Yama · Chapter
IX explained
A group of students and young men, including Likhonin, Yarchenko, Boris Sobashnikov, and Ramses, debate the morality of visiting a brothel after a pleasant evening.
What happens
A group of students and young men, including Likhonin, Yarchenko, Boris Sobashnikov, and Ramses, debate the morality of visiting a brothel after a pleasant evening. Yarchenko argues that prostitution is a great evil and that men are complicit, while Likhonin and others dismiss his scruples. The conversation reveals the hypocrisy and self-justification of the men, who ultimately decide to go to the Yama district.
Themes in this chapter
Hypocrisy of Society
Yarchenko accuses the group of hypocrisy for enjoying the company of respectable women and then visiting prostitutes, highlighting the double standards of male behavior.
Prostitution and Exploitation
The central debate revolves around the morality of prostitution, with Yarchenko arguing that men's demand creates the supply and that visiting brothels perpetuates the exploitation of women.
Class and Economic Determinism
The discussion touches on how economic and social structures drive men to seek out prostitutes, and how the intelligentsia's privileges allow them to ignore the consequences.
Characters to notice
- Likhonin
An old student and anarchist-theoretic; he proposes visiting the brothel and mocks Yarchenko's moral objections.
- Mr. Yarchenko
A sub-professor of Roman history; he argues against visiting prostitutes, condemning the hypocrisy of the group.
- Boris Sobashnikov
A tall, supercilious young man who defends the need for 'valves for the passions of society.'
- Ramses
A student with a legalistic mind; he tries to mediate the debate, suggesting one can visit a brothel without participating in prostitution.
- Volodya Pavlov
Proposes going to his apartment for beer and cognac, but the group decides against it.
Key passages
“We are all agreed that prostitution is one of the greatest calamities of humanity, and are also agreed, that in this evil not the women are guilty, but we, men, because the demand gives birth to the offer.”
Yarchenko states that everyone acknowledges prostitution as a terrible social ill, and that men are responsible because their demand creates the supply.
This encapsulates Yarchenko's moral argument against visiting brothels.
“If your conscience does not allow you, as you express yourself, to buy a woman, then you can go there and come away, preserving your innocence in all its blossoming inviolability.”
Ramses suggests that one can visit a brothel without engaging in prostitution, thus avoiding moral compromise.
Ramses uses legalistic reasoning to justify the group's plan.