Can a novel written in 1880 perfectly capture the messy, conflicting depths of modern human psychology? Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov does exactly that, pitting fierce faith against razor-sharp atheism.

The Brothers Karamazov, a novel written in the 19th century (published in 1880), explores human psychology, faith, religion, the human condition, fatherhood, suffering and several themes. Dostoevsky creates a stage for these characters and the characters run around and make the story brilliant as it is. Each character has a depth to them and every character feels real in the sense that their actions make sense based on our understanding of them and how humans are.

For instance, Ivan, a character who put in work and attempted to understand the world that had rejected him, grows up as an intelligent well-read atheist. Dmitry Karamazov, his elder brother, under (kinda) similar circumstances deals with this rejection and goes a totally different route. While the third brother Alyosha, joins the monastery and learns under Father Zossima. Well, the third brother’s character felt a little out of place to me and not really “Karamzov”-like. Not only that, but often it felt that Alyosha was more a narrative device running around everywhere and helping us understand the story with the other characters than actually playing a part changing his own situation. He did, of course, but again his presence wasn’t as loud as the presence of the other characters despite being the main character. He did play a role though in the sad story of little Ilusha.

The Ilusha subplot was interesting and incredibly sad. His father dealing with the situation and their poverty and desperation was heartbreaking to see. It was good that Katerina sent Alyosha there. Why do children have to suffer so much though through no fault of their own?

“If all the sufferings of children go to swell the sum of sufferings which was necessary to pay for truth, then I protest that the truth is not worth such a price.”

The introduction of Kolya was amusing. I was hoping there’s another novel on his adventures. And I’m actually now curious whether the children will remember all that after 20-30 years and about the compassionate Alyosha.

The book explored the theme of religion and faith through Ivan, Alyosha and Father Zossima through different lenses. Ivan’s worldview was what I think Dostoevsky thinks the youth of Russia is moving towards - I’m not really sure on this one. But anyway, Ivan’s was atheistic and materialistic I think and he’s supposed to be “smart” but I think Kolya’s character diminishes Ivan’s significance in a way. It hints at Ivan’s thoughts being immature and parroting what he has learnt instead of having original thoughts of his own. I do think Ivan’s thoughts ought to have been more developed and advanced than where he was since he is actually an adult. Ivan’s anything is fair world clashed with Alyosha’s in the Ivan chapters and led to interesting conversations and the illustrious “The Grand Inquisitor”.

“It’s not God that I don’t accept, Alyosha, only I most respectfully return him the ticket.”

It was all incredibly fun to read and understand what all these characters are about. Despite the author being religious, the arguments put forward for atheism in the book are brilliantly put down. Ivan too it seemed was in conflict with himself and the Devil chapter later in the book is fascinating.

Father Zossima and the aftermath of the funeral was chilling and quite revealing. I’m of course not referring to just the odour of the dead, but rather to how the people reacted to it and how before the odour the people responded to the event. Father Zossima chapters laid out why he is where he is. About his life, about the answers he arrived at, his journey. It was Dostoevsky’s answer to Ivan’s questions. It was indeed beautiful and tragic. I wonder if Father Zossima was reminded of his brother when he met Ivan or any other people like Ivan. I suppose Ivan is Zossima’s Bernard. Or maybe not lol. The Bernard term is really funny; it is used like a swear word by Dmitry. So I suppose Ivan is not Bernard to Zossima yet I can’t help thinking that someone like Zossima would have this category of person figured out as a type of person maybe and maybe he even looked at people like that with compassion and hope as his brother had given him. Father Zossima’s philosophy was (I think the book stated) that we are responsible for everyone. We should take care of everyone and shoulder their sins and improve what we can as best as we can.

“Active love is a harsh and fearful thing compared with love in dreams. Love in dreams thirsts for immediate action, rapidly performed, and in the sight of all… But active love is labor and fortitude, and for some people perhaps, a complete science.”

It irked me that a man so respected when he lived would be so disrespected so fast on his death. Ferapont seems to have been just looking for his chance. I thought he was a cool mystical character in his previous chapter but after Zossima’s death I just think he’s kinda crazy. Here Alyosha too had some character development I think. But the personality of Alyosha overall did not seem to stand out much as opposed to the revolting personality of Dmitry Karamzov.

Dmitry Karamzov was quite a spoiled character yet shown to be good at heart yet shown to be a terrible person, it is another interesting and complex character. Karamazov are a paradox always dealing with two extremes at once as the prosecutor often states. His impulsiveness does not feel out of place. Despite being not a good person, he is easy to have sympathy for him. For being in the situation that life has put him in. He could at many moments choose to do good and be good yet he has his own conflicts in his mind. The preliminary investigations and the courtroom scenes too shed a light on these characters and not just that but how they were perceived or how they perceive others.

Smerdyakov’s character was quite puzzling to me. In his initial conversations with Ivan he did feel malicious, and his intentions seemed clear. But later, I was a little doubtful during the preliminary investigations and after that. But then the last conversation with Ivan was the nail in the coffin. Some of his actions still remain a mystery to me though I do have my theories too.

“My dear, it’s not a matter of you accepting me or not, it’s that you don’t know how to get rid of me, because I am your own creation, the dark side of your thoughts. I am the x in an indeterminate equation.”

Overall, it was a fantastic experience. I also just went through the Wikipedia page of this book and it seems that the author was also planning a sequel for it where apparently Alyosha kills a Tsar?? I’m so curious what the author had in store for us. But yes, this seems to be the end of Alexey, Kolya, Ivan, Dmitry, Grushenka, Katerina, Rakitin, the weird devil seeing monk, Fetyukovitch, Ippoli Kirillovitch, Nikolay Parfenovich, Pyotr Musov, Kalganov, Perhotin, Lise, Smurov, etc, etc