Chapters 5-11 of Resurrection: The Artifice of the Courtroom

Chapter 5:
The chapter opens with the "court-house were already bustling with activity", which reminds me of "Anna Pavlovna's soiree was already in full swing" as well as the inspiration of Anna Karenina being a set of characters gathering around a country-house. The chapters in this section are full of character descriptions, so I will only hit the highlights.
Unfortunately, a "shop assistant with Jewish blood in him" (worse, he is talking about the price of wool) is mentioned. When he is discussed later on it seems that he is always telling a joke or talking about some kind of business. This unfortunately "casual" antisemitism shows up in War and Peace as well, with "Jews offering various temptations" in chapter 54 (the only other explicit references to Jews in the novel are Dolokhov evidently nearly killing one, and Vasily comparing his and his daughter's innocence to Jesus before the Jews in the classic "Jews killed Jesus" antisemitic justification.). While in some of his non-fiction Tolstoy would take up for Jews (see The Kingdom of God is Within You), in fiction, they were often portrayed negatively in a way that I would like to develop and discuss further at some point.
I believe that this sentence is important to understanding Tolstoy's portrayal of the upper classes: "Though a good many of them were protesting and complaining about the interruption to their work their faces all bore a certain look of satisfaction of fulfilling an important public duty." The sentence of course could apply to the way many "respectable" people see jury-duty in our culture and I think it is important to contextualize this idea in the way Tolstoy thought. The problem in this obvious contradiction of a sentence Tolstoy has is not from the patriotic perspective that argues that the people should not complain about the interruption of the work or even necessarily the opposite anti-civil participation argument that says the government should take people away from their work, but instead Tolstoy is taking what we might a comic or parodic perspective. For Tolstoy, the seriousness of the men and their respect for this institution or ceremony is laughable because it is something that is meaningless or harmful and treats it with reverence. This is of course a running theme in his work and something we will see again in this novel.
Nekhlyudov receives respect from the others which he feels that he is owed, even complaining of the way a former tutor (who he doesn't even know the surname to) treats him (in an interesting translation interpretive difference, Maude uses the "thou" problem, while Edmonds has him imaging the tutor slapping him on the back). This really establishes his character and plays off of the idea of stuffy rich men in a room believing that they are making important decisions which Tolstoy wants to satirize. He builds this character up and establishes him in an upper class that is built up and believed to be important and now, like Pierre, who gets built up due to his inheritance, we wait for him to be broken down.


Chapter 6: We switch from Nekhlyudov to the president of the court, who lives what we would now call a polyamorous life with his wife. Much like society is portrayed at Anna Karenina (and hinted at in War and Peace), extra-marital affairs are shown as not abnormal (as is the affair Nekhlyudov is having with the married woman) and serve as not only character traits, but an indictment of the world of the novel as a whole, alienating the reader (or at least, the author) from the relatively everyday actions of society at large. The president wants to get the work over so he can meet a Swiss woman at a hotel. This serves as his primary motivation for his character, which not only serves as an indictment of his character for Tolstoy, but demonstrates the absurdity of the trial before the trial by showing that despite the "seriousness" of the event, those who are supposed to be focused on it are focused on other aspects of their lives (which is not only good foreshadowing but mirrors The Death of Ivan Ilyitch, which the president in this novel could very well be). There is this weird thing where he keeps exercising to prepare for sitting down on the bench. As we've seen in the introductions, this is a great example of how Tolstoy takes someone that is supposed to be considered serious (literally, a judge) and makes them comical, not by making him a bumbling stupid parody, but by portraying them as very slightly unserious. Tolstoy is obviously not a master of subtlety, but he knows how to make a character seem ridiculous and use this to color his narrative and the ideas he is trying to communicate. Tolstoy continues this process to the lower ranked characters in the court as well.
The assistant prosecutor (Breve, "a conservative and, like all Germans in Russian government service, a devout member of the Orthodox Church") had not studied for the case at all because he had been "in the very house where Maslova had been until six months ago" playing cards and drinking. The secretary, "a man of liberal, even radical views" attempts to undermine him because he "disliked him and envied him his position". Breve delays one case because he wants to have an uneducated jury so that it is more likely the person will be found guilty. There is also a case alluded to in the previous chapter in which an innocent lady is going to be taken out of property due to a "brilliant" lawyer. All of these details are jammed together to help show how the entirety of the court system, and the people that make up the court system, is corrupt and before the trial even stops properly, we know that the result will be something that is unjust, or at the very least, having nothing to do with justice but with the individual motives of people inside of what Tolstoy considers an absurd system. Even though we set up a trial scene, and as modern readers we have the vast amount of exposure to the courtroom drama and have expectations for how it will work (very few examples, though you can think of some like Detroit, have the winner being an unjust result in my experience), Tolstoy subverts it completely by ridiculing the entire experience, which falls in line with his political views that judgment in general being immoral.

