finished_summaries/shmoop/The Brothers Karamazov/section_16_part_0.txt
The Brothers Karamazov.book 3.chapter 4
book 3, chapter 4
{"name": "Book 3, Chapter 4", "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20201023112808/https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/brothers-karamazov/summary/book-3-chapter-4", "summary": "Dmitri continues to spill the beans to Alyosha, confessing that he's been an unapologetic womanizer for quite a long time. Alyosha unexpectedly replies that he's just like Dmitri; it's just a matter of degree. Dmitri then tells Alyosha that he'd like to tell him about his tragedy, the details of which Ivan already knows. Back in his lieutenant days, Dmitri had some issues with his colonel. His colonel had had two wives, now deceased, and each wife had given him a daughter. The first daughter, Agafya, was already becoming a spinster at the ripe old age of 24. The second daughter, who happens to be the Katerina Ivanovna that so terrifies Alyosha, was bright and accomplished and quite the social star. While Agafya was on speaking terms with Dmitri, Katerina always treated him with cold contempt. Dmitri had just received a large sum of money from their father, Fyodor, when he learned that there were financial irregularities with the way the colonel was handling government money. Dmitri pulled Agafya aside and told her that if the family ever needed money, he would lend it to them, but only if Katerina came by herself to his rooms to ask for the money. Agafya was shocked and dismissed Dmitri's comment. As it turns out, the colonel had been loaning the government's money to a friend of his, who usually repaid the money with interest. This time around, though, his friend had not repaid the money. On top of that, a new major was in town, asking questions. The colonel was just about to shoot himself when Agafya, sensing something was amiss and thinking of Dmitri's words, charged in and intervened. Dmitri says that he was just about to go out that night when the door opened, and who should it be but Katerina Ivanovna. When she asked for the money, Dmitri suddenly balked at the thought and pretended he was taking back the request. But just as suddenly, filled with intense hatred, he changed his mind and wrote her a check for the sum. She bowed deeply, with her forehead to the ground, and left.", "analysis": ""}
Chapter IV. The Confession Of A Passionate Heart--In Anecdote


"I was leading a wild life then. Father said just now that I spent several
thousand roubles in seducing young girls. That's a swinish invention, and
there was nothing of the sort. And if there was, I didn't need money
simply for _that_. With me money is an accessory, the overflow of my
heart, the framework. To-day she would be my lady, to-morrow a wench out
of the streets in her place. I entertained them both. I threw away money
by the handful on music, rioting, and gypsies. Sometimes I gave it to the
ladies, too, for they'll take it greedily, that must be admitted, and be
pleased and thankful for it. Ladies used to be fond of me: not all of
them, but it happened, it happened. But I always liked side-paths, little
dark back-alleys behind the main road--there one finds adventures and
surprises, and precious metal in the dirt. I am speaking figuratively,
brother. In the town I was in, there were no such back-alleys in the
literal sense, but morally there were. If you were like me, you'd know
what that means. I loved vice, I loved the ignominy of vice. I loved
cruelty; am I not a bug, am I not a noxious insect? In fact a Karamazov!
Once we went, a whole lot of us, for a picnic, in seven sledges. It was
dark, it was winter, and I began squeezing a girl's hand, and forced her
to kiss me. She was the daughter of an official, a sweet, gentle,
submissive creature. She allowed me, she allowed me much in the dark. She
thought, poor thing, that I should come next day to make her an offer (I
was looked upon as a good match, too). But I didn't say a word to her for
five months. I used to see her in a corner at dances (we were always
having dances), her eyes watching me. I saw how they glowed with fire--a
fire of gentle indignation. This game only tickled that insect lust I
cherished in my soul. Five months later she married an official and left
the town, still angry, and still, perhaps, in love with me. Now they live
happily. Observe that I told no one. I didn't boast of it. Though I'm full
of low desires, and love what's low, I'm not dishonorable. You're
blushing; your eyes flashed. Enough of this filth with you. And all this
was nothing much--wayside blossoms _a la_ Paul de Kock--though the cruel
insect had already grown strong in my soul. I've a perfect album of
reminiscences, brother. God bless them, the darlings. I tried to break it
off without quarreling. And I never gave them away. I never bragged of one
of them. But that's enough. You can't suppose I brought you here simply to
talk of such nonsense. No, I'm going to tell you something more curious;
and don't be surprised that I'm glad to tell you, instead of being
ashamed."

