A Few Words on The Brothers Karamazov
I recently finished The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was written in 1880, one year before his death and it is said to be his finest novel. So, using deduction, if Dostoevsky is one of the greatest novelists of all time then that means The Brothers Karamazov could be considered one of the great novels of human history. I can’t recall exactly what compelled me to purchase a copy some time ago but I am very content that I picked one up for myself. The Brothers K is a hefty tome and my copy was 1,045 pages long. It is definitely the longest book that I have read.
It is a very dense read as Dostoevsky does not skimp on details. There are sub plots and the characters become intertwined in fantastic ways. The dialogue can be very deep conveying hard to comprehend opinions. The chapter titled “The Grand Inquisitor” is notorious for this and is a very difficult section to get through, let alone understand. I had to dig into it a bit more to learn that Dostoevsky was using Ivan’s character summarize, during his time, Russia’s movement away from Christian values towards atheism, nihilism and materialism which Dostoevsky was opposed.
However, Dostoevsky takes you along with the ebbs and flows of the characters. There are no shortages of surprises or elements to pique your interest. The plot continues to build up at a steady pace through the first half of the book but then quickly becomes riveting and hard to put down. I deeply admire the complex construction of the story that is told so incredibly well.
We start off the novel being introduced to Fyodor Karamazov. He is the father in the story and as we know, the story revolves around parricide. He is portrayed as a despicable sort of person and very interested in hedonistic pleasures. He manages to marry a woman, his first wife, and he comes into the possession of a modest dowry. He is able to use the capital reasonably well, setting up a small but solid revenue stream. He also has his first son Dmitry with this wife but she eventually passes away. Fyodor Kamarazov remarries and has two more sons, Ivan and Alyosha. This wife also eventually dies and Fyodor shows no interest in raising his three sons. I will spare details of their upbringing but it was not done by Fyodor himself. The three brothers are all very different in nature. Dmitry, as we meet him, is recently out of the army, bad with money and has the tendencies closest to those of his father. Ivan is the intellectual and an atheist. Alyosha is practically a monk and a young man of firm religious beliefs.
Dostoevsky begins the story with an indepth portrayal of the dysfunctional upbringing of the Karamazov brothers until we find them together about to have a meeting with Alyosha’s mentor, a famously devout monk, Father Zosima. The outcome of that first scene is hard to imagine and impossible to predict but ultimately sets the stage for the whole novel.
I hope you have opened this segment after you have read the book for yourself but if you know yourself well enough that you know that won’t happen then I am pleased to share my takeaways regardless. I think one theme that sticks out in this novel is that what you do will ultimately come back to bite you. Smerdyakov killed Fyodor Karamazov. The bastard son that was Fyodor only recognized as a servant. He was brought up entirely by Martha and Gregory and completely left out of any inheritance from Fyodor who was still his father. That is without even considering the rape that was committed which caused his birth. It is almost fitting, then, that Fyodor’s demise came from his bastard son who was deprived of so much. However, perhaps, this also includes Dmitry in this overarching lesson who certainly did not conduct himself in good behavior and then was not taken seriously in his defense of the crime. Therefore, act well my friends and have not your poor decisions return to haunt you.
The next takeaway is a bit more complex to explain but bear with me. Dostoevsky was nearly on his death bed when The Brothers K was finished and he died a year after it was published. He was well aware of this fact and I think The Brothers K hides some deep sentiments that he felt at the end of his life. He has referred to Alyosha as his most perfect hero and I think I can understand why. Dostoevsky hints in The Brothers K that the answer to life’s trivial nature and ultimate “meaninglessness” is in fact love. Love is the answer that gives life meaning and us our purpose. Alyosha is the devout religious character which Dostoevsky also began to take seriously at the end of his life. Alyosha is also the driving force of the novel. He is well-liked and trusted by everyone for his kind personality and faithful nature. He plays a vital role in interacting with all the characters in the story and ties the whole novel together. He embodies love so it is not surprise that the story ultimately follows him as he attends to every situation with strong faith and integrity.