|
Tolstoy’sworksdepict a world that seems ordered, comprehensible, and normal. The world created by Fyodor Dostoyevsky is one of disorder and extremes of human behavior, a world in which characters act out dramas of ideas.
Dostoyevsky’searlywritings include some remarkable psychological studies. It was only after 1860, however, when he returned from ten years of prison and exile in Siberia, that his works achieved real depth and power. Dostoyevsky’s novels examine the political and social issues of his day and explore eternal philosophical and moral problems. His Zapiski iz podpol’ia (1864; Notes from Underground), for example, is a deeply philosophical work that explores such questions as free will and determinism; it is also a profound psychological portrait of its alienated narrator. Prestuplenie i nakazanie (1866; Crime and Punishment) tells the gripping story of a young student, Raskolnikov, who tests his freedom by committing a murder. His intellectual justifications of the crime cannot prevent him from being haunted by what he has done. After terrible emotional and spiritual suffering, Raskolnikov begins a process of repentance that apparently will lead him to accept his place in the world.
Dostoyevsky’snovelIdiot (1868-1869; The Idiot) focuses on a Christlike figure, Prince Myshkin, whose goodness and innocence lead only to disaster. Myshkin finds himself in a society motivated by greed, passion, and jealousy and becomes involved in a complex love intrigue that ends with the murder of one heroine and his own mental collapse. Besy (1871-1872; Devils, also known as Demons or The Possessed), a dark political satire, attacks Russian liberals and radicals who wish to build a godless society without genuine moral principles. At the same time, through its enigmatic central character, Stavrogin, the novel explores the limits of human behavior and dramatizes the human potential for both good and evil.
Dostoyevsky’slastand longest novel, Brat’ia Karamazovy (1879-1880; The Brothers Karamazov), sums up and expands on the issues he had explored in his earlier fiction. The murder of the cynical and greedy head of the family, Fyodor Karamazov, implicates each of his three sons in different ways. Each son demands justice according to his own character. Dmitry, passionate and emotional, wants his fair share of the inheritance. Ivan rebels intellectually against the injustices of God’s world, presenting a powerful argument for his loss of faith in justice. Alyosha fails to love his unlovable father sufficiently and has his faith in justice shaken by the death of his spiritual father, the wise elder Zosima. By the end of the novel, the brothers are redeemed, as each begins to accept his own responsibility for the world’s injustices.
| 
