Verdict: Yes, Guilty
To say that The Brothers Karamazov is a loaded piece of work would be an understatement. From religion and politics to morality and philosophy, Fyodor Dostoevsky weaves it all into what has been said to be his finest masterpiece. He accomplishes this by incorporating several subplots or digressions into the main plot which is really not as intricate as one might expect it to be, considering the many difficult issues he manages to tackle. At the risk of oversimplifying the entire story, a brief summary would sound something like this: The eldest of three Karamazov sons and his father fall madly in love with the same woman, feud over her, and when old Karamazov is found dead, young Karamazov is arrested for parricide. Straightforward as that may sound, the narrator – who never actually identifies himself but strongly alludes to being a fellow townsperson – is particularly fond of taking breaks from the main storyline and going off on rabbit trails that explain in great detail the background or a significant story of a specific character. With the multiple stories and issues that deal with ugly human passions while wrestling with questionable ideas about Christianity, its theology, and other philosophical ideas, it is not with great ease that one can call this Christian literature. However, as the story begins to draw to a close, the theme of forgiveness and redemption which is briefly highlighted several times earlier in the novel is once again brought into the foreground thus reemphasizing elements of the Gospel message sprinkled throughout the book that a Christian can glean from while learning to better understand the fallen human condition.
Unlike the conventional impression of redemptive stories, The Brothers Karamazov does not end with a clear-cut message of redemption in which a life-changing, undeserved display of grace and mercy takes place. Instead, Dmitri Karamazov is declared guilty of a crime he did not commit. Nevertheless, it is through the process of getting arrested and subsequently sentenced that he learns about forgiveness and is thus, to a certain extent, redeemed. Similarly, the two other instances when forgiveness and redemption is brought up are not exactly mind blowing, but significant to the character and also to the reader upon reflection of the work as a whole.
The first account in which this theme shows itself prominently is in the story of how Father Zossima became a monk. Father Zossima is the mentor of Alyosha, the youngest of the Karamazov brothers and also the narrator’s “hero” of the novel (24). In this subplot, Father Zossima tells about how, in his younger days, he had fallen in love with a young woman only to find out that she had gotten married during his absence from town. Fueled by jealousy, he impulsively challenges her husband to a duel and upon returning home that night, takes his anger out on his own orderly, Afanasy, in a shocking display of unrestrained violence. Disturbed, he awakes early the next morning only to figure out that his restlessness is not so much due to the fact that he is possibly about to take someone else’s life, but that he had beaten up an innocent man the night before. In a moment of truth, Zossima dashes to Afanasy, asks for his forgiveness, and then rushes off to his duel. At the duel, his opponent barely misses his head and, elated that no life is lost, Zossima asks his opponent to forgive him for stirring up trouble and never fires his shot. His life turned around, Zossima makes the decision to become a monk and soon becomes a well-loved figure in his town, often invited into homes to tell his story.
Through these sessions, a certain man learns his story and begins visiting Zossima with all sorts of questions while never revealing anything about himself, until one day, he blurts out that he had killed a woman in his younger days. Zossima encourages him to turn himself in, but concern for his family’s reputation and welfare keeps this man from confessing his crime to his family and community. As a result, the guilt continues to plague him as it has for the last fourteen years. Finally, he makes the decision to make a public confession, but when he does, nobody believes him. Not long after his confession, he becomes ill and dies. Zossima is blamed for his death, his respectable position in the town is lost, and he leaves the place “five months later by God’s grace and … enter[s] upon the safe and blessed path” (272-88).
Although this account may seem rather bleak, the significance lies in the hearts of those who received forgiveness and were thus redeemed. Despite what the townspeople thought, both of these men knew within their hearts that they had encountered God and were no longer bound to their guilt. By asking Afanasy and then his opponent for forgiveness, Zossima was liberated from the horrible realization of what he had done and was about to do. He may have been highly praised for his noble actions after that, but even that attention was only temporary. In the end, it did not matter that people began to shun him because he knew that he was within the will of God and was headed towards a brighter future.
As for the other man, although nobody believed his confession and he died within a short time for no apparent reason, his spirit was set free from years of torment upon his confession. In his own words, he said to Zossima:
I know I am dying, but I feel joy and peace for the first time after so many years. There was heaven in my heart the moment I had done what I had to do. Now I dare to love my children and to kiss them. Neither my wife nor the judges, nor any one has believed it. My children will never believe it either. I see in that God’s mercy to them. I shall die, and my name will be without a stain for them. And now I feel God near, my heart rejoices as in Heaven… I have done my duty. (287) Although his confession was to his community and he never received forgiveness from them since they never believed him in the first place, he understood that his confession to the community was for the sake of receiving forgiveness from God, and that was enough.
