History Literature / TheBrotherskaramazov

* '''Dmitri''' - The eldest brother. After his mother's death, he was raised for some time by Fyodor's servant Grigory, but was then taken away by his maternal uncle to serve in the Russian military and then lived abroad in Europe. He grew up believing that his father owed him an inheritance, and as the novel begins he has returned home to demand it. He is twenty-eight years old.

* '''Grigory''' - The Karamazovs' elderly manservant and Smerdyakov's warden, this man is Loyalty Incarnate and grounded in his sensibilities. He took in the titular brothers when they were all but abandoned by their father and raised each of them in their early years.

* '''Katerina''' - An aristocratic lady of Russia's upper crust, she met Dmitri while he was serving in the military. Due to a favor he did for her years past, she's come to the town seeking to marry him, convinced that they are in love.

* MurderTheHypotenuse: [[spoiler:This is {{invoked|trope}} by Smerdyakov to be part of Mitya's motivation for murdering Fyodor]].
* NarrativeProfanityFilter: The song sang by the girls before [[spoiler:Mitya's arrest]] – "The soldier boy will pack his kit / And drag me with him through ..."

* '''Fyodor [[{{UsefulNotes/Patronymic}} Pavlovich]] Karamazov''' - The father. A libertine and glutton, Fyodor is also said to be a shrewd businessman and financier. Overall a thoroughly horrible man, he sires three sons with two wives, driving both wives to death before their time because of how [[{{Jerkass}} impossible it is to live in the same house as him.]] His murder serves as one of the major pivotal plot points. He is around fifty years old.

* AssholeVictim: Fyodor was at best an [[ParentalNeglect absent father]], and at worst straight out {{abusive|parents}}. Had he completed his will, he'd have left nothing to any of his children. And that's not even mentioning his rape of Lizaveta.

* HeCleansUpNicely: Alyosha isn't described as bad-looking, but his ascetic living as a monk-in-training means he's initially dressed rather plainly. Upon leaving the monastery at Father Zosima's suggestion, he starts grooming himself with more care and stylish dress to be revealed as very handsome (with many women in town approving).

** It's partly subverted, though, as she is more decent than she seems at first, but, even after she falls in love with Dmitri, she does not exactly become a sweet, gentle wallflower either.

* LeftHanging: The thematic conflicts are resolved, but there are several plot threads which are ongoing or unresolved as the novel ends, most likely because Dostoevsky intended this as the first arc of a much longer story that he never lived to finish (see WhatCouldHaveBeen below).

* PetTheDog: For as despicable as Fyodor is, he does take in Smerdyakov after his mother's death and has him raised by his servant. He also is somewhat proud of Alyosha for his devotion to his faith and goodness, even if he cannot understand why his son would choose that path.

* AssholeVictim: Fyodor was at best an absent father, and at worst straight out abusive. Had he completed his will, he'd have left nothing to any of his children. And that's not even mentioning his rape of Lizaveta.

* TheChessmaster: Smerdyakov. [[spoiler: From convincing Ivan out of town with ReversePsychology, to feigning an epileptic attack, to lying to Dmitri about the envelope, to MindScrew-ing Ivan into believing he's partially responsible, and killing himself so that he couldn't be proven guilty, Smerdyakov all but guarantees Dmitri's conviction.]]

* ClearMyName: Everyone but Dmitri (and Alyosha) seems convinced that he killed his father.

* FatalFlaw: Ivan's intellectual arrogance, Dmitri's hedonistic intemperance, Katerina's wounded pride, Grushenka's spite, all end up bringing them to serious trouble in one form or another.

* NarrativeProfanityFilter: The song sang by the girls before [[spoiler:Mitya's arrest]] - "The soldier boy will pack his kit / And drag me with him through ..."

* PetTheDog: For as despicable as Fyodor is, he does take in Smerdyakov after his mother's death and has him raised by his servant. He also admits to having some respect for Alyosha's devotion to his faith and to goodness, even if he cannot understand why his son would choose that path.

* BigGood: Zossima's plans for Alyosha indirectly save several people.

* CallingTheOldManOut: Both Ivan and Dmitri pull no punches in letting their father know what a disgusting individual he is as well as how badly he's wronged them and others, not that Fyodor cares. Alyosha is too much of an AllLovingHero to say it in the same way, though even he makes it clear how much it saddens him to watch his father degrade himself and harm others to such a degree.

* DevilInPlainSight: [[spoiler: Smerdyakov]] has a vicious streak that is clearly visible to all around him and is quite willing to show his high intelligence in a conversation, yet manages to be BeneathSuspicion regardless.
* TheDevilIsALoser: [[spoiler: Smerdyakov]] is a petty, bitter, resentful man who achieves nothing. Also, [[spoiler: Ivan's hallucination]] is far from impressive in either his appearance or his charisma.