"You say that because I blushed," Alyosha said suddenly. "I wasn't
blushing at what you were saying or at what you've done. I blushed because
I am the same as you are."

"You? Come, that's going a little too far!"

"No, it's not too far," said Alyosha warmly (obviously the idea was not a
new one). "The ladder's the same. I'm at the bottom step, and you're
above, somewhere about the thirteenth. That's how I see it. But it's all
the same. Absolutely the same in kind. Any one on the bottom step is bound
to go up to the top one."

"Then one ought not to step on at all."

"Any one who can help it had better not."

"But can you?"

"I think not."

"Hush, Alyosha, hush, darling! I could kiss your hand, you touch me so.
That rogue Grushenka has an eye for men. She told me once that she'd
devour you one day. There, there, I won't! From this field of corruption
fouled by flies, let's pass to my tragedy, also befouled by flies, that is
by every sort of vileness. Although the old man told lies about my
seducing innocence, there really was something of the sort in my tragedy,
though it was only once, and then it did not come off. The old man who has
reproached me with what never happened does not even know of this fact; I
never told any one about it. You're the first, except Ivan, of course--Ivan
knows everything. He knew about it long before you. But Ivan's a tomb."

"Ivan's a tomb?"

"Yes."

Alyosha listened with great attention.

"I was lieutenant in a line regiment, but still I was under supervision,
like a kind of convict. Yet I was awfully well received in the little
town. I spent money right and left. I was thought to be rich; I thought so
myself. But I must have pleased them in other ways as well. Although they
shook their heads over me, they liked me. My colonel, who was an old man,
took a sudden dislike to me. He was always down upon me, but I had
powerful friends, and, moreover, all the town was on my side, so he
couldn't do me much harm. I was in fault myself for refusing to treat him
with proper respect. I was proud. This obstinate old fellow, who was
really a very good sort, kind-hearted and hospitable, had had two wives,
both dead. His first wife, who was of a humble family, left a daughter as
unpretentious as herself. She was a young woman of four and twenty when I
was there, and was living with her father and an aunt, her mother's
sister. The aunt was simple and illiterate; the niece was simple but
lively. I like to say nice things about people. I never knew a woman of
more charming character than Agafya--fancy, her name was Agafya Ivanovna!
And she wasn't bad-looking either, in the Russian style: tall, stout, with
a full figure, and beautiful eyes, though a rather coarse face. She had
not married, although she had had two suitors. She refused them, but was
as cheerful as ever. I was intimate with her, not in 'that' way, it was
pure friendship. I have often been friendly with women quite innocently. I
used to talk to her with shocking frankness, and she only laughed. Many
women like such freedom, and she was a girl too, which made it very
amusing. Another thing, one could never think of her as a young lady. She
and her aunt lived in her father's house with a sort of voluntary
humility, not putting themselves on an equality with other people. She was
a general favorite, and of use to every one, for she was a clever
dressmaker. She had a talent for it. She gave her services freely without
asking for payment, but if any one offered her payment, she didn't refuse.
The colonel, of course, was a very different matter. He was one of the
chief personages in the district. He kept open house, entertained the
whole town, gave suppers and dances. At the time I arrived and joined the
battalion, all the town was talking of the expected return of the
colonel's second daughter, a great beauty, who had just left a fashionable
school in the capital. This second daughter is Katerina Ivanovna, and she
was the child of the second wife, who belonged to a distinguished
general's family; although, as I learnt on good authority, she too brought
the colonel no money. She had connections, and that was all. There may
have been expectations, but they had come to nothing.

