 Book 12. CHAPTER III. THE MEDICAL EXPERTS AND A PUND OF NUTS The evidence of the medical experts, too, was of little use to the prisoner, and it appeared later that Fetyukovich had not reckoned much upon it. The medical line of defence had only been taken up through the insistence of Katerina Ivanovna, who had sent for a celebrated doctor from Moscow on purpose. The case for the defence could, of course, lose nothing by it, and might, with luck, gain something from it. There was, however, an element of comedy about it, through the difference of opinion of the doctors. The medical experts were the famous doctor from Moscow, our doctor, Herzenstube, and the young doctor, Varvinsky. The two latter appeared also as witnesses for the prosecution. The first to be called in the capacity of expert was Dr. Herzenstube. He was a grey and bald old man of severity, of middle height, and sturdy build. He was much esteemed and respected by everyone in the town. He was a conscientious doctor, and an excellent and pious man, a Helnguta or a Moravian brother. I am not quite sure which. He had been living amongst us for many years, and behaved with wonderful dignity. He was a kind-hearted and humane man. He treated the sick poor and peasants for nothing, visited them in their slums and huts, and left money for medicine. But he was as obstinate as a mule. If once he had taken an idea into his head, there was no shaking it. Almost everyone in the town was aware, by the way, that the famous doctor had, within the first two or three days of his presence among us, uttered some extremely offensive allusion to Dr. Herzenstube's qualifications. Though the Moscow doctor asked twenty-five robles for a visit, several people in the town were glad to take advantage of his arrival, and rushed to consult him regardless of expense. All these had, of course, been previously patients of Dr. Herzenstube, and the celebrated doctor had criticised his treatment with extreme harshness. Finally he had asked the patients as soon as he saw them. Well, who has been cramming you with nostrums, Herzenstube? He, he. Dr. Herzenstube, of course, heard all this, and now all the three doctors made their appearance, one after another, to be examined. Dr. Herzenstube roundly declared that the abnormality of the prisoner's mental faculties was self-evident. Then, giving his grounds for his opinion, which I omit here, he added that the abnormality was not only evident in many of the prisoner's actions in the past, but was apparent even now at this very moment. When he was asked to explain how it was apparent now at this moment, the old doctor with simple hearted directness pointed out that the prisoner had an extraordinary air remarkable in circumstances. That he had marched in like a soldier looking straight before him, though it would have been more natural for him to look to the left, where among the public the ladies were sitting, seeing that he was a great admirer of the fair sex and must be thinking much of what the ladies are saying of him now. The old man concluded, in his peculiar language, I must add that he spoke Russian readily, but every phrase was formed in German style, which did not, however, trouble him, for it had always been a weakness of his to believe that he spoke Russian perfectly, better indeed than Russians. And he was very fond of using Russian proverbs, always declaring that the Russian proverbs were the best and most expressive sayings in the whole world. I may remark, too, that in conversation, through absence-mindedness, he often forgot the most ordinary words, which sometimes went out of his head, though he knew them perfectly. The same thing happened, though, when he spoke German, and at such times he always waved his hand before his face as though trying to catch the last word, and no one could induce him to go on speaking till he had found the missing word. His remark that the prisoner ought to have looked at the ladies unentering roused the whisper of amusement in the audience. All our ladies were very fond of our old doctor. They knew him, too, that having been all his life a bachelor and a religious man of exemplary conduct, he looked upon women as lofty creatures. And so his unexpected observation struck everyone as very queer. The Moscow doctor, being questioned in his turn, definitely and emphatically repeated that he considered the prisoner's mental condition abnormal in the highest degree. He talked at length and with evadition of aberration and mania, and argued that from all the facts collected the prisoner had undoubtedly been in a condition of aberration for several days before his arrest, and if the crime had been committed by him. It must, even if he were conscious of it, have been almost involuntary, as he had not the power to control the morbid impulse that possessed him. But apart from temporary aberration, the doctor diagnosed mania, which promised, in his words, to lead to complete insanity in the future. It must be noted that I report this in my own words. The doctor made use of very learned and professional language. All his actions are in contravention of common sense and logic, he continued, not to refer to what I have not seen, that is, the crime itself, as the whole catastrophe, the day before yesterday, while he was talking to me. He had an unaccountably fixed look in his eye. He laughed unexpectedly when there was nothing to laugh at. He showed continual and inexplicable irritability, using strange words, Bernard, Essex, and other equally inappropriate. But the doctor detected mania, above all, in the fact that the prisoner could not even speak of the three thousand rubles, of which he considered himself to have been cheated, without extraordinary irritation, though he could speak comparatively lightly of the other misfortunes and grievances. According to all accounts, he had even in the past, whenever the subject of the three thousand rubles was touched on, flowed into a perfect frenzy, and yet he was reported to be a disinterested and not grasping man. As to the opinion of my learned colleague, the Moscow doctor added ironically in conclusion that the prisoner would, entering the court, have naturally looked at the ladies and not straight before him. I will only say that, appear from the playfulness of his theory, it is radically unsound. For, though I fully agree, that the prisoner, on entering the court, where his fate will be decided, would not naturally look straight before him in that fixed way, and that that may rarely be a sign of his abnormal mental condition. At the same time, I maintain that he would naturally not look to the left at the ladies, but on the contrary, to the right, to find his legal advisor, on whose help all his hopes rest, and on whose defense all his future depends. The doctor expressed his opinion positively and emphatically. But the unexpected pronouncement of Dr. Varvinsky gave the last touch of comedy to the difference of opinion between the experts. In his opinion, the prisoner was now, and had been all along, in a perfectly normal condition. And, although he certainly must have been in a nervous and exceedingly excited state before his arrest, this might have been due to several perfectly obvious causes, jealousy, anger, continual drunkenness, and so on. But this nervous condition would not involve the mental aberration of which mention had just been made. As to the question whether the prisoner should have looked to the left or to the right on entering the court. In his modest opinion, the prisoner would naturally look straight before him on entering the court, as he had in fact done, as that was where the judges, on whom his fate depended, were sitting. So that it was just by looking straight before him that he showed his perfectly normal state of mind at the present. The young doctor concluded his modest testimony with some heat. Bravo, doctor! cried Mitia from his seat. Just so! Mitia, of course, was checked. But the young doctor's opinion had a decisive influence on the judges and on the public, and, as appeared afterwards, everyone agreed with him. But Dr. Herzenstuber, when called as a witness, was quite unexpectedly of use to Mitia. As an old resident in the town, who had known the Karamazov family for years, he furnished some facts of great value for the prosecution, and suddenly, as though recalling something, he added, but the poor young man might have had a very different life, for he had a good heart both in childhood and after childhood, that I know. But the Russian proverb says, if a man has one head, it's good. But if another clever man comes to visit him, it would be better still, for then there will be two heads and not only one. One head is good, but two are better, the prosecutor put in impatiently. He knew the old man's habit of talking slowly and deliberately, regardless of the impression he was making and of the delay he was causing, and highly prizing his flat, dull, and always gleeful complacent German wit. The old man was fond of making jokes. Oh, yes, that's what I say, he went on stubbornly. One head is good, but two are much better. But he did not meet another head with wit, and his wits went. Where did they go? I've forgotten the word. He went on, passing his hand before his eyes. Oh, yes. Spaziren. Translators note, promenading. Wandering? Oh, yes, wandering, that's what I say. Well, his wits went wandering, and fell in such a deep hole that he lost himself. And yet he was a grateful and sensitive boy. Oh, I remember him very well, a little chap so high, left neglected by his father in the backyard when he ran about without boots on his feet, and his little breeches hanging by one button. Another feeling in tenderness suddenly came into the honest old man's voice. Fitchukovich positively started, as though sending something, and caught at it instantly. Oh, yes, I was a young man then. I was... Well, I was forty-five