The Brothers Karamazov Part 3, Book VIII - IX

Book VIII - Mitya

The next two days after meeting with Alyosha go by in such a haze for Dmitri that he later confesses that he may have suffered from an inflammation of the brain. Primarily, he was extremely worried about his fate with Grushenka as he understood that she could choose him, but he had no money for them to begin their life. Furthermore, he still owed Katerina her money and did not want her to think that he had abandoned her and eloped with Grushenka using her money. He explains that he was even willing to murder it and was thinking of any means to come up with the funds. He comes up with the ridiculous scheme of seeking the sum from Samsonov, the man that had brought Gruskenka to the town as his mistress, but was now too old to leave bed, and had been like that for the past year. He wanted to arrange a commercial affair with him to secure a sum, and he felt that the merchant would grant it to him because he preferred him to his father as a match to Grushenka. He presents himself at the man’s house the following day, Samsonov receives him reluctantly, dismisses the commercial affair, and instead puts him in pursuit of a pointless endeavor that he claims will allow Dmitri to secure the amount. Dmitri is deeply grateful and thanks him profusely. He sells his watch and borrows some money from his landlord as he prepares to set off for the errand, only to return the following day with empty hands and an understanding that Samsonov had purposefully led him on a fool’s errand. He is forced to pawn off his dueling pistols to a young civil servant who had expressed an interest in them, just to secure the fare for his return to the town. He meets Grushenka escorts her to Samsonov’s home, and returns to his summer house where he learns about Smerdyakov’s fit and incapacitated state. He decides to hurry through the arrangement of the money through another will scheme for the money so that he can return to watch Fyodor’s house for Grushenka as he suspects her of betraying him

He goes to Mrs. Khokhlakov as he becomes convinced that she’ll lend him the sum now even though he is aware she cannot abide him. He spends the most agitating hour with her as she receives him with much gusto, claiming that she had known that he would come to her. He presumes that she is going to help him, and she does promise him nearly infinite riches. Although her help consists merely of proposing that he go to Siberia and seek out gold mines. She refuses to give him the money and tells him that he should not be thinking about women. Dmitri is sorely vexed and leaves her home in tears, and on the way bumps into Samsonov’s servant who reveals that Grushenka had but just stayed for 5 minutes and left. He rushes to her house and finds her gone. In a rage, he takes a pestle from the door and makes his way to Fyodor Pavolovich’s house where he thinks she is. He observes a lit window and tries to discern if she’s inside the house with his father unable to do so, he at length goes to the window and performs the tap signal that indicates Grushenka’s arrival. Fyodor Pavolich opens the window and calls out to her and Dmitri is filled with hatred as he observes the profile of the old man, but he is just then observed by Grigory who had risen from the bed out of guilt of leaving the house without a guard in such troubling times

Mitya attempts to escape the estate, and hits Grigory with the Pestle as he is escaping which causes the manservant to collapse after a yell. Dimitry begins to check whether he has killed the man, he uses his handkerchief to wipe Grigory’s face, and suddenly realizes that he needs to escape

He returns to Grushenka’s house, where he examines her maid under threat of violence and discovers that Grushenka has gone to Mokroye where she is to meet with her officer. He is very surprised at the mention of the officer and recalls Grushenka mentioning the man. He examines her very carefully, and she answers him in all honesty, terrified by the blood that now covers him. She remarks at his bloodied hands, and although Mitya acknowledges them, he doesn’t explain. He leaves her there and shows up at the civil servant’s home with a handful of money. The civil servant remarks at his hands and face, which are marked with blood. He holds the money in his bloodied hands and insists that the man return the pistols he had pawned to him just a few short hours ago. Mitya sends the civil servant’s staff to the shops with instructions to prepare a package worth 300 roubles much like the one he had taken with him to Mokroye.

The Civil servant notes the strange state of Mitya and helps him clean up. He asks Dmitri about the money and Dmitri claims that he had received the money from Mrs. Khokhlakov and mentions the gold mines. Dmitri loads his pistols, and hints at his desire for suicide the civil servant considers him to be a fine man and so grows worried for him. The civil servant takes him to the shop and becomes concerned with how Mitya is using his new fortune and he attempts to haggle for Mitya while a coach of horses awaits the package and Dmitri for a quick journey to Mokroye. Just before he sets off, Grushenka’s maid arrives and begs him not to follow her mistress to the meeting with her office. The civil servant goes off to play billiards and discusses the matter with his peers who all grow concerned about where Mitya had received the money. He then decides to go see the maidservant and question her. He grows angry at himself for getting involved, even as he hammers on Grushenka’s door in the middle of the night.

