The Karamazov Brothers
(Fyodor Dostoevsky)

Plot versus theme

On the surface, The Karamazov Brothers is the story of three brothers and their father, whose eventual murder is the focal point of the book’s intricately laid-out plot, in particular, the events and relationships that lead up to the murder, investigation, and trial. In addition, the book has many subplots and minor characters, but its real subject is the underlying theme of the interconnectedness of all things and the need for active universal love. Even those relegated to suffering, justified or not, can transcend their circumstances and find joy, transforming not only their own fates but those of the people around them.

Timing and scene changes

One of the confusing aspects of the book are its many flashbacks and scene changes. Some of these furnish the background to the main action, much of which takes place over the brief period of several days, culminating in Fyodor Pavlovich’s murder and Dmitry’s arrest. Following that is a period of approximately two months before, during, and after the trial. There is also a lot of jumping around from scene to scene as the different subplots unfold, but the overall time period in which the present action takes place (i.e., minus the recollections of earlier events) is a little over two months and one week.

Multiple perspectives

Another confusing feature is the story’s intricate web of fact and conjecture, truth and lies, reality and madness, all of which lead the characters to their various fates as they wrestle with their inward and outward experience. In the face of all this confusion, the starets’s injunction to love actively and universally gains meaning as the only real solution to unraveling the knot of human suffering and transforming it into joy.

Details, important and otherwise

The Karamazov Brothers has one of the most intricate plots you’re likely to encounter, made more difficult to digest because of its many subplots and flashbacks, with the latter often relayed by one of the characters. To confuse things even more, the details sometimes contradict each other, or there may be missing information. An example is the statement (Book 3, Chapter 3) that Alyosha had spent his entire life with women from the time he was a baby until his monastery days. Yet earlier, the novel says that he and his brother were raised by Grigory and later by their benefactor Yefim Petrovich and his family. Why these discrepancies happen is not clear. With such a big work, the reason may in some cases have been author oversight. In other instances, it’s probably deliberate, as in the different accounts related to the evidence surrounding the murder investigation, some of whose details remain unexplained. Whatever the reasons, it helps to be aware that this sometimes happens, although for the most part, the details do tie together. The point is that you will have to pay extra careful attention when trying to sort out the novel’s intricacies.

The other thing to bear in mind is that some of the details are directly important to the main plot, and some are not, although the second type may provide psychological insight, afford comic relief, hint at a sequel (unfortunately never written because Dostoevsky died soon after finishing the novel), or underscore the main spiritual theme, which is different from the main plot. Figuring out which is which is not always easy at first glance, so again, it pays to be extra attentive during the first reading, since what seems unimportant may prove to be vital information later on.

Beginning of plot summary

The following is a reduction of the plot’s main outward circumstances, not a summary of its real focus (see Themes) or an attempt to present every last subplot (see Chapter Summaries).

Father-son rivalry

Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov was a well-to-do, clever man who indulged in a degenerate lifestyle that expressed itself mainly through drinking, philandering, moneymaking, and buffoonery. Now middle-aged and disgusting in appearance, he had three sons by two women, both of whom died before the story began. His first wife, who produced the oldest son, Dmitry, came with an estate and dowry that Fyodor Pavlovich quickly appropriated. Dmitry consequently grew up with the idea that he had an inheritance through his mother, when in fact he had nothing—hence, his belief that his father had cheated him out of his inheritance. The second strike against that father-son relationship, aside from the fact that Fyodor Pavlovich was hard to like to begin with, was their “rivalry” for Grushenka, who had a reputation as a conniving, greed-driven loose woman. In reality, she wasn’t, but her ability to manipulate men and her business talent made it seem so. At the time, Grushenka was also just toying with Fyodor Pavlovich and Dmitry, but both of them were too infatuated to realize that. In any case, Dmitry’s obsession with her only compounded his tendency to make bad choices, being passionate by nature and given to carousing, outbursts of violence, and uncontrolled spending. Meanwhile, Grushenka had love problems of her own, which she mostly kept to herself but which come into play later on.

