Virtue, vice, and saintliness in The Brothers Karamazov

Abstract

This chapter offers an analysis of virtue, vice, and saintliness in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s classic novel, The Brothers Karamazov. I focus on six main characters: the father Fyodor; the sons Dmitri, Ivan, Alyosha, and Smerdyakov; and Father Zossima. I organize my analysis with reference to the novel’s central theme—the struggle between good and evil. In the novel, this theme is carried out within a practical framework, which is informed by the crucial injunction that we are all responsible for each other. My analysis of the virtue, vice, and saintliness of the six main figures is carried out within the context of the practical framework of the responsibility of each for all. It takes as two touchstone characters whom I regard as polar opposites—the saintly Father Zossima, who embodies faith, love, and saintliness, and the evil Smerdyakov, whose twisted malice is created by the failure of his sobornost, or spiritual community, to love and nurture him. Ultimately, the failure of the sobornost to take responsibility for its own members generates the vices and evil of various characters in the novel. Between the opposites of Zossima and Smerdyakov, we can situate the virtues and vices of the other four characters, though they do not fall along anything that can be regarded as a neat continuum.