Chapter 7: This entire chapter is full of description that isn't entirely interesting but puts emphasis on the Christian icons, which is important for the next chapter. We also get the contrast between the liberal secretary and the conservative prosecutor that feels that he needs to get a conviction in every case he argues. This last bit is important because the courtroom drama as a genre, just as police procedural, usual revolves, with rare examples, on the implicit assumption that, while the system can be gamed with a cunning lawyer, the system overall is fair, or at the very least, the best we can do. Tolstoy here rejects this and instead sets up the courtroom as a place of warring personalities and political beliefs (though the personalities are the more important thrust) and that rather being obsessed with justice, the prosecutor is obsessed with convictions, which explains why the court system works the way it does, as the only party that appears somewhat neutral is the judge, and his mind has been established as elsewhere.

Chapter 8: Maslova and the other accused come into the courtroom while a priest swears in the jury. This priest has been doing the job for 47 years, enjoys the money, thinks that it is a good job and gets acquainted with higher class people, including the "brilliant" lawyer that brought the case against the innocent young woman. This reminds me of the way the Catholic priest with Helene is portrayed in War and Peace, though here the focus is not mocking a "foreign" religion as is done several times through War and Peace, but this novel is focused on the religion of Russia and how it is tied to the government's oppression of people. There is some humor in this swearing ceremony ("Everyone save the old priest felt awkward, but he was firmly convinced that he was fulfilling a most useful and important function.") but every character believes in the solemn occasion and that they are doing something "important." The chapter ends with the merchant nodding agreement at everything, though he smells of brandy and is trying not to hiccup.

Chapter 9: Tolstoy plays with the ceremony of the court by having the first prisoner not sit down at the right time, while the president multi-tasks because "All this was so much a matter of routine." When Maslova is called, Nekhlyudov recognizes her, "half ward, half servant, with whom he had once been in love, really in love, and whom in a moment of thoughtless passion he had seduced, and deserted, and never thought of again because the memory would have been too painful". The way Nekhlyudov suppresses his sins and contradictions plays into Tolstoy's belief about how the modern person lives, as they have to constantly suppress what they know to be good in order to continue to live their lives. His being a gentleman is contrasted with how he had treated her, further developing the contradiction of how the noble class is "supposed" to behave (at least at how they are perceived as to behave, just as we often attribute wealth to moral superiority) versus how they do behave (since everyone we have seen so far have shown the class to be decadent and depraved). Maslova's roundabout mention of her occupation causes an uncomfortable silence and then a laugh and a ssh in the courtroom. I find this episode a little strange, as a different author might create this to not only create sympathy for Maslova (though I think this is there too) but to show the aversion that society has towards talking about sex openly (as an aside, maybe this is a point as well, since sex and prostitution are only very hinted at by characters, and the novelist himself, in a very roundabout way). This does not seem to be Tolstoy's point in having this little gag here, as instead Tolstoy seems to do the opposite, showing the contradiction of the noble class in establishing prostitution as legal but mocking the actual sex workers themselves. Maslova, just as she has become an item to be judged, is an item to be mocked by others. She exists as an object, and I think from a feminist perspective, this is the key thrust of the book; Maslova is an object that exists for men and is at their mercy. The secretary reads the indictment quickly and mispronounces some of the words while everyone pretends to pay attention and tries not to go to sleep, another event shows that Tolstoy sees the whole court setup as farce and we should read it that way.

Chapter 10: We get the details of the indictment, even quoted, like the long disposition in War and Peace. "Everyone drew a sigh of relief in the pleasant knowledge that now the trial had begun, and everything would be made clear and justice be satisfied. Nekhlyudov was the only one not to experience this feeling." He is only one broken away from the spell of the machine because of the personal aspect of his previous relationship with her. This is how the court machine works: it is impersonal and works by degrading everyone's humanity. Only true personal guilt break the cycle of the mindless court machine that runs on the warring personal prejudices of powerful people.

Chapter 11: The peasant, speaking in a slight accent designated by Edmonds as missing letters like one might portray a Southerner in the United States in Faulkner, pleads not guilty and doesn't quite follow court procedure, trying to defend himself instead. Maslova then gives her story of what happened. The assistant prosecutor cross-examines her and after he is done, pretends to write because "he had seen attorneys and lawyers, after putting a clever question, enter a remark in their notes which should subsequently confound their opponents." It is acting, much like Berg giving the speech he heard from a general in War and Peace, and it is completely insincere, the unforgivable Tolstoy sin. Additionally, though the questions had been written out before, the judge asks about them and the president whispers, doesn't pay attention and then pretends to have done so, and the prosecuting attorney is described as "shrugging his shoulders in an unnatural manner". The shrugging of the shoulders is probably overused by Tolstoy, but as for us it usually shows indifference, it generally shows a lack of insincerity in a character or to punctuate when someone says something out of their depth or that they don't necessarily mean, see for example Princess Lisa in War and Peace when talking about Napoleon. Kutuzov often shrugs his shoulders (other characters shrug when they are agitated or do not feel like answering someone) when someone says something to him and he feels powerless to fight the overall attitude of the army. The most important word is "unnatural", as the artifice of the courtroom is the key thrust of the entire scene.