The Brothers Karamazov Part 2, Book V - VI
Book V - Pro and Contra
Alyosha returns to Lise’s house where he learns Katerina is having hysterics after Ivan’s departure and that the doctor has been called for her. Alyosha is asked to wait with Lise, who appears to be blushing quite heavily in his presence. He begins to report his incident with Snegirov and they analyze why he didn’t take the money. Aloysha concludes that Snegirov had shown too much desire for it and when Alyosha also offered to help, it had been too much for the man’s pride. However, he believes that Snegirov has an actual need for it, and he had salvaged himself in his own eyes by rejecting the money. Alyosha is certain that if he were to go tomorrow, then Snegirov would accept the amount, and he intends to do so. Lise admires him deeply, and they begin to speak of love. He promises to be with her after leaving the monastery and steals a kiss from him. Alyosha also confesses that he has been sad of late because his Elder’s approaching death has begun to make him question if he believes in God. She tells him to go to the elder, and as he is leaving, he meets Mrs. Khokhlakov, who is quite displeased after hearing Alyosha and Lise’s plans for marriage.
As he is returning to the Monastery, he has a sudden desire to see Dmitri, and heads to the room that his brother had been renting. There, he overhears Smerdyakov singing with the neighbor’s daughter and berating Dmitri. Smerdyakov thinks that Dmitri has squandered the opportunities that he has been given, and that he Smerdyakov would have done better in his stead. Alyosha confronts Smerdyakov and asks him to inform him about his whereabouts, but Smerdyakov doesn’t know. He learns that Smerdyakov was afraid of his brother, and claimed to only be his informant due to the threat of violence. Smerdyakov tells Alysoha that Ivan had tried to invite Dmitri for dinner with him at an Inn. Alyosha decides to head to the Inn, and he finds Ivan there. His brother claims that he feels free and that he was eager to leave for Moscow the following day. Alysoha asks his brother about his religious faith, and Ivan makes a complicated argument about how God and the Devil are both constructed in the image of mankind. He goes on to discuss the futility of religious doctrine that seeks to justify the suffering of man and uses the example of innocent children. He talks of real-world accounts where children are whipped, killed, and hunted. He doesn’t believe that their suffering can ever be justified stating quite hotly that not even one child’s tear is worth an entry into heaven. Alyosha talks of Jesus and how he suffered for the sins of Mankind. Ivan launches into a grand poem that he calls “The Grand inquisitor.”
Ivan sets his poem in the sixteenth century, in a little town in Spain, during the height of the inquisition. The Grand inquisitor burned a great number of non-believers, when Jesus walks into the town. Everybody recognizes him, including the Grand Inquisitor, but he has Jesus surrounded and brought into a cell. The Inquisitor confesses that they don’t need him to say anything and explains that Jesus failed mankind by resisting the temptations that had been brought to him by the devil.
He was told to offer bread, but he wanted man to obey him with freedom, but the Inquisitor argues that man needs bread and will bow down to anything for it. He argues that the kind of devotion Jesus desires can be mustered by only a few thousand but what about the millions of feeble-minded people? He tells Jesus that he should have given humans peace and something more tangible to hold onto. The church has now become that very thing and created a kingdom for mankind on earth. He confesses that the church now works for the devil which is why he wishes to have Jesus burned. Jesus just kisses him, and the Grand Inquisitor sets him free.
Alyosha protests at the depiction of Christianity. He is deeply troubled by his brother’s description and asks how he can continue to live life with that worldview. Ivan explains it as “The Karamazoviness,” and he truly believes that all means are fair since there is no such thing as virtue.
