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75 pages 2 hours read

Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Brothers Karamazov

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1879

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Character Analysis

Alexei Fyodorovich Karamazov (“Alyosha” or “Alyoshka”)

Alexei, or Alyosha, is “an early lover of mankind” (18). Alyosha is a Christlike figure, but in a realistic way. He is frequently described in angelic terms, but this does not mean that he is perfect. He experiences doubt but overcomes his doubts and becomes a spiritual leader by the novel’s end.

Alyosha left school one year before finishing his studies. His motivation in joining the monastery is rooted in his desire to move from spiritual darkness “towards light” (26). As Rakitin describes him, he is “a sensualist after [his] father” and “after [his] mother […] a holy fool” (80). Alyosha’s mother plays a strong role in her son’s development, and he even resembles her, as Fyodor tells Alyosha, “You resemble her, ‘the shrieker’” (22). In the monastery Alyosha meets the elder, Father Zosima, whom he has chosen to follow completely. Alyosha has a unique ability to cause others to love him: His father says that he is the only person he knows who could be left alone in a large city without knowing anyone and be taken care of by someone.

Alyosha presents dualities of innocence and corruption, and he displays a “frantic modesty and chastity” (20). These extremes are rooted in his having both the Karamazov “base sensuality” (119) and the purity of his mother, Sofia Ivanovna, who was supremely innocent and religious. When Rakitin discusses Dmitri’s physical lust for Grushenka, Rakitin says that he does not expect Alyosha to understand, but Alyosha says that he does understand lust (80). Later, when Lise is “possessed,” she tells Alyosha that she dreams of demons and even curses God in her dreams, and Alyosha says that he dreams of the same thing (583). Though Alyosha is one of the most devout characters, he experiences the same desires and doubts that the other characters do.

Alyosha is oftentimes the messenger, which further emphasizes his “angelic” character. He is always delivering messages, letters, and relaying information between people. When delivering a message from Katerina to Snegiryov, he becomes deeply involved in Snegiryov’s life and ends up bringing schoolboys to visit his dying son, Ilyusha. Alyosha’s words of tender understanding create a change in one of the schoolboys, Kolya. Alyosha leads him to become open to another worldview in the novel’s final chapter, as represented by his final question to Alyosha about the nature of God and the afterlife. Language is an intermediary, and the symbolic “angel,” Alyosha, brings the spiritual into the earthly world by passing messages between characters.

Ivan Fyodorovich Karamazov (“Vanya” or “Vanka”)

Ivan is a 22-year-old university-educated man. His mother, Sofia Ivanovna, is the same mother of his younger brother, Alyosha. Ivan is an intellectual with little belief in God, and he is tormented by his doubts and the ramifications of these questions for the world. Smerdyakov points the finger at Ivan as being the most responsible for their father’s murder. When Ivan returns home following Dmitri’s invitation, he stays at his father’s home, but it’s clear that he does not enjoy his father’s company. He spends a great deal of time with Katerina, Dmitri’s ex-fiancée, and his wishing for his father’s death is at least partly due to his love for Katerina and his hope that Dmitri will marry Grushenka.

Like Dmitri, Ivan was not raised by their father. He was raised by a kind man, Yefim Petrovich, who noticed Ivan’s remarkable intelligence and sent him to receive an education from a “then-famous pedagogue” (15). He did not receive any of his inheritance from his father and survived financially by publishing articles and teaching. When he goes to visit Father Zosima with his family, he discusses an article with the monks and says that “[t]here is no virtue if there is no immortality” (70). Zosima responds by saying that Ivan believes neither in the soul’s immortality nor in the article’s thesis. Rather, Ivan writes such articles “out of despair” and will need to resolve this question for himself (70). When Ivan reads his poem, “The Grand Inquisitor,” to Alyosha, Alyosha realizes that Ivan does not believe in God. Ivan’s “brain fever” overtakes his reason, and he ends up hallucinating a devil who visits him frequently.

