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The Brothers Karamazov - Dostoyevsky Lecture Two (Books III-IV) (Patreon)

Published:
2023-04-11 19:57:19
Imported:
2026-06
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  • Fyodor Dostoyevsky Lecture Two.mp3

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Content

'Here the devil is struggling with God, and the battlefield is the human heart.'

Today we are deepening our relationship with the Karamazovs, playing with some difficult ideas, attempting to express the inexpressible, and finding gratitude for our lofty hearts as we forge on through Dostoyevsky's masterpiece. 

Timestamps:

  • 0:00 the challenge of Dostoyevsky
  • 1:42 living with the Karamazovs
  • 3:00 our relationship with Smerdyakov
  • 4:14 one key to this novel’s comic power
  • 6:00 are we all Fyodor Pavlovich?
  • 7:52 on truth being in the absence
  • 10:30 humanity as tightrope walks
  • 12:19 Grigory and the Book of Job
  • 15:00 where shall wisdom be found?
  • 15:55 the allusion to Balaam’s ass
  • 18:45 the line between tragedy & farce
  • 21:00 on markers of psychopathy
  • 22:00 Grigory beats Smerdyakov
  • 22:52 musing on the origin of life
  • 25:23 ‘where did the line shine from?’
  • 27:00 are all words ultimately lies?
  • 29:30 the nature of being pure potential
  • 33:41 are all Karamazov brothers the same?
  • 37:00 the power of having high ideals
  • 38:00 going head down into the abyss
  • 39:00 we are our words and our deeds
  • 41:22 the anxiety of man’s universal fall
  • 42:00 ‘I am that very insect, brother’
  • 43:20 being grateful for one’s lofty heart
  • 45:00 the power of aiming for immortality
  • 46:00 the wounding potential of words
  • 57:52 when Dmitri attacks his father
  • 51:33 taking on pain, responsibility, meaning
  • 53:40 where do miracles come from?
  • 58:00 an invitation to access stillness
  • 1:00:00 what are you making of this book?

Supplementary Resources:

  • Scripture: In addition to the story of Balaam's donkey (Numbers 22:21-38), I highly recommend you begin working through the sublime poetry and insightful wisdom literature that is the Book of Job (you may also wish to listen to our podcast on this work here). 
  • Mindfulness: Reading The Brothers Karamazov can serve as a reminder to spend time in silence and stillness. If you don't already have a mindfulness practice, you might find The Mind Illuminated and The Power of Now to be good guides into meditation.
  • Psychology: You may find it rewarding to continue to pair your reading of Dostoyevsky with Freud and dip into the incredibly influential The Interpretation of Dreams, where we first see the idea of the Oedipus complex.
  • Philosophy: When it comes to living a principled and virtuous life, I have found Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, along with Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, to offer the most immediate and profound guidance.  
  • Music Appreciation: As Beethoven was one of Dostoyevsky’s favourite composers, and we have Dmitri quoting Schiller’s ‘Ode to Joy,’ why not treat yourself and listen to the fourth movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony?
  • Art Appreciation: You might find it rewarding to become acquainted with Ivan Kramskoy through his 'Contemplator.' Kramskoy is also the artist responsible for the magnificent 'Christ in the Wilderness'.

Reading Assignment:

Congratulations on bringing yourselves so fully to such a challenging novel. The next discussion will be on books five to six. This takes us up to page 324 in the Pevear and Volokhonsky.

Questions to Consider:

1) Do you see elements of your own life in this novel?

2) What ideals are most worth striving for? And what is utopia for you?

3) What core messages do you see emerging from Dostoyevsky's work?

And please do continue to share with us your favourite passages and any ideas that have resonated with you from your reading so far.

Happy reading, everybody!

