Contents
Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov Brothers Karamazov Essays
The Brothers Karamazov – Thriller
The Brothers Karamazov is an enthralling thriller about the strive for self-redemption in the eyes of God as well as in the hearts of the Russians. The murder of Fyodor Karamazov, a foolish and heartless savage who betrays his own sons of a father’s care, venomously seeps its way into Dmitri, Ivan, and Alyosha’s lives causing innocence to request fault and suffering. With intricate characterizations, Dostoevsky magnificently presents the internal agony that derives from a wavering spirit.
The religious teachings of the great elder Father Zosima engross the minds of the spiritually inadequate throughout the novel. Dostoevsky essentially carries these guidelines to peaceful immortality by means of the character Alyosha. At the death bed of the holy man, Alyosha absorbs the sanctified secrets and thus transmits them,through Dostoevsky’s technique of linkage, into the minds of about all of the characters in the novel, creating a strong, common vine that integrates itself from the beginning paragraph to the epilogue.
The main theory that Father Zosima advises Alyosha to follow, revolves around the total purification of one’s soul through torment and suffering. In the beginning of the novel, Father Zosima predicts that Dmitri will somehow redeem himself for all his past sins, involving his hot temper and recklessness, because Dmitri has the heart of a true Russian who loves the gifts of the Earth and has the desire, however deep inside him, to love and obey God’s laws. After the murder of Fyodor, Dmitri, even though he is innocent of the crime, feels guilty for his immoral behavior in his life and also his want to vanquish his father. He finally realizes that “it’s not only impossible to live a scoundrel, but impossible to die a scoundrel” (442), and so he is truly ready to undergo harsh punishment in order to resurrect as a pious individual.
By carelessly playing with the passions of both Fyodor and Dmitri, Grushenka feels responsible for the murder. In an attempt to punish herself, Grushenka buries herself in Dmitri’s sins, and confesses passionately that she will never separate her love from him. Again, Father Zosima’s teachings have grasped the soul of another character. The elder preached that one should love all indiscriminately, and by caring for Dmitri to the point of physical sickness, which is also a form of exhibiting suffering, Grushenka completes her “spiritual transformation” (537).
The complex character of Ivan, undergoes his own form of “suffering,” yet without wanting to become closer to God. Through Ivan’s writings, Dostoevsky presents the opposition to Father Zosima’s philosophical views. Although he does admit to the existence of God, Ivan refuses to accept the world that God has created, specifically the suffering of innocence. Accompanying his view of religion, is a cocky, intellectual attitude that emerges into Ivan’s imaginary “devil,” resulting in a complete nervous breakdown that leaves him grappling on the edge of sanity. Thus Ivan endures suffering, like the others, yet he never seems to reach the rewards of the higher spiritual plain.
Overall, Dostoevsky depicts the journeys to purity and the need, of all creatures in the world, for love and divine guidance.