then, and had only just come here. And I was so sorry for the boy then. I asked myself, why shouldn't I buy him a pound of... A pound of what? I've forgotten what it's called. A pound of what children are very fond of. What is it? What is it? The doctor began waving his hands again. It grows on a tree, and is gathered and given to everyone. Apples? Oh, no, no. You have a dozen of apples, not a pound. No, there are a lot of them. And, call little. You put them in the mouth and crack. Quite so, not, I say so. The doctor repeated, in the calmest way, as though he had been at no loss for a word. And I brought him a pound of nuts, for no one had ever brought the boy a pound of nuts before. And I lifted my finger and said to him, Boy, God's their father. He laughed, and said, God's their father, God's their son. He laughed again, and list, God's their son, God's their highly-geist. Then he laughed, and said as best he could, God's their highly-geist. I went away, and two days later, after I happened to be passing, and he shouted to me of himself, Uncle, God's their father, God's their son. And he had only forgotten, God's their highly-geist. But I reminded him of it, and I felt very sorry for him again. But he was taken away. And I did not see him again. Twenty-three years passed. I am sitting one morning in my study, a white-haired old man, when there walks into the room a blooming young man whom I should never have recognized. But he held up his finger and said, laughing, God's their father, God's their son, and God's their highly-geist. I have just arrived, and have come to thank you for that pound of nuts, for no one else ever bought me a pound of nuts. You are the only one that ever did. Then I remembered my happy youth and the poor child in the yard without boots on his feet. And my heart was touched. And I said, you are a grateful young man, for you have remembered all your life, the pound of nuts I bought you in your childhood. And I embraced and blessed him. And I shed tears. He laughed. But he shed tears too, for the Russian often laughs when he ought to be weeping. But he did weep. I saw it. And now alas. I am weeping now, German. I am weeping now too, you saintly man. Meteor cried suddenly. In any case, the anecdote made a certain favorable impression on the public. But the chief sensation in Meteor's favour was created by the evidence of Katerina Ivanovna, which I will describe directly. Indeed, when the witnesses a discharge, that is, called the defense, began giving evidence. Fortune seemed all at once markedly more favourable to Meteor. And what was particularly striking, this was a surprise even to the council for the defense. But before Katerina Ivanovna was called, Alyosha was examined. And he recalled a fact which seemed to finish positive evidence against one important point made by the prosecution. And of Chapter 3 of Book 12. Recording by J. C. Guan, Montreal, February 2009. Book 12, Chapter 4 of the Brothers Karamazov. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by J. C. Guan, the Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Tostoyevsky, translated by Constance Garnet. Book 12, Chapter 4. Fortune Smiles on Meteor. It came quite as a surprise even to Alyosha himself. He was not required to take the oath. And I remember that both sides addressed him very gently and sympathetically. It was evident that his reputation for goodness had preceded him. Alyosha gave his evidence modestly and with restraint. But his warm sympathy for his unhappy brother was unmistakable. In answer to one question, he sketched his brother's character as that of a man, violent tempered perhaps, and carried away by his passions. But at the same time, honorable, proud, and generous, capable of self-sacrifice if necessary, he admitted, however, that through his passion for Grošenka and his rivalry with his father, his brother had been of late in an intolerable position. But he repelled with indignation the suggestion that his brother might have committed a mother for the sake of gain. Though he recognized that the three thousand rubbles had become almost an obsession with Meteor, that upon them as part of the inheritance he had been cheated of by his father, and that, indifferent as he was to money as a rule, he could not even speak of that three thousand without fury. As for the rivalry of the two ladies, as the prosecutor expressed it, that is, of Grošenka and Katya, he answered evasively, and was even unwilling to answer one or two questions altogether. Did your brother tell you, anyway, that he intended to kill your father? asked the prosecutor. You can refuse to answer if you think necessary, he added. He did not tell me so directly, answered Alyosha. How so? Did he indirectly? He spoke to me once of his hatred for our father, and his fear that at an extreme moment, at the moment of fury, he might perhaps murder him. And you believed him? I am afraid to say that I did, but I never doubted that some higher feeling would always save him at that fatal moment, as it has indeed saved him, for it was not he killed my father. Alyosha said firmly, in a loud voice that was heard throughout the court. The prosecutor started like a war horse at the sound of a trumpet. Let me assure you that I fully believe in the complete sincerity of your conviction, and do not explain it by or identifying it with your affection for your unhappy brother. Your peculiar view of the whole tragic episode is known to us already from the preliminary investigation. I won't attempt to conceal from you that it is highly individual and contradicts all the other evidence collected by the prosecution. And so I think it's essential to press you to tell me what facts have led you to this conviction of your brother's innocence, and of the guilt of another person against whom you gave evidence at the preliminary inquiry. I only answered the questions asked me at the preliminary inquiry, replied Alyosha, slowly and calmly. I made no accusation against Smerdiakov of myself. Yet you gave evidence against him? I was led to do so by my brother Dimitri's words. I was told what took place at his arrest and how he had appointed to Smerdiakov before I was examined. I believe absolutely that my brother is innocent, and if he didn't commit the murder, then... Then Smerdiakov? Why Smerdiakov? And why are you so completely persuaded of your brother's innocence? I cannot help believing my brother. I know he wouldn't lie to me. I saw from his face he wasn't lying. Only from his face? Is that all the proof you have? I have no other proof. And of Smerdiakov's guilt you have no proof whatever but your brother's word and the expression of his face? No. I have no other proof. The prosecutor dropped the examination at this point. The impression left by Alyosha's evidence on the public was most disappointing. There had been talk about Smerdiakov before the trial. Someone had heard something. Someone had pointed out something else. It was said that Alyosha had gathered together some extraordinary proofs of his brother's innocence and Smerdiakov's guilt. And after all, there was nothing. No evidence, except certain moral convictions so natural in a brother. But Fetyukovich began his cross examination. On his asking Alyosha when it was that the prisoner had told him of his hatred for his father and that he might kill him and whether he had heard it, for instance, at their last meeting before the catastrophe, Alyosha started as he answered as though only just recollecting and understanding something. I remember one circumstance now which had quite forgotten myself. It wasn't clear to me at the time, but now, and obviously only now for the first time struck by an idea. He recounted eagerly how at his last interview with Mitya that evening under the tree, on the road to the monastery, Mitya had struck himself on the breast, the upper part of the breast, and had repeated several times that he had a means of regaining his honor, that that means was there, here on his breast. I thought when he struck himself on the breast, he meant that it was in his heart, Alyosha continued, that he might find in his heart strength to save himself from some awful disgrace which was awaiting him and which he did not dare confess even to me. I must confess I did think at the time that he was speaking of our father, and that the disgrace he was shuddering at was the thought of going to our father and doing some violence to him. Yet it was just then that he pointed to something on his breast, so that I remember the idea struck me at the time that the heart is not on that part of the breast, but below and that he struck himself much too high just below the neck and kept pointing to that place. My idea seemed silly to me at the time, but he was perhaps pointing then to that little bag in which he had 1500 thruels. Just so, Mitya cried from his place, that's right Alyosha, it was the little bag I struck with my fist. Fetyukovich flew to him in hot haste, in treating him to keep quiet, and at the same instant, pounced on Alyosha Alyosha carried away himself by his recollection. Warmly expressed his theory that this disgrace was probably just that 1500 rubles on him which he might have returned to Katerina Ivanovna as half of what he owed her, but which he had yet determined not to repay her and to use for another purpose, namely to enable him to elope with Guru Senka if she consented. It is so, it must be so, exclaimed Alyosha, in sudden excitement. My brother cried several times that half of the disgrace, half of it, he said half several times he could free himself from at once, but that he was so unhappy in his weakness of will that he wouldn't do it, that he knew beforehand he was incapable of doing it. And you clearly confidently remember that he struck himself just on this part of the breast? Fitchukovich asked eagerly, clearly and confidently, for I thought at the time, why does