The Margin

Event

Dmitri's Contemplated Suicide

Also known as a willow, a handkerchief, a shirt, twist them into a rope, put a bullet in my brain.

At the crossroads on the road to the monastery, Dmitri tells Alyosha that before hearing him approach he had thought of hanging himself from the willow. The thought comes after the violence at his father's house and before Alyosha's report from Katerina. At this horizon, suicide is not a settled plan so much as the sudden edge of Dmitri's shame, love, and self-disgust.

IX-V. The Third Ordeal

During the preliminary questioning, Dmitri says he redeemed his pistols because he meant to shoot himself at five in the morning, after one last feast at Mokroe.

IX-VII. Mitya’s Great Secret. Received With Hisses

He connects the suicide plan to Dmitri's Money Amulet, explaining that once he had condemned himself to die he finally tore open the hidden money and spent it.

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The Margin

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Dmitri's Contemplated Suicide