by Albert Camus
now? In that case, let's end our conversation
right here. You are forewarned: henceforth we
shall live apart.
STEPAN: And that's all? That's all that remains of
our twenty years together? Is that our final fare-
well?
VARVARA: Yes, what about those twenty years!
Twenty years of vanity and posturing! Even the
letters you sent me were written for posterity.
You are not a friend; you are a stylist!
STEPAN: You talk like my son. I see that he has
influenced you.
VARVARA: So you don't think I'm big enough to
think for myself? What have you done for me
during these twenty years? You even refused me
the books that I ordered for you. You wouldn't
give them to me until you had read them your-
self, and since you never read them I had to wait
for them twenty years. The truth is that you
were jealous of my intellectual development.
STEPAN (in despair) �. But is it possible to break off
everything for so little reason!
VARVARA: When I came back from abroad and
147 Scene 1$
wanted to tell you my impressions of the Sistine
Madonna, you didn't even listen to me; you sim-
ply smiled with an air of superiority.
STEP AN: I smiled, yes, but I didn't feel superior.
VARVAKA: There was no reason to, in any case!
No one is interested in that Sistine Madonna ex-
cept a few old simpletons like you. That's ob-
vious.
STEPAN: What is obvious, after all these cruel
words, is that I must leave. Mark my words: I
shall take up my beggar's staff and bag; I shall
leave all your gifts and I'll start out on foot to
end my life as a tutor in the home of some shop-
keeper or die of hunger in a ditch. Farewell.
(VARVARA STAVROGIN rises, exploding.)
VARVARA: I was sure of it. I have known for years
that you were simply waiting for the chance to
dishonor me. You are capable of dying just so
that my house will be slandered.
STEPAN: You have always despised me. But I shall
end my life like a knight faithful to his lady.
From this minute forward, I shall accept nothing
more from you and shall honor you in a disin-
terested way.
VARVARA: That will be new.
STEPAN: I know, you have never had any regard
for me. Yes, I was your parasite and I was oc-
casionally weak. But to live as a parasite never
was the ruling principle of my conduct. It just
happened, I don't know how. I always thought
there was something between us over and above
eating and drinking, and I never was vulgar.
Well, now I'll take to the road to right my
Third Part 148
wrongs! It is very late, the autumn is well along,
the countryside is thick in fog, the frost of old
age covers rny -way, and in the howling of the
wind I can hear the call of the grave. En route,
cependant! Oh, I say farewell to you, my dreams!
Vingt ans! (His face is covered with tears.)
Allans!
VARVARA {she is deeply moved, but stamps her
foot): [This is just one more bit of childish-
ness. You will never be capable of carrying out
your selfish threats. You won't go anywhere,
you won't find any shopkeepers, and you will
remain on my neck, continuing to draw your al-
lowance and to receive your dreadful friends
every Tuesday.] Farewell, Stepan Trofimovich!
STEPAN: Alea jacta est. (He rushes out.)
VARVARA: Stepan!
(But he has disappeared. She walks in circles,
tearing her muff to pieces, then flings herself on
the sofa in tears. Outside, vague noises.)
GRIGORIEV (coming in): Where was Stepan Trofi-
movich going? And there is an uprising in town!
VARVARA: An uprising?
GRIGORIEV: Yes. The workers from Spigulin's fac-
tory are holding a demonstration in front of the
governor's house. The governor himself is re-
ported to have gone mad.
VARVARA: Good Lord, Stepan may get caught in
the uprising!
(There enter, ushered in by ALEXEY YEGOROVICH:
PRASCOVYA DROZDOV, LISA, MAURICE NICOLAEVICH,
and DASHA.)
PRASCOVYA: Oh! Good heavens! It's the revolu-
149 Scene 15
tion! And my poor legs that can't drag me any
further,
{There enter VIRGINSKY, LIPUTIN, and PETER
VERKHOVENSKY.)
PETER: Things are stirring, things are stirring.
That idiot of a governor had an attack of brain
fever.
VARVARA: Have you seen your father?
PETER: No, but he's not running any risk. He
might be flogged, but that will do him good.