he strike himself up there when the heart is lower down? And the thought seemed stupid to me at the time. I remember it seeming stupid. It flashed through my mind. That's what brought it back to me just now. How could I have forgotten it till now? But it was that little back he meant when he said he had the means but wouldn't give back that fifteen hundred. And when he was arrested at Mokro, he cried out, I know I was told it, that he considered it the most disgraceful act of his life, that when he had the means of repaying Katarina Ivanovna, half, half note, what he owed her. Yet he could not bring himself to repay the money and preferred to remain a thief in her eyes rather than part with it. And what torture, what torture, that debt has been to him? Alyosha exclaimed in conclusion. The prosecutor, of course, intervened. He asked Alyosha to describe once more how it had all happened and several times insisted on the question. Had the prisoner seemed to point to anything? Perhaps he had simply struck himself with his fist on the breast. But it was not with his fist, cried Alyosha. He pointed with his fingers and pointed here, very high up. How could I have so completely forgotten it till this moment? The president asked Mitya what he had to say to the last witness's evidence. Mitya confirmed it, saying that he had been pointing to the fifteen hundred rubles, which were on his breast, just below the neck. And that, that was, of course, the disgrace. A disgrace I cannot deny, the most shameful act of my life, cried Mitya. I might have repaid it and didn't repay it. I preferred to remain a thief in her eyes rather than give it back. And the most shameful part of it was that I knew beforehand I shouldn't give it back. You're right, Alyosha. Thanks, Alyosha. So Alyosha's cross-examination ended. What was important and striking about it was that one fact, at least, had been found. And even though this were only one tiny bit of evidence, a mere hint at evidence, it did go some little way towards proving that the bag had existed and had contained fifteen hundred rubles and that the prisoner had not been lying at the preliminary inquiry when he alleged at Mokro that those fifteen hundred rubles were his own. Alyosha was glad. With a flushed face he moved away to the seat assigned to him. He kept repeating to himself, How was it I forgot? How could I have forgotten it? And what made it come back to me now? Katerina Ivanovna was called to the witness box. As she entered, something extraordinary happened in the court. The ladies clutched their loin nets and opera glasses. There was a stir among the men. Some stood up to get a better view. Everybody alleged afterwards that Mitya had turned white as sheet on her entrance. All in black, she advanced modestly, almost timidly. It was impossible to tell from her face that she was agitated. But there was a resolute gleam in her dark and gloomy eyes. I may remark that many people mentioned that she looked particularly handsome at that moment. She spoke softly, but clearly, so that she was heard all over the court. She expressed herself with composure, or at least tried to appear composed. The president began his examination discreetly and very respectfully, as though afraid to touch on certain cords, and showing consideration for her great unhappiness. But in answer to one of the first questions, Katerina Ivanovna replied firmly that she had been formally breath- roded to the prisoner. Until he left me of his own accord, she added quietly. When they asked her about the three thousands, she had entrusted to Mitya to post to her relations. She said firmly, I didn't give him the money simply to send it off. I felt at the time that he was in great need of money. I gave him the three thousand on the understanding that he should post it within the month if he cared to. There was no need for him to worry himself about that dead afterwards. I will not repeat all the questions asked her and all the answers in detail. I will only give the substance of her evidence. I was firmly convinced that he would send off that sump as soon as he got money from his father. She went on. I have never doubted his disinterestedness and his honesty. His scrupulous honesty in money matters. He felt quite certain that he would receive the money from his father and spoke to me several times about it. I knew he had a feud with his father and have always believed that he had been unfairly treated by his father. I don't remember any threat uttered by him against his father. He certainly never uttered any such threats before me. If he had come to me at that time, I should have at once relieved his anxiety about that unlucky three thousand rubles, but he had given up coming to see me and I myself was put in such a position. That I could not invite him and I had no right indeed to be exacting as to that money. She added suddenly and there was a ring of resolution in her voice. I was once indebted to him for assistance in money for more than three thousand and I took it although I could not at that time foresee that I should ever be in a position to repay my debt. There was a note of defiance in her voice. It was then Fetyukovich began his cross-examination. Did that take place not here, but at the beginning of your acquaintance? Fetyukovich suggested cautiously, feeling his way, instantly sending something favorable. I must mention in parenthesis that though Fetyukovich had been brought from Petersburg partly at the instance of Katerina Ivanovna herself, he knew nothing about the episode of the four thousand rubles given her by Mitya and of her bowing to the ground to him. She concealed this from him and said nothing about it and that was strange. It may be pretty certainly assumed that she herself did not know till the very last minute whether she would speak of that episode in the court and waited for the inspiration of the moment. No, I can never forget those moments. She began telling her story. She told everything. The whole episode that Mitya had told Alyosha and her bowing to the ground and her reason. She told about her father and her going to Mitya and did not in one word in a single hint suggest that Mitya had himself through her sister proposed they should send him Katerina Ivanovna to fetch the money. She generously concealed that and was not ashamed to make it appear as though she had of her own impulse run to the young officer relying on something to beg him for the money. It was something tremendous. I turned cold and trembled as I listened. The court was hushed trying to catch each word. It was something unexampled even from such a self willed and contemptuously proud girl as she was such an extremely frank of our wall such sacrifice such self emulation seemed incredible. And for what for whom to save the man who had deceived and insulted her and to help in however small a degree in saving him by creating a strong impression in his favor and indeed the figure of the young officer who with a beautiful bow to the innocent girl handed her his last four thousand rubles all he had in the world was thrown into a very sympathetic and attractive light. But I had a painful misgiving at heart. I felt that Calumny might come of it later and it did in fact it did. It was repeated all over the town afterwards with spiteful laughter. That was perhaps not quite complete. That is in the statement that the officer had let the young lady depart with nothing but a respectful bell. It was hinted that something was here admitted. And even if nothing had been admitted if this were the whole story the most highly respected of our ladies maintained even then it is very doubtful whether it was creditable for a young girl to behave in that way even for the sake of saving her father. And Ken Caterina Ivanovna with her intelligence her morbid sensitiveness have failed to understand that people would talk like that. She must have understood it yet. She made up her mind to tell everything. Of course all these nasty little suspicions as to the truth of her story only arose afterwards and at the first moment all were deeply impressed by it. As for the judges and the lawyers they listened in reverence almost shame faced silence to Caterina Ivanovna. The prosecutor did not venture upon even one question on the subject. Fetyukovich made a low bow to her. Oh he was almost triumphant much ground had been gained for a man to give his last 4000 on a generous impulse and then for the same man to murder his father for the sake of robbing him of 3000 the idea seemed too incongruous. Fetyukovich felt that now the charge of theft at least was as good as disproved. The case was thrown into quite a different light. There was a wave of sympathy for media as for him. I was told that once or twice while Caterina Ivanovna was giving her evidence he jumped up from his seat sank back again and hit his face in his hands. But when she had finished he suddenly cried in a sobbing voice Katya why have you ruined me and his subs were audible all over the court but he instantly restrained himself and cried again. Now I am condemned. Then he sat rigid in his place with his teeth clenched and his arms across his chest. Caterina Ivanovna remained in the court and sat down in her place. She was pale and sat with her eyes cast down. Those who were sitting near her declared that for a long time she shivered all over as though in a fever. Groshenka was called. I am approaching the sudden catastrophe which was perhaps the final cause of Mitya's ruin for I am convinced. So is everyone all the lawyers said the same afterwards that if the episode had not occurred the prisoner would at least have been recommended to mercy but of that later a few words first about Groshenka. She too was dressed entirely in black with her magnificent black shawl on her shoulders. She walked to the witness box with her smooth noiseless thread with the sluggiest swaying