Brothers Karamazov (B) 06: Book V - Chapter 5, Book VI - Chapter 1

[Andrea]

Post away!....

[Rosemary]

I was getting bored at the beginning of this section and my eyes were glazing over, reading all the stuff about Ivan. He is the least interesting character for me.

Then Smerdyakov, a very unlikeable character. What a position to be in though, being brought up in his father's house but with the status of a servant because he is illegitimate. You can see it would make him bitter.

I didn't read ch 1 of book 6 at this time, I read it with the next section to keep all of Father Zossima's story together.

[Sera]

I'm sorry to hear that about Ivan, Rosemary. My interest in Ivan continues to grow. His struggle with faith is fascinating to me, because of the way in which Dostoyevsky is able to capture of the nuances of this struggle. I find Alyosha on the side of faith, and Dmitri and the father on the other side, with Ivan in the middle, unsure of in which place he belongs. I think that this is why he keeps talking about "throwing down the cup" at 30, because he feels that at that point, that he will simply give in to the dark side of the family.

I'm not sure that I completely understand Smerdyakov yet or his motives. However, it does appear that some series of bad events are going to happen soon.