Vauxhall

The Vauxhall in Pavlofsk serves as the primary public gathering place for the summer colony, a venue where the fashionable society of St. Petersburg's elite converges to hear music, display themselves, and observe the intricate social rituals of the season. It is not merely a concert hall but a stage upon which the novel's most explosive public drama unfolds, a space where private tensions erupt into open scandal and where the carefully maintained boundaries of respectable society are violently breached.

Location and Social Function

The Vauxhall is situated within the Pavlofsk park, a short walk from the Epanchin family's country villa. On weekdays, the public is more select than on weekends, when townsfolk descend to enjoy the park. The ladies dress elegantly, and it is the fashion to gather round the band, which is probably the best of the pleasure-garden bands and plays the newest pieces. The behaviour of the public is most correct and proper, and there is an appearance of friendly intimacy among the usual frequenters. Many come for nothing but to look at their acquaintances, but others come for the sake of the music. It is very seldom that anything happens to break the harmony of the proceedings, though accidents will happen everywhere. On the evening of the scandal, the weather is lovely and a large number of people are present, with all the places near the orchestra occupied. The Epanchin party takes chairs near the side exit, a position that places them directly in the path of the approaching confrontation.

The Scandalous Episode

It is at the Vauxhall that Nastasia Philipovna stages her most audacious public performance. As she walks past the young ladies' chairs, she suddenly turns her head in the direction of the Epanchin party, as though she has just observed Evgenie Pavlovitch sitting there for the first time. She stops and announces, in a loud voice, that his uncle has shot himself that very morning, that a sum of government money is missing, and that he has retired from the army in good time. The impudence of this attack, this public proclamation of intimacy, is clearly premeditated and has its special object. Evgenie Pavlovitch grows as white as a sheet and turns towards his tormentor. The young officer Moloftsoff, a friend of Evgenie's who has been conversing with Aglaya, says aloud in a state of great indignation that she ought to be whipped. Nastasia turns to him, seizes a thin cane from a young man standing near, and brings it with all her force across the officer's face. The officer, forgetting himself, springs towards her. The prince, who is but a couple of steps away, springs forward and seizes the officer's arms from behind. The officer tears himself from the prince's grasp and pushes him violently backwards into a chair. Keller then confronts the enraged officer, offering himself as champion of the fair sex. Rogojin appears, elbowing through the crowd, takes Nastasia's hand, and quickly leads her away. The whole episode has not lasted more than a couple of minutes.

Consequences and Aftermath

The Vauxhall scandal has immediate and far-reaching consequences. Lizabetha Prokofievna rises swiftly from her seat, beckons her companions, and leaves the place almost at a run, filled with horror. The occurrence has filled both mother and daughters with something like horror, and in their excitement they are nearly running all the way home. The episode discloses and lays bare so much that Lizabetha Prokofievna feels more or less decided on certain points which up to now have been in a cloudy condition. Evgenie Pavlovitch's real character and position are at last coming to light, as he is publicly convicted of intimacy with "that creature." The number of riddles to be solved is augmented, and the two elder girls, though rather irritated at their mother's exaggerated alarm, cannot help thinking that their sister Aglaya probably knows more about the whole matter than both they and their mother put together. The prince, who has been pushed into a chair, walks away after the Epanchin party, but Aglaya has stayed to watch the scandalous scene in spite of her mother's and sisters' anxious cries. She returns in such a state of agitation that it is doubtful whether she has even heard their calls. Only a couple of minutes later, when they have reached the park, Aglaya remarks in her usual calm, indifferent voice that she wanted to see how the farce would end. The Vauxhall thus becomes the crucible in which the novel's central tensions are forged into public spectacle, irrevocably altering the course of the characters' relationships and setting the stage for the final catastrophe.