gate common in women of full figure. She looked steadily at the president turning her eyes neither to the right nor to the left to my thinking. She looked very handsome at the moment and not at all pale as the ladies alleged afterwards they declared to that she had a concentrated and spiteful expression. I believe that she was simply irritated and painfully conscious of the contemptuous and inquisitive eyes of our scandal loving public. She was proud and could not stand to contempt. She was one of those people who flare up angry and eager to retaliate at the mere suggestion of contempt. There was an element of timidity too of course and inward shame at her own timidity. So it was not strange that her tone kept changing. At one moment it was angry, contemptuous and rough and at another there was a sincere note of self condemnation. Sometimes she spoke as though she were taking a desperate plunge as though she felt. I don't care what happens. I'll say it. I propose of her acquaintance with Fyodor Pavlovich. She remarked curtly. That's all nonsense. And was it my fault that he would pester me? But a minute later she added. It was all my fault. I was laughing at them both at the old man and at him too and I brought both of them to this. It was all an account of me it happened. Samsonov's name came up somehow. That's nobody's business. She snapped at once with his snort of insolent defiance. He was my benefactor. He took me when I hadn't a shoe to my foot when my family had turned me out. The president reminded her there very politely that she must answer the questions directly without going into irrelevant details. Groschenka crimsoned and her eyes flashed. The envelope with the notes in it. She had not seen but had only heard from that wicked wretch that Fyodor Pavlovich had an envelope with notes of three thousand in it. But that was all foolishness. I was only laughing. I wouldn't have gone to him for anything. To whom are you referring as that wicked wretch inquired to the prosecutor. The lackey Smartyakov who mad at his master and hanged himself last night. She was of course at once asked what's ground she had for such a definite accusation. But it appeared that she too had no grounds for it. Dimitri Fyodorovich told me so himself. You can believe him. The woman who came between us has ruined him. She is the cause of it all. Let me tell you Groschenka added. She seemed to be quivering with hatred and there was even dictive note in her voice. She was again asked to whom she was referring. The young lady Catherine Ivanovna there. She sent for me offered me chocolate tried to fascinate me. There's not much shame about her. I can tell you that. At this point the president checked her sternly begging her to moderate her language. But the jealous woman's heart was burning and she did not care what she did. When the prisoner was arrested at Makro, the prosecutor asked everyone so and heard you run out of the next room and cry out. It's all my fault. We'll go to Siberia together. So you already believed him to have murdered his father. I don't remember what I felt at the time and said Groschenka. Everyone was crying out that he had killed his father and I felt that it was my fault that it was on my account he had murdered him. But when he said he wasn't guilty, I believed him at once and I believe him now and always shall believe him. He is not the man to tell a lie. Fitchukovich began his cross examination. I remember that among other things he asked about Rakitin and the 25 rubles. You paid him for bringing Alexei Fiodorovich Karamasov to see you. There was nothing strange about his taking the money. Snirred Groschenka with angry contempt. He was always coming to me for money. He used to get 30 rubles a month at least out of me. Chiefly for luxuries. He had enough to keep him without my help. What led you to be so liberal to Mr. Rakitin? Fitchukovich asked in spite of an uneasy movement on the part of the president. Why? He's my cousin. His mother was my cousin's sister. But he's always besought me not to tell anyone here of it. He is so dreadfully ashamed of me. This fact was a complete surprise to everyone. No one in the town nor in the monastery, not even Mitya knew of it. I was told that Rakitin turned purple with shame where he sat. Groschenka had somewhere heard before she came into the court that he had given evidence against Mitya and so she was angry. The whole effect on the public of Rakitin's speech, of his noble sentiments, of his attacks upon serve them and the political disorder of Russia was this time finally ruined. Fitchukovich was satisfied. It was another godsend. Groschenka's cross-examination did not last long and of course there could be nothing particularly new in her evidence. She left a very disagreeable impression on the public. Hundreds of contemptuous eyes were fixed upon her as she finished giving her evidence and sat down again in the court at a good distance from Katerina Ivanovna. Mitya was silent throughout her evidence. He sat as though turned to stone with his eyes fixed on the ground. Ivan was called to give evidence. End of Chapter 4 of Book 12 Recording by J. C. Guan Montreal, March 2009 Book 12, Chapter 5 of The Brothers Karamazov This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by J. C. Guan The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Translated by Constance Garnet Book 12, Chapter 5, A Sudden Catastrophe I may note that he had been called before Alyosha but the usher of the court announced to the president that owing to an attack of illness or some sort of fit the witness could not appear at the moment but was ready to give his evidence as soon as he recovered. But no one seemed to have heard it and it only came out later. His entrance was for the first moment almost unnoticed. The principal witnesses, especially the two rival ladies had already been questioned. Curiosity was satisfied for the time. The public was feeling almost fatigued. Several more witnesses were still to be heard who probably had little information to give after all that had been given. Time was passing. Ivan walked up with extraordinary slowness looking at no one and with his head bowed as though plunged in gloomy thought. He was irreproachably dressed but his face made a painful impression on me at least. There was an earthy look in it a look like a dying man's. His eyes were lustreless. He raised them and looked slowly round the court. Alyosha jumped up from his seat and moaned ah I remember that but it was hardly noticed. The president began by informing him that he was a witness not on earth that he might answer or refuse to answer but that of course he must bear witness according to his conscience and so on and so on. Ivan listened and looked at him bluntly but his face gradually relaxed into a smile and as soon as the president looking at him in astonishment finished he laughed outright. Well and what else he asked in a loud voice. There was a hush in the court there was a feeling of something strange the president showed signs of uneasiness you are perhaps still unwell he began looking everywhere for the usher don't trouble yourself your excellency I am well enough and can tell you something interesting Ivan answered with sudden calmness and respectfulness you have some special communication to make the president went on still mistrustfully Ivan looked down waited a few seconds and raising his head answered almost stammering no I haven't I have nothing particular they began asking him questions he answered as it were reluctantly with extreme brevity with a sort of disgust which grew more and more marked though he answered rationally to many questions he answered that he did not know he knew nothing of his father's money relations with Dimitri I wasn't interested in the subject he added threats to murder his father he had heard from the prisoner of the money in the envelope he had heard from Smirtyakov the same thing over and over again he interrupted suddenly with a look of weariness I have nothing particular to tell the court I see you are unwell and understand your feelings the president began he turned to the prosecutor and the counsel for the defense to invite them to examine the witness if necessary when Ivan suddenly asked in an exhausted voice let me go your Excellency I feel very ill and with these words without waiting for permission he turned to walk out of the court taking four steps he stood still as though he had reached a decision smiled slowly and went back I am like the peasant girl your Excellency you know how does it go I'll stand up if I like and I won't if I don't they were trying to put on her sarapan to take her to church to be married and she said I'll walk and I won't if I don't it's in some book about the peasantry what do you mean by that the president asked severely why this Ivan suddenly pulled out a roll of notes here's the money the notes that lay in that envelope he nodded towards the table on which lay the material evidence for the sake of which our father was murdered where shall I put them Mr. Superintendent take them the usher of the court took the whole roll and handed it to the president how could this money have come into your possession if it is the same money the president asked wonderingly I got them from Smirnyakov from the murderer yesterday I was with him just before he hanged himself it was he not my brother killed our father he murdered him and I incited him to do it who doesn't desire his father's death are you in your right mind broke involuntarily from the president I should think I am in my right mind in the same nasty mind as all of you all of these ugly faces he turned suddenly to the audience my father has been murdered and they pretend they are horrified he snarled with furious contempt they keep up the sham of one another liars they all desire the death of their fathers one reptile devours another if