Meaning

This passage presents one of the sharpest images Tolstoy ever constructed for the concept of self-serving compassion. It describes a person who exploits another while simultaneously expressing sympathy and a desire to help, with the single exception of actually stopping the exploitation. The point is that sympathy without structural change is not just insufficient but can function as a kind of cover for continuing harm.

Context

"What Then Must We Do?" was written after Tolstoy spent time among the urban poor of Moscow and was shaken by what he found. The book is a serious examination of poverty, labor, and the moral situation of the wealthy. This particular image was Tolstoy's way of describing the position of the privileged classes who supported charitable causes while remaining comfortable participants in the economic arrangements that produced poverty. It is pointed social criticism delivered through a single vivid scene.

About the author

Leo Tolstoy was a Russian writer born in 1828 who became one of the most celebrated novelists of the nineteenth century before turning much of his energy toward moral and social philosophy. He was born into the Russian nobility and spent much of his later life wrestling publicly with the contradictions of his own privileged position. His willingness to direct his criticism inward as well as outward gave his social writing unusual credibility and force. He died in 1910.