Part 2 concludes A Russian Proprietor by showing Nekhliudof’s deepening attempt to help the peasants while coming to recognize the structural limits that make true reform nearly impossible and these realizations shape his more mature understanding of moral duty. Lucerne shifts the focus to an urban setting where the narrator confronts the cold indifference of well-to-do travelers as they ignore a poor musician, exposing the cruelty and hypocrisy embedded in social hierarchies. Recollections of a Scorer presents the inner life of a lower-class figure whose memories reveal both hardship and quiet humanity placing ordinary voices at the center of Tolstoy’s moral landscape. Together, Part 2 examines how moral contradictions and social inequality intertwine demonstrating that personal goodwill alone cannot overcome systemic injustice.
