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.