Resurrection · Chapter
LIII explained
Nekhlúdoff walks through the prison corridor and encounters a group of men being held without cause due to a bureaucratic oversight.
What happens
Nekhlúdoff walks through the prison corridor and encounters a group of men being held without cause due to a bureaucratic oversight. He is disturbed by the injustice and the use of corporal punishment, which deepens his moral nausea. He then goes to the office to meet Vera Doukhova.
Free preview opens on this chapter — companions, themes, and character notes appear beside the text.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Exposition.
- Setup
- Escalation
- Breaking point
- Aftermath
- Closing
This scene is the dramatic climax because it forces Nekhlúdoff to confront the central moral crisis of the nov…
Full beat labels and climax notes unlock in the reader.
Follow the arc while readingThemes in this chapter
- Injustice of the Legal System
Innocent men are imprisoned for two months solely because their passports are overdue and the prison in their home district is burnt, highlighting arbitrary detention.
- Social Class and Inequality
The contrast between Nekhlúdoff's freedom and the prisoners' helplessness, and the continued use of corporal punishment for those 'deprived of rights,' underscores class-based injustice.
Characters to notice
- Prince Dmitri Ivanovich Nekhludoff
Walks through the prison corridor, feels sympathy and horror at the prisoners' plight, and learns about innocent men being held and corporal punishment still in use.
- Vera Doukhova
The inspector remembers to send for her when Nekhlúdoff arrives at the office.
Key passages
“Passing back along the broad corridor, among the men dressed in their light yellow cloaks, short, wide trousers, and prison shoes, who were looking eagerly at him (it was dinnertime, and the cell doors were open), Nekhlúdoff felt a strange mixture of sympathy for them, and horror and perplexity at the conduct of those who put and kept them here, and, besides, he felt, he knew not why, ashamed of himself calmly examining it all.”
As Nekhlúdoff walked back through the wide corridor, past men in prison uniforms who stared at him, he felt a confusing blend of pity, shock, and bewilderment at the authorities who imprisoned them, along with an inexplicable shame for observing them so calmly.
Describes Nekhlúdoff's emotional turmoil upon witnessing the prisoners.
““What! For no other reason than that?” Nekhlúdoff exclaimed, stopping at the door.”
Nekhlúdoff stopped and exclaimed in disbelief that they were being held for no other reason.
Shows Nekhlúdoff's outrage at the absurdity of the detention.
““Flogged with a birch-rod, by order.” “But corporal punishment is abolished.” “Not for such as are deprived of their rights. They are still liable to it.””
The assistant said that prisoners were flogged by order, and when Nekhlúdoff protested that corporal punishment was abolished, he replied that those who had lost their rights could still be beaten.
Reveals the legal loophole allowing corporal punishment for certain prisoners.
