Nekhludoff and Mary Vasilievna

Nekhludoff and Mary Vasilievna, the wife of the Marshal of Nobility of a district where Nekhludoff held his largest estate, are bound in a secret liaison that perfectly illustrates the hypocrisy and moral corruption of the society Nekhludoff will eventually reject. The affair is a source of constant torment for him, a chain he feels unable to break, and a decisive factor in his inability to commit to another woman. It represents the "animal man" at its most entrenched, a relationship built on deception and maintained by cowardice, which his spiritual awakening forces him to reckon with.

The Nature of the Affair

The relationship began when Nekhludoff, who was rather shy with women, attended an election in the district where Mary Vasilievna's husband served as Marshal of Nobility. His very shyness awakened in her, a woman described as unprincipled, the desire to vanquish him. She drew him into an intimacy that entangled him more and more, while it daily became more distasteful to him. Having succumbed to the temptation, Nekhludoff felt guilty and lacked the courage to break the tie without her consent. This cowardice is the defining feature of his involvement with her; he is trapped not by love but by a sense of obligation born of his own weakness. The affair is a secret he guards jealously, a source of shame that prevents him from looking any other person in the eye.

The Obstacle to Marriage

Mary Vasilievna's existence is the primary reason Nekhludoff cannot propose to Princess Mary Korchagin, even when he considers it. He reflects that he has very good reasons why, even if he made up his mind to it, he could not propose at once. It was not that ten years previously he had betrayed and forsaken Maslova; he had quite forgotten that. The real reason was his liaison with Mary Vasilievna, which, though he considered it broken off, she did not. This unresolved entanglement makes him feel not at liberty to offer marriage to another woman. The affair thus directly blocks the conventional, socially-approved path of marriage to Missy, a path that would have secured his place in the aristocratic world he inhabits.

The Attempt to Break Free

Nekhludoff makes a decisive attempt to end the affair. A week before the trial, he writes her a letter in which he acknowledges his guilt and his readiness to atone for it, but at the same time pronounces their relations to be at an end, for her own good, as he expresses it. To this letter he has received no answer by the morning of the trial. He interprets this silence as a good sign, hoping she agrees to the break. However, he is also tormented by jealousy, having heard that some officer is paying her marked attention. This jealousy, mixed with the hope of escape from the deception that oppresses him, shows the lingering hold she has over him even as he tries to free himself.

The Letter of Release and Its Aftermath

The morning after his spiritual awakening, Nekhludoff receives the long-expected letter from Mary Vasilievna. In it, she gives him full freedom and wishes him happiness in his intended marriage. This letter, which he had particularly needed, arrives by a strange coincidence on the very day he has resolved to stop lying. His immediate reaction is one of ironic dismissal: "Marriage!" he repeats with irony. "How far I am from all that at present." The letter, which should have been a liberation, instead highlights the gulf between his former plans and his new, all-consuming mission. He then considers his earlier plan to tell the husband everything, but finds it less easy than the day before. He rationalizes that he should not make a man unhappy by telling him what he does not know, deciding that if the husband asks, he will tell all, but to go purposely and tell is unnecessary. This retreat from full confession marks the limits of his initial resolve, showing that even in his awakening, the old habits of concealment and cowardice persist. The affair with Mary Vasilievna is thus not neatly resolved but rather set aside, a piece of unfinished business from a life he is trying to leave behind.