"Yet, when the young lady came from boarding-school on a visit, the whole
town revived. Our most distinguished ladies--two 'Excellencies' and a
colonel's wife--and all the rest following their lead, at once took her up
and gave entertainments in her honor. She was the belle of the balls and
picnics, and they got up _tableaux vivants_ in aid of distressed
governesses. I took no notice, I went on as wildly as before, and one of
my exploits at the time set all the town talking. I saw her eyes taking my
measure one evening at the battery commander's, but I didn't go up to her,
as though I disdained her acquaintance. I did go up and speak to her at an
evening party not long after. She scarcely looked at me, and compressed
her lips scornfully. 'Wait a bit. I'll have my revenge,' thought I. I
behaved like an awful fool on many occasions at that time, and I was
conscious of it myself. What made it worse was that I felt that 'Katenka'
was not an innocent boarding-school miss, but a person of character, proud
and really high-principled; above all, she had education and intellect,
and I had neither. You think I meant to make her an offer? No, I simply
wanted to revenge myself, because I was such a hero and she didn't seem to
feel it.

"Meanwhile, I spent my time in drink and riot, till the lieutenant-colonel
put me under arrest for three days. Just at that time father sent me six
thousand roubles in return for my sending him a deed giving up all claims
upon him--settling our accounts, so to speak, and saying that I wouldn't
expect anything more. I didn't understand a word of it at the time. Until
I came here, Alyosha, till the last few days, indeed, perhaps even now, I
haven't been able to make head or tail of my money affairs with father.
But never mind that, we'll talk of it later.

"Just as I received the money, I got a letter from a friend telling me
something that interested me immensely. The authorities, I learnt, were
dissatisfied with our lieutenant-colonel. He was suspected of
irregularities; in fact, his enemies were preparing a surprise for him.
And then the commander of the division arrived, and kicked up the devil of
a shindy. Shortly afterwards he was ordered to retire. I won't tell you
how it all happened. He had enemies certainly. Suddenly there was a marked
coolness in the town towards him and all his family. His friends all
turned their backs on him. Then I took my first step. I met Agafya
Ivanovna, with whom I'd always kept up a friendship, and said, 'Do you
know there's a deficit of 4,500 roubles of government money in your
father's accounts?'

" 'What do you mean? What makes you say so? The general was here not long
ago, and everything was all right.'

" 'Then it was, but now it isn't.'

"She was terribly scared.

" 'Don't frighten me!' she said. 'Who told you so?'

" 'Don't be uneasy,' I said, 'I won't tell any one. You know I'm as silent
as the tomb. I only wanted, in view of "possibilities," to add, that when
they demand that 4,500 roubles from your father, and he can't produce it,
he'll be tried, and made to serve as a common soldier in his old age,
unless you like to send me your young lady secretly. I've just had money
paid me. I'll give her four thousand, if you like, and keep the secret
religiously.'

" 'Ah, you scoundrel!'--that's what she said. 'You wicked scoundrel! How
dare you!'

"She went away furiously indignant, while I shouted after her once more
that the secret should be kept sacred. Those two simple creatures, Agafya
and her aunt, I may as well say at once, behaved like perfect angels all
through this business. They genuinely adored their 'Katya,' thought her
far above them, and waited on her, hand and foot. But Agafya told her of
our conversation. I found that out afterwards. She didn't keep it back,
and of course that was all I wanted.

