/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.5134055]

Just finished this. Is it even worth it to keep reading after this?

Also, Does God exist in this universe? Was Ivan's visitor the Devil, or was he simply Ivan's imagination?

[Anonymous No.5134059]

>>5134055
How does that matter?

[Anonymous No.5134060]

>>5134055
there's no clear answer
it's left deliberately ambiguous

[le trole faec ಠ_ಠ !Avm1fqtITk No.5134063]

>>5134055
Well speaking truthfully, it was Dostoevskys imagination.

[Anonymous No.5134075]

>>5134055
It's a mystery. There are a few outcomes to this
1. It literally is the Devil
2. Its the Devil as a figment of Ivan's imagination
3. It's a embodiment of the Devil as Ivan himself, for Ivan earlier states man created the devil in his own image. Ivan suffers guilt from influencing Smerdyakov (combined with emotional and physical turmoil). Ivan fears himself as this evil being who's thinking will poison mankind. That's why he snaps.

I like #1 and #3 mixed together

[Anonymous No.5134082]

>>5134059

I'm interested in the opinions of /lit/izens. I like to know what each person gets out of every book.

[Anonymous No.5134113]

>>5134055
It's not the Devil. Ivan lost his mind and is tormented by his double. This is a theme in Dostoyevsky's work that goes all the way back to the beginning of his career, to a book titled The Double.

[Anonymous No.5134575]

Just about to start this.

I've read C&P so it's not my first Dostoevsky. H-here I go.

[Anonymous No.5134587]

>>5134055
God's were created by man.
No, god is not real.

The Devil was The Devil, a hallucination, and the Devil in human form as Ivan had stated that if the devil is real than man has created him [the Devil] in his own image.

it is all of them at once

no it is not worth reading anymore because now you must cry at the knowledge that The Brothers Karamazov was to be only the first book in the most epic goddamn trilogy fucking ever but Dostoyevsky died.

[Anonymous No.5136425]

>>5134075

This is a great explanation.