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Anonymous

In reading through this text again I am also rereading Nikos Kazantzakis' books: 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡 𝑅𝑒𝑐𝑟𝑢𝑐𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑒𝑑 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐿𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝑇𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡 I read them, along with several other books when I spent a few months in Greece in 2002 island hopping. I had a theme of reading books either authored by Greeks or had Greece as part of its narrative, like 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑎𝑔𝑢𝑠 by Fowles for example. Most of these islands that I visited had Orthodox monasteries, usually with some "miracle working" icon story behind it. I believe it was on the island of Amorogos where they built one in the side of a cliff with steep carved out stairs to get up to it. I remember getting up there and sitting with one of the monks and having a shot of Raki! He claimed many moons ago that an icon washed up on shore at that spot on the island and that was a clue from God to build a monastery at that spot - most of the stories were some variant of this story. I discovered that a lot of monks liked to imbibe quite a bit, especially ouzo and tsipouro. Like in parts of Italy with the head of a nun in jar, the holy foreskin of Francis, etc. Many of these islands (if not all) have some saint day for their island, to which they roll out some relic of said saint (although I did not see anything as radical as you can find in parts of Italy) and celebrate by having a parade through the town holding up said relic. It is quite something. Don't forget to wear a blue stone to ward off the evil eye. Reading Books III-IV has stuck out to me, in particular the verse chapter 3 in Book III, with Stanzas 2-4 from Schiller's "Eleusinian Festival". This led to a deeper look into Schiller and ideas of the later Nicolas Berdyaev. Of course, the story of Lizaveta Smerdyastchaya is some epic heart string pulling, brutal. Excerpt from 𝐷𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑒𝑣𝑠𝑘𝑖𝑗 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑆𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑟 by Alexandra H. Lyngstad III. SCHILLER AND THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV: PERVASIVE THEMES AND MOTIFS The scholar who has written most extensively on the subject of this and the following chapter, Dmitrij Cizevskij, claims that in The Brothers Karamazov Dostoevskij frequently has "arguments" [Auseinandersetzungen] with Schiller; that is, he endeavors "to overcome the 'Schillerism' which Dostoevskij himself had gone through at one time and which, as he thought, had deeply affected part of the Russian society of the day." I have in the preceding chapters discussed both Dostoevski's battle with Schillerism and his creation of a new universe of thought. By the time he wrote his last novel, Schiller's thought must have been so closely assimilated to his own that no such "arguments" as Cizevskij postulates could have taken place. Kurt Wais is probably closer to the truth when he stresses the absence of any polemical intent in the novel, as well as Dostoevskij's endeavor to carry further certain lines of religious thought to which Schiller had failed to do full justice. It may even seem as if the one-time Schiller enthusiast has come full circle in his attitude to the German author, since among over thirty allusions to or quotations from Schiller, none is in a mocking tone. Yet, the image of the circle is misleading, since it suggests a reversion to the point of departure. Nothing could be more false. Whereas the early admiration as well as the later rejection were somewhat strained and partly, therefore, failed to find embodiment in artistically pleasing or impressive forms — except in brief passages like Ippolit's "Explanation" in The Idiot — the Schillerian elements in 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐵𝑟𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝐾𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑚𝑎𝑧𝑜𝑣 are fitted into an intricate and harmonious artistic design. One is struck by the wide range of the Schillerian materials embodied in the work; they represent Schiller the dramatist, the philosophical essayist, the poet. 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑅𝑜𝑏𝑏𝑒𝑟𝑠 gave Dostoevskij suggestions for situation, character and theme, and Don Carlos influenced a crucial chapter of the novel, "The Grand Inquisitor." Schiller's treatise 𝑂𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐴𝑒𝑠𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑐 𝐸𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑀𝑎𝑛 provided the intellectual framework for the three psychological types represented by the Karamazov brothers, as well as the important motif of the "higher man," also present in 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑅𝑜𝑏𝑏𝑒𝑟𝑠. Finally, Dmitrij and Ivan introduce, through their quotations from Schiller's poetry, significant ideas which become essential parts of the novel's ideological structure. The range of attitudes and ideas associated with these elements from Schiller is equally broad. The two polarities of