Dmitri’s assault on the retired captain is both an act of public violence and a charge used by his father in their wider dispute. When the episode is brought up, Dmitri does not deny the assault: he acknowledges his brutality and regret, while insisting that the account of what led to it is incomplete.

Background and Circumstances

In a public confrontation, Dmitri’s father describes the captain as a poor but honourable man with a large family, discharged from the army without a court-martial or disgrace. He says that Dmitri seized the captain by the beard in a tavern, dragged him into the street, and beat him three weeks earlier. According to the father, Dmitri acted because the captain was serving as his agent in a small business.

Dmitri’s Response

Dmitri calls his father’s account a lie in substance, although outwardly true. He openly confesses that he behaved brutally toward the captain, says he regrets it, and expresses disgust with his own rage. His response distinguishes admission of the act from acceptance of his father’s framing: Dmitri concedes the assault but disputes the explanation attached to it.

The Family Dispute

Dmitri connects the captain’s role to the conflict over his property and his father’s alleged effort to have him imprisoned if he persisted in demanding an account. He also says that his father had encouraged the woman for whom Dmitri had a weakness to captivate him, and that she told him this herself and laughed at his father. Thus the assault is recalled not as an isolated quarrel but as part of a struggle involving money, jealousy, and the father’s use of the captain as an agent.

Consequence and Significance

The episode gives Dmitri’s father a concrete example with which to condemn his son publicly, while Dmitri’s confession prevents him from answering by simple denial. The exchange instead turns on the difference between the acknowledged violence and the motives and circumstances Dmitri says his father has concealed. The captain’s assault therefore sharpens the larger family conflict: Dmitri accepts responsibility for his conduct but rejects the account that makes it a self-contained act of brutality.