Brothers Karamazov- trying to understand

 

The Brothers Karamazof audiobook

Do we need Good in the world?

I read this fascinating novel last month, and I had to reread various sections of it several times, in both Arabic and English, to gain a better understanding of the book.

I have watched a lot of YouTube videos about the novel trying to get better understanding of it, but each time I find myself more conflicted about the ideas/ notions/ thoughts they discuss.

The story is about a family, a father, three brothers from two mothers, and a fourth bastard brother. A murder took place- the father got killed, one of the brothers did it. The elder brother is an absolute mess, he represents chaos, the second is intelligent, atheist but hates the world, the third is a priest, and the bastard is a working-class evil person.

You might like to think that the father is Russia the country and the children represent the various classes or sections of the society. You might think in a more wider way and consider the children representing the different types of human society in general, and the father could be God himself. Either way, the story is more than a murder mystery, it is a very philosophical and intelligent piece of literature.

Dostoevsky, the writer, opened by praising one character in the book, stating that he (the narrator) thinks he is the hero of the story, that is Alyosha. Many critics -from what I saw on YouTube- agree with that idea, Alyosha- the priest- is the hero, he represents Good in the world. Others- very few- disagree and think the most important character is Ivan, the second son, the educated atheist who is somehow took share of the responsibility of the murder, because he influenced the murderer with his thoughts.

Dostoevsky, according to many historians and critics was agnostic, he certainly was not atheist, but he definitely was not a believer. Which explains the confusion about who is really the hero in the book, the priest or the atheist?

The one interpretation that I did not find from anyone, maybe because it is not realistic, not practical, is that there is no good in the world.

Dostoevsky’s book is very long, with endless details of every event, a long description of every character, and every character is essential to the story/ plot. However, if you carefully and surgically removed Alyosha and every reference to him -the priest, the good brother- from the book, the events will not change, the outcomes will still be the same. This only applies to this brother, all other brothers and other characters are essential to the story, but as the forces of evil are clashing, chaos is dominating, ascending and rescinding, love, lust, joy and happiness are being exchanged, given and lost, as all of this is taking place, remove Alyosha, the pure soul, the all good, remove him from the story: nothing changes.

It is a very strange outcome, and I am not sure what it means, or if that is what Dostoevsky meant by highlighting Alyosha as the hero and giving him a role of no significance on events. It is a very troubling thought to have, we do not need good people among us!

I guess, in a way, there is no such thing, a truly good person, we all have elements of good and evil, with various shares that constantly changing, so we are sometimes very good, and occasionally bloody evil. This knowledge, that we are all both good and bad, makes us the heroes in this story and every story.

Ahmad Baker