Summary—Chapter 6: A Rather Obscure One for the
Moment
Since arriving at his father’s house, Ivan has spent a
great deal of time discussing religion and philosophy with Smerdyakov.
But Ivan dislikes Smerdyakov, and when he returns home at night,
he dreads the possibility of seeing him. At Fyodor Pavlovich’s house,
Ivan sees Smerdyakov sitting in the yard. Ivan intends to walk by
Smerdyakov, or even insult him, but to his own surprise he finds
himself stopping and asking about their father.
Smerdyakov says that he is worried about Fyodor Pavlovich because
Dmitri now knows the secret signs that Grushenka and Fyodor Pavlovich
have agreed upon if Grushenka ever decides to be Fyodor Pavlovich’s
lover. If Grushenka comes to Fyodor Pavlovich, Dmitri will know
about it, and Smerdyakov worries that there would be no one to defend
Fyodor Pavlovich from Dmitri’s rage. Smerdyakov says that Grigory
and his wife have begun to take a medicine that makes them sleep
deeply, and he is afraid that his own nervousness will cause him
to have an epileptic seizure.
Summary—Chapter 7: “It’s Always Interesting to Talk
with an Intelligent Man”
Ivan suspects that Smerdyakov has told Dmitri
about Grushenka’s secret signs specifically to place Fyodor Pavlovich
in danger. But Ivan is determined to leave for Moscow as planned
the following morning, even though Smerdyakov asks him to go to
a city that is not so far away.
The next morning, Fyodor Pavlovich too asks Ivan not
to leave for Moscow. Instead, he wants Ivan to go to a nearby village
to sell a plot of wood on Fyodor Pavlovich’s behalf. Ivan reluctantly agrees.
After he leaves, Smerdyakov falls down a staircase and has the epileptic
seizure he has feared. He is confined to his bed, leaving Fyodor
Pavlovich alone. The old man waits gleefully for Grushenka, whom
he is certain will come to him tonight.
Analysis
These chapters foreshadow Smerdyakov’s eventual murder
of Fyodor Pavlovich. Although Smerdyakov appears to be worried about Fyodor
Pavlovich, his concern only serves to mask his deeper malice, and
everything he does in this chapter lays the groundwork for killing
his father the next night. He tells Ivan that Dmitri knows Grushenka’s
secret knock purportedly because he is worried about Fyodor Pavlovich,
but really because he wants suspicion to be cast on Dmitri so that
Dmitri will be blamed when Fyodor Pavlovich’s body is found. He
warns Ivan about his fear of an impending epileptic seizure ostensibly
as proof of his fear for Fyodor Pavlovich, but really because he
wants to prepare his own alibi for the night of the murder. After
all, if he is a bedridden epileptic incapacitated in the aftermath
of a seizure, he is hardly capable of a murder. But as we see in
Chapter 7, Smerdyakov is capable of faking
a seizure so convincingly that everyone around him is fooled. These
chapters are thus full of foreshadowing, as every detail—from Grigory’s
habit of taking a narcotic medicine to Ivan’s impending departure
for Moscow—sets the scene for, and builds tension toward, Fyodor
Pavlovich’s death.
The complex combination of disgust and attraction that
characterizes Ivan’s relationship with Smerdyakov manifests both
Ivan’s hatred of human nature and his dissatisfaction with his own
philosophy. When Ivan discusses philosophy with Smerdyakov, the
conflicting forces in his character become clear. Ivan is excited
at Smerdyakov’s interest, disgusted with Smerdyakov’s manner, and unhappy
with himself for providing a hostile figure like Smerdyakov with
an amoral philosophy that might justify anything Smerdyakov wants
to do. Smerdyakov’s ingratiating behavior toward Ivan results from
his realization that Ivan loathes Fyodor Pavlovich. He believes
that Ivan is, on an unconscious level, using him to kill Fyodor
Pavlovich. He thinks Ivan is preparing him by giving him
a new moral outlook in which, because God does not play a role,
there is no good or evil, and taking a life is not morally different
from saving one.
