What is to become of you, Alexander

“What is to become of you, Alexander?” is Helena Rostov’s recurring question to her brother, Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov. The novel sets it beside versions asked by Grand Duke Demidov and Countess Rostov, making the same words—or the same underlying concern—carry three different meanings: a verdict on foreseeable trouble, an affectionate excuse for misbehavior, and a genuine question about a person whose future remains open.

Three versions of one question

The narrator stresses that the Grand Duke, the Countess, and Helena all ask what will become of the Count, but do so in different ways. Their refrain is not a single family judgment repeated unchanged. Each speaker brings a different expectation to it, and the contrast reveals as much about the questioners as about the man they address.

For Grand Duke Demidov, the question is rhetorical. When a report records a failed semester or an unpaid bill, he summons his godson to the library, reads the letter aloud, drops it on the desk, and asks without expecting an answer. The practical outcomes are already legible to him: imprisonment, bankruptcy, or both. In this version, the question works less as an invitation to imagine a future than as a pronouncement that the Count’s conduct has made its consequences predictable. Its form may sound open, but the Grand Duke treats the answer as settled.

Countess Rostov asks when the Count has said something particularly scandalous. Her question, the narration explains, signals to everyone within earshot that he is her favorite and that no one should expect her to rein him in. Here, concern becomes an act of indulgence. The words do not announce a coming punishment, as they do for the Grand Duke; they disclose the protection the Count enjoys. The same uncertainty about his future that might invite correction instead becomes part of the family’s affectionate tolerance.

Helena’s genuine uncertainty

Helena Rostov’s question differs from both. She asks as if the answer were truly mysterious, despite her brother’s erratic studies and carefree ways. The narration presents her as able to imagine that the world has not yet seen the man he is bound to become. What is unresolved for her is not simply whether the next bill will be paid or whether the next scandal will be excused, but what kind of person her brother might grow into.

The scene gives the question a social as well as familial setting. After casting a friendly glance at Mikhail Fyodorovich (Mishka), Helena laughs, looks back at her brother, and asks, “What is to become of you, Alexander?” The glance and laughter keep the moment companionable rather than solemn. Her question can register his habitual unpredictability without reducing him to it: she sees the present pattern, but does not mistake it for a complete account of his future.

The Count’s answer

The Count agrees, “That is the question.” His reply accepts the uncertainty rather than resolving it. He then lies back in the grass and gazes thoughtfully at the fireflies tracing figure eights, as if he too were pondering the enigma. The image makes his response playful, but it also gives the pause room to stand. He offers no plan, defense, or prediction; instead, he joins Helena in treating his future as something still to be contemplated.

That answer sits in telling contrast with the Grand Duke’s certainty. For the Grand Duke, a failed semester or unpaid bill points toward consequences already known. For the Count, the question remains an essential enigma. His agreement does not establish that he will change, nor does it provide a destination. It lets the phrase remain genuinely unanswered, preserving the difference between a forecast based on past behavior and a future not yet witnessed.

Recollection and significance

The passage is framed as a recollection by Mikhail Fyodorovich (Mishka), who thinks of these moments as belonging to “Elysian days.” The question therefore returns as more than a light exchange between Helena and her brother: it is part of a vanished world of family intimacy. The narration places that world alongside waistcoats, corsets, quadrilles, bezique, and other customs associated with an older social order. Mishka’s retrospective perspective lends the refrain warmth, while also marking the distance between the remembered scene and the present from which he recalls it.

Across its three versions, the question exposes distinct relationships to uncertainty. Grand Duke Demidov treats the Count’s future as a chain of likely penalties; Countess Rostov treats his conduct as something family affection can shelter; Helena sees an unfinished possibility. The phrase’s significance lies in that variation. Asked about the same man, it can predict, excuse, or wonder—and Helena’s version leaves room for a future that neither judgment nor indulgence can settle in advance.