Old Karamazov Readings Pt. 4

Book 5:

This is one of the more deep books, as we have discussed in class. In this book, Ivan makes the case against God that, because there is suffering in the world, God does not exist. It feels like Dostoyevsky has seemingly taken a break from the actual flow of the book and story development to take some time to further develop the characters and their beliefs. This is good in a way because it proves further how deep and human-like the characters really are. Dostoyevsky has not simply created a name on a page. He has created life, in all its definitions except for the physical one. These ethereal creations of a writer can think for themselves, and this is shown in the way Ivan argues his point.

The second major theme in this book is the emotional instability of Lise, with whom Alyosha begins to plan a marriage with. She constantly argues with her mother. While this may seem normal in this country, at such a young age in Russia, children arguing with their parents is a very rare thing to see. I think it is simply because age is not valued here. In Russia, you value an elder's insight, as they infinitely more wise than you. Same with parents. As a child growing up in Russia myself, I knew at a very young age that my parents knew better than I did and accepted their decisions. This is due out of respect. It is quite sad really - in most other places, elders are treated as the leaders of a community. Here, they are dumped into the nearest nursing home as soon as their children are tired of them.

Also, the groundwork for Smerdyakov's murder of Fyodor is laid here. First, he fakes a seizure to make people think it was not him that did it, since a bedridden epileptic cannot possibly commit murder. Once his alibi is certain, he tells Ivan that Dmitri will be aware of Grushenka meeting with Fyodor, because he knows her secret knock. This sets up his attempt to pin it on someone else.