Also known as seized him by the beard and dragged him out into the street, dragged him out into the street and beat him publicly, dragged me out of the tavern into the market-place, pulling me by my beard.
Captain Snegiryov's beating is the public violence Fyodor Pavlovitch brings up in Zossima's cell. Dmitri admits he behaved brutally to Captain Snegiryov, though he claims there was hidden provocation involving Fyodor's business and Grushenka. The event immediately stains Dmitri's defense of his own honor, because he cannot deny the outward cruelty of what he did.
IV-VI. A Laceration In The Cottage
When Alyosha visits the Snegiryovs, the beating is no longer only a charge in the Karamazov quarrel. It is present in the family's poverty, Snegiryov's frantic buffoonery, and Ilusha's feverish anger toward Alyosha as Dmitri's brother.
IV-VII. And In The Open Air
Snegiryov gives the full wound of the scene: Ilusha saw his father dragged before the schoolboys, kissed Dmitri's hand, and begged him to forgive his father. That memory becomes the root of Ilusha's rage, school persecution, and shame.
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