Nastasya's Decision to Leave with Rogozhin

Nastasya Philipovna Barashkoff's decision to leave with Parfen Rogozhin, made on the night of her twenty-fifth birthday party, is the novel's central turning point. After a long evening of mounting tension—Rogojin's arrival with a packet of a hundred thousand roubles, the prince's unexpected proposal, and the humiliating exposure of Gania Ivolgin's mercenary motives—Nastasya suddenly reverses the apparent resolution. She refuses the prince's offer of marriage, declares herself free of Totski's seventy-five thousand roubles, and throws in her lot with the man who has come to buy her. The choice is not a surrender to passion but a deliberate act of self-destruction, born of pride, despair, and a perverse desire to confirm her own unworthiness.

Causes and Background

Nastasya's decision is the culmination of a life shaped by exploitation and resentment. Orphaned at eight after her father's death and her mother's death in a fire, she was taken in by Afanasy Ivanovitch Totski, a wealthy landowner who raised her in seclusion and then made her his mistress. For four years she lived in a country house prepared for her, with governesses, musical instruments, and a library, while Totski visited each summer. When she learned he planned to marry a society beauty, she confronted him in St. Petersburg, declaring that she had never felt anything for him but loathing and contempt. She refused his attempts to bribe or marry her off, and for five years she lived in Petersburg on his allowance, receiving a few friends but rejecting all suitors. Totski, desperate to be free of her, offered seventy-five thousand roubles as a dowry if she would marry Gavrila Ardalionovitch Ivolgin, a young clerk ambitious for money and position. Nastasya had agreed to consider the match, but her motives were ambiguous: she told Totski she wanted to rise to family life and new hopes, yet she also made clear that she would not ask forgiveness for her past and that she considered the money compensation for a ruined life. Throughout the months of negotiation, she tested Gania's sincerity and found him wanting. On the evening of her birthday, she had promised to give her final answer.

What Happens

The party at Nastasya's flat is a small gathering of her most intimate acquaintances: Totski, General Epanchin, Gania, Ptitsin, Ferdishenko, and a few others. The atmosphere is strained. Totski and the general are anxious for her decision; Gania is gloomy and silent. The prince, who has not been invited, arrives on his own initiative and is warmly received. The evening takes a chaotic turn when Rogojin bursts in with a rowdy band of followers and throws a packet of a hundred thousand roubles onto the table, declaring that he has come to buy Nastasya. She laughs at him, taunts Gania, and seems to be playing a cruel game. Then the prince, moved by her suffering, offers her his hand in marriage, saying he loves her and will never reproach her for her past. For a moment, Nastasya appears to waver. She asks the prince if he will take her as she is, with nothing, and he affirms it. But she cannot accept. She tells him that she would always be afraid of ruining him, that he should marry Aglaya Ivanovna instead, and that she is not the innocent woman he imagines. Then she turns to Rogojin. "Come along, Rogojin, get your money ready! We won't talk about marrying just at this moment, but let's see the money at all events." She seizes the packet of notes, announces that she will throw it into the fire, and challenges Gania to pull it out with his bare hands. Gania stands frozen, unable to act, and the money begins to burn. At the last moment, Nastasya rescues the packet with the tongs and gives it to Gania anyway, saying it is his as recompense. Then she leaves with Rogojin, crying, "Goodbye, prince. I have seen a man for the first time in my life."

Consequences and Aftermath

Nastasya's flight with Rogojin sets in motion the novel's final tragedy. She goes with him to Moscow, where he arranges a wedding, but she runs away from him twice, once on the very eve of the ceremony. She returns to Petersburg and takes refuge with Lebedeff's sister-in-law, while Rogojin pursues her obsessively. She writes letters to Aglaya Ivanovna, urging her to marry the prince and declaring that she herself loves Aglaya. The prince, torn between pity for Nastasya and love for Aglaya, cannot choose. When Aglaya confronts Nastasya at a secret meeting, the two women exchange bitter accusations, and Nastasya, in a frenzy, claims the prince as hers. The prince follows Aglaya, but Nastasya faints, and he stays with her. The engagement to Aglaya is broken. Nastasya then insists on a speedy marriage to the prince, but on the wedding day, as she is about to enter the church, she sees Rogojin in the crowd, rushes to him, and cries, "Save me! Take me away, anywhere you like, quick!" He carries her off to his house, where he murders her that night. The prince, searching for her, finds Rogojin and spends the night beside the body, stroking Rogojin's hair as the murderer raves in fever. Nastasya's decision to leave with Rogojin is thus not a choice for life but a choice for death—a final, desperate assertion of her own damnation.