Robert Baynard II
Foltz/ Dostoevsky
The Brothers Karamazov: Is Human Nature Good or Evil?
Dostoevsky
explores the inner depths of human nature through the characters and events in The Brothers Karamazov. Father Zossima and Ivan Karamazov
represent two distinctly different views about the nature of the world and how
the human conditioned is affected by it.
The coldly intellectual Ivan represents a nihilistic worldview where
morality is only a social construct because the soul is not immortal and if there
is a God, he must be a mean tyrant for allowing the suffering of so many
people, especially children. The
warm and loving Zossima is an elder of a monastery where the youngest Karamazov
brother, Alyosha, has been learning from him. Zossima represents a life driven by faith, not only in God
but in the general goodness of human nature. He is the exact opposite of Ivan, who believes that people
are generally bad and that religion is merely a tool that can curtail humanity
from its chaotic indecency.
Zossima
and Ivan are the guiding influences and viewpoints of every other character in
the novel as well as the resulting action that plays out from these two
opposing positions. Zossima
repeatedly shows his loving kindness for everyone he meets, regardless of what
sins they have committed. He
believes in the inner goodness of people’s hearts and believes that love and
honesty are the way to securing eternal happiness. Father Zossima represents the power of faith in the novel,
and the young and gentle Alyosha believes that by believing and following the
goodness of a world created by God, Who is Good, the world can be transfigured
into a place of peace and equality.
Suffering and guilt are a part of human nature, and they only exist in
so far as they can bring about redemption for those who have strayed from the
path of the Truth. Alyosha’s
depiction of Father Zossima represents his faith in God and in the promise of
the world he created:
Among
us there is sin, injustice, and temptation, but yet, somewhere on earth there is
some one holy and exalted. He has
the truth; he knows the truth; so it is not
dead upon the earth according to the promise [...] He is holy. He
carries in his heart
the secret of renewal for all: that power which will, at last, establish truth on
the earth, and all men will be holy and love one another, and there will be no more rich nor poor, no
exalted nor humbled, but all will be as the children of God and the true Kingdom of Christ will
come. (30)
Ivan,
however, is less convinced. He
does not believe in the innate goodness in people and is skeptical that
morality exists at all. He has
trouble reconciling the idea of God when there is so much suffering in the
world. If there is no God, then
there is no afterlife for Ivan.
The afterlife seems to be the only reason why someone would be moral,
and so morality cannot exist. Ivan
synthesizes the belief that it is perfectly acceptable to indulge in all the
sensualist amoral behavior because there is no reason for restraining oneself
from pleasure and debauchery. Ivan
proposes that ecclesiastical courts be given more control over people through
allowing them to punish criminals because he sees that people would not commit
crimes if they knew that they would be crimes before God (66, he also shows
this outcome through the taking away of free-will from people in the Grand
Inquisitor section, Book V). This
way of seeing the need for God in the world is very different from Zossima’s and
Alyosha’s. Whereas the loving
monks believe that people are good and it is their conscience that makes them
behave that way, Ivan believes people are bad and that only fear can make them
behave morally. Even if religion
is no more than a way of controlling the hoi
polloi, Ivan does see the need for it in society whether or not his
reasoning is misguided. Ezra Pound
and Mussolini had a similar idea for the use of Roman Catholicism as a way to
prevent a chaotic society.
Suffering
in the novel and in the context of the Eastern Orthodox tradition is an outward
manifestation of a sickness in the soul.
Healing from affliction and the subsequent redemption of the soul can
only come about through the purgation of sinful behavior and forgiveness from
one’s iniquities. The
psychological and physical chaos, displayed by the characters who partially or
wholly possess the sensualistic lifestyle and nihilistic worldview that Ivan
argues about, is the direct result of agony of the soul. Suffering is not an action of God but a
reflection of the material inside of the person. If the soul is filled with the putrid stench of evil
thoughts and deeds whether under the influence of someone else or not, the body
will succumb to heartache, hardships and eventual emotional death. Ivan eventually sees the inevitable downfall
of the world he has envisioned and how his influences or fulfilled ideas have
led to: the death of his father, Fyodor Pavlovich, the imprisonment of his
brother, Dmitri, and the suicide of his half-brother, Smerdyakov, after
murdering his father.