Schiller's thought as reflected in Dostoevskij's earlier work, the cult of humanity and of the great individual, are both present in The Brothers Karamazov. The former, repeatedly a focus of mockery, has found an attractive embodiment in Alesa Karamazov, who at the outset is called "an early lover of humanity" (IX, 26). The attitude of proud individualism, formerly incorporated in such figures as Ippolit and Kirillov and traceable as far back as the underground man, is represented by Ivan. Mitja, the "hero" of the novel as it exists, seems to be an entirely new type, though clearly akin to Rogozin. Cizevskij correctly calls Mitja a wholly Russian type, but this does not, as he suggests, make Schiller's contribution superfluous. As a matter of fact, Mitja is associated with several concepts developed from Schillerian ideas in earlier novels, such as expiatory suicide and the "broadness" of human nature. Moreover, the Schillerian poetry that Mitja recites is not merely a convenient means of portraying an ecstatic personality; it also enables Dostoevskij to prefigure the dynamics of his hero's future development. For Mitja is the only character in the novel who undergoes significant growth. Alesa at the end differs little from what he was at the beginning, and Ivan, though vastly changed, can hardly be said to have "grown." When one considers how important spiritual development was to Schiller, the author of tragedies of expiation and of an aesthetic treatise based on the possibility of evolving a harmonious man, Dmitrij Karamazov comes to seem the most Schillerian of all the three brothers. In his way, he is initially a great egoist, like Ivan, but through his suffering he moves gradually closer to Alesa and begins to speak his language. Thus, within the movement from intellectual and spiritual anarchy to order which constitutes the overall rhythm of the novel, Schiller in one way or another is present at virtually every point. . . . Here are just a handful of articles and books that I have come across in rereading more "deeply" in this read through. 𝑅𝑢𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑎'𝑠 𝐿𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑅𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛: 𝑃𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑠, 𝑀𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑛𝑖𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑚, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑅𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑆𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑆𝑜𝑢𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑛 𝑅𝑢𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑎 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑈𝑘𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑒, 1830-1917 by Sergei I. Zhuk 𝐷𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑒𝑣𝑠𝑘𝑖 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐴𝑑𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟: 𝐴 𝑆𝑡𝑢𝑑𝑦 𝑖𝑛 𝐷𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑒𝑣𝑠𝑘𝑖'𝑠 𝑈𝑠𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑇𝑎𝑙𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝐻𝑜𝑓𝑓𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑛 by Charles E. Passage 𝐷𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑖𝑒𝑣𝑠𝑘𝑦: 𝐴𝑛 𝐼𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 by Nicolas Berdyaev 𝑇𝑟𝑢𝑡ℎ 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑅𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 by Nicolas Berdyaev 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑒𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐶𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝐴𝑐𝑡 by Nicolas Berdyaev 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐹𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑀𝑎𝑛 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑜𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑛 𝑊𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑 by Nicolas Berdyaev 𝑆𝑙𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐹𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑑𝑜𝑚 by Nicolas Berdyaev 𝐴𝑛 𝐴𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝐹𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑑𝑜𝑚: 𝐿𝑖𝑓𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑇𝑒𝑎𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑁𝑖𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑎𝑠 𝐵𝑒𝑟𝑑𝑦𝑎𝑒𝑣 by Michel Alexander Vallon 𝑀𝑒𝑛 𝐴𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑡 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒: 𝑁𝑖𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑎𝑠 𝐵𝑒𝑟𝑑𝑦𝑎𝑒𝑣, 𝑇.𝑆. 𝐸𝑙𝑖𝑜𝑡, 𝐴𝑙𝑑𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝐻𝑢𝑥𝑙𝑒𝑦 & 𝐶.𝐺. 𝐽𝑢𝑛𝑔 by Douglas Kellogg Wood 𝑀𝑜𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑛 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑅𝑒𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠 by Donald Attwater 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝐸𝑠𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑦 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑇ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑁𝑖𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑎𝑠 𝐵𝑒𝑟𝑑𝑦𝑎𝑒𝑣 by Carnegie Samuel Calian