Pride humbled, passion inflamed

Flashback to an earlier time, before Dmitry meets Grushenka. When Dmitry was still in the military in Siberia, he briefly met Katerina Ivanovna, the proud, beautiful, and celebrated daughter of the lieutenant colonel who was his commanding officer. When Katerina Ivanovna snubbed Dmitry, he vowed that he would get back at her. Around that time, Fyodor Pavlovich had sent him 6000 rubles to settle the will dispute between them. However, not being one for paying attention to details, Dmitry didn’t realize the purpose of the money—he only knew that he had plenty of it for the moment. So when the lieutenant colonel ran into serious money issues, Dmitry, who was friends with Katerina Ivanovna’s older half-sister, mentioned that he would take care of the problem in exchange for a visit by her younger sister. The older sister refused, calling Dmitry a scoundrel, but Katerina Ivanovna showed up of her own volition and humbled herself before Dmitry to save her father. What that entailed (which was a lot for her and deeply shameful to Dmitry as well when he recalled it later on) was to bow low before him in a traditional Russian gesture. Dmitry had to wrestle with his “insect” passions (he was an unabashed ladies’ man on top of everything else), but he did not take advantage of her. Instead, he loaned her 5000 rubles. And so, Katerina Ivanovna’s father’s honor and reputation were restored, although he died shortly afterwards.

Change of fortune and misguided engagement—Then the tables turned. Katerina Ivanovna returned to Moscow, where she had gone to finishing school before her stay in Siberia. In Moscow, she soon came into a large fortune of her own through another relative and promptly paid Dmitry back. She also sent him a marriage proposal in writing, which evoked a number of mixed emotions in him, making him feel like a fraud and undeserving of her attentions, especially now that she was wealthy. He later regretted mentioning money.

The truth was that Katerina Ivanovna had harbored passionate feelings of her own, which now burst forth in her proposal. But her proposal also came with a hitch: she wanted to “save” Dmitry, which meant that he would have to change. The problem was that Dmitry didn’t want to be saved. As he explained to Alyosha when recounting the story, he preferred the gutters of life. In spite of that, he promised her that he would reform, and they were formally engaged in Moscow, with her benefactor’s blessing. (Note: By the time the novel begins, both Dmitry and Katerina Ivanovna have moved to the Karamazov hometown, where she, with her wealth, lives in a large house, while he, mostly broke, stays in a ramshackle summerhouse near his father’s home, where he can watch for Grushenka’s possible arrival.)

Complicated love relationships

To complicate things even further, back in Moscow around the time of the engagement, Ivan—the brilliant, university-educated second son—had gone to see Katerina Ivanovna on Dmitry’s request. Ivan fell in love with her, and eventually she also developed feelings for him, but by the time she admits this, the book is practically over, and Ivan has succumbed to madness and severe illness approaching death. However, at the beginning of the story, Dmitry has recently fallen in love with Grushenka and is hoping that Katerina Ivanovna will get over her obsession with him and move on to Ivan. As far as he is concerned, the engagement is over. The problem is that he can’t face telling that to Katerina Ivanovna, so he sends Alyosha instead. The other problem is that Grushenka herself is still obsessing over the officer who abandoned her five years ago, but only she knows of her obsession. That doesn’t prevent her from playing games with Dmitry and Fyodor Pavlovich, effectively pitting them against each other and leading them both on. Dmitry still entertains the idea that his father owes him 3000 rubles from the interest that Fyodor Pavlovich made on his (Dmitry’s) mother’s estate, but his father has other plans for the money: he is using it to lure Grushenka, under the misconception (which Dmitry shares) that she mostly cares about money.

Dmitry’s double quandary

That leaves Dmitry with a quandary. He feels that he needs the money to win Grushenka, and he feels that it’s rightfully his. However, in the meantime, he’s broke and desperately afraid of losing her to his father.

But that’s not all. When Katerina Ivanovna gave him 3000 rubles to deliver to her relatives, Dmitry recklessly spent it on partying with Grushenka at an inn in a town called Mokroye. Despite his many flaws and chaotic behavior, Dmitry sees himself as a man of honor and does not identify with being a thief. Still, he’s forced to admit to himself that he essentially stole the money entrusted to him by Katerina Ivanovna. He knows that he needs to pay it back to restore his sense of honor, but he also harbors the dream of fleeing somewhere new with Grushenka, yet he realizes that he can’t do this without money. For even though Grushenka has money, having her pay is out of the question, and working never occurs to him. Somehow he has to get 3000 rubles, if not from his father, then by some other means.

