The Brothers Karamazov

The Brothers Karamazov (?????? ?????????? in Russian) is generally considered one of the greatest novels by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky and the culmination of his life's work. It has been acclaimed all over the world by authors as diverse as Sigmund Freud, Andrew R. MacAndrew, Konstantin Mochulsky, Albert Einstein and Pope Benedict XVI as a masterpiece of literature and one of the greatest novels ever written. The book is written on two levels: on the surface it is the story of a patricide in which all of the murdered man's sons share varying degrees of complicity, but on a deeper level, it is a spiritual drama of the moral struggles between faith, doubt, reason, and free will. The novel was composed mostly in Staraya Russa, which is also the main setting of the book. Dostoevsky spent nearly two years writing The Brothers Karamazov, which was published as a serial in The Russian Messenger, and completed in November of 1880. The author died less than four months after publication.

Synopsis

Book One: A Nice Little Family

Introduces the Karamazov family and relates the story of their distant and recent past. The details of Fyodor's two marriages as well as his indifference to his three children's upbringing is chronicled. The narrator also establishes the widely varying personalities of the three brothers and the circumstances that have led to their return to Fyodor's town. The first book concludes by describing the mysterious religious order of Elders to which Alyosha has become devoted.

Related Topics:
Narrator - Elders

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Book Two: An Inappropriate Gathering

Begins as the Karamazov family arrives at the local monastery so that the Elder Zosima can act as a mediator between Dmitri and his father Fyodor in their dispute over Dmitri's inheritance. Ironically it was the atheist Ivan's idea to have the meeting take place in such a holy place in the presence of the famous Elder. Dmitri, in appropriate fashion for him, arrives late and the gathering soon degenerates and only exacerbates the feud between Dmitri and Fyodor. This book also contains a touching scene when the Elder Zosima consoles a woman mourning the death of her three year old son. The poor woman's grief parallels Dostoevsky's own tragedy at the loss of his young son Alyosha.

Related Topics:
Inheritance - Feud

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Book Three: Sensualists

Provides more detail into the love triangle that has erupted between Fyodor, his son Dmitri, and Grushenka. Dmitri's personality is explored in the conversation between him and Alyosha as Dmitri hides near his father's home to see if Grushenka will arrive. Later that evening, Dmitri bursts into his father's house and assaults him while threatening to come back and kill him in the future. This book also introduces Smerdyakov and his origins, as well as the story of his mother Stinking Lizaveta. At the conclusion of this book Alyosha is witness to Grushenka's bitter humiliation of Dmitri's betrothed Katerina, resulting in terrible embarrassment and scandal for this proud woman.

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Book Four: Strains

Introduces a side story to the novel which will show up again in more detail later in the novel. It begins with Alyosha observing a group of schoolboys throwing rocks at a sickly one of their peers named Ilyushechka. When Alyosha admonishes the boys and tries to help, Ilyushechka bites Alyosha's finger. It is later learned that Ilyushechka's father, a former staff-captain named Snegiryov, was assaulted by Dmitri who dragged him by the beard out of a bar. Alyosha soon learns of the further hardships present in the Snegiryov household and offers the former staff captain money as an apology for his brother and to help Snegiryov's ailing wife and children. But after initially accepting the money with joy, Snegiryov throws the money back at Alyosha and runs back into his home.

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Book Five: Pro and Contra

Was described by Dostoevsky as the culminating point in the novel. The rationalist and nihilistic ideology that permeated Russia at this time is defended and espoused passionately by Ivan Karamazov while meeting his brother Alyosha at a café. In the chapter titled "Rebellion" Ivan proclaims that he rejects the world that God has created because it is built on a foundation of suffering by innocent children. Later in perhaps the most famous chapter in the novel, The Grand Inquisitor, Ivan narrates to Alyosha his imagined poem that describes a leader from the Spanish Inquisition and his encounter with Jesus, who has made his return to earth. The Inquisitor challenges Jesus that by giving humanity free will he had in fact doomed them to misery and despair.

Related Topics:
Rationalist - Nihilistic - The Grand Inquisitor - Spanish Inquisition - Jesus

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Book Six: The Russian Monk

Relates the life and history of the Elder Zosima as he lies near death in his cell. Zosima describes his rebellious youth, how he found his faith while in the middle of a duel, and as a result decided to become a monk. Some of Zosima's homilies and teachings are then described which preach that people must forgive others by acknowledging their own sins and their guilt before others. Zosima teaches that no sin is isolated and in this way everyone is responsible for their neighbor's sins. Dostoevsky wrote this book as the answer and refutation to Ivan's challenge to God's creation described in the previous book.

Related Topics:
Cell - Preach - Sin

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Book Seven: Alyosha

Begins immediately following the death of Zosima. It is a commonly held perception in the town, and the monastery as well, that exceedingly holy men's bodies do not succumb to putrefaction. Thus the expectation for the Elder Zosima is that his deceased body will also not decompose. It comes as a great shock to the entire town that Zosima's body not only decays, but begins the process almost immediately following his death. Within the first day the smell of Zosima's body is already unbearable. For many this calls into question their previous respect and admiration for Zosima. Alyosha is particularly devastated by the sullying of Zosima's name due to nothing more than the corruption of his dead body. One of Alyosha's companions in the monastery named Rakitin uses Alyosha's vulnerability to set up a meeting between him and Grushenka. The book ends with the spiritual regeneration of Alyosha as he embraces the earth outside the monastery and cries convulsively until finally going back out into the world, renewed.

