/lit/ - Literature

So let's get a Dostoyevsky thread going on in here. Yeh yeh, I know he gets circulated a lot on this board (and on every literature forum) but this is going to be an actual discussion thread.

My first topic is who murdered Fyodor Karamazov. The narration in The Brothers Karamazov makes use of one of Dostoyevsky's common themes, an unreliable observer of events, as opposed to an omnipotent author. He makes use of this in several of his novels.

So lets go over what the narrator believes, that Smerdyakov planned the murder of his father for various reasons and pinned it on Dmitri. He explains to Ivan how he would go about setting an alibi for himself (the fake epileptic fit), and then later after the murder is committed he is found dead by suicide, and before that he considers emigrating to France.

Not let's look at some possible alternate situations.

>Dmitri did it

I've read some fairly convincing theories for this particular murder, but instead of focusing on that I'm going to explain why I "don't" think Dmitri killed his father. This reasoning on my part, largely stems from the love Alyosha felt towards his brother, and the fact that he believed in him. I don't feel that Dostoyevsky would have built Alexei up into this character only to have him be completely hoodwinked by his murderous brother.

Now;

>Ivan did it
A distinct possibility. Ivan is said to be away for the murder, but is later revealed to have returned early and would in fact have been in cattle town on time to murder his father. Smerdyakov also led Ivan to believe that he was going to murder their father and Ivan would have been well capable of carrying out this intention and leaving Dmitri (who he dislikes intensely) to take the fall. This theory can also be given some credibility when you take in Ivans subsequent insanity and his rather crazed conversations with Smerdyakov. One line in particular strikes me as particularly damning;