Exchange of Crosses Between Myshkin and Rogozhin

The exchange of crosses between Prince Lef Nicolaievitch Muishkin and Parfen Rogojin is a ritual act of sworn brotherhood that momentarily suspends their violent rivalry over Nastasia Philipovna Barashkoff, only to deepen the tragic irony of the story: the sacred bond is forged between a man who has just attempted murder and the man who forgives him, and it cannot prevent the catastrophe that follows.

The Ritual and Its Immediate Context

The exchange takes place on the darkened landing of Rogojin's gloomy house in the Gorohovaya, immediately after the prince has survived Rogojin's murderous attack on the hotel staircase. Rogojin, still pale and trembling from the fit that saved the prince's life, leads him back upstairs and asks to see the tin cross the prince bought from a drunken soldier for fourpence. When the prince shows it, Rogojin declares he will wear it and gives his own gold cross in return. The prince accepts with evident emotion: "You wish to exchange crosses? Very well, Parfen, if that's the case, I'm glad enough—that makes us brothers, you know." The prince takes off his tin cross, Parfen his gold one, and the exchange is made. Rogojin then leads the prince into his mother's apartments, where the old woman, though she understands nothing of what is said, blesses the prince with three fingers raised, making the sign of the cross over him three times.

The Symbolic Weight of the Crosses

The crosses carry opposed social and spiritual meanings. The prince's cross is a cheap tin one, bought from a soldier who had just taken it off his own neck and was clearly pleased to have cheated a foolish gentleman. It is a Byzantine pattern, a marker of humble, even degraded, popular piety. Rogojin's cross is gold, the product of his father's mercantile wealth. By exchanging them, each man takes on the other's material and spiritual condition: the prince accepts the sign of Rogojin's fortune and family history; Rogojin accepts the sign of the prince's poverty and his Christ-like identification with the lowly. The prince later reflects that Rogojin had taken him to his mother's room "to stay his hand"—to make the murder he was contemplating impossible by binding himself through a sacred act. Yet the exchange does not erase Rogojin's suspicion; the prince observes that "the look of distrust, the bitter, ironical smile, had still not altogether left his newly-adopted brother's face."

The Unstable Brotherhood

Immediately after the blessing, on the stairs, Rogojin cannot bring himself to embrace the prince. He raises his arms and drops them again, turns away to avoid looking at him, and mutters indistinctly: "Don't be afraid, though I have taken your cross, I shall not murder you for your watch." Then, in a sudden transfiguration, his face grows deadly white, his lips tremble, his eyes burn like fire, and he stretches out his arms and holds the prince tightly, saying in a strangled voice: "Well, take her! It's Fate! She's yours. I surrender her.... Remember Rogojin!" He pushes the prince from him, enters his own flat, and bangs the door. The brotherhood is proclaimed and then immediately ruptured by the very passion it was meant to contain. The prince later tells Rogojin that he had a presentiment of the murderous intent even at the moment they exchanged crosses: "What did you take me to your mother for? Did you think to stay your hand by doing so?"

The Failure of the Sacred Bond

The exchange of crosses does not prevent the murder of Nastasia Philipovna. Rogojin kills her on the night before her intended wedding to the prince, using a garden knife with a bone handle and a blade about eight inches long—the same knife the prince had noticed on Rogojin's table during this very visit. The prince, in his final vigil beside Rogojin and the body, lies down on the cushions Rogojin has arranged, and places his face against the white, motionless face of the murderer. The sacred bond, meant to create brotherhood, ends in a shared vigil over a corpse. The prince's tears flow onto Rogojin's cheek, but he is by then beyond understanding. The ritual of the crosses, for all its sincerity, cannot overcome the forces of jealousy, possession, and violence that drive the novel's central tragedy.