Ivan Fyodorovich Karamazov A Diabolical Hero Essay -- essays papers

Ivan Fyodorovich Karamazov A Diabolical Hero Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky is considered by many to be the pinnacle in a great line of Russian authors who wrote in the 19th century. Gogol, Tolstoy, Lermontov, Pushkin, Chekhov: these writers, like many greats the world round, concerned themselves not only with their art, but with its affect on their society; Gogol, for example, is said to have gone insane while working on his masterpiece, Dead Souls, obsessing himself with the idea that he could bring about the resurrection of his country through his tale. Eventually becoming disillusioned with the task he had set himself, Gogol burnt much of the manuscript and renounced all his worldly possessions, going on to lead an ascetic life until his death from starvation. While Dostoyevsky did not go to such extremes, he also intended to provide a salvation for his country, which he saw was headed down a dangerous path. This salvation was to take the form of The Brothers Karamazov and 'the Church as a positive social ideal was to constitute the central idea of the new novel...' (xiii)1. Some critics, however, have claimed that while he may have set out to write in support of the Church, Dostoyevsky ended up writing a novel which in many ways shows 'evil' in an attractive, or at least ambiguous, light. For them, Ivan Fyodorovich Karamazov is one of the most compelling characters in all literature the world round and that it is with him and not Alyosha (the 'Saviour' in the novel), that we as readers identify most strongly. Thus, they claim, by having us identify with the rational, amoral atheism of Ivan, the novel becomes something of a 'diabolodicy' rather than the great defense of God and Church it was intended to be.... ...n of accepting God, or, at the very least, His necessity. Of course, it could be argued that this 'acceptance' only stands in the context of the novel-that is, the events in the novel are structured so as to make all non-believers come to bad ends and thus make it seem as though any path other than that of Zosima and Alyosha is the wrong path; however, I must stress that the existence of such a profound conscience in Ivan and our deep sympathy for him leads us, almost inevitably, to reject the idea that'all things are lawful' because our sympathy proves that we ourselves have consciences as well. Thus, whether we believe in God or not, we are forced to admit that we must at least act as though there is. To do otherwise is to risk the fate of Ivan Fyodorovich Karamazov. Bibliography: Fyodor M. Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Trans. David McDuff (Penguin)