there hadn't been a murder they'd have been angry and gone home ill-humoured it's a spectacle they want panem it's your senses translator's note bread and circuses though I am one to talk have you any water give me a drink for Christ's sake he suddenly clutched his head the usher at once approached him Alyosha jumped up and cried he is ill, don't believe him he has brain fever Katerina Ivanovna rose impulsively from her seat and rigid with horror gazed at Ivan Mitya stood up and greedily looked at his brother and listened to him with a wild strange smile don't disturb yourselves I am not mad I am only a murderer Ivan began again you can't expect the eloquence from a murderer he added suddenly for some reason and laughed a queer laugh the prosecutor bent over to the president in obvious dismay the two other judges communicated in agitated whispers Fetyukovich pricked up his ears as he listened the whole was hushed in expectation the president seemed suddenly to recollect himself witness your words are incomprehensible and impossible here calm yourself if you can and tell your story if you really have something to tell how can you confirm your statement if indeed you are not delirious that's just it I have no proof that Kersmer Diakov won't send you proof from the other world in an envelope you think of nothing but envelopes one is enough I have no witness except one, perhaps he smiled thoughtfully who is your witness? he has a tale, your excellency and that would be irregular the diable n'existe point don't pay attention he is a poetry pitiful devil he added suddenly he ceased laughing and spoke as it were confidentially he is here somewhere no doubt under that table with the material evidence on it, perhaps where should he sit, if not there? you see, listen to me I told him I don't want to keep quiet and he talked about the geological cataclysm idiocy come, release the monster he's been singing a hymn that's because his heart is light it's like a drunken man in the street bawling how Vanca went to Petersburg and I would give a quadrillion, quadrillions for two seconds of joy you don't know me oh, how stupid all this business is come, take me instead of him I don't come for nothing why? why is everything so stupid? and he began slowly and, as it were, reflectively looking round him again but the court was all excitement by now Alyosha rushed towards him but the court Usher had already seized Ivan by the arm what are you about? he cried staring into the man's face and suddenly seizing him by the shoulders he flung him violently to the floor but the police were on the spot and he was seized he screamed furiously and all the time he was being removed he yelled and screamed something incoherent the whole court was thrown into confusion I don't remember everything as it happened I was excited myself and could not follow I only know that afterwards when everything was quiet again and everyone understood what had happened the court Usher came in for a reprimand though he very reasonably explained that the witness had been quite wild that the doctor had seen him an hour ago when he had a slight attack of giddiness but that until he had come into the court he had talked quite consecutively so that nothing could have been foreseen that he had in fact insisted on giving evidence but before everyone had completely regained their confusion and recovered from this scene it was swallowed by another Katerina Ivanovna had an attack of hysterics she sobbed shrieking loudly but refused to leave the court struggled and besought them not to remove her suddenly she cried to the president there is more evidence I must give at once at once here is a document a letter take it read it quickly, quickly it's a letter from that monster that man there there she pointed to Mitya it was he killed his father you will see that directly he wrote to me how he could kill his father but the other one is ill he is ill he is delirious she kept crying out beside herself the court Usher took the document she held out to the president and she dropping into her chair hiding her face in her hands began convulsively and noiselessly sobbing shaking all over and stifling every sound for fear she should be ejected from the court the document she had handed up was that letter Mitya had written at the Metropolis Tavern which Ivan had spoken of as a mathematical proof alas its mathematical conclusiveness was recognized and had it not spin for that letter Mitya might have escaped his doom or at least that doom would have been less terrible it was I repeat difficult to notice every detail what followed is still confused to my mind the president must I suppose have at once passed on the document to the judges the jury the lawyers on both sides I only remember how they began examining the witness on being gently asked by the president whether she had recovered sufficiently Katerina Ivanovna exclaimed impetuously I am ready I am ready I am quite equal to answering you she added evidently still afraid that she would somehow be prevented from giving evidence she was asked to explain in detail what this letter was and under what circumstances she received it I received it the day before the crime was committed but he wrote it the day before that at the tavern that is two days before he committed the crime look it is written on some sort of bill she cried breathlessly he hated me at that time because he had behaved contentedly and was running after that creature and because he owed me that three thousands oh he was humiliated by that three thousand on account of his own meanness this is how it happened about that three thousand I beg you, I beseech you to hear me three weeks before he murdered his father he came up to me one morning I knew he wasn't want of money and what he wanted it for yes yes to win that creature and carry her off I knew then that he had been forced to me and meant to abandon me and it was I I who gave him that money who offered it to him on the pretext of his sending it to my sister in Moscow and as I gave it to him I locked him in the face and said that he could send it when he liked in a month's time would do how how could he have failed to understand that I was practically telling him to his face you want money to be forced to me with your creature so here's the money for you I give it to you myself take it if you have so little honour as to take it I wanted to prove what he was and what happened he took it he took it and squandered it with that creature in one night but he knew he knew that I knew all about it I assure you he understood you that I gave him that money to test him to see whether he was so lost to all sense of honour as to take it from me I looked into his eyes and he looked into mine and he understood it all and he took it he carried off my money that's true Katya Mitya wrote suddenly I looked into your eyes and I knew that you were dishonouring me and yet I took your money despise me as a scoundrel despise me all of you I've deserved it prisoner cried the president another word and I will order you to be removed that money was a torment to him Katya went on with impulsive haste he wanted to repay it to me he wanted to that's true but he needed money for that creature too so he murdered his father but he didn't repay me and went off with her to that village where he was arrested there again he squandered the money he had stolen after the murder of his father and a day before the murder he wrote me this letter he was drunk when he wrote it I saw it at once at the time he wrote it from spite and feeling certain positively certain that I should never show it to anyone even if he did kill him or else he wouldn't have written it for he knew I shouldn't want to revenge myself and ruin him but read it read it attentively more attentively please and you will see that he had described it all in his letter all beforehand how he would kill his father and where his money was kept look please don't overlook that there's one phrase there I shall kill him as soon as Ivan has gone away he thought it all out beforehand how he would kill him Katerina Ivanovna pointed out to the court with venomous and malignant triumph oh, it was clear she had studied every line of that letter and detected every meaning underlining it if he hadn't been drunk he wouldn't have written it to me but look everything is written there beforehand just as he committed the murder after a complete program of it she exclaimed frantically she was reckless now of all consequences to herself though no doubt she had foreseen them even a month ago for even then perhaps shaking with anger she had pondered whether to show it at the trial or not now she had taken the fatal plunge I remember that the letter was read aloud by the clerk directly afterwards, I believe it's made an overwhelming impression they asked Mitya whether he admitted having written the letter it's mine, mine, cried Mitya I shouldn't have written it if I hadn't been drunk we've hated each other for many things, Katya but I swear I swear I loved you even while I hated you and you didn't love me he sank back on his seat wringing his hands in despair the prosecutor and council for the defence began cross-examining her chiefly to a certain what had induced her to conceal such a document and to give her evidence in quite a different tone and spirit just before yes yes I was telling lies just now I was lying against my honour and my conscience but I wanted to save him as he had hated and despised me so Katya cried madly oh he has despised me horribly he has always despised me and do you know he has despised me from the very moment that I bowed down to him for that many I saw that I felt it at once at the time but for a long time I wouldn't believe him how often I have read it in his eyes you came of yourself though oh he didn't understand he had no idea why I ran to him he can't suspect nothing but