The Brothers Karamazov: Part 4: Book 11, Chapter 9 Summary & Analysis

That evening, Ivan succumbs to brain fever, which will soon take “complete possession of his organism.” He had already seen a doctor that Katerina Ivanovna sent from Moscow when he began to exhibit symptoms. The doctor warned him that he could suffer from hallucinations. He was advised to begin “serious treatment” but ignored this advice. In this moment, he’s aware that he’s delirious. Suddenly, someone appears to be sitting on the sofa—"a certain type of Russian gentleman,” middle-aged, and in well-tailored but tattered clothing.

Ivan talks to the Gentleman, but never abandons the belief that he’s only talking only to himself. He refuses to accept the phantom as truth. He says that the Gentleman only says what Ivan already thinks but picks out his bad thoughts. The Gentleman says that, in society, everyone agrees that he’s “a fallen angel,” though he doesn’t understand how he could ever have been an angel. That said, he sincerely loves people. His dream is to become “incarnate…in some fat, two-hundred-and-fifty-pound merchant’s wife.” The Gentleman will then believe everything she believes. He’ll go into church “with a pure heart” and light candles.

Ivan starts pacing, and the Gentleman tells him that his “nerves are unstrung.” He tells Ivan that he’s always angry and “[wants] reason only.” Ivan asks him if there’s a God, and the Gentleman says that he doesn’t know. This ignorance confirms that the Gentleman is merely a projection of himself. The Gentleman agrees that he shares Ivan’s philosophy of not dealing with matters that he can’t see.

Ivan asks the Gentleman to tell him a “funny anecdote.” He tells a story about a man who was sentenced “to walk in darkness a quadrillion kilometers.” After that, the doors of paradise would open to him. The man stood, looked down the road, and refused to walk. He laid down in the road. Ivan laughs, saying it’s the same whether the man walks forever or lies down forever. The Gentleman says he arrived long ago, and the doors of paradise opened. The man believed that the walk was worthwhile. Ivan says that he made up the anecdote about the man walking a quadrillion kilometers. This surely proves that the Gentleman doesn’t exist.

The Gentleman says that he only wanted to make Ivan laugh. He tells Ivan other stories. Ivan begs the Gentleman to leave him; his head is throbbing. The Gentleman admits that, before he arrived, he thought of appearing to Ivan as a jokester. He says that he never claimed to be Ivan’s intellectual equal. The Gentleman repeats that he is the only man who “desires good.” He says he was there when Christ died on the cross, and he wanted to sing and shout “Hosannah” with the others, but common sense prevented this. He wonders why he’s the only being in the world condemned “to be cursed by decent people.” He insists that there’s a secret in the world that will not be revealed to him.

The Gentleman says that, once humans have renounced God, they will be able to conquer nature. They will also accept death. He tells Ivan that the present question is whether or not such a time will ever come. If it does come, “the new man is allowed to become a man-god.” In such a world, “everything is permitted.” Suddenly, Ivan hears a firm knocking on the window, causing him to jump up. He wants to go to the window, but something seems to bind him. The knocking grows stronger. Finally, the bind breaks and the Gentleman has disappeared. Ivan is now convinced that he wasn’t dreaming. It’s Alexei at the window. Smerdyakov, he says, has hanged himself.