(STAVROGIN appears. His necktie is twisted out of
place. He looks a bit mad, for the first time.)
VARVARA: Nicholas, what's the matter with you?
STAVROGIN: Nothing. Nothing. It seemed to me
that someone was calling me. No . . . No . . .
Who would call me?
(LISA takes a step forward.)
LISA: Nicholas Stavrogin, a certain Lebyatkin,
who calls himself your wife's brother, is sending
me improper letters claiming to have revelations
to make about you. If he is really your relative,
keep him from bothering me.
(VARVARA rushes toward LISA.)
STAVROGIN (with strange simplicity): I have in
fact the misfortune of being related to that man.
It is four years now since I married his sister,
nee Lebyatkin, in Petersburg.
(VARVARA lifts up her right arm as if to shield her
face and falls in a faint. All rush toward her ex-
cept LISA and STAVROGIN.)
STAVROGIN (in the same tone of voice): Now is
the time to follow me, Lisa. We shall go to my
country house at Skvoreshniki.
Third Part 150
LISA walks toward him like an automaton. MAU-
RICE NICOLAEVICH, who was paying attention to
VARVARA PETROVNA, rises and rushes toward her.)
MAURICE: Lisa!
(A gesture on her part stops him.)
LISA: Have pity on me. (She follows STAVROGIN.)
BLACKOUT
THE NARRATOR (in front of a curtain lighted by the
burning city): The fire that had been smolder-
ing for so long finally burst forth. It first burst
out in reality the night that Lisa followed Stavro-
gin. The fire destroyed the suburb separating
Stavrogin's country house from the town. In that
suburb stood the house lived in by Lebyatkin and
his sister, Maria. But the fire burst forth likewise
in people's souls. After Lisa's flight, misfortune
followed misfortune.
SCENE 16
The drawing room of the country house at Skvo-
reshniki. Six a.m. LISA, wearin
g the same dress,
which is now rumpled and badly hooked up, is
standing by the French window watching the fires
of the city. She shudders, STAVROGIN comes in from
the outside.
STAVROGIN: Alexey has gone on horseback to get
news. In a few minutes we shall know all. It is
said that a part of the suburb has already burned
down. The fire broke out between eleven and
midnight.
(LISA turns around suddenly and goes over and
sits down in an armchair.)
LISA: Listen to me, Nicholas. We haven't much
longer to be together and I want to say all I have
to say.
STAVROGIN: What do you mean, Lisa? Why
haven't we much longer to be together?
LISA: Because I am dead.
STAVROGIN: Dead? Why, Lisa? You must live.
LISA: You have forgotten that as we arrived here
yesterday I told you that you had brought a dead
woman. I have lived since then. I have had my
hour of life on earth, and that is enough. I don't
want to be like Christofor Ivanovich. You re-
member?
Third Part 152
STAVROGIN: Yes.
LISA: He bored you dreadfully, didn't he, at Lau-
sanne? He always used to say: "I have come just
for a minute" and then he would stay all day. I
don't want to be like him.
STAVROGIN: Don't talk that way. You are hurting
yourself and hurting me too. I swear to you that
I love you more at this moment than I did yester-
day when we arrived here.
LISA: What an odd declaration!
STAVROGIN: We shan't separate again. We shall
leave together.
LISA: Leave? Why? To be reborn together, as you
said. No, all that is too sublime for me. If I were
to leave with you, it would be for Moscow, to
have a home and live among friends. That is my
ideal, a very middle-class ideal. But, as you are
married, all this is pointless.
STAVROGIN: But, Lisa, have you forgotten that you
gave yourself to me?
LISA: I haven't forgotten it. I want to leave you
now.
STAVROGIN: YOU are taking revenge on me lor
your whim of yesterday.
LISA: That is a thoroughly vulgar thought.
STAVROGIN: Then why did you do it?
LISA: What do you care? You are guilty of noth-
ing; you don't have to answer to anyone.
STAVROGIN: Don't despise me that way. I fear
nothing except losing the hope you gave me. I
was lost, like a drowning man, and I thought that
your love would save me. Do you have any idea
153 Scene 16
what that new hope cost rile? I paid for It with
life itself.
