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Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov

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The Devil Wears Neckties Fyodor Dostoyevsky's, The Brothers Karamazov, promotes theological questions through characters and their actions. Ivan, who denounces religion, contracts a brain fever and sees the Devil in his home. The Devil is a physical manifestation of the guilt Ivan possesses about his father's murder, though he did not kill him. The guilt proves that Ivan does not believe in his avowal that "if God does not exist, everything is permissible" (Dostoyevsky 736). Ivan's remorse thus demonstrates that he does believe in God, because if he didn't, the murder of his father would be acceptable. Ivan remains wary in believing the Devil is truly there and is not a hallucination because if he admits to the Devil's authenticity, he consequently …show more content…

Ivan even recognizes that the Devil is an "incarnation of [himself] but only one side of [him]" (Dostoyevsky 1884). The side the Devil represents is one that Ivan suppresses as it questions religion and is opposite to his previous beliefs. In an ironic way, the Devil advocates for religion. He proposes the question that if one admits to the Devil, one coherently admits to God. In a world of suffering, believing in the Devil is easier than believing in God. Ivan's conscience therefore appears in the form of a Devil to aid Ivan in accepting his belief in God. Ivan also believes that man was made in the Devil's "own image and likeness" (Dostoyevsky 670). His conscience's form of the Devil reflects this belief as the Devil further mirrors Ivan's habits and thoughts. When the Devil visits Ivan, "his life gains a reality" (Dostoyevsky 1887). Since the Devil is Ivan's conscience, the conversations of faith the Devil provokes leads to minor epiphanies within Ivan. Ivan's life gains this reality only when he examines and listens to his conscience. A belief in God leads to clarity in Ivan's life that he does not possess as an atheist. The Devil's longing to "join the choir" represents Ivan's desire to accept God (Dostoyevsky 1915). The Devil is unable to join the choir because if he does, "everything on earth would have been extinguished at once" (Dostoyevsky 1915). In the same …show more content…

Ivan accepts God but cannot "accept the world created by Him" (Dostoyevsky 660). He abhors suffering, especially that of innocent children. Ivan perceives it as wickedness, and that the God many believe in would prevent it, proving that their God must be false or evil. The Devil's belief that "men suffer but then live" illustrates that suffering is necessary as it leads to redemption. (Dostoyevsky 1899). The torture of the children is not cruel, but rather enables them to feel joy because "without suffering what would be the pleasure" (Dostoyevsky 1899). Suffering therefore is needed in order for people to feel content. Without the pain caused by torment, one would grow indifferent to the happiness in life and no longer notice the feeling as it becomes all they know. Children, though being innocent, suffer but then feel redemption as adults do. Suffering children is not a result of a spiteful God, but a benevolent one. In a world without suffering "nothing would happen" (Dostoyevsky 1897). Since the Devil speaks what Ivan thinks, Ivan begins to understand suffering and the necessity of it in the world. The Devil represents the misery in the world as he was "predestined to deny," as Ivan was. (Dostoyevsky 1897). Ivan relied solely on his intellectual virtues, and denied God as He could not be proven. The Devil when stating that

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