Many Russian novels depict a cold country, full of poor, downtrodden, drunken citizens. In many ways Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novels (and life for that matter) mirror this common conception of Russia, but his reflections on moral issues and human interaction sharply distinguish him from stereotypes. According to the DLB database, Dostoyevsky’s father was a doctor and although letters reveal that Dostoyevsky was fairly close to his mother there is very little communication between Dostoyevsky and his father and he is reported to have said that his childhood was rather harsh. Freud diagnosed Dostoyevsky with “hystero-epilepsy” saying that his fits were brought about by guilt over wishing his father dead. Whether or not this diagnosis is accurate, (some reports say that Dostoyevsky’s father died under suspicious circumstances, others that he just died from a stroke) Dostoyevsky’s complicated feelings towards his father almost certainly provided much of the inspiration for The Brothers Karamazov, which depicts four vastly different brothers, one of whom murdered his father.
In my paper, I plan to argue that the four brothers are all manifestations of Dostoyevsky himself. Alyosha, an apprentice at a monastery who always sees (and represents) the good in humanity, is the religious facet of Dostoyevsky’s personality; Ivan is the cynical, intellectual part of his brain that wrestles with God and aggressively questions the state of affairs in the world; Dimitri is less complex, a rash and masculine soldier caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, embroiled in woman troubles; Finally, Smerdyakov is the opposite of Alyosha, a kind of devil on Dostoyevsky’s shoulder who wants his father dead and most likely killed him and also suffers from debilitating epileptic fits. I think there is enough information about Dostoyevsky’s life to find evidence for each of these facets of his personality. Any ideas or suggestions on how to make my argument more complex would be greatly appreciated!
ENG 195: The Literary Metropolis 