menu_book Chapter 31

part four chapter five section one of crime and punishment by fyodor dostoevsky translated by constance garnett this librivox recording is in the public domain recording by expatriate in bangor maine part four chapter five section one when next morning at eleven o'clock punctually raskolnikov went into the department of the investigation of criminal causes and sent his name in to porfiry petrovitch he was surprised at being kept waiting so long it was at least ten minutes before he was summoned he had expected that they would pounce upon him but he stood in the waiting-room and people who apparently had nothing to do with him were continually passing to and fro before him in the next room which looked like an office several clerks were sitting writing and obviously they had no notion who or what raskolnikov might be he looked uneasily and suspiciously about him to see whether there was not some guard some mysterious watch being kept on him to prevent his escape but there was nothing of the sort he saw only the faces of clerks absorbed in petty details then other people no one seemed to have any concern with him

he might go where he liked for them the conviction grew stronger in him that if that enigmatic man of yesterday that phantom sprung out of the earth had seen everything they would not have let him stand and wait like that and would they have waited till he elected to appear at eleven either the man had not yet given information or or simply he knew nothing had seen nothing and how could he have seen anything and so all that had happened to him the day before was again a phantom exaggerated by his sick and overstrained imagination this conjecture had begun to grow strong the day before in the midst of all his alarm and despair thinking it all over now and preparing for a fresh conflict he was suddenly aware that he was trembling and he felt a rush of indignation at the thought that he was trembling with fear at facing that hateful porfiry petrovitch what he dreaded above all was meeting that man again he hated him with an intense unmitigated hatred and was afraid his hatred might betray him

his indignation was such that he ceased trembling at once he made ready to go in with a cold and arrogant bearing and vowed to himself to keep as silent as possible to watch and listen and for once at least to control his overstrained nerves at that moment he was summoned to porfiry petrovitch he found porfiry petrovitch alone in his study his study was a room neither large nor small furnished with a large writing-table that stood before a sofa upholstered in checked material a bureau a bookcase in the corner and several chairs all government furniture of polished yellow wood in the further wall there was a closed door beyond it there were no doubt other rooms on raskolnikov's entrance porfiry petrovitch had at once closed the door by which he had come in and they remained alone he met his visitor with an apparently genial and good-tempered air and it was only after a few minutes that raskolnikov saw signs of a certain awkwardness in him

as though he had been thrown out of his reckoning or caught in something very secret ah my dear fellow here you are in our domain began porfiry holding out both hands to him come sit down old man or perhaps you don't like to be called my dear fellow an old man please don't think it too familiar here on the sofa raskolnikov sat down keeping his eyes fixed on him in our domain the apologies for familiarity the french phrase tout court were all characteristic signs he held out both hands to me but he did not give me one he drew it back in time struck him suspiciously both were watching each other but when their eyes met quick as lightning they looked away i brought you this paper about the watch here it is is it all right or shall i copy it again what a paper oh yes yes don't be uneasy it's all right porfiry petrovitch said as though in haste and after he had said it he took the paper and looked at it yes it's all right nothing more is needed he declared with the same rapidity and he laid the paper on the table

a minute later when he was talking of something else he took it from the table and put it on his bureau i believe you said yesterday you would like to question me formally about my acquaintance with a murdered woman raskolnikov was beginning again why did i put in i believe passed through his mind in a flash why am i so uneasy at having put in that i believe came in a second flash and he suddenly felt that his uneasiness at the mere contact with porphyry at the first words at the first looks had grown in an instant to monstrous proportions and that this was fearfully dangerous his nerves were quivering his emotion was increasing it's bad it's bad i shall say too much again yes yes yes there's no hurry there's no hurry muttered porfiry petrovitch moving to and fro about the table without any apparent aim as it were making dashes towards the window the bureau and the table at one moment avoiding raskolnikov's suspicious glance then again standing still and looking him straight in the face

his fat round little figure looked very strange like a ball rolling from one side to the other and rebounding back we've plenty of time do you smoke have you your own here a cigarette he went on offering his visitor a cigarette you know i am receiving you here but my own quarters are through there you know my government quarters but i am living outside for the time i had to have some repairs done here it's almost finished now government quarters you know are a capital thing eh what do you think yes a capital thing answered raskolnikov looking at him almost ironically a capital thing a capital thing repeated porfiry petrovitch as though he had just thought of something quite different yes a capital thing he almost shouted at last suddenly staring at raskolnikov and stopping short two steps from him this stupid repetition was too incongruous in its ineptitude with the serious brooding and enigmatic glance he turned upon his visitor but this stirred raskolnikov's spleen more than ever and he could not resist an ironical and rather incautious challenge tell me please he asked suddenly looking almost insolently at him and taking a kind of pleasure in his own insolence