Dmitri
was imprisoned for Fyodor’s death because he wrote that he would kill his
father for the money he owed Katarina, and he was found with a large sum of
money with his clothes bloodied. Fyodor is a sick, insecure debaucher who has
spent much of his wealth on women and booze. Smerdyakov is believed to be the son of Fyodor who had him
by a helpless retarded girl in the town.
He grows up as a servant of Fyodor’s and resents his father
constantly. Smerdyakov says that
he was under the influence of Ivan’s philosophical ideas when he killed their
father. Even though Smerdyakov
faced no criminal persecution for the murder, he became very sick and committed
suicide just as Dmitri’s trial had begun.
Before his death, Ivan goes to see him, and he confesses that he is the
murderer. He accuses Ivan saying:
You
are still responsible for it all, since you knew of the murder and charged me to do it, and went away
knowing all about it. And so I
want to prove to your face this evening
that you are the only real murderer in the whole affair, and I am not the real murderer, though I did
kill him. You are the rightful
murder. (714)
However, Smerdyakov’s confession is
not wholeheartedly given, and so the sickness in his soul drives him to kill
himself. Ivan must now come to
grips with the idea that his actions and beliefs can have a destructive impact
on human nature.
Dostoevsky
explores the theme of sinful lifestyles and an irreverence of God by showing
how it leads to a decayed moral fiber and a defect of the soul. All of the characters in the novel
battle one way or another with what they really believe, even the gentle
Alyosha breaks the Fast by drinking vodka and eating sausage after Zossima’s
corpse begins to stink. Other
displays of wrestling with sin are: the destructive behavior of the capricious
Grushenka, the cold fatalism and unwillingness to act in the love between Ivan
and Katerina, the suffering and death of Illyusha, the son of the captain who
Dmitri beat in a duel, Dmitri’s beating of the Fyodor’s loyal servant, Grigory
who was Smerdyakov’s caregiver, and the night terrors that torment Ivan. Ivan’s philosophy has also influenced
and symbolized the massive riff in the Karamazov family. Father and son, Fyodor and Dmitri,
continually duel it out over matters of inheritance and the affections of
Grushenka.
All
of this suffering is offset by the figures of Zossima and Alyosha whose endless
love and gentleness towards others makes the true goodness inside someone come
forth. They represent the beliefs
and attitudes of the Eastern Orthodox Christian faith, and they stand as
symbols of the anti-Ivan.
Dostoevsky shows that suffering can be a path to redemption, as long as
one can honestly look into the material of their soul and try to correct their
misdeeds. Once we repent and come
to forgiveness, we can restore our
lives and begin the path to salvation.
Father Zossima in the beginning of the novel tells the woman who is
suffering from the loss of her son that her grief “will turn in the end into
[a] quiet joy, and your bitter tears will be only tears of tender sorrow that
purifies the heart and delivers it from sin” (55).
When Dmitri and
Fyodor decide to have Father Zossima settle their dispute, they break out into
a terrible argument. Zossima
foresees the great suffering that Dmitri will face, and he pours out his heart
and love:
Father
Zossima moved towards Dmitri and reaching him sank on his knees before him.
Alyosha thought that he had fallen from weakness, but this was not
so. The elder distinctly and deliberately bowed down at Dmitri’s feet
till his forehead touched
the floor. (78)
Zossima always loved sinners that
he encountered, and he was a very holy man, despite there being no miracle
corresponding to his death.
Zossima helped so many people in his life and continually stressed the
need for people to love one another and care for the sins of others. Unlike Ivan, he believes that in order
for there to be peace and wholeness in one’s life, they must follow the path of
theosis, striving to always become
more of a likeness of Christ so that they may be transfigured into their full
potential as human beings. Zossima
and Ivan believe that people generally want to be good because God has instilled
people with a soul that is not indifferent to amorality. Ivan believes that people are too
imperfect to be left to their own devices and controlling them is the only way
to peace on earth.
