The Brothers Karamazov | Characters
Anyone familiar with Joseph Conrad's novel Victory (1914; see separate entry) may recall the three levels of evil represented by Mr. Jones and his cohorts. In The Brothers Karamazov, there is something of a similar gradation, but of another sort: The range proceeds upward from the morally bankrupt Ivan (the real cause of Fyodor's murder) through the bestial Smerdyakov, on through the impulsive but often well-intentioned Dmitri, to the saintly Alyosha. Some readers have complained that this book is too didactic in places (particularly the scenes in which Zossima preaches or...
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