Character Analysis
(Avoiding Spoilers)
Grew Up… bumbling and indebting himself to others. Somewhere in his youth, Fyodor managed to not only be successful in business, but also marry the noble Adelaida Ivanovna Miusov. With her, he had his first son, Dmitri. But becoming a father didn’t stop him from leading a scandalous, shameful life.
Living… as drunkenly and disorderly as ever. Now middle-aged, the father of three children, and rumored to be the father of an illegitimate son, Smerdyakov, Fyodor has no real relationships with his sons. Instead, he spends his time living as selfishly as possible, resting on his laurels, and being hated by locals and family alike.
Profession… a businessman, and a successful one at that. He concerns himself almost entirely with making money, spending very little time with his family. His eldest son Dmitri is interested in receiving some of his inheritance sooner than later, but Fyodor denies him that.
Interests… alcohol, money, and making a fool of himself in public. In addition to being well-known for shouting and sobbing openly in the streets, Fyodor is infamous for his skirt-chasing and frequent patronage of prostitutes.
Relationship Status… widowed twice, Fyodor now tries to make himself happy by going after younger girls and promising them large sums of money to become his lover. He runs into trouble when he tries this tactic with the beautiful Grushenka, since she also happens to be the object of Dmitri’s affection.
Challenge… dying with as much riches and as many rich experiences as he can. Fyodor is a hedonistic man, whose greed drives much of his day-to-day activities. His biggest challenge in retaining his riches is keeping the money away from his sons, for whom he never did very much and never really wanted to.
Personality… vulgar, selfish, and cruel. If he didn't end up making so much money, Fyodor would be something of a town fool. Even so, he is respected by very few people, none of whom are his family. Perhaps more than anyone else, Fyodor's sons hate him – and although they barely know their father, they hold strong grudges against Fyodor because of the childhoods his selfishness has deprived them of.
Get to Know him in...
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Ryevsk, Russia, 1870. Tensions abound in the Karamazov family. Fyodor is a wealthy libertine who holds his purse strings tightly. His four grown sons include Dmitri, the eldest, an elegant officer, always broke and at odds with his father, betrothed to Katya, herself lovely and rich. The other brothers include a sterile aesthete, a factotum who is a bastard, and a monk. Family tensions erupt when Dmitri falls in love with one of his father's mistresses, the coquette Grushenka. Two brothers see Dmitri's jealousy of their father as an opportunity to inherit sooner. Acts of violence lead to the story's conclusion: trials of honor, conscience, forgiveness, and redemption.
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This extraordinary novel, Dostoyevsky's last and greatest work, tells the dramatic story of four brothers—Dmitri, pleasure-seeking, impatient, unruly. Ivan isbrilliant and morose. Alyosha is gentle, loving, honest. And the illegitimate Smerdyakov is sly, silent, cruel. Driven by intense passion, they become involved in the brutal murder of their own father, one of the most loathsome characters in all literature. Featuring the famous chapter, "The Grand Inquisitor," Dostoyevsky's final masterpiece is at once a complex character study, a riveting murder mystery, and a fascinating examination of man's morality and the question of God's existence.