On the road, Dmitri prepares himself to commit suicide the following morning. He talks to his coachman about finding forgiveness and even scares him with his strange and fervent attitude. They arrive in a hurry at the inn at Mockery, where the landlord receives him with much warmth owing to the amount of money he had spent during his last trip. He quickly and without reservation informs him about the Polish men that Grushenka had come to visit, and leads him to her. Mitya is extremely emotional upon seeing Grushenka there, and she becomes instantly afraid of him. He assures her, and the other guests in the room welcome him. Grushenka eventually calms down and asks the old Polish man, who seems to be her old lover to allow Mitya to remain. Dmitri becomes instantly happy, and Grushenka confesses that she was glad to see him, as she had been growing quite bored. They drink the champagne that Mitya has brought, and Grushenka ensures that everything is cheery and doesn’t allow them to argue. Dmitri finds the opportunity to speak to the Polish men separately and offers them a great sum of money to leave Grushenka. The Polish men reveal this to Grushenka, and although she is offended, she doesn’t take the side of the polish men. It is learned that the Polish men had been cheating at cards, and Grushenka accuses him of coming to her because he had learned of her money. Dimitry tosses her old officer out of the room with Grushenka’s encouragement, and a fete of celebration ensues. He plies drinks, hot chocolate, cognac, and sweat meats for the other inhabitants of the inn, musicians play raucous music and the wenches dance with ecstasy, and Grushenka thanks Mitya for coming to her 

She teases and flirts with him and sends him away to party as she promises to tell him who she loves tomorrow. At around three or four clocks in the night, Mitya goes out into the fresh air and expresses his utter confusion at life. On the way here, he had been thinking about killing himself because he could not have Grushenka, and now she was waiting for him inside. She was as good as his, so he prays for forgiveness and hopes that Grigory will live. He returns inside and finds Gushenka crying over the officer for she had truly loved him at one point. She asks him who she should love and he asks her to love him. They confess unending love for one another, kiss each other, and Dmitri even tells her about money that he had stolen from Katerina. Grushenka tells him it doesn’t matter and that she could help him repay whatever debt and that she just wants them to go away together. They dance and embrace one another in ecstasy, and just as they are drifting away to slumber, the party is halted by the arrival of the police. They accuse Dmitri of the murder of his father, Fyodor Pavalovich, while Dmitri believes they have come to find him because Grigory has died.

Book IX - The Preliminary Investigation

The civil servant, Pyotr Ilyich, was refused entry at Grushenka’s house since the maid was scared that Dmitri had returned. He refuses to leave and insists upon seeing the maidservant, so she finally relents. He discovers Dimitry had rushed immediately to Fyodor Pavlovich’s house after learning that Grushenka was not at home and that he had taken a pestle with him. He had returned some while later with bloody hands and had confessed to murdering an old man. Pyotr Ilyich wasn’t yet certain enough about the matter to go to the police so he goes to Mrs. Khokhlakov and asks her about the money she had lent Dmitri. She is upset to be woken especially in a matter regards to Dmitri, who she claimed had tried to kill her just earlier. She outrightly declares that she had not given him any money and that if he had money then the villain had probably murdered his father. She asks him to rush away to the police but then keeps halting him with conversation. Pyotr Ilyich hastily extricates himself and heads to the police with a rather fond memory of Mrs. Khokhlakov. The Chief of Police is hosting some of the most important bureaucrats such as the Public prosecutor, the investigator, and several others and it so happens that all of these gentlemen have only just been reprised of the murder of Fyodor Pavlovich by his neighbor. It transpired that Grigory’s wife, Marfa, had woken at the sound of Smerdyakov’s wails. She went outside and heard Grigory moaning for her, and found him bloody and in a terrible condition. She attempted to see into Fyodor’s window to request assistance and found him dead. Marfa then went to her neighbors and together they nursed Grigory to consciousness. He instructed them to go to the police and their neighbor complied. So it turned out that Pyotr Ilyich had arrived as a witness against the most likely suspect, Dmitri.

