Page 1160 - the-brothers-karamazov

‘I got them from Smerdyakov, from the murderer, yes-
terday.... I was with him just before he hanged himself. It
was he, not my brother, killed our father. He murdered him
and I incited him to do it... Who doesn’t desire his father’s
death?’
‘Are you in your right mind?’ broke involuntarily from
the President.
‘I should think I am in my right mind... in the same nasty
mind as all of you... as all these... ugly faces.’ He turned sud-
denly to the audience. ‘My father has been murdered and
they pretend they are horrified,’ he snarled, with furious
contempt. ‘They keep up the sham with one another. Liars!
They all desire the death of their fathers. One reptile de-
vours another.... If there hadn’t been a murder, they’d have
been angry and gone home ill-humoured. It’s a spectacle
they want! Panem et circenses.* Though I am one to talk!
Have you any water? Give me a drink for Christ’s sake!’ He
suddenly clutched his head.
* Bread and circuses.
The usher at once approached him. Alyosha jumped
up and cried, ‘He is ill. Don’t believe him: he has brain fe-
ver.’ Katerina Ivanovna rose impulsively from her seat and,
rigid with horror, gazed at Ivan. Mitya stood up and greed-
ily looked at his brother and listened to him with a wild,
strange smile.
‘Don’t disturb yourselves. I am not mad, I am only a mur-
derer,’ Ivan began again. ‘You can’t expect eloquence from a
murderer,’ he added suddenly for some reason and laughed
a queer laugh.

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