A Child, They Called Him
The Epanchin women come downstairs already cast. A poor relation. A Swiss invalid. Someone to be kind to and then dismissed. Lizaveta Prokofievna has the verdict prepared: a child, a pathetic-looking creature. He answers their questions as if the questions were real. He tells the scaffold story without ornament. He says he has not been in love, quietly. The condescension has nowhere to land.
Key Insight
Sophisticated rooms use irony as armor. A person who meets the armor without putting any on will be named naive, then dangerous. The name is a defense of the costume, not a reading of the guest.
“He is quite a child, not to say a pathetic-looking creature.”Full analysis
