The short story serves as an example of Tolstoy's commentary on high culture and social governance, as explored through one man's experience with love.

Sergei had fallen in love with a woman named Varvara (nicknamed "Varenka") Andreyevna Koreisha, who happened to be the daughter of Commander Andrei Petrovich Koreish.

[2][3] Furthermore, characters and scenes from "After the Ball" are similar to those in War and Peace, which was published in 1869 and explores the same issues of governance, love, loss, and betrayal.

[2] Specifically, the colonel is reminiscent of the character Nikolai Rostov (from War and Peace), and the ball in the short story evokes themes similar to those in the soirée at the beginning of the novel.

[7] In the flogging scene, the earlier illusion of the glove symbolizing upper-class culture shatters and is replaced by the image of an almost animalistic military brutality.

[9] Through the ball, Tolstoy illustrates a highly regulated and cultural phenomenon, an event in which a strict adherence to rules is required to secure one's place.

The act of flogging itself is reminiscent of the crucifixion of Christ, as both of his arms are tied to sticks held by two soldiers as he is forcibly led through the Gauntlet.

[11] Additionally, Ivan Vasilievich hears the gaunt-runner continually repeat "have mercy, brothers," which draws upon Christian myths and rituals.

Even at the end of the ball, he remains in an elated state and pays almost no attention to the musicians as they become tired and play with a "sort of weary despair".

[3] The presence of this high culture is simultaneously complementary and in contrast against nature; Ivan Vasilievich's loss of love for Varenka is indicative of the nature/culture dichotomy.

[3] Ultimately, his decision to remain outside of the civil and military service demonstrates his lack of desire to accept the impositions of the "cultured" world.

"[9] The short story demonstrates the potential for government power to be used against its people and offers a contrast against the familial love and social euphoria witnessed in the first part of "After the Ball.

For example, Ivan Vasilievich does not dance the proper mazurka with Varenka because he was delayed in putting on his gloves,[5] and later he must guess what "quality," or emblem, she is wearing.

[12] Because of this, the reader only hears of the series of events from the point of view of Ivan Vasilievich, and his own thought processes serve as a framework to manifest the blurred line between right and wrong.

[3] The story is also framed as a bildungsroman, as Ivan Vasilievich describes how he went from a "very pert and merry lad, and rich besides,"[12] to one whose "whole life was changed" after being witness to the capability of human brutality.

Ivan remains fixated on the colonel's dancing, which is deconstructed into its component parts - the heavy legs and the square-toed calfskin boots.

[3] Ivan Vasilievich questions his ability to understand what he witnessed, attributing it to his own lack of the appropriate contextual information to judge the violence he saw.

[7] Despite not expressing his stance publicly, his actions - forsaking the military, marriage, and the civil service - demonstrate an embodied knowledge that what he bore witness to was unjust.