Dimitri Fydorovitch, while speaking to his brother Alexey in a state of absolute inebriation, inadvertently delineates the existential dilemma endemic to the Karamazovs. He declares that "all [the] Karamazovs are...insects, and, angel as you [Alexey] are, that insect lives in [him], too, and will stir up a tempest in [his] blood" (The Confession of a Passionate Heart- in Verse). The fact that Dimitri refers to the Karamazov family, more specifically the men in the family, as insects is significant since it introduces an important motif in the novel. Old Karamazov is referred to as a noxious insect (In the Servants Quarters): cruel corrupt and often lustful, Rakitin tells Alexey that Fyodor Pavlovitch is an old drunken sinner and suspects that all the Karamazovs have a base, ignoble side to their nature (A Young Man Bent on A Career) and Dimitri reinforces this observation by confessing to Alexey that the noxious insect of sin and vice resides deep within him and in all the Karamazovs (The Confession of a Passionate Heart- In Anecdote). This recurring motif of the noxious insect is meant to symbolize all that is ignoble, base and deplorable about human nature. It is closely related to the idea of Sensualists in the novel: low creatures with uncontrollable passions (The Confession of a Passionate Heart- "Heels Up"). It is this same noxious insect, according to Dimitri, that is responsible for his depraved sensuality, his lust for women, his lowly nature. Like his father, Fyodor Pavlovitch, Dimitri spends his days in a drunken stupor, distracting himself from sudden moral convulsions; playing the part of the ridiculous buffoon, unable to comprehend the gravity of his existential dilemma. Ivan and Alexey, however, are all too aware, all too conscious about the fundamental contradiction in human nature. Both are aware about the conflict between their sensualist desire on the one hand and their ceaseless quest for that which is pure and noble on the other. Ivan chooses the intellectual and theological route to eliminate that which is base and ignoble about him. Alexey, however, chooses to take the monastic and Christian way to transcend the base and ignoble side of his personality. Using this quest for purity as the basis for my argument, I shall illustrate in this paper that both Alexey and Ivan Karamazov are desperately trying to achieve the same goal in novel but choose two very different paths in doing so. I will focus my thesis on one chapter in particular: "The Confession of a Passionate Heart- in Verse", along with making some references to "A Young Man Bent on A Career", "The Devil: Ivan Fydorovitch's Nightmare" and "Cana of Galilee". Essentially what I hope to prove is that even though Alexey and Ivan are striving for the same thing, that is purity, it only Alexey who is able to achieve it by transcending that which is base and ignoble about him. Ivan, unfortunately, is not able to reconcile the contradiction in his personality and fails in his quest for purity, loosing his mind in the process. Thus, in Alexey's triumph, we see that Dostoevsky highlights how man can overcome his existential conflict by transcending rather than by attempting to erase the base and the ignoble.
Dimitri is the first character in the novel to verbalize the link between the motif of the noxious insect, residing deep withing the human heart, and sensual lust. While talking to Alexey in "The Confession of a Passionate Heart- In Verse", Dimitri suddenly digresses from the topic of conversation and quotes random lines of poetry. In one such instance, he says that God has given sensual lust to insects and that he is just such an insect (The Confession of a Passionate Heart- in Verse). What he means is that God has created man and made him a weak creature, prone to sensual lust. This particular aspect of sensual lust is emphasized by Dostoevsky in the novel. It is not simply meant to confer the weakness of the human soul upon the sensual and lustful. Instead, Dostoevsky uses sensual lust to eloquently summarize all that is ignoble within human nature. Rakitin, a fellow monk at Alexey's monastery, is one of the first few characters to note this connection between sensuality and weakness. While talking to Alexey he says that "Mitya [Dimitri] is- a sensualist. That's the very definition and inner essence of him. It's [Alexey's] father who has handed him on his low sensuality" (A Young Man Bent on A Career). The fact that Rakitin calls it a "low sensuality", shows how sensual lust is an undesirable part of human nature.Furthermore, Rakitin is surprised that Alexey can maintain his purity, given that he is a Karamazov too and that "in [Alexey's] family sensuality is carried to a disease" (A Young Man Bent on A Career). Rakitin's shrewd observation is important since it highlights how sensuality is part of the existential human dilemma, that is, the conflict between the baser human instincts which make man weak, and the longing for purity in his quest to become noble. This dilemma manifests itself most clearly within the Karamazov family. Rakitin goes onto to observe that "you [Alexey] are a sensualist from your father, and a crazy saint from your mother" and that his "brother Ivan writes theological articles in joke, for some idiotic, unknown motive of his own, though he's an atheist, and he admits it's a fraud himself" (A Young Man Bent on A Career). This last observation is particularly important since it illustrates an apparent contradiction in Ivan, who does indeed pride himself on his atheism. Rakitin's comment about the theological articles and Ivan's unknown interest in writing them as jokes is significant because it illustrates Ivan's quest for purity by taking the theological rather than the religious route. These two different means to achieve the same goal provide the thesis and antithesis within the novel. Ivan chooses the theological whereas Alexey picks the monastic, and the two set out to solve the same existential dilemma.