baseness he judged me by himself he thought everyone was like himself Katya hissed furiously in a perfect frenzy and he only wanted to marry me because I inherited a fortune because of that because of that I always suspected it was because of that oh he is a brute he was always convinced that I should be trembling with shame all my life before him because I went to him then and that he had a right to despise me forever for it and so to be superior to me that's why he wanted to marry me that's so that's all so I tried to conquer him by my love a love that knew no bounds I even tried to forgive his faithlessness but he understood nothing nothing how could he understand indeed he is a monster I only received that letter the next evening it was brought me from the tavern and only that morning only that morning I wanted to forgive him everything everything even his treachery the president and the prosecutor of course tried to calm her I can't help thinking that they felt ashamed of taking advantage of her hysteria and of listening to such avowals I remember hearing them say to her we understood how hard it is for you be sure we are able to feel sorry for you and so on and so on and yet they dragged the evidence out of the raving historical women she described at last with extraordinary clearness which is so often seen though only for a moment in such overwrought states how Ivan had been nearly driven out of his mind during the last two months trying to save the monster and murderer his brother he tortured himself she exclaimed he was always trying to minimise his brother's guilt and confessing to me that he too had never loved his father and perhaps decided his death for himself oh he has a tender over tender conscience he tormented himself with his conscience he told me everything everything he came every day and talked to me as his only friend I have the honour of being his only friend she cried suddenly with a sort of defiance and her eyes flashed he had been twice to see Smerdiakov one day he came to me and said it was not my brother but Smerdiakov committed the murder for the legend was circulating everywhere that Smerdiakov had done it perhaps I too am guilty for as Smerdiakov knew I didn't like my father and perhaps believed that I desired my father's death then I brought out that letter and showed it him he was evidently convinced that his brother had done it and he was overwhelmed by it he couldn't endure the thought that his own brother was a parasite only a week ago I saw that it was making him ill during the last few days he has talked incoherently in my presence I saw his mind was giving way he walked about raving he was seen muttering in the streets the doctor from Moscow at my request examined him the day before yesterday and told me that he was on the eve of brain fever and all on his account on account of this monster and last night he learned that Smerdiakov was dead it was such a shock that I drove him out of his mind and all through this monster all for the sake of saving this monster oh of course such an outpouring such an avowal is only possible once in a lifetime at the hour of death for instance on the way to the scaffold but it was in Katya's character and it was such a moment in her life it was the same in Petrus Katya who had thrown herself on the mercy of a young profligate to save her father the same Katya who had just before in her pride and chastity sacrificed herself and her maidenly modesty before all these people telling of Mitya's generous conduct in the hope of softening his fate a little and now again she sacrificed herself but this time it was for another and perhaps only now perhaps only at this moment she felt and knew how dear that other was to her she had sacrificed herself in terror for him conceiving all of a sudden that he had ruined himself by his confession that it was he who had committed the murder not his brother she had sacrificed herself to save him to save his good name his reputation and yet one terrible doubt occurred to one was she lying in her description of her former relations with Mitya? that was the question no she had not intentionally slandered him when she cried that Mitya despised her for her browing down to him she believed it herself she had been firmly convinced perhaps ever since that bow that the simple-hearted Mitya who even then adored her was laughing at her and despising her she had loved him with an hysterical, lacerated love only from pride from wounded pride and that love was not like love but more like revenge oh perhaps that lacerated love would have grown into real love perhaps Katya longed for nothing more than that but Mitya's faithlessness had wounded her to the bottom of her heart and her heart could not forgive him the moment of revenge had come upon her suddenly and all that had been accumulating so long and so painfully in the offended woman's breast burst out all at once and unexpectedly she betrayed Mitya but she betrayed herself too and no sooner had she given full expression to her feelings then the tension, of course, was over and she was overwhelmed with shame hysterics began again she fell on the floor sobbing and screaming she was carried out at that moment Grushenka, with a wail rushed towards Mitya before they had time to prevent her Mitya, she wailed your serpent has destroyed you there, she has shown you what she is she shouted to the judges, shaking with anger at a signal from the president they seized her and tried to remove her from the court she wouldn't allow it she fought and struggled to get back to Mitya Mitya uttered a cry and struggled to get to her he was overpowered yes I think the ladies who came to see the spectacle must have been satisfied the show had been a varied one then I remember the Moscow doctor appeared on the scene I believe the president had previously sent the court usher to arrange for medical aid for Ivan the doctor announced to the court that the sick man was suffering from a dangerous attack of brain fever and that he must be at once removed in answer to questions from the prosecutor and the counsel for the defense he said that the patient had come to him of his own accord the day before yesterday and that he had warned him that he had such an attack coming on but he had not consented to be looked after he was certainly not in a normal state of mind he told me himself that he saw visions when he was awake that he met several persons in the street who were dead and that Satan visited him every evening said the doctor in conclusion having given his evidence the celebrated doctor withdrew the letter produced by Katya Ivanovna was added to the material proofs after some deliberation the judges decided to proceed with the trial and to enter both the unexpected pieces of evidence given by Ivan and Katya Ivanovna on the protocol but I will not detail the evidence of the other witnesses who only repeated and confirmed what had been said before who all with their characteristic peculiarities I repeat all was brought together in the prosecutor's speech which I shall quote immediately everyone was excited everyone was electrified by the late catastrophe and all were awaiting the speeches for the prosecution and the defense with intense impatience Fetyukovich was obviously shaken by Katya Ivanovna's evidence but the prosecutor was triumphant when all the evidence had been taken the court was adjourned for almost an hour I believe it was just eight o'clock when the president returned to his seat and our prosecutor Ipolit Kirilovich began his speech End of Chapter 5 of Book 12 Recording by J. C. Guan Montreal March 2009 Book 12 Chapter 6 of the Brothers Karamazov This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by J. C. Guan The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Translated by Konstantz Garnet Book 12 Chapter 6 The Prosecutor's Speech Sketches of Character Ipolit Kirilovich began his speech Trumbling with nervousness with cold sweat on his forehead feeling hot and cold all over by turns He described this himself afterwards He regarded this speech as his Shadovr the Shadovr of his whole life as his swan song He died this true nine months later of rapid consumption so that he had the right, as it turned out to compare himself to a swan singing his last song He had put his whole heart and all the brain he had into that speech And for Ipolit Kirilovich unexpectedly revealed that at least some feeling for the public welfare and the external question lay concealed in him Where his speech really excelled was in its sincerity He genuinely believed in the prisoner's guilt He was accusing him not as an official duty only and in calling for vengeance he quivered with a genuine passion for the security of society Even the ladies in the audience though they remained hostile to Ipolit Kirilovich invented that he made an extraordinary impression on them He began in a breaking voice but it soon gained strength and filled the court to the end of his speech But as soon as he had finished he almost fainted Gentlemen of the jury began the prosecutor This case has made a stir throughout Russia But what is there to wonder at? What is there so peculiarly horrifying in it for us? We are so accustomed to such crimes That's what's so horrible that such dark deeds have ceased to horrify us What ought to horrify us is that we are so accustomed to it and not this or that isolated crime What are the causes of our indifference our lukewarm attitude to such deeds to such signs of the times omnias of an unenviable future Is it our cynicism? Is it the premature exhaustion of intellect and imagination in a society that is sinking into decay in spite of its use? Is it that our moral principles are shattered to their foundations? Or is it perhaps a complete lack of such principles among us? I cannot answer such questions Nevertheless, they are disturbing and every citizen not only must but ought to