Nikolay Parfenovitch is the young investigating lawyer who steps forward at Mokroe and formally charges Dmitri. Dmitri notices him as a small young man in spectacles, only lately come to town and known to him only slightly. His first role is procedural and controlled: he tries to stop the police captain's outburst and bring the scene under legal form.
IX-II. The Alarm
At the police captain's house he is shown as a short, delicate, well-bred young man, socially playful enough to be called the naughty man by the ladies. Once drawn into the murder inquiry, he becomes grave and alert.
IX-III. The Sufferings Of A Soul, The First Ordeal
He opens the first formal questioning with soft insistence, water, dictation, and careful phrasing. His politeness does not keep the scene from feeling like pressure to Dmitri.
IX-VI. The Prosecutor Catches Mitya
During the search, Nikolay Parfenovitch takes charge of Dmitri's bloodstained clothes, inspecting seams, cuffs, and cap as possible hiding places for money. His official thoroughness becomes a humiliation for the prisoner.
IX-IX. They Carry Mitya Away
He reads the committal that makes Dmitri a prisoner and then nervously refuses Dmitri's offered hand. The refusal shows the boundary between his courteous manner and the legal machinery he serves.
XII-IX. The Galloping Troika. The End Of The Prosecutor’s Speech.
At trial, his preliminary work is recalled as part of the official picture of Dmitri's collapse under questioning. The protocol he helped build becomes one of the forms through which the night is interpreted.
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