They learn about the things Dmitri had said and done, then they go over to Fyodor Pavlovich’s house where they discover the door into the house open and ajar. An envelope lies next to the dead body, and it carries an inscription, but the envelope had been opened and discarded to the side. At this point, the police become convinced that Dmitri wants to kill himself given Pyotr Ilyich’s statement about the guns and the remarks he made about he intended to use them. They hurry to Mokroye and confront him. He rejects their claim as soon as he discovers that he is being charged with his father’s murder. While Grushenka throws herself at the feet of the police claiming to be the principal culprit for she had driven the wedge between father and son. Dmitri defends Grushenka and tells them that he had murdered an old man but it hadn’t been his father. He rejoices when he learns that Grigory is still well and expresses grief over the murder of his father but claims no knowledge of it. The public prosecutor and Nikolay Perfonvich interview Dmitri. They describe to him the circumstances that led to them questioning him and prime among those is Dmitri’s public outcries over the past month in which he had expressed his desire to kill his father. Dmitri is taken aback at their mention of his intentions, and claims that this is relating to his private life and he doesn’t wish to discuss that. At first, he treats them like his benefactors and ladles much praise on them as they begin the interrogation. However, he soon begins to grow annoyed as they ask him the details of his whereabouts during the past two days

Although Dmitri doesn’t suspect Smerdyakov at first, he begins to claim that Smerdyakov had murdered their father after he learns about the money being stolen from the envelope. This is because Smerdyakov had known about the hand signals which led to Fyodor opening the main door, which certainly hadn’t been open as he left the garden on that fateful night. It is also surmised that Dmitri did not have three thousand roubles on him, but rather some 1500 roubles. At first, he refuses to divulge where he got the money from, but given the severity of the situation, he finally reveals in shame that he had kept half of the three thousand dollars that Katerina Ivanovna had given him, even though he had loudly exclaimed to everyone that he had spent all of it in Mokroye on Grushenka. Instead, he had kept it always intending to return it, but had never quite managed to muster the courage. He felt ashamed of himself for being a thief, but his interrogators are perplexed at his shame. They ask him if he had informed anyone of this, and how he had stored the money on his person. Dmitri explained that he had sewn it into an incense bag that he had hung around his neck. He had thrown the bag somewhere on the market square when he had retrieved the money that night

Dmitri becomes hopeless about the circumstances of the case and began to believe that he would inevitably be convicted of his father’s murder, a crime for which he wasn’t guilty. The investigators then interviewed the rest of the witnesses in Mokroye about the sum of money that Dmitri had expended on his trips. Everyone agreed that Dimtiri had indeed spent 3000 roubles on his first trip with Grushenka, and had loudly told everyone that he had yet again arrived with that same sum, Grushenka herself attested to this. She also conveyed that Dmitri had on several occasions expressed the wish to kill his father. However, she was certain that he hadn’t truly meant it. Ultimately, it was determined that Dmitri should be held in jail until the time that the investigation can be brought to a conclusion.

Analysis

Book VII contains the details of Mitya’s actions leading up to the night of his father’s murder, and it contains the most crucial details of the murder that is the main plot line. Dmitri’s section is peppered with references to tragic literary heroes such as Othello and Hamlet, which is surprising since it is indicated that he is the least educated of the Karamazov brothers. Most marked is his reference to Othello in his jealousy towards Grushenka. Dostoevsky wrote about Jealousy in the most interesting manner, and this section has consequently been quoted often. Dostoevsky remarks, “Othello was not jealous, he was trustful,” and attempts redeems jealous men as those who forgive most readily.

The Hamlet reference is made when Dmitri is considering ending his own life. As he is riding to Mokroye to see his beloved one last time, Dmitri wonders whether he is the skull of Yorrick. This is a reference to a scene in which Hamlet discusses his mortality with a skull in the graveyard, and refers to the skull as Yorrick. Dmitri’s love is transformed in his struggle to see her one last time even as he realizes that he has lost her, and perhaps it’s then that he truly loves her.

The interrogation is severely degrading, especially for a man such as Dmitri who is so very passionate about his honor. The investigators cause him to take off his clothes, and though this is challenging for him, the true injury comes through their questions of his emotions and their examination of his secret. Dmitri attempts to retain his honor and dignity, and repeatedly demands it even at the risk of being considered guilty. Dmitri’s sense of honor is also indicated in his disgust over the calculation involved in retaining half of Katerina’s money. He is horrified that he has confessed this secret to men like his interrogators, who he believes could never understand him which is evidenced by their lack of understanding of his feelings.

The onion returns as a motif in this section, as the small act of kindness that someone performs for Dmitri, by placing a pillow under his head while he is sleeping. Dmitri is deeply moved by this gesture, and it allows him to suffer the degradation of being considered guilty of parricide with more grace. The author repeatedly indicates that chance plays a big role in implicating Dmitri, for instance, Dmitri had been going around town asking for the same sum of money that Fyodor had in an envelope.