"Suddenly the new major arrived to take command of the battalion. The old
lieutenant-colonel was taken ill at once, couldn't leave his room for two
days, and didn't hand over the government money. Dr. Kravchenko declared
that he really was ill. But I knew for a fact, and had known for a long
time, that for the last four years the money had never been in his hands
except when the Commander made his visits of inspection. He used to lend
it to a trustworthy person, a merchant of our town called Trifonov, an old
widower, with a big beard and gold-rimmed spectacles. He used to go to the
fair, do a profitable business with the money, and return the whole sum to
the colonel, bringing with it a present from the fair, as well as interest
on the loan. But this time (I heard all about it quite by chance from
Trifonov's son and heir, a driveling youth and one of the most vicious in
the world)--this time, I say, Trifonov brought nothing back from the fair.
The lieutenant-colonel flew to him. 'I've never received any money from
you, and couldn't possibly have received any.' That was all the answer he
got. So now our lieutenant-colonel is confined to the house, with a towel
round his head, while they're all three busy putting ice on it. All at
once an orderly arrives on the scene with the book and the order to 'hand
over the battalion money immediately, within two hours.' He signed the
book (I saw the signature in the book afterwards), stood up, saying he
would put on his uniform, ran to his bedroom, loaded his double-barreled
gun with a service bullet, took the boot off his right foot, fixed the gun
against his chest, and began feeling for the trigger with his foot. But
Agafya, remembering what I had told her, had her suspicions. She stole up
and peeped into the room just in time. She rushed in, flung herself upon
him from behind, threw her arms round him, and the gun went off, hit the
ceiling, but hurt no one. The others ran in, took away the gun, and held
him by the arms. I heard all about this afterwards. I was at home, it was
getting dusk, and I was just preparing to go out. I had dressed, brushed
my hair, scented my handkerchief, and taken up my cap, when suddenly the
door opened, and facing me in the room stood Katerina Ivanovna.

"It's strange how things happen sometimes. No one had seen her in the
street, so that no one knew of it in the town. I lodged with two decrepit
old ladies, who looked after me. They were most obliging old things, ready
to do anything for me, and at my request were as silent afterwards as two
cast-iron posts. Of course I grasped the position at once. She walked in
and looked straight at me, her dark eyes determined, even defiant, but on
her lips and round her mouth I saw uncertainty.

" 'My sister told me,' she began, 'that you would give me 4,500 roubles if
I came to you for it--myself. I have come ... give me the money!'

"She couldn't keep it up. She was breathless, frightened, her voice failed
her, and the corners of her mouth and the lines round it quivered.
Alyosha, are you listening, or are you asleep?"

"Mitya, I know you will tell the whole truth," said Alyosha in agitation.

"I am telling it. If I tell the whole truth just as it happened I shan't
spare myself. My first idea was a--Karamazov one. Once I was bitten by a
centipede, brother, and laid up a fortnight with fever from it. Well, I
felt a centipede biting at my heart then--a noxious insect, you understand?
I looked her up and down. You've seen her? She's a beauty. But she was
beautiful in another way then. At that moment she was beautiful because
she was noble, and I was a scoundrel; she in all the grandeur of her
generosity and sacrifice for her father, and I--a bug! And, scoundrel as I
was, she was altogether at my mercy, body and soul. She was hemmed in. I
tell you frankly, that thought, that venomous thought, so possessed my
heart that it almost swooned with suspense. It seemed as if there could be
no resisting it; as though I should act like a bug, like a venomous
spider, without a spark of pity. I could scarcely breathe. Understand, I
should have gone next day to ask for her hand, so that it might end
honorably, so to speak, and that nobody would or could know. For though
I'm a man of base desires, I'm honest. And at that very second some voice
seemed to whisper in my ear, 'But when you come to-morrow to make your
proposal, that girl won't even see you; she'll order her coachman to kick
you out of the yard. "Publish it through all the town," she would say,
"I'm not afraid of you." ' I looked at the young lady, my voice had not
deceived me. That is how it would be, not a doubt of it. I could see from
her face now that I should be turned out of the house. My spite was
roused. I longed to play her the nastiest swinish cad's trick: to look at
her with a sneer, and on the spot where she stood before me to stun her
with a tone of voice that only a shopman could use.

