Resurrection

“From that day a life of chronic sin against human and divine laws commenced for Katyusha Maslova, a life which is led by hundreds of thousands of women, and which is not merely tolerated but sanctioned by the government, anxious for the welfare of its subjects; a life which for nine women out of ten ends in painful disease, premature decrepitude, and death.”

This sentence exemplifies Tolstoy’s focus on systemic critique. The formal tone—“chronic sin,” “sanctioned by the government”—reflects the dehumanizing forces at work in Maslova’s social descent. By stating that her life is shared by “hundreds of thousands of women,” Tolstoy indicts the social structures that perpetuate gendered exploitation, particularly sex work, and suggests that moral decay is institutional, not merely personal.

“Had he been asked why he considered himself superior to the majority of people he could not have given an answer; his life had not been particularly meritorious.”

This moment reveals Nekhlyudov’s unconscious entitlement and highlights Tolstoy’s use of irony. Though Nekhlyudov prides himself on refinement, his sense of superiority is unsupported by meaningful action or merit. The gap between self-perception and reality points to his arrested moral development and foreshadows the internal reckoning that will challenge his self-image.

“If a woman figured in his dreams at all it was only as a wife. All the other women, whom, according to his ideas, he could not marry, were not women for him but human beings.”

Tolstoy uses this reflection to expose Nekhlyudov’s early binary thinking about women, revealing a worldview steeped in social norms and patriarchal conditioning. The distinction between women he could marry and “human beings” implies an idealized purity applied only to certain women. This objectification, couched in well-meaning terms, is part of the foundation for his later moral failure and inability to recognize The Impact of Personal Actions on Others.