Book Report On Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov"

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have no respect for others, either. He has no respect for women,
for example; he is a despicable "voluptuary," and he satisfies his lust at
any cost. He drives his wife to madness by bringing "women of ill-repute"
into their house right in front of her. Even more shockingly, he rapes a
mentally retarded woman, who later dies giving birth to his illegitimate
son, Smerdyakov, who grows up as his father's servant.
Fyodor is even more blatantly disrespectful to his three legitimate
children. After his wife's death, he abandons them, for they "would have
been a hindrance to his debaucheries." He is never a true father to any
of them. When his oldest son, Dmitry, becomes an adult, Fyodor is even so
cruel as to deny Dmitry his inheritance and instead use the money to seduce
Grushenka, with whom his son is in love.
It is Alyosha, the youngest brother, that is most successful in
escaping the curse of the Karamazovs. Miraculously, he is almost the
complete opposite of ...

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he has to understand the depravity
inherent in man gives him, and therefore the reader, great insights into
the personalities and motives of the other characters. For example, it is
Alyosha that guesses that Katerina Ivanovna does not truly love Dmitry, and
that she acts out this "false love" only so that she can, out of pride,
"observe [her] heroic sacrifice of faithfulness and reproach [Dmitry] for
his unfaithfulness." Dostoevsky uses Alyosha's insights into the minds of
others as a unique way by which to develop his characters.
Ivan, the second youngest of the brothers, is much different from
both Fyodor and Alyosha. Ivan is a cold and haughty yet brilliant man
incapable ...

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