• Home Page
  • Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dostoyevsky Analysis

Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dostoyevsky Analysis

Great Essays
Show More
During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the world was faced with a series of dramatic shifts and cultural reforms that revolutionized the world in order to make way for the postmodern era. During this tumultuous time, scholars began reevaluating concepts and challenging the authenticity of life prior to this period. Consequently, many philosophers examined the new definitions of freedom and autonomy and discovered their role as an individual in an increasingly absurd world. Fyodor Dostoyevsky was among those writers. In his novel, Brothers Karamazov, Dostoyevsky explores the theme of liberty and autonomy in contrast with control. Specifically, he investigates the relationship between freedom and authority as expressed in Grand Inquisitor. Ultimately, he concludes that complete authority in exchange for the appearance of happiness is dangerous because it constricts freedom and silences contrary ideas from even the most valid of sources.
According to Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor, freedom is a destructive tool that is used to corrupt societies by taking advantage of …show more content…
The Grand Inquisitor essential imposes complete authority over the people because he makes the assumption that people want to be happy. Although he recognizes the eternal rewards that accompany free choice, he contends that most people are too blinded by their immediate desires to consider anything past this life. Consequently, people will run society amuck if they have freedom because they are all innately selfish and will not receive heavenly rewards anyway. In that way, they will be both unhappy and separated from God. He even states “Nothing is more seductive for man than his freedom of conscience, but nothing is a greater cause of suffering” (Dovstoyevsky 7). Therefore, having complete authority may not bring salvation, but at least people can be happy in this

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    The Brothers Karamazov Chapter 5 Summary
    • 1088 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Brothers Karamazov Chapter 5 Summary

    Chapter five started off with the author talking about how he wrote chapter five at a campground in Oregon. The author talked about how she never get tired of coming back to the Pacific Northwest because he grew up out here and how he is resident of the Pacific Rim. Her favorite things to do when he come back to visit the Pacific Northwest is he come back to see particular things for example the tall trees, mountain ranges, and how he used camp and hike on the mountains. He can’t believe the beauty of God creation on earth that sometime it takes his breath away. She even compare her feeling to another character in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s…

    • 1088 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Leo Tolstoy Character Analysis
    • 745 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Leo Tolstoy Character Analysis

    Ivan Ilych’s desire for power and high social status drive him toward self-centeredness, which defines him as an antihero. Gleaned from the notion that he deserves to ascend the social hierarchy, “Ivan Ilych became…

    • 745 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Ambiguity In Dostoevsky's 'Crime And Punishment'
    • 1046 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Ambiguity In Dostoevsky's 'Crime And Punishment'

    The ability to distinguish a good person from an evil person is usually a simple task. Although in most literary works, it can be more difficult to differentiate between the two. In society people are quick to draw a line between good and evil but as people grow and face new experiences that line can become blurred and morals and values begin to change. In the novel, Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov can be branded as a morally ambiguous character. Raskolnikov can be viewed as morally ambiguous because he is portrayed as if he has two different personalities.…

    • 1046 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Power In Robert Alexander's The Kitchen Boy
    • 834 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Power In Robert Alexander's The Kitchen Boy

    On the night of July 16, 1916, two very different groups of people stood on either end of a firing squad line. The character of both the gunman and his victims revealed itself in those final seconds, as eight guns became the border between weakness and dominance. Power, or the lack thereof, is very often the deciding factor between good and evil. Robert Alexander’s The Kitchen Boy examines the two sides of power as the novel follows the story of Misha and his account of the Romanovs final days.…

    • 834 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Raskolnikov Guilt
    • 665 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Raskolnikov Guilt

    Fyodor Dostoevsky’s work on Crime and Punishment takes a stance that delves into the mental torture that ensues after wrongdoing; often times the internal anguish is more painful than a physical punishment. Guilt is a powerful feeling that can either erode the soul or inspire one to change. This intense sensation of remorse arises in the face of any transgression one commits whether the incident was real or imagined. This acts as a moral compass that allows one to ameliorate actions or do deep introspection.…

    • 665 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Dostoevsky Charles Bukowski Analysis
    • 846 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Dostoevsky Charles Bukowski Analysis

    “against the wall, the firing squad ready.” The subject against the wall, of course, was Dostoevsky, who is about to be executed. These few words brought to mind a picture of the firing squad, their guns at the ready, pointed at a single man; blind folded, cold, afraid. Just as suddenly, Fyodor’s fortunes change; he is given a reprieve, allowed to not only live, but thrive. Dostoevsky would go on to write great works of fiction such as Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov.…

    • 846 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Analysis Of Dreams In Crime And Punishment By Fyodor Dostoyevsky
    • 1401 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Analysis Of Dreams In Crime And Punishment By Fyodor Dostoyevsky

    Neurologist Sigmund Freud once said, “Dreams are the royal road to the unconscious” (“The Interpretation”). Sigmund Freud firmly believes that dreams allow people to be what they cannot be, and to say what they can not say in our more repressed daily lives (Freud). Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky is a novel that involves dreams to symbolize characters and foreshadow situations. Raskolnikov’s dreams may give more insight to his mind than the entire novel. Raskolnikov experiences four dreams from beginning to end.…

    • 1401 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Dostoevsky Compare And Contrast Essay
    • 2053 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Dostoevsky Compare And Contrast Essay

