Character Analysis
(Avoiding Spoilers)
Grew Up… as the object of every man’s affection. Despite this, Grushenka was abandoned by a Polish military man in her youth before being taken in by a wealthy older man, whose tight control makes her long for freedom and independence.
Living… in the middle of an endless father-son struggle. Not only does Dmitri Karamazov end his engagement to Katerina to pursue her, but Dmitri’s father Fyodor also lusts after Grushenka. This places Grushenka in a tough position, forcing her to choose between the young, robust Dmitri or the wealthier, older Fyodor. But Grushenka takes joy in pitting the father and son against each other, and may even be intentionally inciting unrest for her own amusement.
Profession… stringing men along. Grushenka is well taken care of by her male suitors – Fyodor, for example, offers her 3000 rubles to become his lover. Financially speaking, she has nothing to worry about.
Interests… watching men fight over her, an activity she loves. Grushenka even admits that it’s a way for her to psychologically take revenge for her troubled past, when her life was under the control of the wealthy “former and indisputable one.” By having so much control over others' rivalries and lusts in the lives of others, Grushenka is able to finally feel in control of her own.
Relationship Status… caught between Fyodor and Dmitri Karamazov. She may even decide that she wishes to be with neither of them.
Challenge… putting an end to the feud between father and son. All Grushenka has to do is make a decision, and their endless attempts at one-upping one another would finally end. Unfortunately, the battle for Grushenka is hardly the only battle between the two Karamazovs – they’re also in a fierce feud over Dmitri’s inheritance.
Personality… proud, hectic, and excitable. The kind of woman who uses her beauty as a tool or weapon, touting it in front of people like a dangling carrot, Grushenka is devious and mischievous. However, her sad upbringing also makes Grushenka quite sympathetic, and her friendship with Alyosha Karamazov is surprisingly both genuine and nonsexual.
Get to Know her 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.
