The Brothers Karamazov

This section covers the following chapters: “A Betrothal,” “Smerdyakov with a Guitar,” “The Brothers Get Acquainted,” “Rebellion,” “The Grand Inquisitor,” “A Rather Obscure One for the Moment,” and “‘It’s Always Interesting to Talk with an Intelligent Man.’”

Alyosha and Lise discuss their future together, and Lise tells him that she doesn’t like Ivan. Later in his father’s garden, Alyosha sees Smerdyakov strumming a guitar and singing verses for the landlord’s daughter. He asks Smerdyakov where Dmitri might be, and Smerdyakov tells him that Dmitri was planning to meet with Ivan at the Metropolis tavern.

Alyosha goes to the tavern, but only Ivan is there. Ivan invites Alyosha to talk with him, seeming happy at the opportunity to get to know Alyosha a bit better. He confesses that he doesn’t always agree with Alyosha’s life philosophies but that he respects how Alyosha stands his ground. He says he wants to discuss the “everlasting questions” that all “Russian boys” are discussing (233-34).

This begins Ivan’s philosophical rant about the existence of God. After digressions about geometry and infinity, Ivan says that he believes in order, in meaning, in “eternal harmony”—and he even accepts the concept of God. He cannot, however, accept the world of God’s creation, which he calls an “offensive comedy” of incongruity; even if the concept of harmony exists, the world makes it impossible to achieve. The primary offense in this world, he says, is the evil in it. He cannot accept that all the suffering in the world could ever be redeemed. Even apart from suffering, however, there is something unpleasant about the particularity of creation itself, of incarnate reality: He confesses that he’s never understood how it’s possible to love one’s neighbor. It is one’s neighbor, in fact, whom it is most impossible to love. The love of humankind is comprehensible to Ivan, but a neighbor is too “nigh.” Even seeing a person’s face—in its concrete specificity and imperfection—makes love difficult. Ivan insists that he somehow still loves life despite finding it unacceptable, and he admits that parts of creation are good; he thinks children are loveable because, unlike adults, he says, they are entirely pure and innocent, and he loves the blue sky and the fresh little leaves of springtime. However, the world still unjustifiable.

Ivan returns to the problem of suffering, especially the suffering of children. He runs through different stories of child torture that he’s read in newspapers. These kinds of tragedy, he explains, clinch the world’s irredeemable nature. No one has the authority to pardon such an atrocity—not even the victim—and even the perpetrator’s punishment by damnation would not truly rectify anything or undo the suffering. In one of the novel’s most famous passages, Ivan sums up his position:

[The child’s] tears remain unredeemed. They must be redeemed, otherwise there can be no harmony. But how, how will you redeem them? […] Is there in the whole world a being who could and would have the right to forgive? I don’t want harmony, for love of mankind I don’t want it. […] Besides, they have put too high a price on harmony; we can’t afford to pay so much for admission. And therefore I hasten to return my ticket. […] It’s not that I don’t accept God, Alyosha, I just most respectfully return him the ticket (245).

After calling Ivan’s words “rebellion,” Alyosha responds to the question of whether anyone could forgive these evils, and he brings up Jesus, who gave his own blood. Ivan says exasperatedly that of course he hadn’t forgotten about Jesus, since Jesus is the first defense people always bring up. He then says that he’s invented a poem called “The Grand Inquisitor” and invites Alyosha to listen:

Ivan’s poem is set in Seville, Spain in the 16th century at the height of the auto-da-fe, or the burning of heretics during the Spanish Inquisition. In the poem, a man appears in the town square. Because the man is so spectacular—divine power gleaming from his eyes, a magnetic otherworldly love radiating from his presence, a holy, peaceful smile on his face—everyone knows that it is Jesus Christ. People are helpless to adore and follow such a figure, and they kiss the earth where he has walked. A little girl has died, and Jesus commands, “Talitha cumi” (Aramaic for “little girl, arise”), and the girl is alive again (249). The Grand Inquisitor commands his guards to capture Jesus.

