The Idiot — Part II — Chapter IV

Leaving Rogojin’s rooms, Prince Myshkin notices a long, narrow copy of Holbein’s Dead Christ. Myshkin remarks it could ruin faith; Rogojin agrees, then abruptly asks if Myshkin believes in God. Outside the door, Myshkin answers with four recent encounters that shaped his view of Russian religious feeling.

Myshkin recounts meeting an atheist scholar who, he feels, argued outside the true subject of faith. He then tells of two peasant friends: one, seized by desire for a watch, crosses himself and murders the other—an episode that makes Rogojin laugh harshly at belief twisted to justify crime.

Continuing, Myshkin describes buying a tin cross from a drunken soldier who cheats him, and then meeting a young mother whose baby smiles for the first time; she likens a first true prayer to God’s joy in His children. Myshkin concludes that the essence of faith lies beyond reason or deeds and is especially alive in the Russian heart.

As Myshkin departs, Rogojin asks to see the soldier’s cross and proposes exchanging it for his own gold cross. They swap, symbolically becoming “brothers,” though distrust still shadows Rogojin’s face.

Rogojin leads Myshkin to a neighboring flat, where his senile mother, gently attended by a companion, wordlessly blesses Myshkin three times. On the stairs, when parting, Rogojin first recoils from embracing Myshkin and jokes darkly about not murdering him for his watch, then is seized by emotion, embraces him fiercely, and bursts out that Fate gives Nastasia to Myshkin—“Take her! She’s yours. Remember Rogojin!”—before slamming his door.