The Possessed Read online

Trofimovich. Allow him to receive his friends

  25 Scene 2

  once a week. If they should come more often,

  put them out. Moreover, I shall be there to keep

  an eye on things.

  DASHA: Has Stepan Trofimovich said anything to

  you about this?

  VARVARA: No, he hasn't said anything. But he will.

  (She rises suddenly and throws her black shaivl

  over her shoulders, DASHA continues to stare at

  her.) You are an ungrateful girl! What are you

  thinking of? Do you think I am going to com-

  promise you? Why, he will come on his knees to

  beg you to marry him! He will be bursting with

  happiness, that's how it will be!

  (STEPAN TROFIMOVICH enters, DASHA rises.)

  STEPAN: Oh! Dashenka, my pretty girl, what a

  delight to find you among us again. (He kisses

  her.) Here you are at last!

  VARVARA: Leave her alone. You have all of life

  ahead of you to caress her. And I have something

  to say to you.

  (DASHA leaves.)

  STEPAN: Soit, mon amie, soit. But you know how

  much I love my little pupil.

  VARVARA: I know. But don't keep calling her "my

  little pupil." She is grown-up! It's irritating!

  Hum, you have been smoking.

  STEPAN: Cest-a-dire . . .

  VARVARA: Sit down. That's not the question. The

  question is that you must get married.

  STEPAN (stupefied): Get married? A third time,

  and at the age of fifty-three!

  VARVARA: Well, what difference does that make?

  At fifty-three we are at the peak of life. I know

  First Part

  26

  what I am saying, for I am almost there. Besides,

  you are a handsome man.

  STEPAN: YOU have always been indulgent toward

  me, mon amie. Mais je dois vons dire . . . je ne

  m'attendais pas . . . Yes, at the age of fifty we

  are not yet old. That is obvious. (He looks at

  her.)

  VARVARA: I shall help you. She will not be without

  a dowry. Oh! I forgot: you are marrying Dasha.

  STEPAN (giving a start): Dasha . . . But I thought

  . . . Dasha! But she's only a child!

  VARVARA: A twenty-year-old child, grace a Dieul

  Don't roll your eyes that way, please; you're not

  in the circus. You are intelligent, but you don't

  understand anything. You need someone to take

  care of you constantly. What will you do if I

  die? Dasha will be an excellent housekeeper for

  you. Moreover, I shall be there; I'm not going to

  die right away. Besides, she is an angel of kind-

  ness. (Bursting out in anger) You understand, I

  am telling you that she is an angel of kindness!

  STEPAN: I know, but such a difference in age . . .

  I was thinking ... If necessary, you see, some-

  one of my own age . . .

  VARVARA: Well, you will educate her, you will

  develop her heart. You will give her an honorable

  name. Perhaps you will be her savior�yes, her

  savior. ...

  STEPAN: But what about her? . . . Have you

  talked to her?

  VARVARA: Don't worry about her. Of course, it is

  up to you to urge her, to beg her to do you that

  honor, you understand. But don't worry, for /

  27 Scene 2

  shall be there. Besides, you love her. (STEPAN

  TROFIMOVICH rises and staggers.) What's the mat-

  ter with yon?

  STEPAN: I ... I accept, of course, of course, be-

  cause you wish it, but I should never have

  thought that you would agree . . .

  VARVARA: What do you mean?

  STEPAN: Without an overriding reason, without

  an urgent reason ... I should never have

  thought that you could accept seeing me married

  to ... to another woman.

  VARVARA (rises suddenly): Another woman! (She

  looks at him with flashing eyes, then heads to-

  ward the door. Before reaching it, she turns to

  him.) I shall never forgive you, never, you un-

  derstand, for having imagined for one second

  that between you and me . . . (She is on the

  point of leaving, hut GRIGORIEV enters.) I . . .

  Good day, Grigoriev. (To STEPAN TROFIMOVICH)

  So you have accepted. I shall arrange the details

  myself. Moreover, I am on my way to Pras-

  covya's to tell her about the plan. And take care

  of yourself. Don't let yourself get any older!

  (She leaves.)

  GRIGORIEV: Our friend seems thoroughly upset.

  STEPAN: In other words . . . Oh, I shall even-

  tually lose all patience and cease wanting . . .

  GRIGORIEV: Wanting what?