On the way to see Smerdyakov for the last time, Ivan pushes a drunk peasant in the street, and the peasant falls into the snow. After visiting Smerdyakov and deciding that he will confess at the trial the next day, Ivan sees the peasant from before unconscious and nearly covered in snow in the street. He takes him to a doctor and pays for his treatment using money from the 3,000 roubles that Smerdyakov gave him. This act parallels the story of the official Mikhail from Father Zosima’s history, who becomes a philanthropist to alleviate his guilt over killing a woman.

Dmitri Fyodorovich Karamazov (“Mitya” or “Mitka”)

Dmitri, the brother whom Alyosha warms up to most quickly, is a 28-year-old man who appears older than his age. He is “honest but passionate” and “a sensualist” (79). He also has an intense sense of honor, demonstrated when he tortures himself with guilt over taking money from Katerina and leaving her for Grushenka. By the novel’s end, he and Katerina forgive each other, and he has made peace with possibly serving a sentence for a crime that he did not commit. The suffering and shame he endures transform him, and he vows to be a better person. He fantasizes about a future in which he and Grushenka get married and “start their life quite anew” (368).

Dmitri is also generous and naïve in some respects. He squanders large amounts of money on others. For example, he invites Perkhotin to drink with him and buys a glass of wine for Misha, his servant, which Perkhotin initially objects to but then allows him to drink (406). Dmitri is emotional, passionate, and reckless, but ultimately good-hearted and honest.

His cruel actions toward Katerina in the first half of the novel portray him in an especially harsh light. However, in the second half of the novel, he shows his capacity for love, even pure love. He says he is going to prison for “the wee one” (591), referring to the dream he had of the freezing baby. The night before his trial, Dmitri repeats what Zosima’s older brother Markel said before his death: “[E]veryone is guilty for everyone else” (591). In Dmitri, the extremes of love and hatred are especially clear.

Pavel Fyodorovich Smerdyakov (“Smerdyakov”)

Smerdyakov, one of the family servants and the main cook for Fyodor, is rumored to be Fyodor’s son; Smerdyakov’s mother, “Stinking Lizaveta,” was a homeless woman whom Fyodor potentially sexually assaulted. Smerdyakov is described as “unsociable” and “taciturn” (124). He holds a grudge against his fellow servant, Grigory, for saying that Smerdyakov is “not a human being” (124) due to his lowly origins. However, Smerdyakov knows how to maintain a beneficial rapport with Fyodor, who trusts him unfailingly.

In the latter half of the novel, Smerdyakov takes a more central role in the murder mystery as it appears that he either committed the murder or was conspiring with Ivan. Smerdyakov’s bitterness toward his brothers, especially Dmitri, is expressed privately, and he feels he could have done far better in life had he not been born in his low social status (224-25). Over the course of several meetings following Fyodor’s murder, Smerdyakov tortures Ivan with clues about the murder, but it is unclear whether he is being truthful when he confesses to the murder, as there is still a hole in his explanation: The gate’s open door (630). Smerdyakov is far savvier than other characters gave him credit for, and Ivan states, “[Y]ou’re much more intelligent than I thought” (631).

Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov (“Fyodor”)

The “wicked and sentimental” (25) Fyodor is the father of the four brothers. He is avaricious and “muddleheaded” (7), and his primary motivations are acquiring money and chasing women. However, despite his many negative qualities, he has sympathetic qualities that the narrator notes, and says that he is more “naïve and simple-hearted” than one would think (9). His relationships with Dmitri and his sons’ mothers highlight his negative qualities, but there are moments in which he makes up for his bad behavior, specifically in his love for Alyosha. When Alyosha tells him that he is going to the monastery, Fyodor cries because he does not want him to go.

