LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Brothers Karamazov, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The “accursed question” that hovers in the minds of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s central characters in The Brothers Karamazov is whether or not God exists. Furthermore, if God does exist, what is the moral meaning of this fact in a society that has increasingly less interest in religious faith? During his lifetime, Dostoevsky witnessed Russia veering toward socialism and worried that the political ideology’s rejection of divine faith would lead to moral decay. He also worried that the philosophical musings of the intellectual class, for which the author had contempt, sought ways to rationalize immorality. In the novel, Dostoevsky uses Ivan to embody the intellectual class’s atheism and cynical view of humanity. In contrast, his brother Alexei represents devotion to God’s grace and faith in the ultimate goodness of humanity, despite the world’s inexplicable depravity. Thus, the brothers’ disagreement in the novel represents the contention between intellectuals and clergy members regarding Russia’s moral destiny. Dostoevsky uses this debate over faith and reason to explore the precariousness of religious faith in a nation that wanted to believe in divine goodness but became too disillusioned with the world’s corruption to maintain faith. As the novel unfolds, Dostoevsky argues that goodness can be found in the world if people accept it as it is, instead of pursuing grand miracles or living according to the whims of intellectual circles.
For Ivan, the Orthodox Church’s existence is essential in maintaining the current social order and some semblance of civilization. He doesn’t regard the institution’s role as genuinely spiritual, given his insistence that there is neither a God nor an afterlife, but as correctional—helping to right the paths of those who cannot find their own way. When Ivan and Alexei’s father, Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov , suggests that “mysticism” should be abolished across Russia, forcing the devout to “reason,” Ivan counters that once “the truth” shines forth, Fyodor will be the first “to be robbed and then abolished.” The “truth,” according to Ivan, is that God doesn’t exist. Faith in salvation keeps the masses complacent with a system of inequality that unfairly benefits men like Fyodor. Once people abandon their faith, they will reject the system that oppresses them. In keeping with his view of the remedial purpose of religion, Ivan has written an article saying that, without “immortality of the soul, there is no virtue.” Ivan appears to believe that others require the promise of an award—that is, going to heaven—or the fright of being sent to hell, to ensure good behavior. He, on the other hand, doesn’t require faith for moral guidance. Believing himself to be a person of superior intelligence, he thinks that he can independently discern what is morally righteous without the rewards and punishments of religion.
In contrast, Alexei believes in both God and the afterlife, though his faith initially hinges on his belief in miracles. His need to believe in the presence of something extraordinary to assure himself that he lives in a just world nearly costs him his faith and illustrates the precariousness of religious belief. When Ivan posits that it is “impossible to love one’s neighbors,” and that most people only do so out of a sense of duty, Alexei counters that he “knows” that “there is still much love in mankind, almost like Christ’s love.” Ivan considers such love a “miracle impossible on earth,” due to people’s inability to overlook others’ unflattering qualities, such as “a bad smell” or “a foolish face.” Ivan’s cynical view of love is rooted in an awareness of human weakness, while Alexei’s arises from his belief that people are capable of achieving divine grace. Alexei’s faith in God makes him optimistic about the human capacity for love, while Ivan’s pessimistic view of the world makes him skeptical.
However, Alexei’s total faith in human goodness leaves him easily disappointed when others fail to demonstrate the love that he believes is innate. He’s appalled by the monks who gossip about how quickly a stink emanates from the body of the elder monk, Zosima , equating it with an “odor of corruption.” For them, the smell uncovers the unholiness of a monk who “taught that life is great joy and not tearful humility.” Witnessing such pettiness and unkindness from those who are supposed to epitomize God’s goodness nearly results in the collapse of Alexei’s faith, which is only restored when he witnesses goodness in Grushenka , the woman desired by both his father and his eldest brother, Dmitri , and who supposedly epitomizes depravity. Alexei thus realizes that goodness needn’t be revealed through miracles, but that it often surfaces in the most ordinary of circumstances and can be manifested by anyone.
The novel ultimately asserts that faith is not to be found in a monastery or based on grand, sweeping miracles; instead, faith is found in “[sojourning] with the world,” embracing the flawed reality that Ivan found so unbearable and believing unceasingly in the capacity for human grace. Alexei’s faith is restored when he witnesses goodness in Grushenka, a woman known for her sexual wantonness and greed. She expresses sympathy for him after hearing about the death of Zosima, who served as Alexei’s moral guide. Through this encounter, Alexei ultimately realizes that goodness often surfaces in the most ordinary of circumstances and can be manifested by anyone, even those who are judged most harshly by society.
In contrast, Dostoevsky exposes the flaw in Ivan’s delusion of superiority when the character succumbs to “brain fever,” hallucinates an encounter with Satan, and then eventually goes mad. Ivan’s belief in the power of reason isn’t enough to withstand the fact of human frailty, which includes the likelihood of sometimes being wrong. The “mathematical proof” that fostered his initial belief in his brother Dmitri’s guilt for murdering their father comes undone as a result of learning the identity of Fyodor’s true murderer, the “lackey” Smerdyakov . Ivan also realizes that Smerdyakov isn’t as unintelligent as Ivan believed, revealing the flaw in Ivan’s arrogant intellectualism. Dostoevsky uses Ivan’s delusion of superiority, as well as his eventual descent into madness, to suggest that faith in reason alone does not ensure moral rectitude. For Ivan, it leads to a loss of reason altogether, once he recognizes his father’s true murderer, as well as his own corruption, due to his own murderous feelings toward his father. Alexei, too, has an epiphany in regard to faith. It is not to be found in a monastery but in “[sojourning] with the world”—that is, in embracing the flawed reality that Ivan found so unbearable and believing always in the capacity for human grace.