A wild and crazy guy, but not a murderer

The purpose of this intricate plot setup is to establish several strong motives for Dmitry to murder and steal from his father. To make matters worse, Dmitry often feels like wanting to kill his father, and he doesn’t mind shouting that out in public. Early on, he even forces his way into his father’s house and kicks Fyodor Pavlovich in the head in front of his brothers and the servants. But in the end, Dmitry does not murder his father, nor does he steal his money.

The fourth son?

So who did it? This is not the main point of the novel, but it’s an important element in the plot because of its role in getting Dmitry convicted. Rumor had it that Fyodor Pavlovich had a fourth son, the illegitimate child of the town idiot, who one night made her way to Fyodor Pavlovich’s garden bathhouse to give birth and then die. Fyodor Pavlovich never denied or confirmed siring the child, but he did accept the infant boy into his household, where he was adopted and raised by the long-time servants Grigory Vasilyevich and Marfa Ignatyevna. Eventually he became a servant himself and was nicknamed Smerdyakov, or “smelly,” after his mother’s nickname. Not surprisingly, he hated this nickname and also his station in life.

On discovering that the boy might have a talent for cooking, Fyodor Pavlovich sent him to culinary school in Moscow and promoted him to the position of cook upon his return. Despite his ornery, morose, and contemptuous attitude, Smerdyakov managed to gain Fyodor Pavlovich’s trust and was the only person allowed near his room at night. He and Fyodor Pavlovich had also devised a signal system whose purpose was to inform the master of Grushenka’s arrival, though in reality she had no plans to visit him. However, Fyodor Pavlovich didn’t know that and anticipated her with great excitement, figuring that she would fall for the 3000-ruble bait.

Dilemma of the bastard son

Smerdyakov’s private fear was that in addition to the 3000 rubles, Grushenka could possibly even get the whole estate upon marriage. His concern was of losing whatever chance he had at gleaning some of the estate through Ivan, whom he idolized and had tried to befriend, to Ivan’s consternation and disgust. Assuming that Grushenka did not get the estate, Smerdyakov figured that it would go to the three legitimate sons. However, given Dmitry’s violent hatred of his father and his goal to get the money, Smerdyakov saw him as the perfect foil for a crime that would eliminate him as an heir if convicted. That would leave only two sons to divide the estate, and Smerdyakov reckoned that Ivan would support him financially for life out of gratitude.

Hints and manipulation

Of course, he didn’t tell Ivan all this outright until after the murder, even though Ivan sensed something and would often respond to Smerdyakov with impatience and rage. Instead, Smerdyakov left cryptic, confusing hints and manipulated both Ivan and Dmitry in order to facilitate the perfect setup for the theft that he himself planned to commit. To do this, he played on Dmitry’s fears and desires. He had taught Dmitry the signals with the idea of fooling Fyodor Pavlovich, and he had also told him where the money was hidden, except that he lied: he had no intention of letting Dmitry near the money. His sole goal was that Dmitry should either knock out or kill his father. Then Smerdyakov would sneak in, steal the money from its real hiding place, and blame Dmitry for everything. To make this happen, it was also important that Ivan be out of town, which Ivan planned on doing anyway. But Ivan wanted to go back to Moscow for good, and Smerdyakov kept hinting that he should stay closer. This is where Smerdyakov’s hints to Ivan get a little strange and contradictory. But the important thing is that he had thought everything through to the last detail, including his faked epileptic seizure (he was genuinely epileptic) that would make him seem out of commission during the window of time when Dmitry was supposedly doing Smerdyakov’s dirty work.