Fyodor is also “fond of play-acting” (11), alternately playing up or down his negative qualities. His meeting with Father Zosima emphasizes this trait, and Zosima tells him that he must not be ashamed of himself, for that is “the cause of everything” (43). Fyodor appreciates Zosima’s kindness, and though he does not change his behavior after their meeting, he does seem to try to form a relationship with Ivan and Alyosha. In addition, his defense of Smerdyakov when he discovered Smerdyakov’s seizures shows that he is not entirely uncaring. His choice to send Smerdyakov to chef school in Moscow offers further evidence that Fyodor was not entirely cruel toward his children. Fyodor likes Smerdyakov for his honesty, and he even “loved him” (126).

The cunning aspect of Fyodor’s character appears in his dealings with Dmitri, to whom he loans money without explaining that Dmitri’s inheritance is not as large as Dmitri believes it to be. After Fyodor’s death, the narrator reveals that he had “a hundred thousand roubles in hard cash” (7). Fyodor’s physical and spiritual degradation following his return from Odessa is dramatic. After moving to the south part of Russia and eventually Odessa after Sofia, his second wife, died, Fyodor returned with a bloated, aging face and an even more loutish attitude than he had before. He also drinks more than before. Despite his problems and the fact that Fyodor does not show a great change in behavior, it appears that Alyosha has a positive impact on Fyodor before his death.

Agrafena Alexandrovna Svetlov (“Grushenka”)

Grushenka is a 22-year-old woman who is the object of both Fyodor’s and Dmitri’s affections. She was abandoned by her first love, a Polish man, five years earlier, and still harbors deep feelings of sadness over this event. Samsonov, an elderly man, is her “benefactor,” but the precise nature of their relationship is left unclear. Grushenka describes herself as “wicked” (352): She treats Katerina with cruelty during their initial meeting and seems to be toying with the men. However, as Grushenka’s past and inner motivations become clear, she begins to transform from villainous to a sympathetic character. The turning point in Grushenka’s character arc is when she decides not to tempt Alyosha, and Alyosha calls her a “true sister” (351). By the end of the novel, Grushenka becomes self-sacrificing, offering to go to jail for the murder of Fyodor to save her love, Dmitri.

Katerina Ivanovna (“Katya”)

Katerina is the “imperious” (145) institute girl to whom Dmitri is engaged and whom he then abandons to pursue Grushenka. Dmitri does not love Katerina but admires her greatly. Katerina believes she is in love with Dmitri, and she continually says that she will sacrifice everything to be there for him. However, Alyosha quickly realizes that this is “a strain” and that she is straining to love Dmitri out of pride (192). However, at the trial, her true feelings emerge, and it becomes clear that she in fact loves Ivan when she shows Dmitri’s letter as evidence for his guilt. After this, Katerina vows to help Dmitri escape from his prison sentence, and she and Dmitri forgive each other. Grushenka, however, still cannot forgive Katerina for presenting such damning evidence to the court.

Father Zosima

Father Zosima is a 65-year-old monk who served in the military for a short while. He is kind, generous, and “most always cheerful in manner” (29) when Alyosha meets him. He is known for his healing prayer and attracts visitors from all over Russia. His life story is presented in Book 6 of the novel, while compiles excerpts from his life and his homilies. He had a brother, Markel, who passed away at a young age, and this event, combined with later events in his life during the military, influenced his choice to become a monk. In his youth, he was an “almost wild, cruel, and absurd creature” (295), but he had a transformative moment when he challenged a romantic rival to a duel and then stepped down from the duel. This was brought about by a spiritual awakening when he recalled his brother Markel’s words before his death: “[E]ach of us is guilty before everyone” (289).

After he decided to become a monk, Father Zosima encountered a man named Mikhail who murdered a woman 14 years earlier and had kept this secret from everyone except Zosima. Zosima urged him to confess, and the man eventually did. However, after confessing, the man told Zosima that he considered killing Zosima rather than confessing, out of shame that Zosima would know that he had not confessed. Father Zosima’s empathy and insight into human nature are deeply rooted in his life experiences and his love for the Bible. 

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