  STEPAN: I agreed because I am bored with life and

  nothing matters to me. But if she exasperates me,

  things might begin to matter to me. I shall be

  aware of the insult and I shall refuse.

  GRIGORIEV: YOU will refuse?

  First Part

  28

  STEP AN: TO get married. Oh, I shouldn't have

  talked about it! But you are rny friend; it is as if

  I were talking to myself. Yes, I am asked to

  marry Dasha, and I accepted in principle, I ac-

  cepted. At my age! Oh, my dear friend, for any

  soul that is the least bit proud, the least bit free,

  marriage is death itself. Marriage will corrupt

  me and sap my energy; I shall no longer be able

  to serve the cause of humanity. Children will

  come, and God alone will know whether they are

  mine. No, after all, they won't be mine; the wise

  man can face the truth. And I have accepted!

  Because I am bored. No, it's not because I am

  bored that I accepted. But there's that debt. . . .

  GRIGORIEV: You are doing yourself an injustice. A

  man doesn't have to need money to marry a

  pretty young girl.

  STEPHEN: Alas, I need money more than I need a

  pretty girl. . . . You know that I didn't manage

  very well that property my son inherited from

  his mother. He is going to demand the eight

  thousand rubles I owe him. He is accused of

  being a revolutionary, a socialist, of aiming to

  destroy God and property, and so forth. I don't

  know about God, but as for property, he clings

  to his own, I assure you. . . . Besides, it's a debt

  of honor for me. I must sacrifice myself.

  GRIGORIEV: But all this does you honor. Why are

  you complaining?

  STEP AN: There's something else to it. I suspect

  ... Well . . . Oh, I am not as stupid as I seem

  in her presence! Why this marriage in haste?

  29 Scene 2

  Dasha was in Switzerland. She saw Nicholas.

  And now . . .

  GRIGORIEV: I don't understand.

  STEPAN: Yes, there's a mystery about it. Why

  such a mystery? I don't want to cover up the

  sins of others. Yes, the sins of others! O God

  who art so great and so good, who will console

  me!

  (LISA and MA
URICE NICOLAEVICH enter.)

  LISA: Here he is at last, Maurice, this is he, this is

  the man. (To STEPAN TROFIMOVICH) YOU recog-

  nize me, don't you?

  STEPAN: Dieuf Dieu! Chere Lisa! At last a minute

  of happiness!

  LISA: Yes. It's been twelve years since we have

  seen each other. And you are happy, aren't you,

  to see me again? You haven't forgotten your lit-

  tle pupil?

  (STEPAN TROFIMOVICH rushes toward her, seizes

  her hand, and stares at her, unable to speak.)

  LISA: Here are some flowers for you. I wanted to

  bring you a cake, but Maurice Nicolaevich ad-

  vised flowers. He has such a sense of propriety.

  This is Maurice: I should like you to become

  good friends. I like him very much. Yes, he is

  the man I like most in the world. Maurice, I want

  you to meet my dear old professor.

  MAURICE: I feel most honored.

  LISA (to STEPAN): What a delight to see you

  again! And yet I am sad. Why do I always feel

  sad at such moments? You are such a learned man

  �can't you tell me? I always imagined that I

  First Part 30

  should be madly happy when I saw you again

  and that I should remember everything, and here

  I am not at all happy�and, yet, I love you.

  STEP AN (with the flowers in his hand): it doesn't

  matter. Here I am too, loving you dearly, and

  you see I'm on the point of weeping.

  LISA: Why, you have my portrait on the wall!

  (She goes and takes down a miniature.) Can this

  be I? Was I really so pretty? But I won't look

  at it! One life ends, another begins, then it yields

  to still another, and so on ad infinitum. (Looking

  at GRIGORIEV) You see how all this calls up the

  past!

  STEP AN: Forgive me, I was forgetting to introduce

  Grigoriev, an excellent old friend.

  LISA (with a touch of coquetry): Oh, yes, you

  are the confidant! I like you very much.

  GRIGORIEV: I don't deserve such an honor.

  LISA: Come, now, don't be ashamed of being a

  good man. (She turns her back on him and he

  looks at her with admiration.) Dasha came back

  with us. But you know that already, of course.

  She's a dear. I should like her to be happy. By

  the way, she told me a lot about her brother.

  What is Shatov like?

  STEP AN: Well, he's a dreamer! He was a socialist,

  then he abjured his ideas, and now he lives accord-

  ing to God and Russia.