" 'Four thousand! What do you mean? I was joking. You've been counting
your chickens too easily, madam. Two hundred, if you like, with all my
heart. But four thousand is not a sum to throw away on such frivolity.
You've put yourself out to no purpose.'

"I should have lost the game, of course. She'd have run away. But it would
have been an infernal revenge. It would have been worth it all. I'd have
howled with regret all the rest of my life, only to have played that
trick. Would you believe it, it has never happened to me with any other
woman, not one, to look at her at such a moment with hatred. But, on my
oath, I looked at her for three seconds, or five perhaps, with fearful
hatred--that hate which is only a hair's-breadth from love, from the
maddest love!

"I went to the window, put my forehead against the frozen pane, and I
remember the ice burnt my forehead like fire. I did not keep her long,
don't be afraid. I turned round, went up to the table, opened the drawer
and took out a banknote for five thousand roubles (it was lying in a
French dictionary). Then I showed it her in silence, folded it, handed it
to her, opened the door into the passage, and, stepping back, made her a
deep bow, a most respectful, a most impressive bow, believe me! She
shuddered all over, gazed at me for a second, turned horribly pale--white
as a sheet, in fact--and all at once, not impetuously but softly, gently,
bowed down to my feet--not a boarding-school curtsey, but a Russian bow,
with her forehead to the floor. She jumped up and ran away. I was wearing
my sword. I drew it and nearly stabbed myself with it on the spot; why, I
don't know. It would have been frightfully stupid, of course. I suppose it
was from delight. Can you understand that one might kill oneself from
delight? But I didn't stab myself. I only kissed my sword and put it back
in the scabbard--which there was no need to have told you, by the way. And
I fancy that in telling you about my inner conflict I have laid it on
rather thick to glorify myself. But let it pass, and to hell with all who
pry into the human heart! Well, so much for that 'adventure' with Katerina
Ivanovna. So now Ivan knows of it, and you--no one else."

Dmitri got up, took a step or two in his excitement, pulled out his
handkerchief and mopped his forehead, then sat down again, not in the same
place as before, but on the opposite side, so that Alyosha had to turn
quite round to face him.





Book 3, Chapter 4
Dmitri continues to spill the beans to Alyosha, confessing that he's been an unapologetic womanizer for quite a long time. Alyosha unexpectedly replies that he's just like Dmitri; it's just a matter of degree. Dmitri then tells Alyosha that he'd like to tell him about his tragedy, the details of which Ivan already knows. Back in his lieutenant days, Dmitri had some issues with his colonel. His colonel had had two wives, now deceased, and each wife had given him a daughter. The first daughter, Agafya, was already becoming a spinster at the ripe old age of 24. The second daughter, who happens to be the Katerina Ivanovna that so terrifies Alyosha, was bright and accomplished and quite the social star. While Agafya was on speaking terms with Dmitri, Katerina always treated him with cold contempt. Dmitri had just received a large sum of money from their father, Fyodor, when he learned that there were financial irregularities with the way the colonel was handling government money. Dmitri pulled Agafya aside and told her that if the family ever needed money, he would lend it to them, but only if Katerina came by herself to his rooms to ask for the money. Agafya was shocked and dismissed Dmitri's comment. As it turns out, the colonel had been loaning the government's money to a friend of his, who usually repaid the money with interest. This time around, though, his friend had not repaid the money. On top of that, a new major was in town, asking questions. The colonel was just about to shoot himself when Agafya, sensing something was amiss and thinking of Dmitri's words, charged in and intervened. Dmitri says that he was just about to go out that night when the door opened, and who should it be but Katerina Ivanovna. When she asked for the money, Dmitri suddenly balked at the thought and pretended he was taking back the request. But just as suddenly, filled with intense hatred, he changed his mind and wrote her a check for the sum. She bowed deeply, with her forehead to the ground, and left.