“Balaam’s Ass”: Smerdyakov as a paradoxical redeemer in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov

Abstract

Smerdyakov, the likely fourth brother—a bastard, an epileptic, a murderer, a suicide—is glaringly excluded from the tripartite Karamazov soul of the appetitive Dmitri, the rational Ivan, and the spiritual Alyosha. But to dismiss him as an inexplicable freak of nature is to dismiss the entire sobornost, or spiritual community, of Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov. This paper carefully examines the character of Smerdyakov, and argues that his willful self-denial of all aspects of life and humanity—his tripartite rejection of the Karamazov soul—culminates in the murder of his father Fyodor. However, I also maintain that Smerdyakov serves as Dostoevsky’s warning to Russia’s next generation of “gentlemen,” for this “Balaam’s ass” will give Russia occasion to reorient and restore her fracturing soul.

Crossing the Bar: A Comparative Analysis of the Dostoevskian Elements and Influences in Joaquin’s Fiction

“…In Joaquin"s short story, The Legend of the Dying Wanton, probably the most Dostoevskian of all works of Joaquin, the mortally wounded Currito begs that a priest be brought to him, as he catches his final breath, to "properly confess himself and be absolved. In The Karamazov Brothers, Zosima repeatedly emphasizes that every man is responsible for all, and must therefore still include an odious an sick lackey who claims that poetry is rubbish and hates all Russia (Cohen, 2014). This dogma relates to what the elder monk teaches that people should not judge others, instead they should practice active love, especially to criminals.…”