The Exchange of Crosses — The Idiot

Rogojin leads Myshkin out through the house, pausing under a narrow Holbein copy of Christ taken from the cross. The painting unsettles the prince so deeply he says a man's faith might be ruined by looking at it; Rogojin agrees. On the stairs Rogojin asks whether Myshkin believes in God, and the prince answers with four scenes from his journey: an atheist who argued beside the point, a peasant who murdered his friend while praying for forgiveness, a soldier who sold his cross for drink, and a young mother who compared God's joy to a baby's first smile. Faith, he says, lives apart from argument and crime, especially in the Russian heart. At the door the two men exchange crosses, tin for gold, and Rogojin calls them brothers. He brings Myshkin to bless his senile mother, who makes the sign of the cross over the prince without understanding a word. Then Rogojin pushes him away, jokes he will not murder him for his watch, and suddenly embraces him. His last words surrender Nastasia: she is yours, remember Rogojin, and he slams the door. The chapter binds rivals in ritual while leaving the triangle more unstable than before.