    Though Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky, two of Russia’s greatest authors, differ greatly, many of the themes that show up throughout their writings are strikingly similar. Perhaps the most notable of these shared themes is the concept of lust, strong sexual desire. This idea can be traced throughout many, if not all, of both authors’ works, large novels and short stories alike. Both authors seem to agree that, under many circumstances, lustful feelings and actions are terribly sinful and lead to awful consequences. Both War and Peace and The Brothers Karamazov, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky’s greatest works, respectively, portray characters that have an incredible sexual desire for a person or several people.…

    • 2053 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    The Great Inquisitor Analysis
    • 855 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Great Inquisitor Analysis

    After so many centuries, people man can imagine and create the other “God” and religion, or how the Great Inquisitor said “miracle”. Because all will think that the miracle is only can be appear from the God’s hand. These words affected the Grand Inquisitor low opinion of human nature, lack of faith in man. And so the Grand Inquisitor takes the protection of weak humanity, in the name of love for the people deprives them of the gift of freedom, burdening…

    • 855 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Of Morality In Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime And Punishment
    • 834 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Of Morality In Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime And Punishment

    Can morality be purely subjective to the perspective of an individual? Fyodor Dostoevsky explores this idea through the protagonist Rodion Raskolnikov, in the novel Crime and Punishment. “I simply hinted that an extraordinary man has the right… that is not an official right, but an inner right to decide his own conscience to overstep… certain obstacles, and only in case it is essential for the practical fulfillment of his idea (sometimes, perhaps, of benefit to the whole of humanity)”(Dostoevsky 260). This captures the main concept that is analyzed throughout Crime and Punishment, along with Raskolnikov's interpretation of it. He believes himself to be exceptional, with the right to murder an old pawnbroker that is a parasite to society.…

    • 834 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Great Essays

    Raskolnikov Character Analysis
    • 1601 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Raskolnikov Character Analysis

    Raskolnikov: A Freudian Psychoanalysis of the “Extraordinary Man” Raskolnikov is the type of character that Freud would have obsessed over: a man with a perceived sense of mental stability but with a realm of repressed desires — all the more reason to explore the unconscious, the uncharted realms of the human psyche. Contrary to Carl Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious, the dreams in Dostoevsky’s novel function as something beyond the characterization of archetypes common to multiple individuals. Dostoevsky’s novel, Crime and Punishment, proves to be more concerned with Raskolnikov’s perceptions regarding his crime, and the effects of self-instituted punishment, rather than the punishments inflicted by the institutions or the nature…

    • 1601 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Utilitarianism In Crime And Punishment, By Fyodor Dostoevsky
    • 1424 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Utilitarianism In Crime And Punishment, By Fyodor Dostoevsky

    In Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky invites the reader to explore the results of fully embracing utilitarianism as a moral philosophy. The novel does this through Rodya, a character who adopts utilitarianism and acts in unsettling ways. I will argue Dostoevsky does not challenge the core premises of utilitarianism, but instead asks the reader to think about the consequences of this ideology. Rodya is both nonreligious as well as utilitarian to the extreme. Rodya is (at least in part) persuaded to kill Alyona by the conversation he overhears, which evidences his commitment to utilitarianism.…

    • 1424 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Analysis Of Three Questions By Leo Tolstoy
    • 1198 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Analysis Of Three Questions By Leo Tolstoy

    The story “ Three Questions” was written by Leo Tolstoy and it explains deeply what bothers the king of the kingdom. According to the narrator, the King came up with three questions that trouble him and anyone who interprets best will be rewarded bountifully. The three questions are as follow; “how can I learn to do the right thing at the right time? Who are the people I most need, and to whom should I, therefore, pay more attention than to the rest? And, what affairs are the most important, and need my first attention?”…

    • 1198 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Alienation In Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime And Punishment
    • 1177 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Alienation In Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime And Punishment

    In the midst of a visit with his family on page 230 of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, the moment arrives where Raskolnikov must confront the inner turmoil his murders cause, leaving him in such disconnect with his surroundings that he believes he will never be able to express himself with anyone. This inevitably paves the way for irreparable isolation and paranoia, driving him to confess his actions and begin a new life with honesty and love. A couple days after Rodya kills an old pawnbroker and her sister, his own mother and sister come to St. Petersburg, and Raskolnikov is halfway through a frustrating and hesitant dialogue with them when he realizes that his relationship with them, as well as with the rest of the world, including…

    • 1177 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Extraordinary Man Theory In Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime And Punishment
    • 1030 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Extraordinary Man Theory In Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime And Punishment

    In Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment, the main character Raskolnikov speaks of a theory. This theory he calls the “extraordinary man”theory, and is his main justification for his actions in which the novel revolves around. The introduction of this theory in the novel by Raskolnikov gives the reader a more in depth evaluation of Raskolnikov's character because it reveals his justification for his murdering of the pawnbroker and her sister. Raskolnikov’s murder of the pawnbroker was an experiment to prove his Extraordinary Man Theory.…

    • 1030 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More

Related Topics

Ready To Get Started?
Discover
Company
Follow
©2024 Cram.com
Privacy Policy |  About Ads |  Site Map |  Advertise  | 
  • Cookie Settings