The First Interview With Smerdyakov — The Brothers Karamazov

This is the third time Ivan has been to see Smerdyakov since his return from Moscow. The first talk was on the day he arrived. He has been turning over that last conversation, on the evening before he went away. Many things seem puzzling and suspicious. When he gave his evidence to the investigating lawyer, he said nothing, for the time, of that conversation. He put it off until he had seen him. The doctors tell him the epileptic attack was unmistakably genuine, and they are surprised he asks whether Smerdyakov might have been shamming on the day of the catastrophe. It is always worth while speaking to a clever man. Ivan sits down on the stool at his feet.

Smerdyakov is silent for a minute. You might have guessed, he says, from my asking you not to go to Moscow, but to Tchermashnya, that I wanted to have you nearer, for Moscow is a long way off. The clever man left. Ivan listens.

In the days after, he feels a positive repugnance at prying into his own sensations. He wants to make haste to forget something. He becomes convinced of Mitya's guilt, as he gets to know all the weight of the evidence. Why, as he reached Moscow, had he said to himself, I am a scoundrel? The tormenting thoughts take possession of him again, so completely that he almost fancies they will make him forget Katerina Ivanovna. On his return from Moscow he had abandoned himself to his mad and consuming passion for her. This is not the time to begin on that new passion. It left its mark on all the rest of his life. Alyosha makes no attempt to talk about Mitya. He never begins on the subject. He only answers questions.

Ivan meets him in the street and stops him at once. Do you remember when Dmitri burst in after dinner and beat father, and afterwards I told you in the yard that I reserved the right to desire? Did you think then that I desired father's death? I did think so, Alyosha answers, softly. It was so, too. It was not a matter of guessing. And did you not fancy that what I wished was just that one reptile should devour another, that Dmitri should kill father as soon as possible, and that I myself was even prepared to help to bring that about? Alyosha turns rather pale. Speak. I want the truth. Forgive me, I did think that, too, at the time, he whispers, and he does not add one softening phrase. Thanks, snaps Ivan, and, leaving him, he goes quickly on his way. He does not go home. He goes straight to Smerdyakov again.