The Brothers Karamazov Summary | Chapterly
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky: A Complete Summary "If God does not exist, everything is permitted." Overview The Brothers Karamazov (1880) is Dostoevsky's final novel and his greatest achievement - a profound exploration of faith, doubt, free will, and moral responsibility. Through four brothers and their dissolute father, Dostoevsky stages the eternal conflict between faith and reason, sensation and spirit. The novel contains "The Grand Inquisitor," one of the most powerful philosophical passages in world literature. The Brothers Dmitri (Mitya) The eldest, passionate and sensual. He's engaged to Katerina but in love with Grushenka - for whom he competes with his father. He represents the conflict of body and spirit. Ivan The intellectual atheist. He cannot accept a world where innocent children suffer. His philosophical rebellion leads to the Grand Inquisitor poem. He represents the tragedy of reason without faith. Alyosha The youngest, a novice monk and disciple of Elder Zosima. Pure of heart, he embodies active love and faith. He's Dostoevsky's answer to Ivan. Smerdyakov The illegitimate son, likely fathered by Fyodor with a mentally disabled woman. Cold, calculating, he takes Ivan's ideas to their logical conclusion. The Murder Fyodor Karamazov is murdered. Dmitri is arrested and tried...