In comparison to the other literary and artistic works we’ve studied this semester, “Frol Skorbeev, The Rogue” is a slap in the face. The secular nature of the piece is one thing to note, but what was more interesting to me was the presentation of a perverted male fantasy as in the text, a poor noble rapes his way into love, riches, and a higher position of society. Notably, this piece is a satire and should be interpreted as such, but even in parody lies truth. The fact that Frol uses women as his stepping stones to achieve his goals is deplorable. He firstly takes advantage of his sister to gain access to Annushka’s party. He then bribes the nurse to be able to sleep with the noblewoman, rapes his love interest in order for her to fall in love with him, and even corrupts the trust between females by disguising himself as one. Although the text implies that Frol is a rogue because of his corrupt ways of making money, I’d suggest that his disregard of women is a far more deserving reason for this title. Another significant action is that he marries his sister off at the end after promising that he would take care of her. He attributes his success at the end of the story to “the will of God,” which perverts the Christian faith by associating it with lies, corruption, and sin. This work actively tries to disassociate itself from Christianity. I wonder if this piece has anything to do with the split of the Russian church into the old believers and the new orthodoxy. If it has anything to do with that, I’d suggest that this story is a commentary on the autocracy of the troubled times, and slanders the changing and mistrusted church. The perverse male fantasy and the disregard of women presented in this text is so apparent, but I have no idea for what reason it was made a focal aspect of the story.