i believe it's a sort of legal rule a sort of legal tradition for all investigating lawyers to begin their attack from afar with a trivial or at least an irrelevant subject so as to encourage or rather to divert the man they are cross-examining to disarm his caution and then all at once to give him an unexpected knock-down blow with some fatal question isn't that so it's a sacred tradition mentioned i fancy in all the manuals of the art yes yes why do you imagine that was why i spoke about government quarters eh and as he said this porfiry petrovitch screwed up his eyes and winked a good-humoured crafty look passed over his face the wrinkles on his forehead were smoothed out his eyes contracted his features broadened and he suddenly went off into a nervous prolonged laugh shaking all over and looking raskolnikov straight in the face the latter forced himself to laugh too but when porfiry seeing that he was laughing broke into such a guffaw that he turned almost crimson raskolnikov's repulsion overcame all precaution

he left off laughing scowled and stared with hatred at porfiry keeping his eyes fixed on him while his intentionally prolonged laughter lasted there was lack of precaution on both sides however for porfiry petrovitch seemed to be laughing in his father's face and to be very little disturbed at the annoyance with which the visitor received it the latter fact was very significant in raskolnikov's eyes he saw that porfiry petrovitch had not been embarrassed just before either but that he raskolnikov had perhaps fallen into a trap that there must be something some motive here unknown to him that perhaps everything was in readiness and in another moment would break upon him he went straight to the point at once rose from his seat and took his cap porfiry petrovitch he began resolutely though with considerable irritation yesterday you expressed a desire that i should come to you for some inquiries he laid special stress on the word inquiries

i have come and if you have anything to ask me ask it and if not allow me to withdraw i have no time to spare i have to be at the funeral of that man who was run over of whom you know also he added feeling angry at once at having made this addition and more irritated at his anger i am sick of it all do you hear and have long been it's partly what made me ill in short he shouted feeling that the phrase about his illness was still more out of place in short kindly examine me or let me go at once and if you must examine me do so in the proper form i will not allow you to do so otherwise and so meanwhile good-bye as we have evidently nothing to keep us now oh good heavens what do you mean what shall i question you about cackled porfiry petrovitch with a change of tone instantly leaving off laughing please don't disturb yourself he began fidgeting from place to place and fussily making raskolnikov sit down there's no hurry there's no hurry it's all nonsense oh no i'm very glad you've come to see me at last i look upon you simply as a visitor and as for my confounded laughter please excuse it rodian romanovitch rodian romanovitch that is your name it's my nerves you tickled me so with your witty observation i assure you sometimes i shake with laughter like an india rubber ball for half an hour at a time

i'm often afraid of an attack of paralysis do sit down please do or i shall think you are angry raskolnikov did not speak he listened watching him still frowning angrily he did sit down but still held his cap i must tell you one thing about myself my dear rodian romanovitch porfiry petrovitch continued moving about the room and again avoiding his visitor's eyes you see i'm a bachelor a man of no consequence and not used to society besides i have nothing before me i'm set i'm running to seed And have you noticed, Rodion Romanovich, that in our Petersburg circles, if two clever men meet who are not intimate but respect each other, like you and me, it takes them half an hour before they can find a subject for conversation. They are dumb. They sit opposite each other and feel awkward. Everyone has subjects of conversation. Ladies, for instance. people in high society always have their subjects of conversation c'est de rigueur but people of the middle sort like us thinking people that is are always tongue-tied and awkward what is the reason of it whether it is the lack of public interest or whether it is we are so honest we don't want to deceive one another i don't know what do you think do put down your cap it looks as if you were just going it makes me uncomfortable i am so delighted

raskolnikov put down his cap and continued listening in silence with a serious frowning face to the vague and empty chatter of porfiry petrovitch does he really want to distract my attention with his silly babble i can't offer you coffee here but why not spend five minutes with a friend porfiry pattered on and you know all these official duties please don't mind my running up and down excuse it my dear fellow i am very much afraid of offending you but exercise is absolutely indispensable for me i'm always sitting and so glad to be moving about for five minutes i suffer from my sedentary life i always intend to join a gymnasium they say that officials of all ranks even privy counsellors may be seen skipping gaily there there you have it modern science yes yes but as for my duties here inquiries and all such formalities you mentioned inquiries yourself just now i assure you these interrogations are sometimes more embarrassing for the interrogator than for the interrogated you made the observation yourself just now very aptly and wittily raskolnikov had made no observation of the kind one gets into a muddle a regular muddle one keeps harping on the same note like a drum

there is to be a reform and we shall be called by a different name at least he he he and as for our legal tradition as you so wittily called it i thoroughly agree with you every prisoner on trial even the rudest peasant knows that they begin by disarming him with irrelevant questions as you so happily put it and then deal him a knock-down blow you are a felicitous comparison so you really imagine that i meant by government quarters oh you are an ironical person come i won't go on ah by the way yes one word leads to another you spoke of formality just now apropos of the inquiry you know but what's the use of formality in many cases it's nonsense sometimes one has a friendly chat and gets a good deal more out of it one can always fall back on formality allow me to assure you and after all what does it amount to an examining lawyer cannot be bounded by formality at every step the work of investigation is so to speak a free art in its own way ha ha porfiry petrovitch took breath a moment he had simply babbled on uttering empty phrases letting slip a few enigmatic words and again reverting to incoherence