LISA: Your life or someone else's?
STAVROGIN (thoroughly upset): What do you
mean? Tell me at once what you mean!
LISA: I simply asked you if you had paid for that
hope with your life or mine. Why do you stare
at me so? What did you think? You look as if
you were afraid, as if you had been afraid for
some time. . . . You are so pale now. . . .
STAVROGIN: If you know something, / know noth-
ing, I swear. That's not what I meant.
LISA (terrified): I don't understand you.
STAVROGIN (siting doavn and hiding his face in his
hands): A bad dream ... A nightmare . . .
We were talking of two different things.
LISA: I don't know what you were talking about.
. . . (She stares at him.) Nicholas . . . (He
raises his head.) Is it possible that you didn't guess
yesterday that I would leave you today? Did you
know it�yes or no? Don't lie: did you know it?
STAVROGIN: I knew it.
LISA: You knew it and yet you took me.
STAVROGIN: Yes, condemn me. You have the right
to do so. I knew also that I didn't love you and
yet I took you. I have never felt love for anyone.
I desire, that's all. And I took advantage of you.
But I have always hoped that someday I could
love, and I have always hoped that it would be
you. The fact that you were willing to follow
me gave strength to that hope. I shall love, yes,
I shall love you. � . .
Third Part 154
LISA: You will love me! And I imagined . . .
Ah! I followed you through pride, in order to
rival you in generosity; I followed you to ruin
myself with you and to share your misfortune.
(She weeps.) But, despite everything, I imagined
that you loved me madly. And you . . . You
hope to love me someday. What a little fool I
was! Don't make fun of these tears. I love being
sentimental about myself. But that is enough! I
am not capable of anything and you are not
capable of anything either. Let us console our-
selves by sticking out our tongues at each other.
That way our pride at least will not suffer.
STAVROGIN: Don't weep. I can't endure it.
LISA: I am calm. I gave my life for an hour with
you. Now I am calm. As for you, you will for-
get. You will have other hours and other mo-
ments.
STAVROGIN: Never, never! No one but you . . .
LISA (looking at him �with a wild hope): Ah!
You . . .
STAVROGIN: Yes, yes. I shall love you. Now I am
sure of it. Someday my heart will relax at last,
I shall bow my head and forget myself in your
arms. You alone can cure me. . . .
LISA (who has recovered possession of herself, with
a dull tone of despair): Cure you! I don't want
to. I don't want to be a Sister of Charity for you.
Ask Dasha instead; she will follow you every-
where like a dog. And don't worry about me. I
knew in advance what was in store for me. I
always knew that if I followed you, you would
lead me to a spot inhabited by a monstrous spider
155 Scene 16
as big as a man, that we would spend our life
watching the spider and trembling with fear, and
that our love would go no farther. . . .
(ALEXEY YEGOROVICH comes in.)
ALEXEY: Sir, sir, they have found . . . {He stops
as he sees LISA.) I . . . Sir, Peter Verkhovensky
wishes to see you.
STAVROGIN: Lisa, wait in this room. {She goes to-
ward it. ALEXEY YEGOROVICH goes out.) Lisa . . .
{She stops.) If you hear anything, you might as
well know now that / am the guilty one.
{She looks at him in fright and slowly backs into
the study, PETER VERKHOVENSKY comes in.)
PETER: Let me tell you first of all that none of us
is guilty. It was a mere coincidence. Legally you
are not involved. . . .
STAVROGIN: They were burned? Assassinated?
PETER: Assassinated. Unfortunately, the house
only half burned and the bodies were found.
; Lebyatkin's throat was slit. His sister had been
slashed over and over again with a knife. But it
was a prowler, most certainly. I have heard that,
the night before, Lebyatkin was drunk and
showed everybody the fifteen hundred rubles I
had given him.
STAVROGIN: You had given him fifteen hundred
rubles?
PETER: Yes. Quite deliberately. And from you.
STAVROGIN: From me?
