Edward+Garnett

[|http://www.dartmouth.edu/%7Ekaramazo/c_garnett.html]

Our link is an introduction from the translator Edward Garnett. It enlightens us on the thought process of how Dostoevsky wrote __The Brothers Karamarzov__ and his other works such as __A Raw Youth__, and __The Possessed.__ Dostroevsky was extremely brilliant and wrote his books with great pace and intensity, as shown through a quote included by Garnett from Dostrovesky stating, "I sit down to the Karamarzov day and night." Due to his immense rush of ideas, he developed his novels into excessively complicated and entangled pieces. Garnett makes reference to __Hamlet__ by comparing Hamlet's internal struggle with the problems of humans and their belief of spirit in __The Brothers of Karamarzov__. As in __The Brothers of Karamarzov__, Garnett brings up how Dostroevsky has a reoccurring struggle with the existence of God. Edward Garnett introduces the brothers and provides us with an insight into their different personalities. Alyosha is a “representative of pure Christianity,” while Dmitri stands for “man’s passionate lusts and fierce will to live, obsessed by the claims of the world, the flesh and the devil.” The last brother, Ivan, stands for the “intellectual pride of the “scientific” man without faith. This helps us with the understanding of Dostroevsky’s reoccurring theme of faith and God. We can predict that this will cause internal conflicts and struggles between the brothers. Dostroevsky also conveys the conflicts within Russia and that, “Russia must reveal to the world her own Russian Christ,” who the people have not heard of. He believes that if the people are united under one religion, native orthodox faith, it will make the country stronger. If the three brothers with different religious beliefs can’t even get along, how will the people of Russia? Garnett continues by displaying Dostroevsky’s predictions on Russia’s future, politically and socially. He predicted, “Russia had been basely betrayed by the Liberals and Progressives and delivered into the hands of the Bolshevik Communists and Marxists.” By reading this background information, we can ascertain that the novel with display conflicts about the existence of God and the changing attitudes of the time. We learned that there is are different beliefs between the brothers reflects which may lead to problems within his book. It helps us understand the mind frame of Dostroevsky and what he is trying to display in his novel.

This picture shows Dostroevksy's insights on the conflicts with religion in Russia.