While Ivan and Alexey Karamazov set out to solve the inherent contradiction within their human nature, Dimitri and Old Karamazov seem to avoid the problem completely. Dimitri does acknowledge that he is a noxious insect, weak and thus prone to sensual lust, but, unlike his brothers, he is unwilling to do anything about his depraved and ignoble nature. Like his father, he spends his time avoiding the dilemma, evading the conflict and is thus susceptible to sudden moral convulsions. When speaking to Alexey, he often bursts into tears and lances out into sudden philosophical tropes about the degradation of man's soul. After reciting a poem he lashes out and cries:
"My dear, my dear, in degradation, in degradation now, too. There's a terrible amount of suffering for man on earth, a terrible lot of trouble. Don't think I'm only a brute in an officer's uniform, wallowing in dirt and drink. I hardly think of anything but of that degraded man" (The Confession of a Passionate Heart- In Anecdote, pg. 95).
It is true that Dimitri acknowledges the degradation of his sensual lust, symbolized by the noxious insect within him. However, unlike his brothers Ivan and Alexey, he is unwilling to do much about this weak, base and ignoble side to his character. He thinks a lot about it and worries for his mortal soul, just like his father Old Karamazov, but he is neither willing to eliminate nor is he willing to transcend the base and the ignoble. Ivan and Alexey, on the other hand, take it upon themselves to somehow resolve the existential conflict within their soul. Ironically enough, it is Dimitri, the brother who abstains from doing anything about his weak and ignoble nature, who most eloquently verbalizes man's quest for purity on two separate occasions. The first being a cryptic reference to Goethe's poem Das Göttliche (The Divine). While speaking to Alexey about ecstasy, he quotes the following line from Goethe's poem:
"Be noble, oh, man!"
--The Confession of a Passionate Heart- In Verse, pg. 94
An excerpt from the poem is as follows:
Let man be noble,
Generous and good;
For that alone
Distinguishes him
From all the living
Beings we know.
Hail to the unknown
Higher beings
Of our intuition!
Let man resemble them;
Let his example
Teach us to believe in them.
--Goethe, Das Göttliche (The Divine).
The poem is about the nobility of man and how this very nobility distinguishes him from all other creatures. It extols the virtues of striving for nobility and hails it as man's greatest triumph. The poem reveals Dimitri's preoccupation with man's degradation, manifested in his own sensual lust, symbolized by the noxious insect within his own soul. However, his own unwillingness to strive for nobility, to crush the noxious insect, makes me a weak and lofty creature.
The second instance when Dimitri verbalizes man's quest for purity is towards the end of the chapter, where he quotes a line in verse about how to attain purity:
Would he purge his soul from vileness
And attain to light and worth,
He must turn and cling forever
To his ancient Mother Earth.
--The Confession of a Passionate Heart- In Verse, pg. 96
So, he says, to attain purity, that is, to purge the soul from vileness, man must look back to Mother Nature, an ideal and romantic notion. Though Dimitri is able to philosophize, he observes that because he is a Karamazov, he is unable to do anything about his soul, about the dilemma and contradiction which exists within it (The Confession of a Passionate Heart- In Verse, pg. 96). This is true of Old Karamazov as well, who worries about the afterlife and is just as easily prone to moral convulsions like his son Dimitri, but who doesn't do much about it. Instead, he lets his weak nature rule over his character and sinks into alcoholism, debauchery and depravity.