  LISA: Yes, someone told me that he was a bit odd.

  I want to know him. I should like to give him

  some work to do.

  STEP AN: Indeed, that would be a godsend for him.

  LISA: A godsend�why? I want to know him; I

  31 Scene 2

  am Interested. ... I mean, I really need some-

  one to help me.

  GRIGORIEV: I know Shatov rather well, and, if I

  can help you, I'll go and see him at once.

  LISA: Yes, yes. I may even go myself. Although I

  don't want to disturb him, nor anyone else in that

  house. But we will have to be back home in a

  quarter of an hour. Are you ready, Maurice?

  MAURICE: I am at your beck and call.

  LISA: Splendid. You are good. (To STEP AN TRO-

  FIMOVICH as she goes toward the door) I imagine

  you are like me: I detest men who are not good,

  even if they are very handsome and very intelli-

  gent. The important thing is a good heart. By the

  way, let me congratulate you on your marriage.

  STEP AN: What, you know?

  LISA: Of course. Varvara has just told us. What

  good news! And I am sure that Dasha was not

  expecting it. Come, Maurice . . .

  BLACKOUT

  THE NARRATOR: So I went to see Shatov because

  Lisa wanted me to and it already seemed to me

  that I could refuse her nothing, although I did

  not for a moment believe the explanations she

  gave for her sudden whim. This took me, and

  takes you likewise, to a less elegant section of

  town where landlady Filipov rented rooms and a

  common living room to odd individuals such as

  Lebyatkin and his sister Maria, Shatov, and,

  above all, the engineer Kirilov.

  SCENE 3

  The scene shows a living room and a small bed-

  room, Shatov's, on the right. The living room has

  a door on the left opening into Kirilov's room and

  two doors upstage, one for the outer entrance and

  the other opening onto the stairs leading to the

  upper story. In the center of the living room KIRI-

  LOV, facing the audience, is doing his exercises with

  a most serious look on his face.

  KIRILOV: One, two, three, four . . . One, two,

  three, four . . . {He takes a deep breath.) One,

  two, three, four . . .

  (GRIGORIEV enters.)

  GRIGORIEV: Am I disturbing you? I was looking

  for Ivan Shatov.

  KIRILOV. He is out. You are not disturbing me,

  but I still have one exercise to do. Allow me. {He

  goes through his exercise, muttering numbers as

  he does so.) There. Shatov will be back soon.

  May I give you some tea? I like drinking tea at

  night. Especially after my exercises. I walk a

  great deal, up and down, and I drink tea until

  dawn.

  GRIGORIEV: DO you go to bed at dawn?

  KIRILOV. Always. I have for a long time. At night

  I reflect.

  GRIGORIEV: All night long?

  33 Scene 3

  KIRILOV (calmly): Yes, it is essential. You see, I

  am concerned with the reasons why men don't

  dare kill themselves.

  GRIGORIEV: Don't dare? In your opinion, there are

  not enough suicides?

  KIRILOV (absent-minded): Normally, there ought

  to be many more.

  GRIGORIEV (ironically): And what, in your opin-

  ion, keeps people from killing themselves?

  KIRILOV: The pain. Those who kill themselves

  through madness or despair don't think of the

  pain. But those who kill themselves through rea-

  son obviously think of it.

  GRIGORIEV: What, are there people who kill them-

  selves through reason?

  KIRILOV: Many. Were it not for the pain and the

  prejudice, there would be many more, a very

  large number, probably all men.

  GRIGORIEV: What?

  KIRILOV: But the idea that they will suffer keeps

  them from killing themselves. Even when one

  knows there is no pain, the idea remains. Just

  imagine a stone as big as a house falling on you.

  You wouldn't have time to feel anything, to suf-

  fer at all. Well, even so, men are afraid and hesi-

  tate. It is interesting.

  GRIGORIEV: There must be another reason.

  KIRILOV: Yes . . . The other world.

  GRIGORIEV: YOU mean punishment.

  KIRILOV: NO, the other world. People think there

&n
bsp; is a reason for going on living.

  GRIGORIEV: And there isn't any?

  KIRILOV: NO, there is none, and that's why we are

  First Part 34

  free. It is a matter of indifference whether we

  live or die.

  GRIGORIEV: How can you say that so calmly?

  KIRILOV: I don't like getting into disputes, and I

  never laugh.

