Chapter 163
The Morning After Shame
Márya Dmítrievna, having found Sónya weeping in the corridor, made her confess everything, and intercepting the note to Natásha she read it and went into Natásha’s room with it in her hand. “You shameless good-for-nothing!” said she. “I won’t hear a word.” Pushing back Natásha who looked at her with astonished but tearless eyes, she locked her in; and having given orders to the yard porter to admit the persons who would be coming that evening, but not to let them out again, and having told the footman to bring them up to her, she seated herself in the drawing…
Public-domain chapter text, formatted for reading.
Critical Thinking Exercise
Map Your Family's Silence Zones
Draw a simple family tree or friend group diagram. Mark the topics everyone avoids discussing with each person. Notice patterns: What subjects create the most elaborate avoidance? Who works hardest to maintain these silences? What would happen if someone broke the pattern and spoke honestly about one of these avoided topics?
Consider:
- •Some silences protect genuine privacy - focus on the ones that enable harm or prevent healing
- •The person working hardest to maintain silence often has the most to lose if truth comes out
- •Breaking silence requires choosing the right time, place, and approach - not just blurting things out
Journaling Prompt
Write about a time when someone's protective silence actually made a situation worse for you. What did you need instead of protection? How would you handle a similar situation now?
Master this chapter. Complete your experience
Purchase the complete book to access all chapters and support classic literature
Available in paperback, hardcover, and e-book formats
You Might Also Like
Lessons from War and Peace
Theme-by-theme analyses that connect this book to modern life skills.
Building Authentic Relationships
Watch Natasha's first dance, Anatole's playbook, and the epilogue marriage that includes reproach.
8 chapters·Explore AnalysisEmbracing Simplicity
Start with a tavern in the rain, then Karataev, Nicholas at the plow, and the domestic language after the war.
6 chapters·Explore AnalysisFacing Mortality
Stay with Andrei under the Austerlitz sky, then at Yaroslavl, when pride finally has no work left.
6 chapters·Explore AnalysisFinding Meaning in Chaos
Follow Pierre from the salon and the inheritance through Borodino to Karataev's prison circle, and see purpose arrive when the systems fail.
6 chapters·Explore AnalysisQuestioning Success
Put Pierre's fortune and Hélène's match next to Napoleon in occupied Moscow, and ask what the triumph was for.
6 chapters·Explore AnalysisUnderstanding Free Will vs Fate
Sit with Tolstoy at Borodino and in the Second Epilogue, and watch the great-man story come apart.
6 chapters·Explore Analysis
Deep diving the literary elements.