What It Is
The carriage drawn by three horses, which in the novel does two things at once: it carries the characters to Mokroye on the night of the crime, and later, in court, it becomes an image of Russia. On one side, it is an object: Timofey's troika that seeks Grushenka, Andrei's in which Dmitri Fyodorovich Karamazov crosses the night, the ones that take him away under arrest the next morning. On the other, it is the figure Gogol left at the end of Dead Souls, the national troika that races toward an unknown end, and which the prosecutor and the lawyer take up with opposite meanings. The symbol links what the book tells in action, a man's race, with what the court says of him, a people's race.
Where It Appears
In chapter III of Book VII, Fenya bursts in shouting that the mail has come and that the carriage for Mokroye is waiting with Timofey and the troika, and Grushenka sets off to meet her first love.
In chapter V of Book VIII, Mitya, determined to go to Mokroye, finds the coachman Andrei, tells him to wait at the door of the provisions shop, and orders a second troika, a cargo one, with food and wine for the party.
In chapter VI of Book VIII, the troika covers the twenty-odd versts in a little over an hour, and the run refreshes Mitya. On the way, he tells Andrei a traffic rule that is a rule for life.
Нельзя давить человека, нельзя людям жизнь портить; а коли испортил жизнь — наказуй себя… если только испортил, если только загубил кому жизнь — казни себя и уйди., One must not crush a person, one must not spoil people's lives; and if you have spoiled a life, punish yourself... if you have really spoiled it, if you have really ruined someone's life, execute yourself and go away.
He asks the coachman whether Dmitri Karamazov will go to hell, and Andrei answers with a popular legend.
Не стони, аде, ибо приидут к тебе отселева всякие вельможи, управители, главные судьи и богачи, и будешь восполнен так же точно, как был во веки веков, до того времени, пока снова приду, Do not groan, hell, for there will come to you from here all manner of great lords, administrators, chief judges and rich men, and you will be filled up just as you were forever and ever, until the time when I come again.
Mitya, frenzied, prays in a low voice.
Господи, прими меня во всем моем беззаконии, но не суди меня. Пропусти мимо без суда твоего… Не суди, потому что я сам осудил себя; не суди, потому что люблю тебя, господи!, Lord, receive me in all my lawlessness, but do not judge me. Let me pass by without your judgment... Do not judge me, because I have condemned myself; do not judge me, because I love you, Lord!
In chapter IX of Book IX, in the morning, on the landing of the inn he reached with a clatter the day before, two carts wait to take him: the commissioner wants a second troika for two guards, and Mitya asks why, if they can go in one.
In chapter VI of Book XII, Hippolyte Kirillovich quotes Gogol and corrects him: if Sobakevich, Nozdryov and Chichikov were harnessed to the troika, with any coachman you would get nowhere. Closing the prosecution, in chapter IX of Book XII, he warns that the fatal troika may be racing toward perdition, that other peoples draw back from it in horror and not respect, and that a verdict acquitting a parricide son will give them reason to stop it. Before that he says the phrase the room will repeat in the corridor.
Нет, господа присяжные, у тех Гамлеты, а у нас еще пока Карамазовы!, No, gentlemen jurors, they have their Hamlets, and we still, for the time being, have Karamazovs!
In chapter XIII of Book XII, Fetyukovich hands back the adjusted image.
Не бешеная тройка, а величавая русская колесница торжественно и спокойно прибудет к цели., not a frenzied troika, but a majestic Russian carriage will solemnly and calmly reach its goal.
What It Means
On the road to Mokroye the troika is a person in motion: Mitya runs to see the woman he loves, or to kill himself, without knowing which of the two, and the coachman, who takes him for a child, says that hell belongs to others. In court, the same word carries a country, and whoever wields it wants a verdict: the prosecutor fears what it drags along, the lawyer wants it solemn, and both speak of Russia to convince twelve men who, in their view, represent it. The book shows the carriage before it shows the metaphor, and the reader reaches the speech knowing what the troika actually carries.
Two readings. In one, Mitya's troika disowns the orators: what ran that night was not a nation headed for the abyss nor a majestic carriage, but a man of debts and jealousy who asked God for five hours to love, and the national image fits him only if one forgets Andrei, Fenya and Grushenka. In the other, the metaphor is the true one, and the novel prepares it on purpose: what the prosecutor calls the breadth of the Karamazovs, who contemplate both abysses, is the speed and the lack of brakes that the run had shown, and the verdict of guilty, which the defense's majestic carriage does not avert, does not say which of the two images was right. The text leaves both, and the Mokroye run, narrated without fanfare, serves as evidence for either.
Relationships
- Default themes: Guilt, Justice and law.
- Themes of the work: Guilt, Justice and law.
- Characters: Dmitri Fyodorovich Karamazov, Grushenka, Hippolyte Kirillovich, Fetyukovich.
- Neighboring symbols: the earth watered with tears, the same night in another place, and the onion, Grushenka's turning point that sends her off.