Summary of "The Brothers Karamazov" - the great work of F.M. Dostoevsky

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

F. M. Dostoevsky, "The Brothers Karamazov", summary … The first lines of the novel begin with an epigraph: “Truly, truly, I say to you: if a grain of wheat, falling into the ground, does not die, then only one will remain; and if he dies, he will bear much fruit (Gospel of John). It is in these words that the main idea of \u200b\u200bthe work sounds. What do they mean? The world is a struggle and unity of two opposites. Is death always evil? Is white always light? Is a fight necessary? Is suffering necessary? What is the soul in this fight? Who is God in this duel? And does he exist? These and other questions are read in the destinies, deeds, words of the main characters…

Summary: "The Brothers Karamazov"

The action of the novel takes place in the small town of Skotoprigonyevsk in the 70s of the 19th century. On the first page we find ourselves in the monastery, in the skete of the elder Zosima, who is known in the district as a righteous man and healer. The prayed place becomes a stage where the main characters gather. The author introduces us in detail to each of them, symbolicallyanticipating subsequent tragic events.

Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov is the father of a large family, a dissolute, cynical, infinitely greedy and unusually cruel man. An extraordinary, sometimes terrible craving for power, for earthly pleasures and pleasures erases in him all the existing boundaries between good and evil, destroys eternal values. That kindred, spiritual thread that connects him with children is also lost.

The eldest son Dmitry Karamazov is a man with unbridled passions, he is thrown from one extreme to another like a pendulum. He is honest, ready for generous deeds and at the same time can be extremely cruel and ruthless. His soul is drawn to love, to light, deep faith, and every day he promises himself that he will stop this disorderly life full of drunkenness and debauchery. But the forces that affect the oscillations of its pendulum are so great and uncontrollable that the creative energy in it is instantly transformed into destructive. This is the so-called elemental "Karamazov" force, which, to one degree or another, was transmitted from his father, Fyodor Pavlovich, to each of his offspring.

Ivan Karamazov is the middle son, outwardly calm, self-possessed, rationally thinking. But even passions rage in him and the struggle between faith and godlessness does not stop. At first glance, he is more of a silent observer than an active participant in the unfolding drama. But this impression is deceptive. His tacit consent played a decisive role, it became a real killer …. However, let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Continuing to describe the brief content of The Brothers Karamazov, let's return to the youngerthe offspring of Fyodor Pavlovich, who, according to Dostoevsky, is the main person. Alyosha Karamazov is the third, youngest son, a novice with Zosima, an honest, sincere, deeply believing young man, who is in constant search for truth and reconciliation. It was at his suggestion that the whole family gathered in the skete of the elder to resolve the flaring property dispute between the father and the eldest of the brothers.

What are human passions? It is an intense desire to possess the here and now. It is so great that a person is ready to go to extreme measures, just to achieve his goal. It is in the possession of someone or something that he sees himself truly happy. Just such a duel for happiness takes place between Dmitry and his parent. At stake are three thousand rubles and the beautiful Grushenka, with whom both are immensely in love. Reconciliation does not take place in the elder's skete.

On the contrary, everything ends in scandal.

Zosima, seeing through the eyes of God the soul of man, gives everyone parting words. Before Dmitry, he kneels, truly loving for his future suffering and for the pain that he needs to go through in order to be cleansed. He blesses Ivan, wisely noting that the issue in his heart has not yet been resolved. He tells Fyodor Pavlovich that his buffoonery comes solely from the fact that he is ashamed of himself. And he punishes Alyosha to be with his brothers and father now.

Everyone disperses, and a series of events unfold in the city of Skotoprigonyevsk. They follow one after another: words thrown in a rage, thoughtless actions, increasing resentment. They are like a storm that grows with eachminute, captures everyone and everything along the way, turns black, ready to collapse and destroy everything around. Someone will die, but someone will stand….