Alyosha rushes to the monastery, while Ivan returns home plagued by a certain ill. He has a very strange conversation with Smerdyakov, who critically tells him about the signals that Fyodor has instructed him to use at night to have him open the door if and when Grushenka arrives. He intends to pretend to have a fit the following day, and asks Ivan to go away tomorrow whether to a nearby town or a faraway one, seeming to signal that they want a clear coast for Dmitri to murder his father. Dmitri is in severe need of money and he may soon resort to violence. The following morning, Ivan leaves for Moscow, but regrets it upon reaching there, calling himself a scoundrel. Grigory takes a heavy amount of alcohol that day to recover from his back pain, and his wife partakes a little of it as well. Smerdyakov suffers a fit and becomes bedridden. Fyodor waits with his ears pricked for he believes that Grushenka will come to him that night.
Book VI - The Russian Monk
Alyosha is surprised to discover Elder conversing with his guests upon his return to the monastery. The elder immediately asks him if he had met with his brother, and Alyosha confesses that he has met Ivan but not Dmitri. Zosima urges him to be with his brother and explains that he had bowed to him for his future suffering, however, he feels that Alyosha’s presence at his brother’s side may prevent the tragedy from occurring. He then goes on to talk about his brother, who he claims he is severely reminded of through Alyosha. He explains that his brother at around the age of seventeen worsened in health, though he had been an atheist before that age, he hadn’t found christ near the end of his days. He had always been very kind but in those days he became devout. He shares a few crucial lessons that his brother had imparted to him, He asked me to live for him, to serve his servants, and to know that one is guilty against all things, and that one had sinned against everything. Yet he always wanted Zosima to be grateful for earth and as their world was a paradise.
Zoisma explains that he had a spiritual awakening at the age of 8 when he heard the story of Job, and he passionately talks about the Bible as a gift, in which all mysteries of life are explained. Zosima confesses that he led a sinful and prideful existence as an imperial guard until he fell in love with a woman. He later discovered that she had been engaged and married off to another man. He challenged the man to a duel and beat his servant that night. He woke up with anguish and apologized profusely to his servant as well as the man. The next day he resigned from the Imperial Guard and decided to become a monk. Zosima became a local celebrity and met a mysterious man, who was respectable and had a rather severe nature. The man confessed that he had committed a murder several years ago, and escaped without detection. That crime continued to haunt him, and Zosime helps him understand that he needs to confess to the crime. Eventually, the man does son but nobody believes him, and they think he is in delirium. He dies a few days after the confession, and thanks Zosima profusely before his death. Elder Zosima passes away that night, amid his conversation with his gathered friends.
Analysis
The Grand Inquisitor is the novel’s most famous chapter and it is also a perfect representation of Ivan’s inner conflict. Ivan appears to love the concept of humanity, but he cannot bring himself to love people. He experiences outrage at news items and dwells on them leading him to his mental breakdown. Several literary critics have extracted this chapter and attempted to claim that represents Dostoevsky’s view, but this is not so. Dostoevsky depicts Ivan as a rationalist, and Ivan’s character arc reveals that Dostoevsky believed a viewpoint like Ivan’s could only ever lead to madness.
Alyosha parts with Ivan much as Jesus parted with the grand inquisitor, by simply kissing him. He attempts to show his brother by his actions what faith and love mean to him. Alyosha attempts to demonstrate that his brother does not understand God because he does not understand love. The two brothers part left and right, which has biblical connotations. Ivan heads to the left on the immoral path, while Alyosha goes to the right, the moral path.
In the sixth book, we explore the history of Elder Zosima, the most devout character in the book. Interestingly, the author chooses to organize the novel in this way, as both the reader and Alyosha have the comfort one conversing with Father Zosima, immediately following the chaos of Ivan’s poem. Zosima’s history explains that his spiritual faith came from loss and grief. He talks about the book of Job and demonstrates that greater faith can come out of grief than it can from just simple joy. He argues that suffering exists in all of human life, and faith is the only respite from this suffering. His conversations with the official indicate that isolation is a form of spiritual suicide and the official draws away from the community because of his guilt, which demonstrates that immoral acts injure the heart. This episode also forms a similarity between the official and Dmitri, both of whom overcome the devil in their hearts by resisting murder, the official resists the murder of Zosima, while Dmitri resists the murder of his father. Elder Zosima passes away that night, amid his conversation with his gathered friends.