The Inquisitor visits Jesus in his cell and tells him that he is interfering with the Church’s plan for “human happiness” (251). He denounces Jesus, mirroring the three questions that Satan asked Jesus during his temptation as he wandered the desert (a biblical narrative known as “the temptation of Christ”). They consist of the temptation to use his powers to transmute rocks into bread; the temptation to call the angels to save him; and the temptation to establish himself as the autocratic ruler of the world. The Inquisitor criticizes Jesus’s decision to reject the three temptations—which Jesus did in order to affirm human freedom—arguing that Jesus holds a distorted view of human nature, as most humans cannot make morally good choices. Therefore, Jesus has in fact given them too much freedom. The Inquisitor connects this point to the ultimate goal of redemption, suggesting that Jesus’s acts have effectively prevented humans from redeeming themselves.

The Inquisitor argues that only the worldly institution of the Church can give appropriate guidance to humans and compel them to unite. He adds, candidly, that this will be accomplished by making humans live their lives in ignorance about their God-given free will.

Next, the Inquisitor elaborates on Christ’s three temptations, explaining why he should have accepted each of Satan’s propositions. On the first temptation: If Christ had turned stones into bread, he would have acted in accordance with men, who will always honor those who give them sustenance. Though Christ justified his refusal with an appeal to the other appetites of men, namely the appetite to live virtuously, the Inquisitor counters that sustenance is the ultimate appetite. He argues that if men are not fed, they will seek to dismantle any institution or God that fails to provide for them, creating a regressive civilization.

One the second temptation: If Jesus had simply thrown himself from the temple and therefore received the help of angels, says the Inquisitor, he would have been exalted by all people and made into a worldly God. As a worldly God, he would have been able to exercise his rule over the earthly Kingdoms, ensuring their redemption. Moreover, Jesus’s refusal to perform the miracle left humanity in a state of moral confusion, because they will follow whoever performs miracles. The Inquisitor states that Jesus, lacking compassion for humans, asks for more from them than their weak spirits can muster.

The Inquisitor arrives at the third temptation, which is the temptation to create a universal union of all humanity through autocratic rule. He states that by refusing to accept the Devil’s final temptation (of rule over all the earth), Jesus left humans in a state of constant division. Rome has resolved this torment for humans by offering them universal union under a single authority.

After listening to the Inquisitor, Jesus then kisses him on the lips. The Inquisitor lets him go but demands that he never return. Without a word, Christ disappears into the streets of Seville. The meaning of the kiss is not explained, but Ivan relates that it “burns in [the Inquisitor’s] heart” (262) despite his decision to move along with the Inquisition.

At the end of the poem, Alyosha says that the Inquisitor’s secret is that he does not believe in God (260-61). He realizes that Ivan, too, does not believe in God. Ivan asks if Alyosha renounces him for his view of the Church. In reference to the end of the poem, Alyosha kisses Ivan softly on the lips, and Ivan responds in jest that he has committed plagiarism—“Literary theft!” (263)—but thanks him anyway. At last, the brothers part ways.

Ivan leaves and, despite having appreciated Alyosha’s company, now feels dispirited. As he heads back to the Karamazov home, he dreads meeting Smerdyakov, whom he’s increasingly begun to dislike. He runs into Smerdyakov in the yard, however, and the two converse. Smerdyakov confides that he is concerned about what will happen between Dmitri and Fyodor if Ivan really does leave for Moscow; Smerdyakov is also worried that the stress of everything will exacerbate his own epilepsy. However, Ivan suspects that Smerdyakov might actually like to see Dmitri harm Fyodor. When Smerdyakov suggests that Ivan instead choose a town nearer than Moscow, Ivan disagrees.

The next day, Fyodor asks Ivan not to head to Moscow but instead run an errand in a nearby town. Ivan agrees to do so. Hours after Ivan leaves, Smerdyakov has a seizure and is bedridden. Fyodor, now without Ivan, feels vulnerable to Dmitri and locks the house. He expects Grushenka to visit that night.