PETER: Yes. I was afraid he would denounce us
and I gave him the money so that he could get to
St. Petersburg. . . . (STAVROGIN takes a few steps
with an absent-minded stare.) But listen at least
Third Part 156
to the way things turned out. . . . (He grasps
STAVROGIN by the lapel of his Prince Albert, STAV-
ROGIN gives him a violent blow.) Oh, you might
have broken my arm! Of course, he boasted of
having that money. Fedka saw it, that's all. I'm
sure now that it was Fedka. He must not have
understood your true intentions. . . .
STAVROGIN {oddly absent-minded): Was it Fedka
who lighted the fire?
PETER: No. No. You know that such fires were
planned in our group action. It's a very Russian
way of starting a revolution. . . . But it came
too soon! I was disobeyed, that's all, and I'll have
to take steps. But don't forget that this misfor-
tune has its advantages. For instance, you are a
widower and you can marry Lisa tomorrow.
Where is she? I want to give her the good news.
(STAVROGIN laughs suddenly, but with a sort of
wild laugh.) You are laughing?
STAVROGIN: Yes. I am laughing at one who apes
me, I am laughing at you. Good news, indeed!
But don't you think that those corpses will upset
her somewhat?
PETER: Not at all! Why? Besides, legally . . .
And she's a young lady who isn't fazed by any-
thing. You'll be amazed to see the way she steps
over those corpses. Once she's married, she'll f or-
get-
STAVROGIN: There will be no marriage. Lisa will
remain alone.
PETER: No? As soon as I saw you together, I
realized that it hadn't worked. Ah! A complete
flop? [I'll bet you spent the whole night seated
157 Scene 16
on different chairs, wasting precious time dis-
cussing very serious things.] Besides, I was sure
that it would all end in nonsense. . . . Good. I
shall easily marry her off to Maurice Nicolaevich,
who must be waiting for her outside now in the
rain. As for the others�the ones who were killed
�it's better not to tell her anything about that.
She'll find out soon enough.
(LISA comes in.)
LISA: What shall I find out soon enough? Who has
killed someone? What did you say about Maurice
Nicolaevich?
PETER: Well, young lady, so we listen at doors!
LISA: What did you say about Maurice Nicolae-
vich? Has he been killed?
STAVSOGIN: No, Lisa. It was only my wife and
her brother who were killed.
PETER (in a hurry): A strange, a monstrous coin-
cidence! Someone took advantage of the fire to
kill and rob them. It must have been Fedka.
LISA: Nicholas! Is he telling the truth?
STAVROGIN: No. He is not telling the truth.
(LISA moans.)
PETER: But don't you see that this man has lost
his reason! Besides, he spent the night with you.
Hence�
LISA: Nicholas, talk to me as if you stood before
God at this moment. Are you guilty or not? I
will trust your word as I would God's word.
And I shall follow you, like a dog, to the end of
the world.
STAVROGIN (slowly): I did not kill and I was
against that murder, but I knew they would be
Third Part 158
assassinated and I did not keep the murderers
from doing it. Now, leave me.
LISA (looking at him with horror): No! No! No!
(She rushes off, shouting.)
PETER: So I have wasted my time with you!
STAVROGIN (in a dull voice): Me. Oh! Me . . .
(He laughs madly all of a sudden; then, getting
up, shouts in a thundrous voice) I loathe and de-
test everything that exists in Russia, the people,
the Tsar, and you and Lisa. I hate everything
that lives on earth, and myself first of all. So let
destruction reign and crush them all, and with
them all those who ape Stavrogin, and Stavrogin
himself. . . .
BLACKOUT
"SCENE 17*
In the street, LISA is running, PETER VERKHOVENSKY
is running after her.
PETER: Wait, Lisa, wait. I'll take you home. I have
a fiacre.
LISA {bewildered): Yes, yes, you are good. Where
are they? Where is the blood?
PETER: Stop! What can you do? It's raining, you
see. Come. Maurice Nicolaevich is here.
LISA: Maurice! Where is he? Oh, my God, he's
waiting for me! He knows!
PETER: What does that matter? Surely he doesn't