Pure philosophy degenerates into amorality

It’s important to note here that Smerdyakov had been heavily influenced by Ivan’s philosophy, which in brief could be summed up as “all things are allowed.” Unfortunately, Smerdyakov lacked Ivan’s depth and brilliance. Nor did he realize that Ivan was still working out the different facets of this philosophy and had his own doubts. Smerdyakov therefore used it as a support and excuse for his own amorality, which ultimately led him to not only steal from but also to murder his master. He later admits everything to Ivan, who senses that something is amiss and presses him for answers in a series of meetings following the murder. Why then was Dmitry convicted and not Smerdyakov? Before answering that, we need to return to the events preceding the murder and arrest.

Dmitry’s delay; the hidden money

In the meantime, Dmitry was trying to procure the money by some means other than stealing from his father. To do this, he went on two last-ditch errands, the first of which failed immediately, while the second required him to leave town. Again, the general impression here is that he’s broke and wants to replace the 3000 rubles that he stole from Katerina Ivanovna so that he can pay her back and run off with Grushenka with a clear conscience. At this point, you may be wondering why the math doesn’t work, since 0 (Dmitry being broke) + 3000 (appropriated through some means other than Katerina Ivanovna or Grushenka) – 3000 (paid back to Katerina Ivanovna) = 0, which still leaves Dmitry no money to flee with Grushenka. What we don’t find out until later is that Dmitry stashed 1500 of the original 3000 entrusted to him by Katerina Ivanovna and hid it in a makeshift neck pouch. The only person who received even a hint of this was Alyosha, the youngest brother, who later brings it up at the trial when it finally clicks in his mind as to what Dmitry meant by beating his breast and pointing at his neck, proclaiming that he had the means to restore his honor right then and there (worst case, he figured he could at least pay half of what he had taken).

Three failed attempts to get the money by other means

Both of Dmitry’s first two errands failed. Worse, one of them was a fool’s errand suggested by Grushenka’s patron, the elderly and rich Samsonov, with the purpose of foiling Dmitry’s plans. Dmitry had gone to him first to make what turned out to be a foolish business proposal, not realizing that Samsonov despised him to begin with. Of course, Samsonov declined, but he offered him an alternative that amounted to nothing more than fool’s gold. Samsonov’s ruse worked. Dmitry had to spend the night in another town, which made him nervous that Grushenka would go to Fyodor Pavlovich before he could get back and stop her. But she didn’t go, and after he returned to town, he escorted her to Samsonov’s, where she would supposedly spend the evening helping her patron with the books.

Dmitry’s next stop was to pawn his dueling pistols, a fact that later emerged as evidence that he was broke at the time and consequently raised the question of where he got the money to blow on food and champagne (since no one knew about the neck pouch yet). Immediately after pawning his pistols, he visited another wealthy town resident, Mrs. Khokhlakova, to try to get the money from her. But that failed, too, and he lost time listening to her babble on and on about her plan to make him rich through gold prospecting. But hard, cold cash? She had none.

Grushenka’s passion

Here we need to digress for a moment to explain what happened next. Grushenka never stayed at Samsonov’s. She went right back home to wait for a message that had her on edge with anticipation. For five years, she had been agonizing over her “officer” who abandoned her and married another woman. As with the other characters with aspirations for romantic involvement, her feelings were mixed, a combination of passion, hope, and the desire for revenge. Recently, this same officer, now free again, contacted Grushenka in the hope of meeting his “queen,” apparently with the intention of proposing. When she finally got his message that same evening, she hurried off to meet him at the same inn in Mokroye where Dmitry had supposedly dropped 3000 rubles partying with her before, although no one knew exactly how much it was.

Looking for Grushenka

With three failed attempts to get the money, Dmitry figured that the logical next choice was not to rob his father but to commit suicide, so he headed back through the town square to retrieve his pistols. By sheer coincidence, he met Samsonov’s elderly maid, who informed him that Grushenka had stayed at her patron’s for no more than a minute and then left. Enraged and disbelieving, Dmitry headed back to Grushenka’s but found only her maids in the kitchen and frightened them with his angry questioning. He then ran out the door, instinctively grabbing a 7-inch pestle that happened to be lying out in the open and leaving the younger maid with the impression that he intended to kill someone.

