"You see, like you, I suffer from the fantastic and so I love the realism of earth. Here, with you, everything is circumscribed, here all is formulated and geometrical, while we have nothing but indeterminate questions!"(said to Ivan by "The...

The chapter entitled "The Grand Inquisitor" is unquestionably an integral part of The Brothers Karamazov. The poem allows Ivan to express many of the reasons that he cannot accept certain aspects of Christ's behavior, the existence of God, and...

In his essay, "The Brothers Karamazov: Idea and Technique" Edward Wasiolek examines two aspects of Dostoevsky's work. He begins with an exposition of the scene in Elder Zosima's cell and Ivan's internal struggles with religion, and then follows...

The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, exaggerates the extremes of Russia, saying that "[Russians] need continually...two extremes at the same moment, or they are miserable and dissatisfied and their existence is incomplete. They are wide,...

Often, authors develop a central idea in a novel by presenting it repeatedly in differing forms throughout the work. Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel The Brothers Karamazov is a perfect example of this technique. Specifically, over the course of the...

Nature of Crime in The Brothers Karamazov

The central act in The Brothers Karamazov is the murder of father Fyodor Karamazov. As such, the novel could be thought of as a crime story, the purpose of which is to find out who committed the heinous...

One of the major themes of Dostoevsky’s novel The Brothers Karamazov is the concept of justice, both earthly and divine. Dostoevsky investigates the differences between the two forms and examines several aspects of justice. The novel introduces...

“That remark you just made: ‘Not to be so ashamed of myself, for that is the cause of everything’ – it’s as if you pierced me right through and read inside me. That is exactly how it all seems to me, when I walk into a room, that I’m lower than...

When reading a book as brilliant as The Brother’s Karamazov, one wonders where Dostoevsky’s inspiration came from. According to Sigmund Freud, the novel must not be studied as a fiction but as a science, that being psychology. It seems that the...

Reading a Dostoevsky book doesn’t give us any insight into the mind of Fyodor Dostoevsky. Dostoevsky almost never makes a blanket statement in his books, and, in general, very few opinions voiced by characters in his novels can be traced back to...

Each of the brothers in Dostoevesky's The Brothers Karamazov have negative or fatal characteristics that set them apart from the rest of the characters. When broken down, the name Karamazov literally means 'black smear,' which alludes to the...

In Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s renowned novel Crime and Punishment, the radical theories of Raskolnikov (the protagonist) are a principal point of interest. One theory in particular, that of the so-called superman (a modern appellation, not Dostoyevsky’...

The novel Crime and Punishment, written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky and published in 1866, focuses on many philosophical and psychological themes. One of the themes is the distinction between rationalism and anti-rationalism. Rationalist ideas are based...

19th Century Russia saw immense economic, political, and ideological changes. With Western influence pervading Europe, Russian society became fiercely polarized between radicals who strove for rapid reform and reactionaries who opposed the...

A key tenet of existentialism is that as humans, we are all surrounded by absurdity. The very world we live in is absurd, and our actions are the only thing that we have complete control over. In Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov...

The Bible's notion of the "promised land" has had a profound influence on secular literature. Modern authors have reinterpreted this biblical ideal to include any land of redemption or salvation. This is an important concept in both Dostoevsky's...

Bourgeois society enslaves the individual such that any attempt to transcend one's environmental limitations results in self-destruction. Nietzsche "slave morality" theory is applicable to the works of Dostoyevsky, Mann, and Ibsen, and posits that...

The primary conflict in Crime and Punishment is the internal development of Raskolnikov's character. In Raskolnikov's mind are two contrasting personalities, each demanding control over him. One side, brought out by poverty and egoism, is the...

Fyodor Dostoevsky once stated, "Nothing is more seductive for man than his freedom of conscience. But nothing is a greater cause of suffering" (Eiermann). Existentialism insists that human life is understood in terms of one's unique experience....

Anyone who has had any exposure to theatre has at least once heard the colloquialism, "there are no small parts, only small actors." Some may mock this platitude, pointing out the fact that, of course there are small parts; most literary works...

Dreams are considered a link to one's unconscious, able to offer explanations that "... the dreamer could not invent for himself in his waking state," (46). Sigmund Freud made revolutionary strides with the psychological implications of dreams in...

Madness and sanity seem to exist on opposite poles of a binary; one is defined by the absence of the other. However, this binary, though present in Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment and Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote, is problematic. The...

"The extraordinary...have the right to commit all kinds of crimes and to transgress the law in all kinds of ways, for the simple reason that they are extraordinary." [1] Dostoyevsky's main characters are divided into two philosophical categories....

Fyodor Dosteoevsky's Crime and Punishment is a renowned 19th-century novel that has captivated audiences for generations. Part of the appeal for this classic text comes from the densely interwoven and constantly evolving thematic motifs and...