Benjamin Garner’s Reviews > The Brothers Karamazov > Status Update

It seems Dostoevsky is making a progression in his psychology of nihilism through the character Ivan. Ivan is the "happy nihilist," an argument I haven’t encountered before in Dostoevsky. He is not like Svidrigailov, whose lack of conscience makes him a monster; nor is he like Nikolai, whose ability to recognize his conscience creates a gateway for possible salvation while he still maintains a subtle madness.
It seems that instead Ivan is happy, perhaps by means of his sensuality, but I think it is something more like his tempered intellect—almost a Sisyphus-like satisfaction with the emptiness of existence. This is a scientific, Euclidean materialism mingled with a theologically misinformed sense of justice that does not allow him to like the world God has created, yet allows him to still enjoy and love life itself. This side of nihilism is a stark contrast to his brother Alyosha’s depression, which is a brilliant and rather shocking characteristic to apply to a man of the cloth. These two balance one another out so beautifully that it staggers the mind how brilliant Dostoevsky is as a "physician of the soul."