A desperate search and an unfortunate mishap—At this point, Dmitry still had no idea that Grushenka was in Mokroye with her officer and not at Fyodor Pavlovich’s, so off he ran through the night, pestle in hand, blinded by passion and desperation. When he got to his father’s garden, he scaled the fence, and made his way to the window, noticing in the process that the door to the garden on the left side of the house was closed. Being paranoid, Fyodor Pavlovich locked himself in at night. However, Dmitry’s main goal was to figure out whether Grushenka was there, but unable to do so by peering through the window, he finally tapped on it using the signal that meant that she had arrived. Not realizing that it was Dmitry, Fyodor Pavlovich stuck his head out the window and called for Grushenka, proving that she wasn’t there after all. In that moment, Dmitry could have killed his father, but something “saved” him, as he put it later. Instead, he ran through the garden and began to climb over the fence again.

Meanwhile, old Grigory had awoken, saw Dmitry, and tried to grab him and stop him, convinced that he had just killed his father. While trying to escape, Dmitry hit Grigory on the head with the pestle, which knocked the old servant out. Conscience-stricken, Dmitry decided to check on Grigory and mindlessly threw the pestle onto the walkway. This was, after all, the man who had raised him as a young child, so out of compassion, Dmitry wiped the blood from the old man’s head with his handkerchief. However, not being sure whether Grigory was alive or dead, he finally gave up and ran, bloody handkerchief and all.

Decision to die after one last fling

Now clear that Grushenka wasn’t with his father, Dmitry charged back to her place and confronted the maids, unaware that he had blood all over his hands and face. Scared for her life, Fenya, the younger one, told him where her mistress was and with whom. Dmitry had heard about this officer before but had always regarded him as incidental. Now he realized that this was Grushenka’s true love—or so he thought. He had to step aside. His new plan was to retrieve his pistols, go to Mokroye for one last wild party with his “queen,” and then blow his brains out.

Preparatory errands; Perkhotin’s distress

But first there were some errands to run. Stop #1 was Perkhotin, the clerk to whom Dmitry had pawned his pistols. Perkhotin had taken a liking to Dmitry, and seeing all the blood, insisted on cleaning him up. He also kept trying to find out what had happened, but Dmitry’s answers didn’t make sense. At least one was an outright lie: by now, Dmitry was openly displaying a wad of bills, in part because he needed to pay Perkhotin back for the pistols. When Perkhotin asked him about it, Dmitry told him that it was an up-front payment from Mrs. Khokhlakova for her gold-prospecting scheme.

Stop #2 was the nearby grocer’s, who was preparing a large food and champagne order to be sent to Mokroye for Dmitry’s final big fling. Before his own coach arrived, Dmitry had one last drink with Perkhotin, and then off he went—but not before Fenya came along and made a final plea to him to not hurt Grushenka and her lover. That was when Perkhotin started putting the pieces together, though he tried to talk himself out of caring one way or another. But the situation with Dmitry was both troubling and baffling. For one thing, there was the problem of the money: hadn’t Dmitry been broke just hours ago when he pawned his pistols? So where did he get all the money to spend on the feast he had just ordered? Perkhotin didn’t believe the Khokhlakova story. And what about all the blood? Perkhotin had thought at first that it was Dmitry’s own blood from an injury, but it soon became clear that something else had happened. Despite the late hour, he went to see Fenya. When that proved useless, he headed to Mrs. Khokhlakova’s to find out the truth about the money. Having discovered that Mrs. Khokhlakova did not pay Dmitry, Perkhotin knew that his next stop had to be the police chief. What he didn’t yet know was that Fyodor Pavlovich had been murdered in the meantime and that Marfa Ignatyevna had already told not only the police chief but his guests for the evening, who happened to include the prosecutor and the investigating magistrate.

A series of surprises

Meanwhile, Dmitry arrived at the inn in Mokroye, where he learned that things were not as he expected. Instead, he found Grushenka playing cards with five men of varying ages, two of whom he knew. Her mood was hardly romantic, though she was still flirtatious; but otherwise, she displayed a variety of emotions, from enjoyment to annoyance, and her great true love was apparently a great disappointment. But it took Dmitry a while to figure this out.

