What The Brothers Karamazov Taught Me: Alyosha's win in life

Finally, after over a year of reading, I got to the end of The Brothers Karamazov. I actually started reading it and abandoned it so many times, but I finally got to the end.

Btw, there are going to be a bunch of spoilers, so don’t read this if you are planning to read the book.

Just to give some context behind the book before I start diving into the content, it was the final novel Dostoevsky wrote before his death. By then, he had experienced Russia under Tsar Nicholas I, during whose reign he was arrested for his involvement with the Petrashevsky Circle. He was sentenced to death, went through a mock execution, and then was sent to four years of hard labor in Siberia, followed by military service. Much of the second half of his life was lived under Alexander II’s rule, during the rise of nihilism and revolutionary violence.

A little bit about Dostoevsky. He was born into a relatively privileged family. His mom died when he was young, and shortly afterward he was sent to study at the Military Engineering Academy in St. Petersburg. His father was known as a strict and distant man, and they did not really have this loving father-son relationship.

Dostoevsky studied engineering and briefly worked as an engineer before heavily starting to write. He had four kids. Two of them died early from illnesses, and two survived into adulthood. Dostoevsky himself struggled with epilepsy for much of his adult life, and he had a pretty bad gambling addiction.

The reason I tell you all this is that you can see how these life events really shaped his writing.

Okay, now let’s get into the book.

First of all, it’s a very large book. It’s like 1,000 pages, but being large is not the worst part. He jumps around a lot. Sometimes a scene barely finishes, and he introduces a completely new character.

I think the uniqueness of this book is that there are so many characters that you can recognize a lot of personalities even from your own circle.

The book is about brothers who were raised by a terrible father. This guy, the father, was everything a man should not be: alcoholic, liar, cheater, worthless. He was greedy, manipulated people for money, took control of his first wife’s money, and even tried to get her property transferred into his name. Both of his wives died.

He had three sons and one suspected son, but it was never confirmed that the fourth son was actually his. One of the sons kills him at the end. That’s the whole story.

I am not gonna write about the whole book, but I want to tell you guys about the personalities of these four brothers and give my two cents on it.

Dmitri

The oldest brother, Dmitri, was part of the military and was engaged to a woman, Katerina. But throughout the whole book, he chases another woman, Grushenka.

Grushenka is like his ideal. He just thinks that if he gets her, his ultimate goal in life will be achieved. He drinks, gambles, and beats up people.

My problem with him is this whole chasing Grushenka thing. He has no life. Pretty much whole days he spends hiding, watching, and trying to figure out whether Grushenka is going to meet his father.

I will never understand this chasing part. Grushenka has other men chasing after her too. Just get a life and move on. Chasing people generally never sits right with me. You try, it does not work out, and you move on. There are eight billion other people in this world.

Dmitri is convicted and sentenced to 20 years of penal servitude in Siberia, although by the end there is already a plan for him to escape.

Ivan

The middle brother is Ivan.

Ivan is pretty intellectual, and he questions the existence of God throughout the book. His premise is that if there is no God, then everything is allowed.

Because he is intellectual, he has the tendency to affect people’s opinions. His ideas end up having a huge influence on the fourth suspected brother, Smerdyakov.

Ivan was Smerdyakov’s idol, and without intentionally telling him to kill anyone, his ideas deeply influenced him. Smerdyakov takes Ivan’s idea that if there is no God, everything is allowed, and uses it to justify what he does.

Ivan has a mental breakdown at the end. He becomes delirious, hallucinates the Devil, and ends up extremely sick. His final fate is left unresolved.

Alyosha

The youngest brother, Alyosha, is completely opposite from everyone. You can’t even notice that he is a Karamazov, and he has a strong faith in God. He tries to become a monk.

Throughout the story, he takes the high road almost every time. His faith is extremely strong. People throughout the story try to shake up his faith with a bunch of rational arguments, and even though Alyosha does experience moments when his faith is shaken, he comes back stronger.

He never tries to seduce anyone. Even though he was born into this terrible family, he does not really have this visible hate toward his father.

My favorite character.

Smerdyakov

Smerdyakov is the fourth suspected son. It was rumored that Fyodor Karamazov was his father and that his mother was Lizaveta, a homeless and intellectually disabled woman who could not speak.

Smerdyakov is raised by Grigory and Marfa and later works for Fyodor as a servant and cook. He never gets this official son status and is, of course, treated very poorly.

Actually, he is the one who killed the father.

Ivan was his idol and unintentionally influenced Smerdyakov with the idea that if there is no God, everything is allowed. Smerdyakov interprets Ivan’s ideas and actions almost as permission to commit the murder. He thinks everyone wants the father to be dead, so he kills him.

At the end, Smerdyakov hangs himself.

My 1 Cent

Alyoshas will always win in life, no matter what.

He never carried the hate. Even though he was not intellectually the smartest, and people throughout the story try to shake up his faith with a bunch of rational arguments, Alyosha stays strong. Even when his faith is shaken, he finds his way back to it.

Grushenka tries to seduce Alyosha as well, but Alyosha realizes there is much more behind her behavior and never falls for it. Kids love Alyosha.

Alyosha is the only brother who ends the story spiritually stable and free. Dmitri is convicted, Ivan collapses mentally and physically, and Smerdyakov kills himself. Alyosha’s character is basically unbroken.

My 2 Cents

When you have intellectual capability as a human, you have to realize that it is power that has to be treated very carefully.

There are very few people who become intellectually versatile, can construct unique ideas, connect large sums of information logically, and generally carry large sums of knowledge.

These kinds of people have the ability to really affect the masses, their thinking processes, and create new ideologies.

Once you realize that you have that power, that you can have an effect on people and attract masses, it is equally important to realize that you should use it to spread something that will benefit humanity, unite humanity, and affect communities in positive ways.

We have already had enough people in the history of mankind who brainwashed people with ideologies that killed and suffocated millions of people.

P.S.

Don’t be an early-book Grushenka and seduce people.