Mitya accepts his arrest and says goodbye

Mitya’s arrest turns the preliminary investigation into formal custody, but his farewell makes the moment more than a legal transfer. He accepts public shame and punishment while maintaining that he did not kill his father; what he acknowledges is his intention to do so, and the possibility that he might have acted on it. The departure thus holds together a denial of the crime, an acceptance of moral responsibility, and a resolve to fight the accusation.

Formal Committal

After the protocol is signed, Nikolay Parfenovitch reads Mitya the formal committal. The document sets out the official circumstances of the case and the procedure by which a copy is communicated to the deputy prosecutor. In plain terms, Mitya is told that he is now a prisoner and will be taken at once to the town, where he will be confined. He listens attentively and shrugs; the bureaucratic declaration makes his changed status explicit, even before he leaves the room.

Acknowledgment and Defiance

Mitya interrupts the proceedings under the pressure of feeling and addresses everyone present. He broadens his own case into an acknowledgment of human cruelty and responsibility for making others suffer, then turns back to the charge against him. He accepts the ordeal of accusation and public shame as suffering that may purify him, but draws a firm distinction between accepting punishment and confessing to murder: he says he did not shed his father’s blood, while admitting that he meant to kill him and might have done so.

That distinction gives the departure its moral tension. Mitya does not use his denial to excuse his hostility or his intentions. Nor does his willingness to suffer mean that he will submit to the legal finding: he warns that he will fight the case to the end and leave the final judgment to God. His apology for having shouted during the examination accompanies this defiance, as if he wants to take leave of the investigators without retracting either his anger or his claim of innocence.

Farewells and Departure

Before custody begins, Mitya calls himself a free man for the last time and offers his hand to those present, extending his farewell beyond the officials to all people. His voice falters as he reaches out. The gesture briefly makes the room a community of leave-taking, rather than merely the setting of a state procedure.

Grushenka is brought in, but their farewell is short and does not satisfy Nikolay Parfenovitch. She bows deeply and renews her promise that she belongs with Mitya and will follow him. With tears in her eyes, she receives his apology for the damage he believes his love has brought upon her. He begins to say more, breaks off, and leaves; the exchange confirms their attachment without changing the immediate fact of their separation.

At the steps, Mitya is surrounded by men assigned to watch him. As the cart moves away, he clasps Kalganov’s hand and thanks him warmly for his generosity. Their hands part when the cart continues, the bell rings, and Mitya is driven off. The sequence ends not with a resolution of the murder charge, but with the prisoner physically carried into custody and his farewells left behind.