be harassed by them Our newborn and still timid press has done good service to the public already For without it we should never have heard of the horrors of unbridled violence and moral degradation which are continually made known by the press not merely to those who attend the new jury courts established in the present reign but to everyone And what do we read almost daily? Of things besides which the present case grows pale and seems almost commonplace But what is most important is that the majority of our national crimes of violence bear witness to a widespread evil now so general among us that it is difficult to contend against it One day we see a brilliant young officer of high society at the very outside of his career in a cowardly underhand way without a pang of conscience murdering an official who had once been his benefactor and the servant girl to steal his own IOU and what ready money he could find on him It will come in handy for my pleasures in the fashionable world and for my career in the future After murdering them he puts pillows under the head of each of his victims he goes away Next a young hero decorated for bravery kills the mother of his chief and benefactor like a highwayman and to urge his companions to join him he asserts that she loves him like a son and so will follow all his directions and take no precautions Granted that he is a monster yet I dare not say in these days that he is unique another man will not commit the murder but will feel and think like him and is as dishonorable in soul in silence alone with his conscience he asks himself perhaps what is honor and isn't the condemnation of bloodshed a prejudice Perhaps people will cry out against me that I am morbid, historical that it is a monstrous slander that I am exaggerating Let them say so and heavens I should be the first to rejoice if it were so Oh, don't believe me Think of me as morbid but remember my words if only a tenth if only a twentieth part of what I say is true even so it's awful Look how our young people commit suicide without asking themselves Hamlet's question what there is beyond without a sign of such a question as though all that relates to the soul and to what awaits us beyond the grave had long been erased in their minds and buried under the sands look at our vise at our profligates Fyodor Pavlovich the luckless victim in the present case was almost an innocent babe compared with many of them and yet we all knew him he lived among us yes one day perhaps the leading intellects of Russia and of Europe will study the psychology of Russian crime for the subject is worth it but this study will come later at leisure when all the tragic terpsitervidum of today is farther behind us so that it's possible to examine it with more insight and more impartiality than I can do now we are either horrified or pretend to be horrified though we really gloat over the spectacle and love strong and eccentric sensations which trickle our cynical, tempered idleness or like little children we brush the dreadful ghosts away and hide our heads in the pillow so as to turn to our sports and merriment as soon as they have vanished but we must one day begin life in sober earnest we must look at ourselves as a society it's time we tried to grasp something of our social position or at least to make a beginning in that direction a great writer translator's note, Google of the last epoch comparing Russia to a swift troika galloping to an unknown goal exclaims oh troika bird like troika who invented thee and adds in proud ecstasy that all the peoples of the world stands aside respectfully to make way for the recklessly galloping troika to pass that may be they may stand aside respectfully or no but in my poor opinion the great writer ended his book in this way either in an excess of childish and naive optimism or simply in fear of the censorship of the day for if the troika were drawn by his heroes Sobakevich Nozdryov Chichikov it could reach no rational goal whoever might be driving it and those were the heroes of an older generation ours our worst specimens still at this point Ipolit Kerilovich's speech was interrupted by applause the liberal significance of this smile was appreciated the applause was its true of brief duration so that the president did not think it's necessary to caution the public and only looked severely in the direction of the offenders but Ipolit Kerilovich was encouraged he had never been applauded before he had been all his life unable to get a hearing and now he suddenly had an opportunity of securing the ear of all Russia what after all is this Karamazov family which has gained such an unenviable notoriety throughout Russia he continued perhaps I am exaggerating but it seems to me that certain fundamental features of the educated class of today are reflected in this family picture only of course in miniature like the sun in out drop of water think of that unhappy vicious unbridled old man who has met with such a melancholy end the head of a family beginning life of noble birth but in a poor dependent position through an unexpected marriage he came into a small fortune a petty nave a toady and buffoon of fairly good though undeveloped intelligence he was above all a moneylender who grew bolder with growing prosperity his abject and servile characteristics disappeared his malicious and sarcastic cynicism was all that remained on the spiritual side he was undeveloped while his vitality was excessive he saw nothing in life but central pleasure and he brought his children up to be the same he had no feelings for his duties as a father he ridiculed those duties he left his little children to the servants and was glad to be rid of them forgot about them completely the old man's maxim was après moi le deluge translator's note after me the deluge he was an example of everything that is opposed to civics duty of the most complete and malignant individualism the world may burn for all I care so long as I am all right and he was all right he was content he was eager to go on living in the same way for another twenty or thirty years he swindled his own son and spent his money his material inheritance and trying to get his mistress from him no I don't intend to leave the prisoner's defense altogether to my talented colleague from Petersburg I will speak the truth myself I can well understand what resentment he had heaped up in his son's heart against him but enough enough of that unhappy old man he has paid the penalty let us remember however that he was a father and one of the typical fathers of today am I unjust indeed in saying that he is typical of many modern fathers alas many of them only differ in not openly professing such cynicism for they are better educated more cultured but their philosophy is essentially the same as his perhaps I am a pessimist but you have agreed to forgive me let us agree beforehand you need not believe me but let me speak let me speak what I have to say and remember something of my words now for the children of this father this head of a family one of them is the prisoner before us all the rest of my speech will deal with him of the other two I will speak only cursorily the other one is of those modern young man of brilliant education and vigorous intellect who has lost all faith in everything he has denied and rejected much already like his father we have all heard him he was a welcome guest in local society he never concealed his opinions quite the contrary in fact which justifies me in speaking rather openly of him now of course not as an individual but as a member of the Karamazov family another person I had closely connected with the case died here by his own hand last night I mean an afflicted idiot formerly the servant and possibly the illegitimate son of Fyodor Pavlovich Smerdiakov at the preliminary inquiry he told me with hysterical tears how the young Ivan Karamazov had horrified him by his spiritual audacity everything in the world is lawful according to him and nothing must be forbidden in the future that is what he always taught me I believe that idiot was driven out of his mind by a distheory though of course the epileptic attacks from which he suffered and this terrible catastrophe have helped to unhinge his faculties but he dropped one very interesting observation which could have done credit to a more intelligent observer and that is indeed why I've mentioned it if there is one of the sons that is like Fyodor Pavlovich in character it is Ivan Fyodorovich with that remark I conclude my sketch of his character feeling it in delicate to continue further oh I don't want to draw any further conclusions and croak like a raven over the young man's future we've seen today in this court that there are still good impulses in his young heart that family feeling has not been destroyed in him by lack of faith and cynicism which have come to him rather by inheritance than by the exercise of independent thought then the third son oh he is a devout and modest youth who does not share his elder brother's gloomy and destructive theory of life he has sought to cling to the ideas of the people or to what goes by that name in some circles of our intellectual classes he clung to the monastery he was within an ace of becoming a monk he seems to me to have betrayed unconsciously and so early that timid despair which leads so many in our unhappy society who dread cynicism and its corrupting influences and mistakenly attribute all the mischief to European enlightenment to return to their native soil as they say to the bosom so to speak of their mother earth like frightened children yearning to fall asleep on the withered bosom of their decrepit mother and to sleep there forever only to escape the horrors that terrify them for my part I wish the excellent and gifted young man every success I trust that youthful idealism and impulse towards the ideas of the people may never degenerate