* GambitPileup: Everyone's mindgaming everyone else, apart from Alyosha who is loved and trusted by all parties so acts as a witness to their confessions.

It's Ivan's struggle to reconcile the alternatives of either an [[TheGodsMustBeLazy uncaring]] God[[note]]"Listen: if everyone must suffer, in order to buy eternal harmony with their suffering, pray tell me what have children got to do with it? It’s quite incomprehensible why they should have to suffer, and why they should buy harmony with their suffering."[[/note]] or its alternative of a nonexistent God; the latter of which he believes would lead to a world where morals don't matter since heaven and hell don't exist to act as a deterrent.[[note]]"If God does not exist, then everything is permissible," so his father's behavior would have been allowed.[[/note]] His Grand Inquisitor's solution is that the Church should rule the world. Christ did not allow this, ergo in the Inquisitor's eyes he "sinned" against the church, and the Grand Inquisitor yells at him for it. In other words, man may not live by bread alone--but without it he will surely perish. Most people are not equipped for the kind of hardships Jesus went through. Give them safety and then they can worry about morals.
* HairTriggerTemper: Dmitri's has disastrous consequences, not only for himself but also for the completely innocent family of a man he humiliates and beats, ending in [[spoiler: the death of Ilyusha]] as a result of the sequence of events he started.

* LittlestCancerPatient: Subverted with [[spoiler: Ilyusha]], who does not recover in an inspiring way, but dies in a heartbreaking one.

* MeaningfulFuneral: The death of [[spoiler: Ilyusha]] is devastating to everyone, but is the trigger for Alyosha to deliver AnAesop about what really matters to the younger generation of boys, and allow some healing and hope for the future.

* MurderTheHypotenuse: [[spoiler: Supposed to be part of Mitya's motivation for murdering Fyodor]].
* NarrativeProfanityFilter: The song sang by the girls before [[spoiler: Mitya's arrest]] - "The soldier boy will pack his kit / And drag me with him through ..."

%%* OutDamnedSpot

* GrandInquisitorScene: The TropeNamer is the story Ivan tells Alyosha about the interrogation of Christ returned by UsefulNotes/TheSpanishInquisition.

* ReasoningWithGod: The GuardianAngel from ''The Fable of an Onion'' tries his best to convince {{God}}, the soul of the wicked woman he watched over in life doesn't deserve Hell, because of one single good deed. She gave an onion to a beggar woman. God tells him to use said onion in her garden to pull her out of damnation. He fails, when her true JerkWithAHeartOfJerk nature shows.

* AssholeVictim: Fyodor was at best an absent father, and at worst straight out abusive. Had he finished writing his will, he'd have left nothing to any of his children. And that's not even mentioning his rape of Lizaveta.

* BoisterousBruiser: Dmitry Karamazov, the captain of the Russian army and a menacing presence except for his brothers.

* CallingTheOldManOut: Both Ivan and Dimitri pull no punches in letting their father know what a disgusting person he is, and how badly he's wronged them (and others). Alyosha is too much of an AllLovingHero to do it in the same way, but he also makes it clear how much it saddens him to see his father degrade himself and harm others to such a degree.

* TheChessmaster: Smerdyakov. [[spoiler: From convincing Ivan out of town with ReversePsychology, to feigning an epileptic attack, to lying to Dmitri about the envelope, to MindScrew -ing Ivan into believing he's partially responsible, and killing himself so that he couldn't be proven guilty, Smerdyakov all but guarantees Dmitri's conviction.]]

* KnightTemplar: The Grand Inquisitor [[HobbesWasRight believes freedom leads to chaos]], and is on a self-appointed mission to [[TheEvilsOfFreeWill save humanity from itself]].

* MoralityPet: Smerdyakov to Fyodor, who takes him in after his mother Lizaveta's death and is unnaturally kinder to him than he is to everybody else (not even his own sons and Smerdyakov's [[AmbiguousSituation possible]] half-brothers). [[spoiler:For all the good that does, given Smerdyakov murders him.]]

* {{Jerkass}}: Fyodor. It is impossible to tell how much of his shameful behaviour is genuine stupidity and how much is him pretending to be stupid in order to get away with saying terrible things, but it is true that not a single person in town mourns him, and only care because the crime of patricide is more offensive to them than simple murder.

* MurderTheHypotenuse: [[spoiler: Supposed to be part of Mitya's motivation for murdering Fyodor]]

* '''[[PluckyComicRelief Madame Khokhlakova]]''' - A lady of modest income and good standing, Madame Khokhlakova is introduced when she appears at the monastery seeking an audience with the Elder Zosima for her daughter Lise, [[IllGirl a sick girl confined to a wheelchair]]. She later establishes herself as a town gossip, due to just really not knowing when to shut up. She is the source of a lot of comedy because of this.

* IllGirl: Lise, who is confined to a wheelchair.