Genesis

“THE KARAMAZOV BROTHERS”

By: Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Etienne Bacardit and Génesis Cú.

Characters (Names and descriptions)

Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov

The father, Fyodor Pavlovich, is a 55-year-old "sponger" and buffoon who had sired three sons during the course of his two marriages. He is also rumored to have fathered an illegitimate son, Pavel Smerdyakov whom he employed as his servant.Fyodor took no interest in any of his sons. As a result, they were all raised apart from each other and their father. The murder of Fyodor and the ensuing implication of his oldest son provides much of the plot in the novel.

Dmitri Fyodorovich Karamazov

Dmitri (Mitya, Mitka, Mitenka, Mitri) is 28 years old, Fyodor's eldest son and the only offspring of his first marriage. Dmitri is asensualist much like his father, and the two men's personalities often clash. Dmitri spends large amounts of money on debauchery-filled nights with plenty of champagne, women, and whatever entertainment and stimulation money can buy, soon exhausting any source of cash he comes across. This leads to further conflict with his father, who he believes is withholding his rightful inheritance, and his lack ofmoney will cast suspicion upon him in the murder investigation. He finally comes to the brink of murdering his father when they begin fighting over the same woman, Grushenka. He is close to Alyosha, referring to him as his "cherub".

Ivan Fyodorovich Karamazov

Variously called Vanya, Vanka, and Vanechka, Ivan is the middle son and first by Fyodor's second marriage. He is a 24-year-oldfervent rationalist, disturbed especially by the apparently senseless suffering in the world. From an early age, Ivan was sullen and isolated from everyone around him. He carries a hatred for his father that is not openly expressed but which leads to his own moral guilt over Fyodor's murder and contributes to his later insanity. His father told Alyosha that he feared Ivan more than Dmitri. Some of themost memorable and acclaimed passages of the novel involve Ivan, including the chapter "Rebellion," his "poem" "The Grand Inquisitor" immediately following, and his nightmare of the devil.

Alexei Fyodorovich Karamazov

Variously referred to as Alyosha, Alyoshka, Alyoshenka, Alyoshechka, Alexeichik, Lyosha, and Lyoshenka, Alexei is the youngest of the Karamazov brothers at 20 years of age. Heis proclaimed as the hero of the novel by the narrator in the opening chapter (as well as the author in his preface). At the outset of the events chronicled in the story Alyosha is a novice in the local monastery. In this way Alyosha's beliefs act as a counterbalance to his brother Ivan's atheism. He is sent out into the world by his Elder and subsequently becomes embroiled in the sordid details ofhis family's dysfunction. Alyosha is also involved in a secondary plotline in which he befriends a group of school boys whose fate adds a hopeful message to the conclusion of an otherwise tragic novel. Alyosha's place in the novel is usually that of a messenger or witness to the actions of his brothers and others. He is very close to Dmitri.

Pavel Smerdyakov

Smerdyakov was born from"Stinking Lizaveta", a mute woman of the street, from which his name came—"Son of the 'reeking one'". He is widely rumored to be the illegitimate son of Fyodor Karamazov. When the novel begins, Smerdyakov is Fyodor's lackey and cook. He is morose and sullen, and, like Dostoevsky himself, epileptic. As a child he would collect stray cats so he could hang and later bury them. Smerdyakov is aloof with mostpeople but holds a special admiration for Ivan and shares his atheistic ideology. He later confesses to Ivan that he, and not Dmitri, was the murderer of Fyodor and claims to have acted with Ivan's blessing. However, Dmitri's defense attorney pointed out that in speaking with Smerdyakov, he found him to be "falsely naive" and able to tell people what they want to hear in order to subtly foist...