Dmitry demands more and more money from his father. With each new day, hatred and jealousy become stronger. Day and night he guards his beloved Grushenka at his father's house, if she, seduced by Fyodor Pavlovich's money, decides to come to him. He becomes extremely suspicious and in a fit of rage and despair beats the parent. But another secret is hidden in his soul, his shame - he squandered someone else's three thousand with Grushenka at an inn in the village of Mokroe. And Katerina Ivanovna, his formal bride, gave him this money to send it to his sister in Moscow. Huge shame and guilt in front of the girl for his theft, for his betrayal, for his love for another push him to a desperate step.

Ivan is secretly in love with Dmitry's fiancee. Every day he sits "near the anguish" and involuntarily plunges into her tormented soul, where there is a struggle between the feat of loy alty to the groom and a deep feeling for him, Ivan. Every day he observes the undisguised cynicism of his father, who is ready to exchange everyone and everything, if only to live in his filth to the end. Every day he becomes an unwitting listener to the deeply immoral, base reasoning of Smerdyakov, who is supposedly the illegitimate son of Karamazov from the tramp Lizaveta. He listens and realizes with disgust that the footman's words echo his own thoughts to some extent. Is everything allowed or not? If you believe in God and the immortality of the soul, then not everyone, but if not … So, everyonechooses how it is better and more comfortable for him to settle in the world.

In his doubts, he writes the poem "The Grand Inquisitor", in which he raises the main questions: accepting God and not accepting the world of God, what is justice, striving for perfection and what is the true harmony of God, what is the difference between human happiness and true. The culmination of his "storm" is the last conversation with Smerdyakov, in which the latter advises him to leave the city for several days, hinting at length that anything can happen to his father in his absence. Ivan is outraged, but at the same time intrigued, and agrees…

Alyosha, following the orders of the elder and his own loving soul, talks, instructs and tries to help everyone. He sees confusion in everyone's heart, he observes this endless cruelty and indifference, he becomes a witness to an endless duel between true values and sin, in which a person more often chooses to fall into the abyss, and doubts also appear in his soul. At this time, the elder Zosima dies. Around there is an expectation of some miracle after his death, but instead of the expected, there is a smell of decay. Alyosha is embarrassed. There are too many stones on his path to the truth that knock down and want to destroy….

Passion heats up, a storm rises, and the death of Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov becomes the apotheosis. Who is the killer? Coincidence of circumstances and facts speak against the eldest son. He is arrested. Judgment begins. Dmitry is a libertine, a deceiver, a rowdy and a drunkard, but he is not a murderer. Smerdyakov confesses to Ivan the murder of his fatherand tells in detail how this happened, warning that it was he, Ivan, who was his inspirer, and with his secret consent, a terrible crime occurred. Ivan is desperate. On the one hand, he does not admit guilt, but on the other hand, his conscience says otherwise. He intends to go to court and tell how everything really happened. Smerdyakov, disappointed in him, in his ideas about permissiveness, gives him the stolen money and hangs himself. Ivan, in a fever, appears before the court and confesses his contribution to this crime: “The footman killed, and I taught.”

Ekaterina Ivanovna hysterically takes out a decisive letter, Dmitry's last message to her, in which he writes in detail about his desire to kill his father and take the money due to him. This clue becomes key. Thus, she saves Ivan and destroys Dmitry, the ulcer of her heart, whom she promises to love forever, no matter what … Finishing describing the summary of The Brothers Karamazov, we move on to the final, no less symbolic scene - the funeral of the little boy Ilyushenka Snegirev. At the funeral, Alyosha urges those gathered to love life, appreciate its beautiful moments, be kind and honest….

The Brothers Karamazov: summary, conclusion

At the end of the journey, you always want to go back to the beginning and remember how it all began…. Getting down to the description of “Summary of The Brothers Karamazov”, we touched on the epigraph. In conclusion, I would certainly like to return to it: “Truly, truly, I say to you: if a grain of wheat, falling into the ground, does not die, then only one will remain; and if he dies, he will bringmuch fruit (Gospel according to John). "Wheat grains" fell into the ground. Many of them were trampled down, pressed into the mud and destroyed, but it is their "death", their fall, pain and suffering that will bring "much fruit" - spiritual purification and love ….