Object
The Open Door
Also known as the door into the garden was open, The door stood open, the door already stood open, the door, standing wide open, the door open.
The open door is the fact that unsettles Dmitri's account of the night in Fyodor Pavlovitch's garden. The prosecutor says the garden door was open, proving that the murderer entered the room and left by it. Dmitri insists the door was shut the whole time he was in the garden and cannot explain who could have opened it.
IX-VI. The Prosecutor Catches Mitya
Grigory's evidence makes the open door still more damaging: he says he saw the door standing wide open before he noticed Dmitri running in the garden. Dmitri calls this impossible and says Grigory must be slandering him or raving from blood loss.
XI-VI. The First Interview With Smerdyakov
The door evidence remains one of the facts that makes Dmitri's story look untenable in the official record. It bears against his claim that he never entered the room.
XI-VIII. The Third And Last Interview With Smerdyakov
Smerdyakov tells Ivan that Grigory did not truly see the door open before the murder, but only fancied it. The mistaken sight, he says, is exactly what makes conviction of Dmitri so likely.
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