The Brothers Karamazov | Themes
This novel arose largely from the material in A Writer's Diary (or The Diary of a Writer, 1876-1877, 1880-1881), where Dostoevsky reveals his philosophical and religious concerns. One of these was the proper relationship of man to God. In the same letter in which he declares that personal immortality and God are the same thing, Dostoevsky asks, "If there is no immortality, I need but live out my appointed day, and let the rest go hang . . . . Why am I to live decently and do good, if I die irrevocably here below?" This troubling thought informs Ivan's philosophy. Near the...
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