Ivan’s conversation with Makar, the new prisoner in the camp, has raised Ivan’s suspicions about him.

When Ivan heard Makar’s words about the death of the merchant Ivan was accused of murdering, he felt sure this was the man who had killed the merchant. He rose and went away. All that night Ivan laid awake. He felt terribly unhappy, and all sorts of images rose in his mind. There was the image of his wife as she was when he parted from her to go to the fair. He saw her as if she were present; her face and eyes rose before him; he heard her speak and laugh. Then he saw his children, quite little, as they were at the time: one with a little cloak on, another at his mother’s breast. and then he remembered himself as he used to be-young and merry. He remembered how he sat playing the guitar on the porch of the inn where he was arrested, and how free from care he had been. He saw on his mind, the place where he was flogged, the executioner, and the people standing around; the chains, the convicts, all the twenty-six years of his prison life, and his premature old age. The thought of it all made him so wretched he was ready to kill himself.

“And it’s all that villain’s doing!” thought Ivan. And his anger was so great against Makar Semyonitch that he longed for vengeance, even if he himself should perish for it. He kept repeating prayers all night, but could get no peace. During the day he did not go near Makar Semyonitch, nor even look at him.

—

Bitterness is like swallowing poison and waiting for the other person to die.

—

Story adapted from “God Sees the Truth, But Waits” in Walk in the Light and Twenty-Three Tales by Leo Tolstoy