Brothers Karamazov Conclusion - Laura

On Laura's blog (http://minddance.wordpress.com/), posted with her permission:

The Brothers Karamazov

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Spoiler Warning!! These are the final notes on Prof Herbert Dreyfus’ lectures on Brothers Karamazov from the webcast for his class Existentialism in Literature and Film. (page numbers here refer to the translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.) There are also notes from Part I and Part II, Part III, Part III cont, and Part IV. I am so grateful to have been able to listen in on this lecture series. I would have gotten a lot out of the book without it, but I learned so much more by taking the time to listen to the 12 hours of lectures - especially about existentialism of which I knew nothing.

Picking up with the third interview between Ivan and Smerdyakov…

Smerdyakov tells Ivan that he murdered Fyodor and was Ivan’s instrument. This “hit man” so to speak. Ivan had said it was OK to murder because he claimed that God is dead and that all things are permissible.

Many critics incorrectly say that Smerdyakov is repentant and therefore commits suicide. He is reading Isaac the Syrian which is the same book Grigory was reading when his son died. Isaace the Syrian is a Father Ferapont sort of person. Smerdykov is reading it because it is gloomy. Not because he has converted to a dark side of Christianity. If he had repented, then surely he would have said something about having killed Fyodor in his suicide note. But all his suicide note says is that he has killed himself and he blames no one.

Alyosha understands what is going on. If Smerdyakov kills himself, then there will be no evidence that Ivan is involved. Ivan is basically Smerdyakov’s god who has failed him and now he hates Ivan. Committing suicide puts Ivan in a horrible position. Ivan knows without a doubt that Dmitri is innocent, yet if Dmitri is in Siberia for a crime he didn’t commit and Ivan is to blame for this, Ivan will suffer a horrible isolation. This is the worst kind of suffering - the kind that keeps you stuck in your wrong and your misery and won’t let you experience joy. (Contrast this with the suffering of Zosima’s mysterious visitor.)

At some point, Ivan asks Smerdyakov if he believe in God since his is giving back ther money, and Smerdyakov responds “No, I don’t blieve in God. That’s why I’m giving it back”. Ivan was his God and Ivan repudiated him.

Ivan used to say that everything is lawful and now he is upset. Smerdyakov has lost his God and his motives. He wants Ivan to kill him but Ivan won’t so he kills himself as a way to get back at Ivan. It’s not totally unlike his torture of cats.

According to Dostoevsky, nobody can commit a crime and feel OK about it. And that people cannot feel OK about it is a proof of the existence of God. If God were dead, all would be lawful. (Of course, Woody Allen tends to turn this notion on its head in many of his movies.)

Ivan claims that the basest moment in his life is when he stands on the stairs listening to his father. That was a total detached relationship to his father - being the detached spectator. And of course, this is right before his father was killed.

The question left open is this: Is there a way to existentialize church? In the Grand Inquisitor, Jesus claims that church gets in the way of a relationship with God. But the Inquisitor claims that if you can get everyone to agree philosophically, then the church can be important.

Kolya, the leader of the boys, represents young Russia. Both Alyosha and Rakitin are battling for his allegiance. Rakitin, of course, is teaching about neurons and a disbelief in God. But Alyosha believes the amount you believe in God and feel the connectedness is the amount of love you have for mankind. Like Grushenka, Kolya thinks Alyosha despises him and as soon as he realizes that Alyosha regards him highly, he becomes Alyosha’s angel rather than Rakitin’s devil.

When Ilyusha dies, his body smells sweet. Many critics immediately think this points to a flaw in Zosima since Zosima smelled so bad. But it doesn’t. Dostoevsky never writes anything against the laws of chemistry and physics. Ilyusha’s dead body has open windows, flowers, and although it doesn’t say so, it is highly likely his body was washed. It was also a cool day. Zosima’s body wasn’t washed and there were no flowers (washing and flowers were not traditionally provided for monks). It was a warm day, and the windows are closed. Dostoevsky would not have provided these details if he were trying to create some sort of magical comparison between the sweet smell of Ilyusha and the stench of Zosima. Both were saints because in their own ways, they helped bring agape love into the world. Both create miracles of love. What happened to their body after death had nothing to do with any supernatural understanding common at the time.

Alyosha gives a speech at the stone where Ilyusha had asked to be buried. This is significant because Jesus gives Peter the keys tot he kingdom at a rock. There are 12 boys and Jesus had 12 disciples - again this is Dostoevsky banging you over the head with the existentializing of a typical Christian notion - this time the church. Alyosha is founding the existential church through the youth of Russia at the funeral. (See p.774). The way he does this is by creating a shared childhood memory among the boys.

The memory is eternity in time and therefore sacred. Most memories get redefined, but these sorts of childhood memories don’t get redefined, they help you redefine everything else. It interprets all of your other experiences.

On p. 775-776, Kolya asks, “Shall we rise from the dead and be together again?” Alyosha, of course, can’t answer this. But he can say that in this life they will rise and tell each other all that has been. Zosima tells the peasant woman that her child is an angel of God. But Dostoevsky doesn’t believe this. He believed there was no way to know such things. And he also doesn’t believe they will meet again in an afterlife because there is no way to know if there is an afterlife. What matters is what happens in this life.

There is a big fuss about burying Ilyusha under the stone where he wants to be buried or in the church. Alyosha agrees that Ilyusha should be buried in the church. The main reason Dostoevsky points this out is likely because Dostoevsky does not like the massochistic emphasis in Christianity. If Ilyusha had been buried under the rock from which Alyosha gives the speech, that would have far too much massochistic emphasis. He wants the church to be founded on the incarnation alone.

What does it mean to be a Karamazov is the same as asking, what does it mean to be a human self?

The trial is clearly a big joke.  Dostoevsky was not a big fan of psychology because it works within a specific framework: it works from the assumption that man is sinful, that human nature is selfish and it has no understanding whatsoever of transformation.  And because it has no understanding of transformation, Dostoevsky believes it has absolutely no understanding whatsoever of anything that is important.

We know the prosecution is wrong because we know Dmitri is innocent.  He claimed that the Karamazovs need an unnatural mixture of good and bad impulses.  But we know this is incorrect.  They don’t need and want these contradictions - they have them and are aware of them.  It is the the contradictions that make us human.  The secular has to make one side of the contradictions “bad”.  But the sacred does not need to do this.  It can accept both.

From a detached, rational side, the sensual impulses look like the “bad side”.  But this side, according to Dostoevsky, is important because it is this side agape love comes from.  There are lots of ways to interpret the Karamazovs.  The only way to see them as “good” is if you understand that they can be transformed by love.  When this happens, the earthy side becomes positive.

The last thing in the book is a cheer for Karamazov.  The boys (young Russia) cheer Alyosha Karamazov.  The boys are going to go out into the world and make the transformation and bit by bit, this transformation will transform everybody.  And this will be the demagicalization of the Russian Orthodox Church.