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The Brothers Karamazov By Fyodor Dostoevsky Review By David White The Brothers Karamazov is, without a doubt, a great comment on Christianity, and is perhaps the greatest that Russian literature has to offer. Many, however, look at it as a piece with a great anti-Christian sentiment. While it is true that there are several decidedly atheist characters, some who lose faith, and others who have seemed never to question the place of faith altogether, the book is not anti-Christian. It is instead a story about the struggles that test the faith of every man every day. The narrative begins with the author, probably Dostoevsky himself, explaining that this book is only a prequel to his masterwork, a book about the brother Aloysha. Of course to know this one brother and to understand his motivations in this later work (had it been written) one must know his family and the circumstances which have led him down the path where this reader finds him. Alyosha is the most faithful of the three brothers, and nearly from the beginning his plan is to join the priesthood shortly. The only ones who seem to question that plan are some of the priests themselves, primarily Father Zosima who encourages Alyosha to continue in the world until he is sure that the monastery is where he belongs. Zosima himself is looked on as a great man of faith, beloved by the towns people, and as he is an old man there is talk of canonization after the death they all see as impending. When that time comes the elaborate funeral serves as a turning point for every person in town. The corpse stinks. What would not be a surprise for any other corpse is looked on as the greatest of sins this particular one could have committed. No longer is there talk of sainthood for this man, but only of the terrible sins, however small, he must have committed in life. Alyosha’s faith is shaken, and he decides to take Zosima’s last piece of advise and continue to see the world and help in the defense of his brother Dimitri. Virtually all of the novel itself is centered on the eldest of the three Karamazov brothers, Dimitri, or Mitya. It would be perhaps more accurate to say that the story is based around the death of the brothers’ father, of which Mitya is accused. To skip to the chase, unlike modern mystery novels or lawyer dramas, there is no definite answer to Mitya’s guilt or innocence. There is, indeed, another suspect for the murder who has committed suicide before he can, and perhaps in order to avoid clearing Dimitri. But Mitya has a checkered past. He and his father are, after a fashion, courting the same women, both men feel that the other has stolen from him, and Mitya was heard saying that he would kill his father in front of his brothers and others of the neighborhood. What might lead one to make a determination of Mitya’s guilt or innocence is his faith which he puts in his family to help clear him, his lawyer to do the same, the prosecutor to be reasonable, the jury and townspeople to believe and have mercy on him. Mitya’s last hope of acquittal is simply on truth itself to prevail, to set him free. Truth, or perhaps ignorance of it, however, was responsible for sending Mitya to prison, after which his final hope is that the woman he loves, one he discovered perhaps even more greatly thanks to his ordeal, will be waiting for him. The discussion so far has left only the brother Ivan, the atheist. It is Ivan who instigates most of the examinations of the Christian faith, and often his questioning bewilders even him. As many learned men do, he creates complicated sophistry to explain the world of God and Christ. As an example, his Grand Inquisitor story, a piece of literature in its own right, presents a supposedly faithful man telling the truth about his faith. It is not the story itself which is revealing however, it is the style with which it is told. The meeting is described in a very subtly satirical style, which, unlike most satire, manages to confuse Ivan himself. It seems that he does not know if his story is a satire of Christianity or perhaps if his telling the story is somehow a satirizing of himself. This irony is Dostoevsky’s great triumph for the Christian reader. It shows that there is always doubt in doubt. Another example is an occasion when Ivan is not well, at which time his illness brings on an hallucination in which Satan is in the room with him. This meeting in its setting and subject is itself somewhat reminiscent of the Grand Inquisitor, but with different characters. The very presence of Satan, and the thing that he tells Ivan forces him to realize that in the weakest human moments, men cannot live without some kind of belief. Does the Brothers Karamazov contain anti-Christian sentiments? Surely. In this there is no mistaking. But to what end does the sentiment operate? If read carefully one realizes that the anti-Christian parts succeed only in reenforcing the Christian ones. The Brothers Karamazov is one of the truest stories about man, or perhaps just about men. In life corpses stink, men are convicted of crimes they may not have committed, and people are not sure of what to believe. The lesson of the book is not to let things like not seeing a miracle, being persecuted, or even being confused about life affect the way truth is sought. Alyosha accepts that eveb(rything might not be how he wants it, Mitya comes to terms with his lot in life, and Ivan realizes that it is not so certain that there is no God. That such lessons are learned every day does not diminish their power, and that Dostoevsky could demonstrate them, could use evil for good, shows him to be a great Christian author and the Brothers Karamazov to be a great Christian book. |
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