Darkness at Noon

Chapter 4 opens with a description of Rubashov’s state of mind in the days following his first examination by Gletkin. He has lost all sense of time; he has no idea whether it is day or night or how long he has been allowed to sleep before his next round with Gletkin, who is always the one to interrogate him. Though he believed his examinations were finished after signing his confession during his first hearing with Gletkin, he realizes upon subsequent examinations, that he will be required to sign confessions for each of the seven charges against him. Instead of signing them all at once and ending the torture of sleep deprivation, he finds that a “queer, complicated sense of duty prevented him giving in to this temptation” (218). 

The next point of contention between Rubashov and Gletkin is whether Rubashov “negotiated with representatives of a foreign Power on behalf of the opposition, in order to overthrow the present regime with their help” (219). Gletkin cites as evidence a conversation Rubashov had with a Herr von Z., during which the men exchanged anecdotes about their respective fathers’ raising of guinea-pigs, and they talk generally about what would happen should No. 1 be deposed through revolution. Rubashov characterizes the conversation as “idle chatter” (221). Again, though, Rubashov concedes Gletkin’s point that, taken to its logical conclusion, such “idle chatter” would be dangerous and signs the confession. Once he signs the confession he asks about Ivanov, who, he learns, is under arrest for his negligent handling of Rubashov’s case. Later, after he has signed yet another confession, Rubashov asks Gletkin why he is not being tortured, and Gletkin tells him it is because he is one of “that tenacious kind” (225) who might confess under torture but then “recant at the public trial” (225). Rubashov is proud of this description of himself.

Though Gletkin and Rubashov argue over each of the charges brought against Rubashov, they come to “an unspoken agreement” (227) that “if Gletkin could prove that the root of the charge was right—even when this root was only of a logical, abstract nature—he had a free hand to insert the missing details” (227), so that they make no distinction between what Rubashov actually did and what he logically should have done. In the context of these rules, Rubashov wins only one of the charges against him—that of sabotaging the aluminum trust where he worked. 

After Rubashov signs the record of the dropped charge, they discuss it further; Rubashov claims that the real problem in the industries are workers being shot for “some trifling negligence” like being two minutes late (229). Gletkin responds by asking Rubashov if he was given a watch as a child. Rubashov says yes, and Gletkin observes that he didn’t even know how time was measured until he was sixteen years old, and that the peasants who grew up like him do not know “the habit of industrial precision” (230) and must be taught quickly, though violence. The conversation then moves to the efficacy of scapegoats, with Gletkin using Christ as an example, and further noting that whether or not Jesus was truly the Son of God and a virgin is inconsequential, as he is a symbol who is taken literally by the masses. He then claims that “[w]e have the same right to invent useful symbols which the peasants take literally” (232). Rubashov says that he sounds like Ivanov, and Gletkin admits to have learned much from him. Rubashov notices Gletkin’s use of the past tense in speaking about Ivanov, and Gletkin tells him that Ivanov was shot the night before. Rubashov wonders why he does not feel very badly about Ivanov’s death and is able to sleep when he gets back to his cell.

Chapter 5 is another excerpt from Rubashov’s diary, in which he compares himself and others like him to “civilized apes” (234) confronted by the “uncouth” (234) Neanderthal Gletkins. Chapter 6 marks the end of Part Three and of Gletkin’s examinations of Rubashov. During one of their last meetings, while they are arguing about the final charge against him, Rubashov faints. The prison doctor is brought in and when Rubashov comes to, he vomits. The doctor prescribes fresh air and Rubashov is taken out to the exercise yard where he walks again with the peasant with bast-shoes. The peasant notes that it is almost time to plant seeds and reminisces about how his whole village would accompany all the sheep in the district back up into the hills after the snow has melted. The peasant laments the loss of those happy days before the Revolution. Rubashov asks whether they were really happy then, but the peasant’s answer is unintelligible. He then compares the peasant with the biblical lost tribes in the desert, who wanted to return to being slaves in Egypt.

When Rubashov is brought in from the exercise yard, he is taken back to Gletkin, clutching a tiny lump of snow and the two men watch it melt over the heat of a lamp. Gletkin reminds him that the last point of his confession concerns his “motive.” Rubashov claims that his motive was the result of his “own conviction and conscience” (239). In response, Gletkin reads a passage from Rubashov’s own writing about how “subjective good faith is of no interest” (239). When Rubashov does not respond, Gletkin reads another sentence from Rubashov’s writing: “Honour is: to serve without vanity, and unto the last consequence” (239). When Rubashov responds that he does not understand what can be gained by “dragging [his name] in the dirt” (240), Gletkin reads out another passage about how right and wrong must be presented to the masses without qualification or nuance: “right must shine like gold” (240) and “wrong must be black as pitch” (240). He then tells Rubashov that his testimony at a public trial will be his “last duty to the Party” (240). As Gletkin continues his argument Rubashov remains silent, closing his eyes, too tired to respond. What matters, Gletkin asserts, is that the Party “be the better stayer” (242)—to persist at any cost—which Rubashov realizes is the same sentiment that allowed him to sacrifice Arlova and save himself.

Gletkin goes on to note, again, the Party’s defining principle, that the end justifies the means and that if Rubashov is truly repentant, he will “make the opposition contemptible” (243) in the eyes of the masses and “avoid awakening sympathy and pity” (243). He calls Rubashov “comrade” and reminds Rubashov that he will be sentenced to death. The Party, he says, only promises that “one day when it can do no more harm, the material of the secret archives will be published” (244) and then Rubashov and his friends “will be given the sympathy and pity which are denied to [them] to-day” (244). Rubashov signs the statement and looks at the portrait of No. 1 on Gletkin’s wall before he is escorted back to his cell. Part Three and the chapter end with Gletkin’s secretary congratulating him on his success, to which he responds, “It is all a matter of constitution” (246).