The Brothers Karamazov | Ivan Karamazov

If Dostoevsky's novel is viewed as a novel of ideas, then Ivan, the middle brother, is the hero. He is a "morose and reserved" young man who recently graduated from the university. Besides the narrator's voice, his voice is the most frequent. Ivan, however, uses other narrative voices to express his thoughts--a devil, an Inquisitor, or a dry recitation of facts.

Ivan gets so caught up in polemics that he ends up in critical condition with a "brain fever." His apparent possession by a demonic being sheds light on the primitive state of neurology just prior to the revolutionary...

[The entire page is 193 words long]

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