Nekhludoff's confession to the Procureur

Nekhludoff's confession to the Procureur marks the moment when his private guilt becomes an irrevocable public commitment. During an interval in the court session, he leaves the jury room and goes directly to the Procureur's cabinet, determined to take a step he knows will have a decisive influence on his life. The attendant tries to bar him, but Nekhludoff insists on being announced, and his title and good clothes gain him entry. The Procureur, a short, dark man with grizzly hair and a thick beard cut close on his projecting lower jaw, meets him standing, evidently annoyed by the persistence. Nekhludoff, blushing and resolute, states that he is on the jury and must see the prisoner Maslova. When the Procureur asks why, Nekhludoff answers that he betrayed her and brought her to the condition that exposed her to this accusation. The Procureur, lifting his brows with some agitation, presses further, and Nekhludoff then declares that whether he succeeds in getting the sentence changed or not, he wants to follow her and marry her. He is touched to tears by his own conduct and pleased to see the effect he produces on the Procureur, who exclaims, "Really! Dear me!" and remarks that this is a very exceptional case. The Procureur writes an order of admittance, and Nekhludoff, still standing, adds that he can no longer take part in the sessions because he considers all judging not only useless but immoral. The Procureur responds with a scarcely perceptible smile, advising him to apply to the Court, which will consider his declaration and may impose a fine. Nekhludoff angrily says he has made his declaration and will apply nowhere else, then leaves.

Background and Moral Preparation

The confession does not arise from a single impulse but from a long, agonizing inner struggle that begins the moment Nekhludoff recognizes Maslova in the prisoners' dock. During the trial, he is seized by the certainty that this is the same Katusha he had loved and then betrayed, and a complicated and fierce struggle goes on in his soul. He remembers how he had thrust a 100-rouble note into her apron and run away, groaning as if he had hurt himself, and how he had later tried to forget the whole affair. The memory of that night — the mist, the breaking ice on the river, the waning moon lighting up something black and weird — returns to him with unbearable vividness. After the trial, he walks home through the familiar streets, repeating to himself that everything is shameful and horrid, and feels caught in the meshes of a stupid, empty, valueless life. He resolves to break the lie that binds him, to confess everything, to tell everybody the truth, and to act the truth. He decides to tell Missy that he is a profligate and cannot marry her, to tell Mary Vasilievna's husband that he has been deceiving him, to dispose of the inheritance in a way that acknowledges the truth, and above all to see Katusha and ask her to forgive him. He even considers marrying her if necessary. That night, he prays, asking God to help him, to enter within him and cleanse him of all this abomination, and he feels the God within him awaken his consciousness.

The Confrontation with the Procureur

The actual confession takes place in the Procureur's cabinet during an interval of the court session. Nekhludoff, having left the jury room, goes straight to the Procureur, ignoring the attendant who tries to stop him. The Procureur, a short, dark man with grizzly hair and a thick beard cut close on his projecting lower jaw, meets him standing, evidently annoyed by the persistence. Nekhludoff, blushing and resolute, states that he is on the jury and must see the prisoner Maslova. When the Procureur asks why, Nekhludoff answers that he betrayed her and brought her to the condition that exposed her to this accusation. The Procureur, lifting his brows with some agitation, presses further, and Nekhludoff then declares that whether he succeeds in getting the sentence changed or not, he wants to follow her and marry her. He is touched to tears by his own conduct and pleased to see the effect he produces on the Procureur, who exclaims, "Really! Dear me!" and remarks that this is a very exceptional case. The Procureur writes an order of admittance, and Nekhludoff, still standing, adds that he can no longer take part in the sessions because he considers all judging not only useless but immoral. The Procureur responds with a scarcely perceptible smile, advising him to apply to the Court, which will consider his declaration and may impose a fine. Nekhludoff angrily says he has made his declaration and will apply nowhere else, then leaves.

Consequences and Aftermath

The confession immediately alters Nekhludoff's relationship to the world around him. The Procureur, after Nekhludoff leaves, tells a fellow official that Nekhludoff is on the jury and among the prisoners there is a woman sentenced to penal servitude whom he says he betrayed, and now he wants to marry her. The official remarks that there is something abnormal in the young men of today. Nekhludoff himself, after the confession, goes to the prison to see Maslova, but is not admitted that day. He returns home, fetches out his diary that has long remained untouched, and writes: "For two years I have not written anything in my diary, and thought I never should return to this childishness. Yet it is not childishness, but converse with my own self, with this real divine self which lives in every man. All this time that I slept there was no one for me to converse with. I was awakened by an extraordinary event on the 28th of April, in the Law Court, when I was on the jury. I saw her in the prisoners' dock, the Katusha betrayed by me, in a prisoner's cloak, condemned to penal servitude through a strange mistake, and my own fault. I have just been to the Procureur's and to the prison, but I was not admitted. I have resolved to do all I can to see her, to confess to her, and to atone for my sin, even by a marriage. God help me. My soul is at peace and I am full of joy." The confession thus becomes the hinge on which Nekhludoff's entire subsequent journey — his visits to Maslova, his efforts to appeal her sentence, his renunciation of his estates, and his decision to follow her to Siberia — turns. It is the moment when the spiritual man, long suppressed by the animal man, finally asserts itself and begins to reshape his life.