Elizabeth’s Reviews > The Brothers Karamazov > Status Update

Ah Darryl! I just read Alyosha’s vision of heaven. So beautiful! It strikes me that it is Father Zosima’s first post-death miracle. Delicious irony since Alyosha had been so disturbed by the potential that Father Zosima wasn’t a saint. Now there can be no doubt!

“Well, one should forgive pathetic phrases, one must. Pathetic phrases ease the soul, without them men’s grief would be too heavy” (360).

Rakitin—ugh!!

“‘Can it be just because your old man got himself stunk? Can it be that you seriously believed he’d start pulling off miracles?’ Rakitin exclaimed, passing again to the most genuine amazement.

‘I believed, I believe, and I want to believe, and I will believe, and what more do you want!’ Alyosha cried irritably.” (341).

I love this exchange.

The start of page 338 is lovely. Alyosha is dismayed after the Elder’s death, and I love how Dostoevsky defends his passionate faith and how much better it is than if he were reasonable and loved too little.

“A loving humility is a terrible power, the most powerful of all, nothing compares with it” (319).

“Meanwhile, in their (the monks) solitude they keep the image of Christ fair and undistorted, in the purity of God’s truth, from the time of the ancient fathers, apostles, and martyrs, and when the need arises the will reveal it to the wavering truth of the world. This is a great thought. This star will shine forth from the East” (313).