her distress, decides to sell her belongings and leave the shop, sending Masha to fetch Mrs.
What happens
Viéra Pavlovna, recovering from her distress, decides to sell her belongings and leave the shop, sending Masha to fetch Mrs. Mertsálova and the dealer Rachel. Rakhmétof arrives uninvited, having learned of her situation from Kirsánof, and offers to stay and help. He settles in the library, eating a simple meal of ham and black bread, and reads Newton. The chapter delves into Rakhmétof's ascetic lifestyle, his rigorous self-discipline, his refusal of romantic love, and his extensive travels across Europe and America for study, revealing him as an extraordinary man dedicated to principle over personal desire.
Themes in this chapter
The New People
Rakhmétof embodies the 'extraordinary man' ideal, living by strict principles of self-denial and dedication to humanity, representing a higher stage of the new people.
Freedom and Individuality
Rakhmétof's extreme personal discipline and rejection of romantic ties illustrate his commitment to individual freedom from conventional desires, though it paradoxically binds him to a rigid code.
Critique of Bourgeois Society
Rakhmétof's refusal of luxuries and his ascetic lifestyle serve as a direct critique of bourgeois materialism and the pursuit of personal pleasure.
Characters to notice
- Viéra Pavlovna
Recovers from her emotional crisis, decides to sell her belongings and leave the shop, sends for Mrs. Mertsálova and Rachel.
- Rakhmétof
Arrives uninvited to offer help, demonstrates extreme asceticism, refuses romantic love, and is revealed as an extraordinary man dedicated to principle.
- Masha
Sent by Viéra Pavlovna to fetch Mrs. Mertsálova and Rachel, leaves the dacha for errands.
- Mrs. Mertsálova
Mentioned as being asked to help with the shop in Viéra Pavlovna's absence.
- Rachel
A Jewish secondhand dealer and friend of Viéra Pavlovna, called to value and buy her belongings.
- Aleksandr Matvéitch Kirsánof
Mentioned as having informed Rakhmétof of Viéra Pavlovna's situation; his past relation to Rakhmétof is compared to Lopukhóf's relation to Viéra Pavlovna.
Key passages
“I am not going to drink a drop of wine; I shall not touch a woman.”
Rakhmétof vows to abstain from wine and women as part of his ascetic discipline.
Illustrates his extreme self-denial in pursuit of principle.
“We ask, demand, for all people the full enjoyment of life. We must bear witness with our own lives, that we are demanding this, not for the gratification of our personal passions, not for ourselves personally, but for humanity in general.”
Rakhmétof believes that demanding universal happiness requires personal sacrifice to prove the cause is not selfish.
Highlights his ideological commitment to collective good over individual desire.
“What the common people eat now and then, I, also, may eat occasionally; but whatever is not in the reach of the common people, I, too, must not eat.”
Rakhmétof restricts his diet to foods accessible to common people, to empathize with their hardships.
Demonstrates his solidarity with the poor and his rejection of privilege.
“Such people as I have no right to unite the fate of anyone else with their own.”
Rakhmétof believes his extraordinary mission prevents him from marrying or forming lasting romantic attachments.
Explains his refusal of love as a sacrifice for his revolutionary purpose.