As for Grushenka, her first reaction on seeing Dmitry was to scream in fear, since he had a reputation for unpredictability and violence. But she soon welcomed him, realizing that he meant well and would liven up a dull party. By then, she had also realized that her “officer” was a fraud and that she had strong feelings for Dmitry. Dmitry informed them that food and champagne were on the way and then went to make additional party arrangements for a chorus, etc. As the night wore on and various things happened (including a mini-showdown between Dmitry and the “true love”), the original card-playing party dispersed into different rooms, and eventually Dmitry and Grushenka found themselves in the nearby bedroom confessing their love to each other. He also admitted his dreams of a new life with her, his quandary with regard to the money he owed Katerina Ivanovna, and his fear that he had killed Grigory. But a new hope had arisen in his heart, and suicide no longer seemed like the best route. It was at this moment that the officers arrived to charge him with his father’s murder, and the interrogation began.

A transformative dream

Hours later (by now already morning), when the questioning was finally over, Dmitry took a break while the clerks were finalizing the records for him to sign. Exhausted, he promptly fell asleep and dreamed a strange dream about a freezing infant in the shriveled arms of his mother, who was standing outside a burned-down village in the wintry steppe country with the other suffering inhabitants. A new compassion arose within him, and he felt an inexplicable joy. At this point, the examining magistrate awoke him: it was time to sign the papers. Dmitry readily cooperated. But other than the touching fact that someone had put a pillow under his head, all he could think of right then was his dream; and though he mentioned it, no one listened.

Trial

The next few chapters detail the trial and all that surrounds it: the witnesses, the court officers, the audience and their expectations, the jury, the prosecutor and his arguments, and finally, the famous defense counsel brought from St. Petersburg by Katerina Ivanovna, with the financial help of Ivan and Alyosha. The idea was to plead temporary insanity, but Dmitry was not cooperative, repeatedly insisting that he did not kill his father. To him, honor and truth were the most important things, and the judge had to keep reprimanding him for his outbursts.

A series of surprises and a surprise verdict

A few other factors worked against Dmitry. Shortly before the trial, Smerdyakov committed suicide. Aside from being ill, he was deeply disappointed in his idol’s (Ivan’s) lack of courage in the face of his own philosophy, which Smerdyakov had tried so hard to emulate; and he also knew—as he told Ivan—that his death would guarantee that no one would learn the truth. By now, Ivan himself had succumbed to illness and delirium, complete with three-dimensional hallucinations of visitations by the Devil. Consequently, his testimony in court was disjointed and insane. Before that, Katerina Ivanovna had already delivered her testimony, in which she had partly covered up for Dmitry; but now realizing what she had done to Ivan through her ongoing games and finally acknowledging to herself that she loved him, she delivered a new hysterical testimony that cast Dmitry in a monstrous light. Grushenka, too, was hysterical, and all three had to be removed from the courtroom. In spite of the drama, everyone expected the defense to win, so it came as a complete shock when the jury returned a verdict of guilty with no mitigating circumstances. Dmitry would join the other prisoners due to make the long trek to Siberia to work in the mines.

Plans for escape

The effect on Dmitry was mixed. Even if the verdict was unjust, he was now in the early throes of a spiritual transformation, and he was ready and willing to suffer for goodness and joy. What he couldn’t bear was the thought of living without Grushenka. But Ivan had already thought ahead and arranged for his escape, even funding it with his own money and entrusting Katerina Ivanovna with its execution in case he was too ill or died. On a side note, Ivan was severely ill by now, even unconscious, and Katerina Ivanovna had meanwhile moved him to her home and was taking care him in.

Reconciliation between Dmitry and Katerina Ivanovna—Dmitry, too, had fallen ill and was currently in the hospital. It was there that he asked Alyosha to give Katerina Ivanovna the message that he desperately wanted to see her. Of course, she balked, not knowing whether she would go or not. But she did, and the two of them had a joyful reunion and were able to forgive each other, even acknowledging that they would love one another forever despite the fact that they had moved on to new romantic interests. As Katerina Ivanovna was leaving, Grushenka entered, even though Dmitry had tried to arrange things so that the two women would not meet (Grushenka had visited Katerina Ivanovna earlier in the novel, and what had started as a pleasant visit ended in disaster, with each woman being equally at fault). As Katerina Ivanovna passed Grushenka on the way out, she asked her for forgiveness. But Grushenka would not forgive her because she sensed that the request came from pride, and later Katerina Ivanovna admitted that this was true and was grateful for Grushenka’s honesty.

