Ten minutes later, Dmitri visits Perkhotin, a local official
who, earlier that day, had taken Dmitri’s pistols as collateral
for a ten-ruble loan. To the official’s astonishment, Dmitri now
displays a large amount of cash, repays the loan, and takes his
pistols back. Perkhotin follows Dmitri to a store, where, to Perkhotin’s
continuing puzzlement, Dmitri buys several hundred rubles’ worth
of food and wine. Perkhotin quizzically wonders what is happening.
He asks himself where Dmitri got such a large amount of money and why
Dmitri is covered with blood.
Summary—Chapter 6: Here I Come!
Dmitri leaves Perkhotin and travels to the place where
Grushenka and her lover, a Polish officer, are staying. Dmitri is
in a frenzy, and raves to the coachman who drives him that he knows
he will go to hell, but that, from the depths of hell, he will continue
to love and praise God.
Summary—Chapter 7: The Former and Indisputable One
Dmitri’s arrival is awkward and his presence is unwanted
by the lovers. But the scene has evidently been somewhat awkward
between the lovers before his arrival, and the wine and food he
brings help to lift everyone’s spirits. The young people play cards.
Summary—Chapter 8: Delirium
As Grushenka watches her Polish lover cheat at the games,
and listens to the coarse and degrading things that he says, she
realizes she does not love him. Instead, she loves Dmitri. When
the officer insults her, Dmitri attacks him and locks him in another
room. Dmitri and Grushenka begin to plan their future together.
Through his joy at winning Grushenka, Dmitri is troubled by the
thought of the wound he dealt Grigory and the fortune he owes Katerina.
Just then, a group of officers bursts into the room.
They seize Dmitri and place him under arrest. Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov has
been murdered, and Dmitri is the prime suspect.
Analysis—Book VIII: Mitya, Chapters 1–8
Dostoevsky uses a variety of literary techniques
to suggest that Dmitri is responsible for his father’s murder. Before
Dmitri appears with a large amount of money, the narrator continually
makes statements implying that Dmitri will steal Fyodor Pavlovich’s 3,000 rubles:
“Only three or four hours before a certain incident, of which I
will speak below, Mitya did not have a kopeck, and pawned his dearest
possession for ten roubles, whereas three hours later he suddenly
had thousands in his hands . . . but I anticipate.” Dmitri’s inner
monologue is similarly misleading, as when Dmitri thinks about going
to Madame Khokhlakov’s and realizes “fully and now with mathematical
clarity that this was his last hope, that if this should fall through,
there was nothing left in the world but ‘to kill and rob someone
for the three thousand, and that’s all. . . .’” Dostoevsky also
uses a technique called ellipsis, skipping over
a moment of action in order to play on our expectations: he implies
Dmitri’s guilt by leaving out the crucial stretch of action in Chapter 5,
in between Dmitri’s discovery of Grushenka’s whereabouts and his
arrival at Perkhotin’s office. This strategy leads us to suspect
that Dmitri has killed his father in that time. Finally, the events
we do see suggest Dmitri’s guilt. Dmitri is desperate, impassioned,
and antagonistic toward Grigory. The combination of these factors
makes Dmitri seem eminently capable of committing murder.
