Throughout The Double by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, there had been hints that maybe Mr. Golyadkin Jr., the double, was a product of Mr. Golyadkin Sr.'s imagination — and that it was either a way to signify him struggling to reconcile two facets of himself, or that he was simply suffering from some sort of mental disorder. Right at the end, it's made clear that it's most likely the latter, given that the last chapter pretty much describes Mr. Golyadkin having a psychotic/mental breakdown. Furthermore, a few chapters before that Mr. Golyadkin pulls a vial of medicine out of his pocket (even though he seems confused by it, and maybe thinks it's poison...?), which means he'd been presumably diagnosed with something beforehand too.
Right at the end of The Double, Mr. Golyadkin is taken by his friend, Dr. Krestyan Ivanovitch Rutenspitz, in a carriage, presumably to an asylum. As I mentioned before, the last chapter describes what seems like a psychotic or mental breakdown. However, the very last words spoken by Krestyan Ivanovitch seem to confirm something for Mr. Golyadkin (my highlight):
“You get free quarters, wood, with light, and service, the which you deserve not,” Krestyan Ivanovitch’s answer rang out, stern and terrible as a judge’s sentence.
Our hero shrieked and clutched his head in his hands. Alas! For a long while he had been haunted by a presentiment of this.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1846). The Double, chapter 13. Translated by Constance Garnett (1917). 1
Is there any special significance to this sentence?
Does it make Mr. Golyadkin aware of his mental condition?
Or does it just confirm his paranoia that people are out to get him, given that he sees the doctor as "a terrible Krestyan Ivanovitch" once inside the carriage?
1 I read The Double in another language, so I quoted it in Garnett's English translation. If there's a better/more accurate translation, please edit the question to replace this one.