Old Karamazov Readings Pt. 2

Book 3:

An extremely eventful book, and one of my favorites. We find out more about the servant Grigory, and how he had a deformed child that died two weeks after the birth. Then we find out about the child of stinking Lizaveta, Smerdyakov. It is very plausible that Fyodor raped the idiot girl and this shows exactly how bottomless his immorality really is. The interesting thing here is, while Lizaveta was what is now considered mentally handicapped, Smerdyakov is actually an intelligent individual. Granted, he has epilepsy, but the contrast of lives between him and his mother is apparent.

Alyosha leaves the monastery and is given a note by a wealthy acquaintance of the Karamazovs that asks Alyosha to visit Dmitri's former fiancee Katerina. He sees Dmitri on his way there and is told the story of how he met Katerina in the military, which included a story about a plan Dmitri had to bed Katerina, and his failure to do so because of his conscience. He also asks Alyosha to tell Katerina the engagement is definitely off, and to get 3,000 rubles from their father to pay off his "debt" to Katerina. This part of the book is interesting because it shows how Dmitri is different from Fyodor. While Fyodor does not know of a thing called regret and his conscience is completely absent, Dmitri is disgusted by how he sometimes acts, and wants to somehow make up for his sins. This is a very important contrast because it shows that Dmitri is somewhat of a combination between Alyosha and Fyodor. On one hand, he commits deep wrongdoings multiple times, but on the other hand he always tries to make up for them and lives a religious life.

Here is where it gets interesting. After dismissing his servants (Smerdyakov and Grigory) due to their argumentative state, Fyodor starts throwing verbal jabs at Alyosha about his mother. When he starts describing Alyosha's mother's seizures, Alyosha has one himself. Then Dmitri busts into the room, accuses his father of housing Grushenka, throws him on the floor and then leaves after threatening to kill Fyodor.

Alyosha then visits Katerina and later gets a letter from Lise, who describes her love for Alyosha. After such an exhausting day, Alyosha decides to stay with Zosima, who's health is rapidly deteriorating.