Zossima
and Alyosha represent figures whom are made in the image and likeness of Christ
(Genesis 1: 26). They pour out
their love for others despite what they think or say or do to them. They represent the fullness of being
that accompanies a life in Christ.
The problems of human nature are revealed through an elaborate poem that
Ivan says he did not write, rather he was possessed or “carried away when [he]
made it up” (273). In Ivan’s
creation, “The Grand Inquisitor”, a cardinal has taken over the world because
God should not have given man the burden of freedom. The poem takes up the specific context of the Roman Catholic
Church and the corrupted inevitable end of true Christianity, when man takes
the position of God (though probably not the intention of Ivan). This is why Zossima believes that
ecclesiastical courts should not try to judge people because that is only God’s
business. The Inquisitor sees the
dichotomy of human nature, torn between free-will and the Will of God. Ivan describes the Inquisitor’s position:
He
claims it as a merit for himself and his Church that at last they have vanquished
freedom and have done so to make men happy. ‘For now’ (he is speaking
of the Inquisition, of course) ‘for the first time it has become possible to think
of the happiness of men. Man was
created a rebel; and how can rebels be happy? Thou wast warned,’ he says to Him. ‘Thou hast had no lack of admonitions
and warnings, but Thou didst not listen to those warnings; Thou didst reject
the only way by which men might be made happy. But, fortunately, departing
Thou didst hand on the work to us. (279)
The pomposity of the Inquisitor in
the face of Christ signifies the roles of each of the characters who take their
lives into their own hands, possibly or inadvertently supporting Ivan’s main
points.
Ivan
believes people are too weak to hold up the standards of morality that God
requires, so he imagines a cardinal at work with the devil to control the world
by stripping away their freedom.
The cardinal knows that they cannot attain salvation in this way, following
man not God, but at least they can have a comfortable mortal life. When Christ was tempted by the devil in
the wilderness, the Inquisitor describes how God would not give man the power
to reconcile their troubled human nature:
For
in those three questions the whole subsequent history of mankind is, as it were,
brought together into one whole, and foretold, and in them are united all the unsolved
historical contradictions of human nature. Judge Thyself who was right—Thou
or he who questioned Thee then? [...]
Nothing is more seductive for man
than his freedom of conscience, but nothing is a greater cause of
suffering. And behold, instead of giving a firm
foundation for setting the conscience of man at
rest for ever, Thou didst choose all that is exceptional, vague and enigmatic; Thou didst choose
what was utterly beyond the strength of men, acting as though Thou
didst not love them at all. (280
and 282)
Ivan is an Inquisitor figure
also. He upholds the ideas that
people should basically live how they want to live because morality is either a
farce or a cruel injustice. This
is why he does not abhor Fyodor for his debauchery, and is also partly
responsible for his murder through his influence on Smerdyakov. Freedom is the difficulty of
morality. God granted us the
freedom to follow Him and therefore be good and have salvation, or we could
follow our passions and live an evil lifestyle. Like the Inquisitor, Ivan also believes that man was given
the impossible burden of free will.
Dostoevsky crafts The Brothers
Karamazov around the problem of free will in human nature. Lives are played out along everyday
worldly paths that resonate through any age of man and society. Each character struggles with different
demons, and Dostoevsky shows that a life in Christ is the only way to climb out
of the depths of suffering.
Christ,
Zossima, and Alyosha all see that the people they are dealing with need love
and compassion, not punishment and subservitude; because they will suffer
enough from their own troubled souls.
Zossima’s metanoia at the foot of Dmitri is similar to the kiss that
Christ gives to the Grand Inquisitor after his tirade and the kiss that Alyosha
gives Ivan after hearing that same poem.
