- Pierre lies around trying to figure out where everything went wrong in his life.
- His conclusion is that he married a woman he didn’t love because he wanted to sleep with her. Pretty insightful, that Pierre, right?
- Then he starts thinking back about his life with Helene:
- 1. They don’t really spend any time alone together; they either just have guests over or hang out by themselves.
- 2. She is kind of vulgar and gross.
- 3. She’s way too physically affectionate with her brother Anatole.
- 4. When he asked about kids, she told him that she isn’t stupid enough to want any, and certainly not with him.
- All of which adds up to a pretty crummy life, with some guilty sex thrown in. He decides to leave in the morning and to write her a letter instead of talking to her.
- But in the morning, she comes to his study.
- Helene knows all about the duel. She’s angry and bitter and spiteful and sarcastic about it.
- According to her, it’s all groundless jealousy – she never cheated on him. Also, according to her, this is going to now make them laughingstocks in Moscow.
- Suddenly Pierre explodes. He grabs a chunk of marble from a nearby table and yells that he’s going to kill her. She screams and runs away...which is a good thing for her, because he really was about to kill her.
- Wow, Pierre. One duel and suddenly you’re a serial killer.
- A week later Pierre gives Helene more than half of his fortune and goes to Petersburg.