To call
Fyodor Dostoevsky, the author of 'The Brothers Karamazov', a genius would be the
understatement of the year. Let’s just say he is the writer who converted his
own feelings, thoughts and ideals into words with the most precision in all of
the known human history. Ah! That indeed would describe his writings. “If I
could finish writing this book, then I would die happily for I would have
completely expressed myself.”-these are his own words about the novel written
in a letter to his elder brother.
With all due
respect he truly deserves the title ‘FATHER OF THE PSYCHOLOGICAL REALISM in
literature.’
The novel
revolves around a typical Russian family-The Karamazov. Fyodorovich Karamazov
and his three sons Dmitri, Ivan, and Alyosha. The three sons actually represent
the different stages through which Dostoevsky had passed through in his life.
Dmitri represented honorable man with contradicting feelings and passions, Ivan
the socialist and Alyosha, a man of god. Through their actions and speeches,
Dostoevsky had clearly demonstrated the different stages through which a normal
human life passes, filled with alternating joy and sorrows. The novel also
reveals how one’s age influences ones’ beliefs and ideas.
The novel
also depicts the basic Russian society, which prevailed during his time, a time
when the Russian Christian orthodoxy conflicted with the new rising ideal of
socialism and also a moral conflict between the Russian aristocracy and the peasant
life.
The novel
also tries to answer some of the humanity’s most challenging questions like the
existence of god and devil of an after life and of the worthiness of life.
This novel
is almost like a guide for the youth, all over the world and for all times .the
three kinds of youth, the first of “what the hell. You can kiss my ass” nature.
The second of “I don’t care. You do what you want” nature and the third of “of
course dude. We will give it try” nature.
My favorite
part is ‘THE GRAND INQUISITOR’, a chapter in which Jesus Christ comes down to
earth during the Spanish inquisitional time. It’s worth your life reading that
chapter.
It clearly
depicts the declining morale of the Vatican Catholicism during the inquisitional
era. Opinions on god like ‘if there is no god, then he will have to be invented
to prevent chaos ‘is
sure to leave a lasting impression in you. There is also a chapter where the
devil has chat with Ivan.
All-in-all,
the novel has all the key ingredients of humanity: love, lust, anger, extreme
rage, paternal and maternal love, childhood memories, agony, seclusion, lunacy,
a true psychological revolution, a kind of a Russian gospel.
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