A new life

As for Dmitry, he told Alyosha that he planned to escape to America with Grushenka. There they would build a new, good life. But he also admitted that there was no way he could stay there forever. Both he and Grushenka were Russian through and through, and though they might live in America for a few years, they would return to Russia to live and die in some remote region—it didn’t matter, as long as it was on Russian soil.

The real theme: the power of spiritual love

Here ends the plot that revolves around Dmitry and his father’s murder. But as Dostoevsky sees it, the real hero of the story is Alyosha, the youngest son. For interwoven with the plot of passion, intrigue, love, confusion, madness, and murder is an ongoing story of spiritual love and growth. The human experience, as bitter or as rewarding as it may be, is at its best an impetus for spiritual growth, whether one’s own or another’s. In fact, there is no difference between self and other, and this is one of the starets’s main teachings. The plot hints that the three Karamazov brothers represent different aspects of the working out of the great problem of life and love: Dmitry, through action; Ivan, through the intellect; Alyosha, through the spirit, but not apart from the challenges of life. The starets, Alyosha’s mentor and the local monastery’s famous spiritual master, had seen all of this early on. The Karamazov family had met with him in his cell in the hopes of settling the dispute between Dmitry and Fyodor Pavlovich, and after listening a while (though he considered the meeting inappropriate), the starets finally bowed low before Dmitry in a gesture that confounded everyone and effectively terminated the meeting. Later, he would explain to Alyosha that he had recognized the great suffering that Dmitry would endure. His realization had come from the expression on Dmitry’s face, which the starets had seen only a few times before. The starets had also sensed the depth of Ivan’s troubled soul, while at the same time acknowledging his intellectual understanding of the issues. As for Alyosha, he saw in him the face of his own brother, who had died early in life and undergone a sudden spiritual transformation that had been the impetus for the starets’s own transformation at a later time. He loved Alyosha for that reminder, just as Alyosha loved him; and he knew that Alyosha had the power to transform the world through love. The monastery, then, was only a preparation, a place to learn the right attitudes and tools and, on the starets’s death, to receive the palpable blessing that would enable Alyosha to go out on his mission in a spirit of strength and certainty.

Alyosha’s mission

One of Alyosha’s first missions upon leaving the monastery, other than the ongoing issues among his family and friends, was with some schoolboys who were throwing rocks at another little boy. That boy’s intense anger was obvious, and that anger was in part directed at Alyosha. Alyosha couldn’t figure out why until he realized that Dmitry had dragged the boy’s father by the beard through the town square. The little boy had witnessed the whole shameful event and had pleaded for help, but instead of help, he got ridicule. That was why he bit Alyosha’s finger out of the blue. But Alyosha didn’t take it personally and made it his mission to reconcile the warring factions.

Ilyusha’s funeral and the end of the novel

Ilyusha, the little boy, fell ill, and his poor family didn’t have the means to help him. Katerina Ivanovna was able to intervene and send in a doctor from Moscow, but the prognosis was hopeless: Ilyusha would die. By then, however, two months after the stoning incident, Alyosha had succeeded in his mission of reconciliation, so at least Ilyusha died surrounded by friends. At eight years old, with all the pain and suffering in his family, his graciousness, maturity, and nobility of spirit were remarkable. The last scene is of Ilyusha’s funeral and burial, and the novel ends as Alyosha holds Ilyusha’s spirit up to the other boys as a beacon of hope, the kind of memory that can guide and inspire a life to grow into something better. He lovingly tells the boys that he now needs to move on, but he urges them to never forget Ilyusha and each other and to always cherish life’s beautiful, holy, and good memories. In a complete turnaround from the novel’s beginning, where the name Karamazov symbolizes wild passion and debauched living, the boys now exclaim “Karamazov” with love in their hearts and shouts of joy.