While the arguments of Ivan and the Inquisitor may be perfectly
reasonable and acceptable, people in the novel show how taking their own
judgment over God’s leads to nothing but despair and torment. Love and the Loving Way of Jesus Christ
and His ascetic followers, is a better life than trying to instill man-made
values. Instead of being lost
amongst the current of self-doubt and distrust of others, one can hold onto God
and the Holy Bible, for it says in Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all
your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge
him, and he will make your paths straight.” And also in the Book of Psalms 18:1-2, “I will love You, O Lord, my strength. The
Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom
I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”
Father
Zossima’s death did not come with a miracle because like the temptation that
Jesus denied from the devil, the people should not need a miracle to have
faith. Alyosha was described in
the beginning of the novel as a true believer, and after his initial doubts,
remains so in the face of this trouble surrounding the saintliness of his
beloved Zossima:
Alyosha
was more of a realist than any one [...] The genuine realist, if he is an unbeliever,
will always find strength and ability to disbelieve in the miraculous, and
if he is confronted with a miracle as an irrefutable fact he would rather disbelieve his own senses than admit the
fact. Even if he admits it, he
admits it as a
fact of nature till then unrecognised by him. Faith does not, in the realist, spring from the miracle but the miracle
from faith. If the realist once
believes, then he is bound by his
very realism to admit the miraculous also. (25) Alyosha believes in his heart and would never disbelieve his own senses
like the simple realist. Alyosha
is a realist who believes.
Alyosha, like Zossima and Christ, know that the spiritual life is more
real and more important than the physical, and the mortal life will be more at
peace if one would purge themselves of their sins and follow the path of theosis. Dostoevsky shows through his characters and the plot that
love and faith are the only two saving graces in a world torn apart by the
human condition.
Father
Zossima’s and Alyosha’s teachings emphasize the need for love and community
that will bring about a more perfect life for the people. The characters show the human impulse
to confess their wrongdoings and evil thoughts because they have an inherent
need to seek salvation. Following
in the footsteps of Christ through love for one another, is the way to eternal
joy. In the section “Of the Holy
Scriptures in the Life of Father Zossima” one can see how this great man knew
so well the right way to act and the right words to say. Father Zossima’s teachings show how
people can find their way through the troubles of the world by going to the
Holy Bible:
Good
heavens, what a book it is, and what lessons there are in it! What a book the Bible is, what a miracle, what strength
is given with it to man. It is
like a mould
cast of the world and man and human nature, everything is there, and a law for everything for all the ages. And what mysteries are solved and
revealed. (325) The human condition can find its repose in the Holy Scripture. The Bible solves all of the questions
that the devil tempts Jesus with.
This is what Jesus had in mind when He answered the devil with these
three answers:
1.) It
is written. Man does not live
by bread alone, but by every word
that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God. (Mark 4:4)
2.) It is written again. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
(Mark 4:7)
3.) Get thee hence Satan, for it is
written. Thou shalt worship the
Lord thy God and
him only shalt thou serve. (Mark 4:10)
The Inquisitor, like Ivan
lost the key facts to how man, with all his freedom, could obey God’s
laws. “It is written,”
Jesus tells the devil, and that is how the mysteries of the human condition and
the nature of the world can be revealed.
Reading
the Bible can bring rest to one’s suffering, calm the passions, and work to
restore one’s soul. Faith is the
answer to human nature’s deepest struggles. Without faith and love the world could collapse into utter
despair and isolation. Zossima’s
and Alyosha’s lives are testaments to the living faith at work in the lives of
men. The soul can be healed
through following the ascetic path and loving one another. Harmony and happiness can be found once
man has transformed their heart into the pureness and love of Jesus
Christ. The many distractions of
the senses and the outside world have little effect on Zossima and Alyosha
aside from them being deeply sad for those involved. The two characters embody the united human condition and its
fulfillment with a life dedicated to theosis.
Works
Cited
Dostoevsky, Fyodor. The Brothers Karamazov. Trans. by Constance Garnett. New York:
Random House Modern Library edition, 1996.
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