Ivan and Alexey, however, strive to better themselves. Both the brothers, who happen to have the same mother, Sofya Ivanovna, attempt to somehow conquer their Sensualist nature. Ivan, in particular, is disgusted by his father's base and ignoble existence. He resorts to the theological in order to erase the degredation and purge his soul from vileness, as Dimitri puts it. However, Ivan's quest for purity eventually leads to his downfall. No where is this more apparent than in his confrontation with the devil, who happens to be the psychological manifestation of his existential dilemma. Indeed, he does begin to loose his mind as the novel progresses, especially after Old Karamazov's murder. His confrontation with the character of the devil reveals the mental conflict he faces in trying to erase his "lackey" side as he puts it. He observes that "[he] was never such a lackey! How then could [his] soul beget a lackey like [the devil]?" (The Devil: Ivan Fydorovitch's Nightmare, pg. 615). The devil maintains throughout the episode that he is real and that he is indeed part of Ivan's consciousness. Ivan, the devil says, is simply "wounded, in the first place, in [his] aesthetic feelings, and, secondly, in [his] pride. How could such a vulgar devil visit such a great man as [Ivan]!" (The Devil: Ivan Fydorovitch's Nightmare, pg. 614) Thus, Ivan's true intent had always been to reinforce his noble and intellectual side. Throughout the novel, he tries to suppress his "lackey" and ignoble side, the side his human nature which is prone to the noxious insect of sensual lust, the weak and degraded side of human nature. His quest for purity is centered upon his theological beliefs, his skepticism and atheism. The devil mocks Ivan, noting in particular how "hesitation, suspense, conflict between belief and disbelief- is sometimes...torture to a conscientious man, such as [Ivan is]" (The Devil: Ivan Fydorovitch's Nightmare, pg. 612). If the devil indeed is a psychological manifestation of Ivan's troubled consciousness, then the fact that he prophesizes the failure of the conflict between belief and disbelief proves Ivan's own misgivings about the theological route he has taken to erase his lackey side. Ultimately, this torture is too much for Ivan and it ends with a complete mental breakdown. He completely fails in achieving purity because his method is to eliminate a part of his human nature, that is, his weak, ignoble, sensual side. In trying to erase the weak, ignoble side of his human nature, Ivan doesn't realize that he is attempting to eliminate a part of himself. Unable to do this, he confronts the devil within him and ultimately looses his mind because of the trauma of his mental conflict.
Alexey's quest for purity, however, is the complete antithesis of Ivan's more theological approach. Alexey turns to religion and the monastic way of life. More specifically, he endeavors to follow Father Zosima's example and his teachings. His idea is not to eliminate the "lackey", base and ignloble side of his human nature in his quest for purity. On the contrary, Alexey embraces this lackey side and attempts to transcend it, rather than eliminate it completely. After the death of Father Zosima, he Alexey is thrown in a state of anguish when he must confront his own demons. In his anguish he goes to Father Zosima's cell and hears a monk reading from the bible and falls asleep. He then dreams of Christ at Cana's wedding and sees Father Zosima in his dream as well. Zosima tells Alexey to be happy and when Alexey wakes up from the dream he is joyful, "his, overflowing with rapture" (Cana of Galilee). He finally transcends his base, Sensualist side and transforms it into joy and ecstasy, falling to the ground and kissing the earth, "not ashamed of that ecstasy" (Cana of Galilee). Alexey finds salvation and purity in forgiveness, joy and solidarity, longing to forgive everyone and for everything, and to beg forgiveness...not for himself, but for all men, for all and for everything" (Cana of Galilee, pg. 340). Caught in this rapture, "every instant he felt clearly and tangibly, that something firm and unshakable as that vault of heaven had entered into his soul. He had fallen on the earth a weak boy, but he rose up a resolute champion, and he knew and felt it suddenly at the very moment of his ecstasy" (Cana of Galilee pg. 341). Thus, Alexey is able to embrace his entire being and transcend the his weaknesses. He transforms the ignoble into joy, love and ecstasy, something that Dimitri thought Alexey could never feel. Ultimately, Alexey triumphed in his quest for purity through joy, forgiveness and solidarity.
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