The Margin

Object

Dmitri's Metropolis Letter

Also known as that fatal document, that miserable, drunken letter, the prisoner's letter, a complete program of the murder, this program.

Dmitri's Metropolis letter is the drunken note Katerina Ivanovna produces in court after Ivan's disrupted testimony. She says Dmitri wrote it at the Metropolis tavern before the crime and that it describes killing his father for the money under the pillow. Once read aloud, it becomes one of the most damaging material proofs against him.

XII-VII. An Historical Survey

The prosecution treats the letter as conclusive proof of premeditation, stressing the phrase about killing after Ivan has gone away.

XII-VIII. A Treatise On Smerdyakov

Ippolit Kirillovitch argues that the written program makes any search for another murderer unnecessary.

XII-XI. There Was No Money. There Was No Robbery

Fetyukovitch answers that the letter is a drunken outburst based on hearsay about the envelope, not proof that the money existed or that Dmitri carried out the act.

This entry is sealed. You have not yet read far enough to open it.

The Margin

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Dmitri's Metropolis Letter