Master and Man

“‘I’m not like the others to keep you waiting, and making up accounts and reckoning fines. We deal straight-forwardly. You serve me and I don’t neglect you.’ And when saying this Vasily Andreevich was honestly convicted that he was Nikita’s benefactor […]” 

In the same instance that Brekhunov withholds from Nikita his agreed-upon pay, he considers himself exempt from general accusations that might apply to a profiteering merchant: such a person necessarily “keeps you waiting […] and reckon[s] files,” for that is what it takes to acquire more for less. And yet Brekhunov’s way of life is possible by means of this clear and central example of self-deception. He is wrong not only because he knowingly harms others in order to benefit himself, but because he has successfully deluded himself by his own self-justifications.

“‘There now,’ he said addressing himself no longer to the cook but the girdle, as he tucked the ends in at the waist, ‘now you won’t come undone!’” 

One of several instances of Nikita’s rapport with the material world, this quote shows him speaking to his belt—a gesture of equality to that world that contrasts Brekhunov’s property-based relationship to it. Objects are not merely objects for Nikita’s use, though he does use them; they are also endowed with a life of their own. Objects, animals, and Nikita labor through the world in nearly equal accord, each doing what they must—the belt staying cinched, the horse being harnessed, Nikita accompanying Brekhunov.