Angeline Tomcik
Dostoyevksy in The Brothers Karamazov is obsessed with the question of why evil exists and what this fact tells about the nature of life and God.
This is done through the kind-hearted Alyosha. Dostoyevsky’s religious dilemmas are most striking, as throughout the book. Several characters criticize all of the major western religions and derivative “cults” that were around in Russia, like the Startsy order that Alyosha belongs to. However, general religious good will is not criticized.
Dostoyevsky seems to be saying in this novel that “religious” people, who tout Gospels and verse from the Bible and publicly shun all manner of sin, are often hypocrites that only perform “Christian” acts to make themselves appear bigger or more pious than other people. They want their good works to build them a stairway to heaven.
Truly good people are like Christ in that they practice their faith through good works quietly, without grandeur or thoughts of payment in kind. They don’t preach or teach the lessons of Jesus; they show by example the ways of the Lord. Even someone who is not a Christian or familiar with the faith in any way, can’t help but be taken with the pureness of spirit as evidenced in such Dostoyevsky’s characters as Lizaveta Smerdyashkaya, Starets Zosima and above all, Alyosha Karamazov.
What about Ivan? He and Alyosha are full brothers born of a heartless man, Fyodor Karamazov and a religious woman, Sofya Ivanovna. Sofya’s faith is what got her through her short life and her horrible marriage. Through her, Ivan and Alyosha have redeemable qualities that are obviously lacking in Dimitri (their older half-brother). Dimitri seems to be beyond help, almost glad in his wicked ways. Ivan is different than Dimitri; he is not a womanizer or a violent man, yet he is not all religious hope and zeal like Alyosha either. In a conversation with Alyosha from the chapter, “The brothers get to know each other,” Ivan is quite lucid about his feelings towards God. He states that he accepts God wholeheartedly, accepts His word and the eternal harmony and order of life that God created. What he doesn’t accept; is the creation of the world by God (293).
I suppose he is aggrieved, like St. Augustine; that if God created the world and everything in it, He must have created evil as well. Where St. Augustine, however, tries to exonerate God from any wrongdoing, Ivan is not so charitable; he is hurt and angry with God. Ivan feels that all the harmony of heaven cannot ever eradicate the suffering and hardship inflicted by evil in the world. Ivan in essence, wants to know why anyone must wait to die to find peace and joy (307).
Ivan’s trust and faith in God are shaken by this inner conflict, but it is compounded by his relationship with his earthly father. Fyodor Karamazov is a thoroughly despicable man. Ivan finds him disgusting, devoid of humanity and is repulsed by him (173-74). His father’s thievery, debauchery, drunkenness and hatefulness have caused Ivan to question God. If this is his father: a man who is capable of such evil that he imposes on people whom he should love, isn’t God, in a way, the same sort of father?
Ivan loves God but feels betrayed by him. What’s the point in loving another father who doesn’t have your best interests at heart? Or wouldn’t help you if you were suffering in any way? In Ivan’s view, God is really no better than Fyodor Karamazov and that hurts him deeply (163).
In the Startsy order of monks, the priest listens to all of your confessions and concerns and grants absolution through a set amount of prayers and also consolation and advice. Ivan is, in a way, like a Starets; he takes all of the pain torture and anguish from the people he reads about into himself. Without faith, he cannot release this pain from the victims or from himself (88). Instead, Ivan is consumed with the overwhelming grief of human destruction that evil in the world produces (306).
Ivan wonders why there is evil in the world. St. Augustine attributes its existence to human free will which humans use to explore the darker side of themselves and thus create evils.
Some philosophers have argued that milder forms of evil actually stimulate and invigorate us. Nietzsche states that, evils in our lives are meant to challenge us and strangely, we need these hurdles to make life worth living. His point of view is similar to Voltaire’s idea that was expressed in Candide . At the end of the story, all of the characters are living on a sort of commune, in seeming serenity. Yet, they are bored and long for the excitement and adventure that life’s travails once held for them (98-99). But it is the evil that is heinous, cruel, devastating and demoralizing. Slavery, child abuse, torture, rape, murder and the like, are deeper more desperate forms of evil. It is those evils that wrack Ivan’s heart. From where does this evil manifest? Who has an explanation for this? Two more recent topics may help to clarify this.
Bataille claims in Tears of Eros, that it is our human nature that leads us on this quest for aggression and evil. It is inherent in our makeup to derive pleasure from inflicting pain, drawing blood and hurting another (60-69). This drive can’t be stopped, just stifled by laws or religion (79). Sartre believes it isn’t human nature that compels us, just our own choices that can induce “good” or “evil” actions. To me, these reasons are valid but to fully accept them is a cop-out.
I agree partially with their views but I also have faith in the better side of man. Like Rousseau, I think that beneath all of the self- interest that bogs man down, there is an understanding, an empathy that makes people care about their fellow human beings. Even after such abuses have been laid upon people, life goes on; they live and love, trust and care again. Perhaps after such torment, these victims are even more appreciative of the good things in life because life has been cruel to them.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky shows us through the lives of the Karamazovs what non-faith does to your life. Greed, sexual depravity, mental torment and all manner of hopelessness befell the worst of the nihilists in the story. Dostoyevsky touches upon the shattering of the Enlightenment through the events that capture the Karamazov family. In a note regarding Alyosha, Dostoyevsky writes, “it may be he in particular who sometimes represents the very essence of his epoch, while others of his generation, for whatever reason, will drift aimlessly in the wind” (5).
Dostoyevsky seems to be saying that, no matter what movements occur in the world; from political upheavals or new philosophies that may arise, one must stick to their principles and be guided by their conscience. Alyosha is overwhelmed by the world; it is crazy, disordered and overbearing to him. His faith is put to the test on many occasions. He is always true to himself, he is not a hypocrite, nor does he ever stray or waver in his beliefs. Dostoyevsky elucidates that there is indeed evil among us, but as long as there are people like Alyosha in the world who prove that God and goodness exist the earth isn’t a hopeless place. Life has meaning and purpose and is ultimately beautiful
Works Cited
Bataille, Georges. The Tears of Eros. San Francisco: City Lights
Books, 1989.
Dostoevsky, Fyodor. The Karamazov Brothers. Oxford, Great Britain: Oxford University Press, 1994.
Keneally, Thomas. Schindler’s List. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982.
Laurie, Greg. The Book of Hope. Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House, 1998.
“The Urban Elephant.” Nature. PBS. 1 Dec 2000.
Voltaire . Candide, Zadig and Selected Stories. New York: Penguin Putnam, 1961.