he was almost running about the room moving his fat little legs quicker and quicker looking at the ground with his right hand behind his back while with his left making gesticulations that were extraordinarily incongruous with his words raskolnikov suddenly noticed that as he ran about the room he seemed twice to stop for a moment near the door as though he were listening is he expecting anything you are certainly quite right about it porfiry began gaily looking with extraordinary simplicity at raskolnikov which startled him and instantly put him on his guard certainly quite right in laughing so wittily at our legal forms some of these elaborate psychological methods are exceedingly ridiculous and perhaps useless if one adheres too closely to the forms yes i am talking of forms again well if i recognize or more strictly speaking if i suspect someone or other to be a criminal in any case entrusted to me you're reading for the law of course rodian romanovitch yes i was well then it is a precedent for you for the future though don't suppose i should venture to instruct you after the articles you publish about crime no i simply make bold to state it by way of fact if i took this man or that for a criminal why i ask should i worry him prematurely

even though i had evidence against him in one case i may be bound for instance to arrest a man at once but another may be in quite a different position you know so why shouldn't i let him walk about the town a bit but i see you don't quite understand so i'll give you a clearer example if i put him in prison too soon i may very likely give him so to speak moral support you're laughing raskolnikov had no idea of laughing he was sitting with compressed lips his feverish eyes fixed on porfiry petrovitch's yet that is the case with some types especially for men are so different You say evidence. Well, there may be evidence, but evidence, you know, can generally be taken two ways.

I am an examining lawyer and a weak man, I confess it. I should like to make a proof, so to say, mathematically clear. I should like to make a chain of evidence such as twice two or four. It ought to be a direct, irrefutable proof. And if I shut him up too soon, even though I might be convinced he was the man,

I should very likely be depriving myself of the means of getting further evidence against him. And how? By giving him, so to speak, a definite position, I shall put him out of suspense and set his mind at rest, so that he will retreat into his shell.

They say that at Sevastopol, soon after Alma, the clever people were in a terrible fright that the enemy would attack openly and take Sevastopol at once. But when they saw that the enemy preferred a regular siege, they were delighted.

I am told and reassured, for the thing would drag on for two months at least. You're laughing. You don't believe me again. Of course, you're right, too. You're right, you're right. These are special cases, I admit. But you must observe this, my dear Rodion Romanovich.

The general case, the case for which all legal forms and rules are intended, for which they are calculated and laid down in books, does not exist at all. for the same reason that every case, every crime, for instance, so soon as it actually occurs, at once becomes a thoroughly special case,

and sometimes a case unlike any that's gone before. Very comic cases of that sort sometimes occur. If I leave one man quite alone, if I don't touch him and don't worry him, but let him know or at least suspect every moment that I know all about it,

and am watching him day and night, and if he is in continual suspicion and terror, he'll be bound to lose his head. he'll come of himself or maybe do something that will make it as plain as twice to our four it's delightful it may be so with a simple peasant but with one of our sort an intelligent man cultivated on a certain side it's a dead certainty for my dear fellow it's a very important matter to know on what side a man is cultivated and then there are nerves there are nerves you have overlooked them why they are all sick nervous and irritable and then how they all suffer from spleen that i assure you is a regular gold-mine for us

and it's no anxiety to me his running about the town free let him let him walk about for a bit i know well enough that i've caught him and that he won't escape me where could he escape to abroad perhaps a pole will escape abroad but not here especially as i am watching and have taken measures will he escape into the depths of the country perhaps but you know peasants live there real rude russian peasants a modern cultivated man would prefer prison to living with such strangers as our peasants but that's all nonsense and on the surface it's not merely that he has nowhere to run to he is psychologically unable to escape me ha ha ha what an expression through a law of nature he can't escape me if he had anywhere to go have you seen a butterfly round a candle that's how he will keep circling and circling round me freedom will lose its attractions he'll begin to brood he'll weave a tangle round himself he'll worry himself to death what's more he will provide me with a mathematical proof if i only give him long enough interval

and he'll keep circling round me getting nearer and nearer and then flop he'll fly straight into my mouth and i'll swallow him and that will be very amusing you don't believe me raskolnikov made no reply he sat pale and motionless still gazing with the same intensity into porfiry's face it's a lesson he thought turning cold this is beyond the cat playing with a mouse like yesterday he can't be showing off his power with no motive prompting me he is far too clever for that he must have another object what is it it's all nonsense my friend you are pretending to scare me you've no proofs and the man i saw had no real existence you simply want to make me lose my head to work me up beforehand and so to crush me but you are wrong you won't do it but why give me such a hint is he reckoning on my shattered nerves no my friend you are wrong you won't do it even though you have some trap for me let us see what you have in store for me

and he braced himself to face a terrible and unknown ordeal at times he longed to fall on porphyry and strangle him this anger was what he dreaded from the beginning he felt that his parched lips were flecked with foam his heart was throbbing but he was still determined not to speak till the right moment he realised that this was the best policy in his position because instead of saying too much he would be irritating his enemy by his silence and provoking him into speaking too freely anyhow this was what he hoped for chapter five section one recording by expatriate in bangor maine