The Brothers Karamazov

The works of Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky can be described as exercises in “soul-searching.” Both have a habit of exhibiting sympathy for their characters, providing little vignettes of life and lifelike figures and displaying the inner beauty and humanity in them. They advocate love for and brotherhood with one’s fellow man. This is a distinct contrast to the attitudes of many other Russians during the period in which the authors wrote, specifically the “logical” intelligentsia, many of whom were atheists, even nihilists. In both Tolstoy’s War and Peace and Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, an overdependence on logical reasoning is presented as a negative trait that ultimately leads to a lack of love for man, unhappiness, failure,…

I am going to be discussing the claims made by Ivan Karamazov in the book, The Brothers Karamazov. I will also be discussing what these claims mean and how they contribute to the discussion of the morality, religion, and their relation to each other. He first claims that “If there is no God, everything is permitted.” He later claims that “There is no virtue if there is no immortality.” These are interesting claims, as they both have to do with the idea of religion and aspects of Christianity…

intelligent, charismatic, loving or even on the dark side. The effect of one’s upbringing, surrounding environment and the influence of certain events, neither anticipated nor facilitated by the individual are also significant. In order to make such an observation of character, I will be concentrating on the sons of Fyodor Karamazov in The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. The moral stance of the four sons ranges from Alyosha, who is said to be good by nature and Smerdyakov, the one who…

Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov revolves around the central idea that good cannot exist without evil because suffering is essential to salvation. Throughout the work of literature, everyone suffers, including the innocent. This concept of innocent suffering leads many people to doubt the good of the world and God; however, people, such as Ivan Karamazov, fail to realize that one cannot experience good if they do not know evil. The idea that suffering leads to salvation is developed in the…

named Peter Paul Rubens in the year 1619 through 1620. The painting encompasses many key themes from The Brothers Karamazov, such as: love, suffering, and free will. The themes represented in the painting proves Ivan misunderstood suffering and free will which caused his rebellion against God; "It's not God I don't accept, understand this, I do not accept the world, that He created, this world of God's, and cannot agree with it" (The Brothers Karamazov pg. 245). This painting also proves…

The Brothers Karamazov is a book written in 16th century Russia. Chapter 5 of the book tells a story of Ivan reading a poem set in the Spanish Inquisition to Alyosha. The poem parallels Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, His arrest in the garden, and His trial with Pilate. The story in the poem is set in the Spanish Inquisition, and the Grand Inquisitor, whom resembles Pilate in this story, arrested Jesus and told Him to not say anything, for he already knew what He would say. The inquisitor…

Dostoevsky’s description of the tragic Karamazov brothers and the murder of their father provokes questions about God’s sovereignty, the place of suffering in our world, human depravity, and redemption through pain. The Brothers Karamazov is a long book (almost 800 pages). Pevear and Volokhonsky’s translation is, undoubtedly, the easiest to read in English, but even the good translation cannot overcome some of the slow-moving moments where the novel labors in details. Many Karamazov fans (and I…

Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov is an intricate display of the depravity present in all humanity. Often either the characters or the narrator comments on how they themselves are in love with depraved or tragic situations. Questions of faith in the divine are often brought up as a way to condemn or justify behavior. Ultimately, Dostoevsky creates a universe, not unlike reality, in which moral corruption runs rampant with or without the presence of a Higher Power. However, Dostoevsky offers…

2101 7 November 2017 God Exists: True or False? In Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov: Rebellion, Ivan expresses his resentment towards God and the idea that the innocent must suffer in order to reach heaven. God’s responsibility for all of the atrocities committed by humans can be excused if we believe that free will was given to us and thus are responsible for our actions. One could then argue that God created all evil, which defies the premise “God is good.” If God is not good, then…

Why do we suffer? If God is a good, how do we explain the indescribable evil that exists in our world? This is a question that many want the answer to. For some, the answer is sin: We suffer and deserve to suffer because we are all corrupted by sin. Ivan, from The Brothers Karamazov, rejects the idea that we suffer because of sin. In a discussion with his brother, Alyosha, he describes the suffering of children in particular to make his case. Ivan details the unfairness in the fact that a…