  GRIGORIEV: Man is afraid of death because he likes

  life, because life is good, that's all.

  KIRILOV (suddenly bursting out): But that's cow-

  ardice, just cowardice! Life isn't good. And the

  other world does not exist! God is simply a ghost

  conjured up by fear of death and suffering. In

  order to be free, it is essential to overcome pain

  and terror, it is essential to kill oneself. Then

  there will no longer be any God, and man will

  at last be free. Then history will be divided into

  two parts: from the ape to the destruction of

  God, and from the destruction of God . . .

  GRIGORIEV: TO the ape.

  KIRILOV: To the divinity of man. (Suddenly

  calm) The man who dares to kill himself is God.

  No one had ever thought of that. But / have.

  GRIGORIEV: There have been millions of suicides.

  KIRILOV: Never for that reason. Always from fear.

  Never to kill fear. The man who kills himself to

  kill fear will at that very moment become God.

  GRIGORIEV: I am afraid he won't have time.

  KIRILOV (rising and slowly with scorn in his voice):

  I am sorry that you seem to be laughing.

  GRIGORIEV: Forgive me; I wasn't laughing. But it

  is all so strange.

  KIRILOV: Why strange? The strange thing is that

  people can live without thinking of that. / can't

  think of anything else. All my life I have thought

  35 Scenes

  of nothing else. (He gestures to GRIGORIEV, inho

  leans forward.) All my life I have been tor-

  mented by God.

  GRIGORIEV: Why do you speak to me this way?

  You don't know me.

  KIRILOV: YOU look like my brother, who died

  seven years ago.

  GRIGORIEV: Did he exert a great influence over

  you?

  KIRILOV: No. He never said anything. But you

  look very much like him, extraordinarily like

  him. (SHATOV comes in. KIRILOV rises.) I beg to

  inform you that Mr. Grigoriev has been waiting

  for you for some time. (He leaves.)

  SHATOV: What's the matter with him?

  GRIGORIEV: I don't know. If I understood what he

  was saying, he wants all of us to commit suicide

  to prove to God that he doesn't exist.

  SHATOV: Yes, he's a nihilist. He caught the bug in

  America.

  GRIGORIEV: In America?

  SHATOV: That's where I met him. We starved to-

  gether and slept together on the bare ground.

  [That was the time when I felt the same as all

  those thwarted people. We wanted to go there

  to experience directly how it feels to be placed in

  the worst social conditions.

  GRIGORIEV: Good Lord! Why go so far? All you

  had to do was sign up for the harvest twenty kil-

  ometers from here.

  SHATOV: I know. But that's how mad we were.

  Kirilov hasn't changed, although there is in him

  a deep passion and a resistance that I respect. In

  First Part 36

  America he starved without a word of com-

  plaint.] Fortunately, a generous friend sent us

  money to get back home. (He looks fixedly at

  the NARRATOR.) You don't ask who that man

  was?

  GRIGORIEV: Who?

  SHATOV: Nicholas Stavrogin. (Silence.) And you

  probably think you know why he did it?

  GRiGORiEV: I pay no attention to gossip.

  SHATOV: Well, even if he did have an affair with my

  wife? (He stares at him.) I haven't yet paid him

  back. But I shall do so. I don't want to have any-

  thing to do with such people. (Pause.) You see,

  Grigoriev, all those people, Liputin, Shigalov,

  and so many others, like Stepan Trofimovich's

  son and even Stavrogin�you know what moti-

  vates them? Hatred. (The NARRATOR makes a

  gesture of protest.) Yes. They hate their coun-

  try. They would be the first to suffer dreadfully

  if their country could be suddenly reformed, if

  it became exceptionally prosperous and happy.

  They wouldn't have anyone to spit on any more.

  Whereas now they can spit on their country and

  wish her all kinds of misfortune.

  GRIGORIEV: And you, Shatov?

  SHATOV: I love Russia now, although I am not

  worthy of her. That is why I am saddened by

  her misfortune and my own unworthiness. And

  they, my former friends, accuse me of having

  betrayed them. (He turns away.) Meanwhile, I

  ought to earn some money to repay Stavrogin.

  I absolutely must.

  GRIGORIEV: It so happens�

  37 Scene 3

  (There is a knock at the door, SHATOV goes to

  open it. LISA enters "with a bundle of newspapers