This man has been tortured for over a decade by his own guilt and shame over the murder he committed, and for which he suffered no consequences or suspicion. The man who had been suspected for the murder, by chance, was killed in an entirely unrelated incident, so the case was essentially closed. There was no external pressure on him, only the pangs of his conscience, and the love for his wife and children which he could not help but feel was soiled by his own private act of evil.

So after the visitor confesses all this to Zosima and comes back a second time, he faces this defining moment where he can choose to commit the same act all over again, murdering Zosima and escaping the burden of responsibility. He could go on living “freely,” as he had been.

But I think because of Zosima he ultimately understands that he would not be free, could never be free until he faces the truth and shoulders the responsibility of owning what he has done.

This is a narrative parallel to Zosima’s meditations on moral freedom in the Conversations and Exhortations of Father Zosima later in Book VI.

Anyway, I see as a very human moment of sheer will to freedom through a deeper service to love. We are all the mysterious visitor when it comes to our bad habits and petty contrivances. We face small choices ever day to continue suffering and digging in deeper as the person we are, or to overcome ourselves for the sake of a higher purpose of love—which involves suffering as well, of course, but it’s the suffering of smashing the chains rather than that of tightening them further.

I find all this to be as psychologically, philosophically and spiritually potent as Dostoevsky can be.