Book Report On Dostoevskys The Brothers Karamazov Essays

CHARACTERIZATION The main characters of Dostoevskys novel The Brothers Karamazov are, as the title suggests, the members of the Karamazov quot;family,quot; if it can indeed be called such. The only things that the members of this family share are a name and the quot;Karamazov curse,quot; a legacy of base impulses and voluptuous lust. References to this tendency towards immorality are sprinkled heavily throughout the novel; phrases such as quot;a brazen brow and a Karamazov conscience,quot; quot;voluptuary streak,quot; and quot;Karamazovian basenessquot; abound. Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov, the father of the brothers Karamazov, is the embodiment and the source of this immorality. In him Dostoevsky creates such†¦show more content†¦Indeed, Alyosha treats everyone he meets with respect and love, and consequently everyone responds to him in the same way. He tolerates anything without censure, even the quot;filthy lewdnessquot; of his father. As a result, even his father grows to be quot;sincerely fond of him.quot; nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Alyosha plays the role of the mediator in the novel. Dostoevsky deliberately creates Alyosha as a static character who undergoes few changes, and, therefore, he is the stable, solid character around whom the conflicts of the novel unfold. He moves in and out of these various conflicts and attempts to ameliorate the existing tensions and solve the problems. And, indeed, the other characters open up to him and trust him because of his refusal to judge them and their actions. Alyosha is not a Christ figure, however, nor is he a mere quot;holy fool.quot; He is, in fact, a quot;real Karamazovquot; , and he has more credibility as a mediator because as a Karamazov, he knows and understands the lowest depths of the soul. The ability that he has to understand the depravity inherent in man gives him, and therefore the reader, great insights into the personalities and motives of the other characters. For example, it is Alyosha that guesses that Katerina Ivanovna does not truly love Dmitry, and that she acts out this quot;falseShow MoreRelated Dostoevsky as Performer Essay4297 Words   |  18 Pagespeople and at the same time fostered the development of that beautiful language--freeflowing, emotionally charged, profoundly Russian and memorably expressive--in which, in time, his worldfamous books would be written (10). Joseph Frank attributes these storytellers tales of the saints with feeding Dostoevskys unshakable conviction that the soul of the Russian peasant was imbued with the Christian ethos of love and selfsacrifice (1976, 49). The Dostoevsky children were also entertained and educated