Related Topics:
Putrefaction - Earth

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Book Eight: Mitya

Deals primarily with Dmitri's wild and distraught pursuit of money so he can run away with Grushenka. Dmitri owes money to his fiancé Katerina and will believe himself to be a thief if he does not find the money to pay her back before embarking on his quest for Grushenka. This mad dash for money takes Dmitri from Grushenka's benefactor to a neighboring town on a fabricated promise of a business deal. All the while Dmitri is petrified that Grushenka may go to his father Fyodor and marry him because he already has the monetary means to satisfy her. When Dmitri returns from his failed dealing in the neighboring town he learns that Grushenka's former betrothed has returned and taken her to a lodge near where Dmitri just was. Upon learning this, Dmitri loads a cart full of food and wine and pays for a huge orgy to finally confront Grushenka in the presence of her old flame. In the course of this debauchery Grushenka promises that she really is in love with Dmitri. But just as the book concludes, the police enter the lodge and inform Dmitri that he is under arrest for the murder of his father.

Related Topics:
Money - Benefactor - Business - Betrothed - Police

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Book Nine: The Preliminary Investigation

Introduces the details of Fyodor's murder and describes the interrogation and torment of Dmitri as he is questioned and suspected of a crime he did not commit. The reader learns that Dmitri had the opportunity to kill his father, and even wanted to, but did not. He instead almost killed the family servant Grigory by bludgeoning him on the head with a pestle while scaling over the fence in Fyodor's yard. All of the evidence points against Dmitri; the only other person in the house at the time of the murder was Smerdyakov and he was incapacitated due to an epileptic seizure he suffered the day before. Smerdyakov actually faked this attack and, it is learned later, actually killed Fyodor. As a result of the overwhelming evidence against him, Dmitri is formally charged with the patricide and taken away to prison to await trial.

Related Topics:
Interrogation - Torment - Evidence - Prison - Trial

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Book Ten: Boys

Reintroduces the story of the schoolboys and Ilyushechka last referred to in book 4. The book begins with the introduction of the young boy Kolya Krasotkin. Kolya is a brilliant boy who proclaims his atheism and beliefs in the ideas of Europe. He seems destined to follow in the spiritual footsteps of Ivan Karamazov; Kolya is bored with life and constantly torments his poor mother by putting himself in danger. As part of a prank Kolya lies underneath railroad tracks as a train passes over and becomes something of a legend for the feat. All the other boys look up to Kolya, especially Ilyushechka. Since the narrative left Ilyushechka in book 4, his illness has gotten progressively worse and the doctor states that he will not recover. Kolya and Ilyushechka had a falling out over Ilyushechka's father's humiliation by Dmitri. But thanks to Alyosha's intervention the other schoolboys have reconciled with Ilyushechka and Kolya soon joins them at his bedside. It is here that Kolya first meets Alyosha and begins to reassess his nihilist beliefs.

Related Topics:
Europe - Railroad - Doctor

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Book Eleven: Brother Ivan Fyodorovich

Chronicles Ivan Karamazov's destructive influence on those around him and his descent into madness. It is in this book that Ivan meets three times with Smerdyakov, the final meeting culminating in Smerdyakov's dramatic confession of murdering Fyodor Karamazov. Smerdyakov expresses disbelief at Ivan's professed ignorance and surprise. Smerdyakov claims that Ivan was complicit in the murder both by telling Smerdyakov when he would be leaving Fyodor's house, and more importantly, by instilling in Smerdyakov the belief that in a world without God "everything is permitted." The book ends by Ivan having a hallucination in which he is visited by the devil, who torments Ivan by mocking his beliefs. Alyosha finds Ivan raving and informs him that Smerdyakov killed himself shortly after their final meeting.

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Book Twelve: A Judicial Error

Details the Trial of Dmitri Karamazov for the murder of his father Fyodor. The courtroom drama is sharply satirized by Dostoevsky. The men in the crowd are presented as resentful and spiteful, and the women are irrationally drawn to the romanticism of Dmitri's love triangle between himself, Katerina, and Grushenka. The turning point in the trial occurs with Katerina's damning testimony against Dmitri in which she reproduces a drunken letter he wrote to her saying that he would kill Fyodor. The tragedy continues when Ivan's madness takes its final hold over him and he is carried away from the courtroom after telling of his final meeting for with Smerdyakov and the aforementioned confession. The book concludes with the impassioned closing remarks of the prosecutor and the defense, and the final verdict that Dmitri is guilty.

Related Topics:
Courtroom - Drama - Satirized - Romanticism - Testimony - Prosecutor - Defense

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Epilogue

The Epilogue opens with an ambiguous plan developed for Dmitri's escape from his sentence of 20 years hard labor in a work camp. Ironically, in the deep suffering of this affair Dmitri has become spiritually regenerated and is ready to accept his fate. The novel concludes at Ilyushechka's funeral. Alyosha promises to remain close to Kolya and the other boys. He implores them to love each other and to always remember Ilyushechka. The boys promise Alyosha that they will be kind, love life, and keep each other in their memories forever.

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