First, the author's autobiography.
Brothers karamazov is Dostoevsky's last novel, and its plot has many similarities with the author's own family experience. The main plot in the book revolves around the murder of Faidel (Carla Matsov Sr). In real life, the author's father was also a manor owner and was killed by one of his servants (or slaves). After the accident, the author himself was troubled by rumors and was considered to have participated in his father's murder, even directly. The author was troubled by these accusations for most of his life, and finally made an end for himself and everyone with this work. For the author, brothers karamazov is, to a great extent, a book with a safe soul.
In addition, brothers karamazov, including Sumaru Djakov, who killed old Carla Matsov, each has his own shadow in it more or less. The eldest brother Dmitry is the embodiment of the author's inner desire and the reaction of the author's married life; When the author was young, he pursued a lady enthusiastically and failed, and his married life was not satisfactory. Ivan, the second child, is the author's own spokesman among the three. In other words, many of Ivan's thoughts are direct reflections of the author's own thoughts, and the author expresses his thoughts on religion, society, law and country through Ivan's mouth. One of the most famous examples is the section of "Minister of Religion", in which the author, through Ivan's mouth, elaborated at great length his doubts about God. In a letter to a friend after the publication of brothers karamazov, the author wrote: "For me, this book is largely about the existence of God." (to the effect).
Like the murderer Sumaru Yakov in the book, the author suffers from epilepsy. The author let Sumaru Djakov finally hang himself. Is this arrangement the author's remorse for his inaction in killing his father? Or is he really responsible for his father's death, as rumored? It is up to the reader to guess.
The character Alesha has entrusted the author's ideal: to believe in God, but not abstractly, but to care more specifically about society and bring love to others. The story of Alesha and those children not only shows the author's ideal, but also expresses his expectation for the future of Russia. At the end of the book, the author expresses this hope through the children's mouths: "Always like this, hold hands for a lifetime!" Ura, Kara Matsov! " .
Second, Russian national fable.
The author himself has been concerned about and devoted to the social transformation of the Russian nation. He was arrested by the Tsar and sentenced to death. Just before the execution of the death penalty, the tsar issued an Amnesty to exempt the death penalty. This life-and-death experience had a great influence on the author's later life. During his hard labor in Siberia, the author had many opportunities to contact a large number of Russian lower class people and had a deeper grasp of Russian national character. In brothers karamazov, the author typifies and allegorizes the personality characteristics of the Russian nation and decomposes them into brothers karamazov.
In the third volume of the fourth novel, The Prosecutor's Speech, the prosecutor Portell Kirillovich gave a long speech in court. The beginning of this speech has little to do with the murder case being investigated by the court, more like the author expressing his views through the mouth of the prosecutor. There is a passage that can be used as a symbolic interpretation of brothers karamazov's three personalities:
"He and his two brothers' Europeanization' and' people's ideals' are just the opposite, and they seem to represent authentic Russia.-Oh, it's not all of Russia. If it is all, that's bad! But now in front of us is our dear Russia-our mother, completely her voice and her breath. Well, we are not pretending, we are a wonderful mixture of good and evil. We love the Enlightenment and Schiller. At the same time, we drank too much in the hotel and broke the beard of our drunken drinker. Well, sometimes we are good-natured and upright, but only when others are good-natured and upright to us. We even have lofty ideals in our hearts, but the condition is that these ideals fall from the sky by themselves, and the most important thing is that they must be available for free without any cost. We hate to pay the price, but we love it very much, and everything is like this. "
Specifically, the boss Dmitry represents the "emotion and desire" part of Russian national character, which is fierce, enthusiastic and sometimes even irrational; The second child, Ivan, represents the intellectual elements in Russian national character, with noble cultural accomplishment, profound thoughts and rebellious consciousness; The third child, Alesha, embodies the Russian spiritual pursuit and ambivalence towards religion.
The author's analysis can accurately grasp the pulse of the Russian nation. The author has always believed that Russia is a nation with excellent comprehensive quality. Almost all of them have world-class masters in literature and various arts. Needless to say, there are too many literary masters; Draw them with Kandinsky; They have Eisenstein in the movie; They have the music of Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky; Science. They have Mendeleev. In martial arts, their competitive level is world-class, from winter to summer, from football, basketball and volleyball to gymnastics, swimming, wrestling, weightlifting and track and field. The same is true of ice sports, such as figure skating and ice hockey. They once dominated the championship for many years.
As the author has analyzed, among the main components of Russian national character, freedom, artistic flavor and introspective temperament each account for a considerable proportion. These elements enable them to continuously contribute masterpieces to human civilization, and it is precisely because of this that, as discussed earlier, the author places great hopes on the future of the Russian nation.
Third. An analysis of the whole human character.
Similarly, brothers karamazov can explain three basic factors of human character: sensory factors, intellectual factors and spiritual (metaphysical) factors. This interpretation provides a reason for brothers karamazov to become a worldwide classic and be understood by readers of different cultures and backgrounds.
Forget who said that everyone in the world is a combination of devil and angel. Some people show more devil side, while others show more angel side. Before his arrest, Dmitry was almost invisible, greedy, selfish, cruel and without moral constraints. He beat the townspeople at will with a clear conscience. In order to compete with his father for the same woman, he did not hesitate to kill each other to achieve his goal. In him, the worst side of human nature is exposed. Ivan is much more complicated. On the one hand, he is educated, educated and polite. On the other hand, in order to marry Dmitry's fiancee and get his father's inheritance, he connived at Sumaru Djakov's assassination of his father. Ivan has both the beauty of an angel and the evil of the devil. More precisely, Ivan is a representative of a class of western social figures. They are well-educated and respected engineers, musicians and lawyers in society, but there is an evil impulse hidden in their hearts and they have been quietly waiting for the moment of explosion. The arrival of this moment may be the moment when stones are thrown at Jews on the streets of Berlin, or the moment when innocent children aim at Auschwitz concentration camp and pull the trigger. This is not a boring connection. Among Nazi war criminals, there are engineers, musicians and university teachers.
In this way, Alesha represents the power of "redemption" in Christian culture. Even in today's western society, the moral restraint advocated by religion is still the basic moral bottom line of many people's code of conduct. For example, "don't take other people's property" in the Ten Commandments can restrain theft more than legal provisions. An American colleague of the author once found a diamond ring on a chair in the park, and he managed to return it to the owner. His reason is simple: "That's not mine."
Authors living in Christian culture still highly recognize and respect the moral restraint of religious culture on the wicked. Although a person has committed heinous crimes, he is still a saint as long as he finally repents and repents. This is why Zomasi of the Presbyterian Church kowtowed to Dmitry, because he foresaw the moment when Dmitry repented. In the later story, after Dmitry was arrested, although he didn't kill his father, he still regretted his behavior, and Ivan had to endure meningitis. These arrangements have to be said that the author's moral concept is behind the scenes.
Brothers karamazov, a profound analysis of human nature, has brought influence beyond national boundaries. Freud and Nietzsche publicly declared that they were "followers of Kara Mazov", and Freud was the first scholar to publish an influential article on brothers karamazov in a European newspaper. In the literary world, Kafka and Thomas Mann's works are also deeply influenced by brothers karamazov, as Kafka said; "brothers karamazov taught me how to describe the evil of human nature."