Well folks, I had to finish it up sooner or later. The Brothers Karamazov is one of my favorite books of all time, and there is so much there that I could go on writing about it forever. But this is a blog, not a book. And it is not good form at all, from what I hear at least, to write a series of blog posts on a book that is longer than the book they are about–just as it is bad netiquette to post a comment that is longer than the post being commented on (though I have seen instances where commenters have violated this rule with impunity). But at any rate, I had to finish it up sooner or later, and this is as good a place as any to stop. (Although if I read this book in the future and something else jumps out at me that I wish to write about, I reserve the right to do so.)
For those of you high school or college students who came here in hopes of finding something that might be helpful to you in preparing for your class discussion, term paper, midterm exam, etc. and have been tracking with me all this time: Thank you for sticking it out. Since you’ve tracked with me all this way, I might as well give you something. Here goes:
Skotoprigonyevsk. That is the name of the town where the Karamazovs lived and where most of the action in the story takes place. Your teacher might throw this out there as a bonus question on your midterm or final exam; if so, you’ll be prepared. Don’t believe me? Then look it up for yourself. You can find it in chapter 2 of Book XI, where Alyosha is visiting Madame Hohlakov and she is raving about an article written by Rakitin that has appeared in a St. Petersburg tabloid.
In closing I would like to note a couple of things:
–Who is truly the main character of this story? While an argument could be made that Dmitri is the main character, I believe that it is Alyosha. First of all, more of the story concerns Alyosha directly as the center of the action than Dmitri. Two out of the twelve books are from Dmitri’s pooint of view; the rest deal with Alyosha. Also, there are several instances where the narrator refers to Alyosha as “our hero” or something to that effect.
–Here is an interesting observation (I don’t know if I’ve made this observation already; if I have, then I’ll make it again): The sections of the story where the primary focus is on Alyosha seem to be very calm and laid-back. It’s as if Alyosha has all the time in the world to move through life and do the things that he is supposed to do during the course of the day. It’s as if he feels no sense of pressure or urgency on account of the passing of time. But the sections that are primarily focused upon Dmitri are quite the opposite. Dmitri is running around like a freerange chicken with its head cut off trying to scare up three thousand roubles somehow or another, and as we track with him we feel the full force of the desperateness and urgency which drive him. Finally he crashes and burns when he is arrested at Mokroe.
–In the “Rebellion” chapter Ivan says, “And remember, cruel people, the violent, the rapacious, the Karamazovs are sometimes very fond of children.” Could this explain Alyosha’s fondness for children? Perhaps. But Smerdyakov apparently shared this trait, and it led him in a completely different direction. Smerdyakov was a bad influence in the lives of the children in the story–remember how he taught them to feed dogs bread with pins stuck in it? Alyosha, on the other hand, was a positive influence; he sought to have Ilusha’s friends reconcile with him before his death.
–All through the story the name Karamazov is used to refer to that which is vile, base, corrupt, and sensuous. For example: “cruel people, the violent, the rapacious, the Karamazovs…”, “a feature of the Karamazovs…that thirst for life regardless of everything”, “For I’m a Karamazov. For when I do leap into the pit, I go headlong with my heels up, and I am pleased to be falling and pride myself on it”, “What’s at the root of all you Karamazovs is that you’re all sensual, grasping, and crazy!”, “You’re a Karamazov yourself…a sensualist from your father, a crazy saint from your mother”.
And yet, at the very end, the Karamazov name seems to take on an entirely different meaning. Kolya Krassotkin and the other schoolboys refer to Alyosha as “Karamazov”. At first blush, this seems to be just a cute quirk, but perhaps there is more to it than that. Alyosha, through his influence upon the schoolboys, has redeemed the Karamazov name–or if not redeemed it, he has at least caused it to mean more than it did before, more than just a reference to the cruel, the base, the violent, the sensuous. For when the schoolboys say “Hurrah for Karamazov” at the end, they are saying Hurrah for everything good that Alyosha has represented to them.