The second memorable instance when forgiveness and redemption is emphasized is when Alyosha pays a visit to Grushenka. Grushenka is the woman responsible for the ultimate decay of an already bad relationship between Fyodor Karamazov and his eldest son, Dmitri. During this visit, Alyosha is deeply moved by Grushenka’s display of compassion and calls her his sister, despite Grushenka’s notorious status in the town. Grushenka then tells a story her cook used to tell her about an onion. An evil peasant woman whose only good deed in her entire life had been to give a beggar woman an onion from her garden is caught by the devil and thrown into the lake of fire. Her guardian angel tells God about her one good deed, and God consents to allow the guardian angel to pull her out of the lake and to Paradise with an onion unless the onion breaks. The angel holds out an onion to the woman, and is about to successfully pull her out of the lake of fire but the onion snaps when the woman cries out to the other sinners holding on to her in hopes of being pulled out as well, “I’m to be pulled out, not you. It’s my onion, not yours” (323). Grushenka concludes her story by telling Alyosha that she is like that woman who has only ever given an onion and is therefore not deserving of his praise, but Alyosha offers her his love and friendship nonetheless (321-28).
Here, the onion is the object of redemption. When Rakitin, a mutual acquaintance who was present at that time poses the question “What has he said to you so special?” Grushenka replies, “He is the first, the only one who has pitied me.” To Alyosha, she says, “I’ve been waiting all my life for some one like you, I knew that some one like you would come and forgive me. I believed that, nasty as I am, some one would really love me, not only with a shameful love,” to which Alyosha responds, “What have I done to you?... I only gave you an onion…” (327). Obviously, this entire exchange is of no value to Rakitin, but for Grushenka, Alyosha’s forgiveness is a moment of redemption. Having gotten used to being viewed as a woman of loose values, Alyosha’s acceptance of her as a friend frees her from the social identity she has fallen into and sets her off towards the right direction.
Finally, the theme of forgiveness and redemption is particularly evident in Fetyukovitch’s speech as the defense attorney during Fyodor Karamazov’s murder trial. Much to Dmitri’s misfortune, all the evidence of his father’s murder points to him, not to mention the fact that he had shamelessly declared in public on several accounts that he was going to kill his father. The real murderer, Smerdyakov, who is Fyodor Karamazov’s alleged illegitimate son, conveniently hangs himself the day before the trial, after he reveals to Ivan Karamazov, the middle Karamazov brother, that he had indeed killed their father. It is no wonder, that the odds are nowhere close to being in Dmitri’s favor, and his defense is therefore based solely on his own denial, some rather convincing rebuttals made against the prosecutor’s hypotheses, and an appeal to the jury’s emotional faculties. In one poignant moment, Fetyukovitch turns the court into a Christ-like figure when he presents to them their redeeming power over Dmitri were they to pardon him in contrast to the damage they would do to him if they were to condemn him. As moving and convicting is his speech, the jury makes their decision and pronounces without the slightest hesitation, “Yes, guilty!” (631-82).
At this point, the novel seems to come to an anti-climactic finish. Nevertheless, forgiveness and redemption is brought into the epilogue where Dmitri begs Alyosha to send for Katya, his former fiancé so that he might make peace with her. Although her testimony against him was probably the driving factor that sent him to his sentence, it was more important to him that she believed he did not kill his father, and that she could forgive him of all the ways he had wronged her. Both Dmitri and Katya are redeemed of their grudges and antagonism towards each other as they forgive one another and it is with a clear conscience that Dmitri is able to accept Katya’s help to escape from prison and run away to America with Grushenka (689-94).
It is true; The Brothers Karamazov does not cause a reader to come away from it screaming “Forgiveness! Redemption! Yes!” However, Christians can and should truly evaluate and think through those moments of forgiveness and redemption. Whether it is making peace with someone one has wronged so that a relationship may be restored, forgiving someone else who has never experienced forgiveness before so that he or she may have redemption from the burdensome layers of judgment and guilt he or she has been placed under, or whether it is receiving forgiveness from God and being redeemed of one’s sins in order to spend eternity in His presence, everyone needs forgiveness; everyone needs redemption. The fact of the matter is that everyone is guilty. Dmitri may not have been guilty of physically crushing his father’s skull, but he was guilty of killing him many times over in his head. As a matter of fact, it may be safe to assume that a majority of the townspeople were glad to see Fyodor Karamazov dead, not to mention the reader. Despicable man that he was, one could hardly be blamed for wanting him gone. But then again, one can hardly be pardoned for murder either. After all, who has any right to take the life of another? For as Jesus says in Matthew 5:21-22, “You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell” (New Living Translation, Matt. 5.21-22).The reality is this: It is only by the redemption of the blood of Christ that Christians would be able to one day stand before the Most High Judge, have all their filthy sins read out to them, and then hear the words “Not guilty!”
Works Cited
Dostoevsky, Fyodor. The Brothers Karamazov. Ed. Maire Jaanus. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2004. Print.
New Living Translation. Ed. Carol Stream. Illinois: Tyndale House Foundation, 1996. Print.