as often happens on the moral side into gloomy mysticism and on the political into blinds chauvinism two elements which are even a greater menace to Russia than the premature decay due to misunderstanding to a traitorous adoption of European ideas from which his elder brother is suffering two or three people clapped their hands at dimension of chauvinism and mysticism a politkerilovich had been, indeed carried away by his own eloquence all this had little to do with decays and hands to say nothing of the fact of its being somewhat vague but the stickly and consumptive man was overcome by the desire to face himself once in his life people said afterwards that he was actuated by unworthy motives in his criticism of Ivan because the latter had on one or two occasions got the better of him in argument and the politkerilovich, remembering yet tried now to take his revenge but I don't know whether it was true all this was only introductory however and the speech passed to more direct consideration of the case but to return to the eldest son the politkerilovich went on he is the prisoner before us we have his life and his actions too before us the fatal day has come and all has been brought to the surface while his brothers seem to stand for Europeanism and the principles of the people he seems to represent Russia as she is oh, not all Russia, not all got preserved as if it were yet, here we have her our mother Russia the very scent and sound of her oh, he is spontaneous he is a marvelous mingling of good and evil he is a lover of culture and Shilla yet he brawls and taverns and plucks out the beard of his boon companions oh, he too can be good and noble but only when all goes well within him what is more, he can be carried off his feet positively carried off his feet by noble ideals but only if they come of themselves if they fall from heaven for him if they need not be paid for he dislikes paying for anything but is very fond of receiving and that's so with him in everything oh, give him every possible good in life he couldn't be content with less and put no obstacle in his way and he will show that he too can be noble he is not greedy no, but he must have money a great deal of money and you will see how generously with what scorn of filthy looker he will fling it all away in the reckless dissipation of one night but if he has not money he will show what he is ready to do to get it when he is in great need of it but all this later let us take events in their chronological order first we have before us a poor abandoned child running about in the backyard without boots on his feet as our worthy and esteemed fellow-citizen of foreign origin alas expressed it just now I repeat it again I yield to no one the defense of the criminal I am here to accuse him but to defend him also yes I too am human I too can weigh the influence of home and childhood on the character but the boy grows up and becomes an officer for a duel and other reckless conduct he has exiled to one of the remote frontier towns of Russia there he led a wild life as an officer and of course he needed money money before all things and so after prolonged disputes he came to a settlement with his father and the last six thousand was sent to him a letter is in existence in which he practically gives up his claim to the rest and settled his conflict with his father over the inheritance on payment of this six thousand then came his mating with a young girl of lofty character and brilliant education oh I do not venture to repeat the details you have only just heard them honor, self-sacrifice were shown there and I will be silent the figure of the young officer frivolous and profligate doing homage to true nobility and a lofty ideal was shown in a very sympathetic light before us but the other side of the medal was unexpectedly turned to us immediately after in this very court again I will not venture to conjecture why it happened so but there were causes some lady, bathed in tears of long concealed indignation alleged that he, he of all men had despised her for her action which though in cautious, reckless perhaps was still dictated by lofty and generous motives he, he the girls bethroded looked at her with that smile of mockery which was more insufferable from him than from any one and knowing that he had already deceived her he had deceived her believing that she was bound to injure everything for him even treachery she intentionally offered him three thousand rubles and clearly, too clearly let him understand that she was offering him money to deceive her well, will you take it or not are you so lost to shame was the dumb question in her scrutinizing eyes he looked at her so clearly what was in her mind he's admitted here before you that he understood it all appropriated that three thousand unconditionally and squandered it in two days with the new object of his affections what are we to believe then the first legend of the young officer sacrificing his last farting in a noble impulse of generosity and doing reference to virtue or this other revolting picture as a rule between two extremes one has to find the mean but in the present case this is not true the probability is that in the first case he was genuinely noble and in the second as genuinely base and why because he was of the broad karamas of character that's just what I'm leaning up to capable of combining the most incongruous contradictions and capable of the greatest heights and of the greatest steps remember that brilliant remark made by a young observer who has seen the karamas of family at close quarters Mr. Rakitin the sense of their own degradation is as essential to those reckless unbridled natures as the sense of their lofty generosity and that's true they need continually this unnatural mixture two extremes at the same moment or they are miserable and dissatisfied and their existence is incomplete they are wide wide as Mother Russia they include everything and put up with everything by the way gentlemen of the jury we've just touched upon that 3,000 rubles and I will venture to anticipate things a little can you conceive the demand like that on receiving that sum and in such a way at the price of such shame such disgrace such utter degradation could have been capable that very day of setting apart half that sum that very day and suing it up in a little bag and would have had the firmness of character to carry it about with him for a whole month afterwards in spite of every temptation and his extreme need of it neither in drunken debauchery in taverns nor when he was flying into the country trying to get from God knows whom the money so essential to him to remove the object of his affections from being tempted by his father that he bring himself to touch that little bag why if only to avoid abandoning his mistress to the rival of whom he was so jealous he would have been certain to have opened that bag and to have stayed at home to keep watch over her and to await the moment when she would say to him at last I am yours and to fly with her far from their fiddle surroundings but no he did not touch his talisman and what is the reason he gives for it the chief reason as I have just said was that when she would say I am yours take me where you will he might have the wherewithal to take her but that first reason in the prisoner's own words was of little weight beside the second while I have that money on me he said I am a scoundrel not a thief for I can always go to my insulted bit-throated and laying down half the sum I have fraudulently appropriated I can always say to her you see I've squandered half your money and shown I am a weak and immoral man and if you like a scoundrel I use the prisoner's own expressions but though I am a scoundrel I am not a thief for if I had been a thief I shouldn't have brought you back this half of the money but should have taken it as I did the other half a marvelous explanation this frantic but weak man who could not resist the temptation of accepting the three thousand rubles at the price of such disgrace this very man suddenly develops the most stoical firmness and carries about a thousand rubles without daring to touch it does that fit in at all with the character we have analyzed? no and I venture to tell you how the real Dmitry Karamazov would have behaved in such circumstances if he really had brought himself to put away the money at the first temptation for instance to entertain the woman with whom he had already squandered half the money he would have unpicked his little bag and have taken out some hundred rubles for why should he have taken back precisely half the money that is fifteen hundred rubles why not fourteen hundred? he could just as well have said then that he was not a thief because he brought back fourteen hundred rubles then another time he would have unpicked it again and taken out another hundred and then a third and then a fourth and before the end of the month he would have taken the last note but one feeling that if he took back only a hundred it would answer the purpose for a thief would have stolen it all and then he would have looked at this last note and have said to himself it is really not worthwhile to give back one hundred let's spend that too that's how the real Dimitri Karamazov as we know him would have behaved one cannot imagine anything more in Congress with the actual fact than this legend of the little bag nothing could be more inconceivable but we shall return to that later after touching upon what had come out in the proceedings considering the financial relations of father and son and arguing again and again that it was utterly impossible from the facts known to determine which was in the wrong Ipolit Kerilovich passed to the evidence of the medical experts in reference to Mitya's fixed idea about the three thousand owing him End of Chapter 6 of Book 12 Recording by J. C. Guan Montreal March 2009