For a person
who loves reading good books, many extraordinary works of literature can be
placed on a pedestal. However, only a few books have the power to literally
change the reader’s way of thinking and accepting life. There are some books
that we read to simply bring a free day to an end, but there are also some
powerful books that can cause a personal revolution, inspiring us to understand
the world and ourselves differently after reading them. The book that shook my
world was Dostoevsky’s The Brothers
Karamazov. Dostoevsky was a genius
innovator of a new type of genre – the philosophical novel-tragedy, in which an
underlying conflict forms the dramatic battle of ideas. His novels reflect the
dynamism and theatricality of the human being. His most grandiose work, The Brothers Karamazov, is a story of
three, or rather four brothers who all have a share in the murder of their
father. That can be said for the surface of the novel, but when the reader
understands it deeper, this book becomes a spiritual drama that discusses the
ever-present moral questions about free will, guilt, doubt and faith.
The Brothers Karamazov – a philosophical drama
The work of
Dostoevsky represents a philosophical drama, and The Brothers Karamazov can be viewed as ‘philosophy in actu’. The theme of the man and God,
faith and unbelief is this author’s general theme. He was thirsty to find the
final truths and absolute principles of the man’s spiritual and moral world.
You won’t find Socrates in Dostoevsky’s dialogues. He never heads the dispute
to an ending, which is why his work could never be placed in any frame and it could
be placed in all frames at the same time. Dostoevsky represents the man’s soul
as an arena of the Good and Evil. This subject is especially vividly developed
in The Brothers Karamazov; in the
pathetic words of Mitya Karamazov, the dispute between Ivan and Alyosha, the
legend of The Grand Inquisitor, and
the character of the Elder Zosima. The human’s soul is where the lands meet…
here, the devil is struggling with God, and the battle field is in the hearts
of men. Dostoevsky was horrified by the ability of the human nature to fit all
possible contradictions and suddenly find itself between the two gaps: the
abyss above us – the one of higher ideals, and the abyss below us – the one of our
lowest and evil decline. “Man is broad, too broad. I’d have him narrower” –
that is the cry of Mitya Karamazov, who saw both gaps within himself. The moral
value grounds of religious faith are most clearly expressed in Dostoevsky’s
most famous statement: “If God does not exist, then everything is permitted.”
The Brothers Karamazov and religion
Although The Brothers Karamazov carries a
dark-scripted formula that if there is no God and no immortality of the soul,
then there is no love for mankind, the writer opposes another formula – that
love for humanity is possible without any reward and it can be free from the
fear of Heaven’s vengeance for the sins made in life. The character of Ivan
Karamazov is acting as one of the most profound critics of religion and the
justification of God in particular. On the other hand, the diametrically
opposed wise Elder Zosima is bringing another profound understanding. We can
safely state that by opposing these two characters, Dostoevsky introduced the
conflict of his own personal views and his ever-lasting internal debate. He was
a fearless explorer of the greatest heights of the human spirit, as well as the
biggest falls of the human personality. The world has probably never seen such
a powerful conscience as Dostoevsky’s.
Conclusion: The questions and answers in The Brothers Karamazov
Dostoevsky is
one of the writers who seem to have the answers to the key philosophical and
moral questions of our time. However, this book actually offers a response
consisting of a series of sub-questions. The readers of Dostoevsky’s novels,
who are inspired from his philosophical and psychological themes, have to draw
the definite answers themselves. For themselves!
