Free Will In Brothers Karamazov

From the very beginning, Brothers Karamazov has been teeming with contradiction. It is a novel where everything has multiple dimensions and interpretations. Ranging from the motivations of a character to something simple like the names of the brothers. Nothing is as it seems and there are many intertwined connections that there are questions still unanswered at the end of the novel. The temptations described in the Grand Inquisitor—miracle, mystery, and authority—were proposed to Christ to relieve men’s burden of free will and to bring upon the fall of mankind. Miracle is the trust in god and the belief in the mental suffering rather than the physical. Christ refuses to turn rock into food to show his trust in God and the insignificance in

Zosima, Alexei’s mentor, sends him out into the world, from the monastery, to be with his people and to prevent suffering. (285) Alexei is completely bound to Zosima’s will and follows his commands, going out and trying to fix his brothers. He is inspired by the father-like nature of Zosima and the miracles that he has performed. However Alexei is unsuccessful in this task and ends up driving his brothers apart. Both brothers end up walking away and rejecting Alexei’s teachings. When “Ivan turned suddenly and went his way without looking back. It was similar to the way his brother Dmitri had left Alyosha,” (264) In his coffin, Zosima is described as having an odor of corruption and Father Ferapont thinks that there are devils near Zosima. This surely does not describe a death scene of holy and venerable man. This is because Zosima represents the flawed precepts of the Church presented in the Grand Inquisitor. The Inquisitor states that the Church restricts free will because they are against the choice of free will that Christ made. (251) The elder was a remnant of an ancient tradition, but one that the Russian peasants were opposed to. To the peasants it was too structured and the removal of it granted their souls the freedom to explore. Alexei, just like Christ, rejects the temptation to rule over everything and instead goes to help the people who need it