Chapter 5 Not You, Not You!

On his way to Ivan, Alyosha detours to Katerina Ivanovna’s, suspecting Ivan may be there. He meets Ivan leaving; Katya summons them both back despite Ivan’s warning that she is upset. Katya demands Dmitri’s message: Alyosha asks her to spare herself and Dmitri by keeping silent about their first acquaintance and the money, which she mocks bitterly.

Katya, tormented by doubt, presses Ivan again about whether Dmitri is the murderer, revealing she had visited Smerdyakov and that Ivan had convinced her of Smerdyakov’s guilt. Ivan tries to withdraw, but Katya orders Alyosha to follow him, calling Ivan mad with fever. In the street, Ivan rejects concern, tears up a letter from Lise, and rails at Katya’s dependence as she prays over whether to save or ruin Dmitri at trial.

Ivan admits he maintains hope in Katya only to prevent her from testifying destructively against Dmitri, whom she hates. He reveals Katya holds a document in Dmitri’s own hand that could conclusively incriminate him. Alyosha protests Dmitri’s innocence and, under a powerful inner impulse, tells Ivan, “not you,” insisting Ivan is not the murderer despite Ivan’s private self-accusations.

Shaken, Ivan demands to know how Alyosha could know about “him,” hinting at a terrifying nocturnal visitor, then regains control and coldly rejects Alyosha’s “prophecy,” breaking off relations and warning him not to come. Alyosha urges Ivan to turn to him if anything happens, but Ivan leaves without reply.

Alyosha returns homeward, while Ivan, in mounting anger and agitation, turns back and hastens to Marya Kondratyevna’s lodging, where the gravely ill Smerdyakov has been staying since Fyodor Pavlovitch’s death. Driven by an irresistible impulse, Ivan goes to confront Smerdyakov.