Sorry I had to title this in favor of a fellow classmate's frustrations, because I know where he is coming from. It is kind of annoying to have read this far and not come to the business of the story yet. I do not really give up on things. It usually doesn't matter how bad a movie or book is, because I'll usually finish it just to see how it ends. I think the only time i did give up on something it was the movie Valkyrie... enough said. Anyways, the discussion in class got me thinking whether or not if I had not been reading this for a class would I still be reading it now? I'm not really sure.
I don't really have much to say about the betrothal. We did talk about whether Lise was actually ill or not. Perhaps it is just her mothers wish for attention from the community or her wish to always have someone to take care of that has Lise in the chair. We don't know. I mentioned that it reminded me of The Secret Garden. I just wanted to explain what I meant. There is this boy in the story and his mother died and his father was so distraught that he has neglected his son and left him in the care of his housekeeper. He was deemed sickly and has been bedridden his whole life so now lacks the strength to walk. In the end the girl and her friend help the boy to walk and the father sees the error of his ways and whatnot. It isn't the only other book that this story reminds me of. Mrs. Khokhlakova and Lise really remind me of Mrs. Bennet and Lydia from Pride and Prejudice. They kinda get at each other, but then Mrs. Bennet always wants to identify with Lydia, because she seemingly wants to be young again.
The whole Ivan and his creating this image of God and Devil led me to think they were the same being in his mind. That reminded me of the whole Jekyll and Hyde story. What a weird picture though. God and the Devil as the same person, just different personalities, but that is what it seemed to me what Ivan was kind of leading towards. It makes more sense then about the world being the way it is for him. The world is good and terrible because the is created by the God personality and the terrible by the devil personality. I wonder what he would go on to say if he thought about it like that. It might have helped him, because he wasn't really asking if god exist, but how could god possibly exist if such atrocities simultaneously exist? Children are miracles are they not? How could a miracle be tortured? Think about that long enough and you might start ranting too.
To the Business!
Author: Katarina /
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4 comments:
I feel like placing so much of a burden on "the business" takes away some of the appreciation for Dostoyevsky's writing. For him, in my opinion, the business is in the way he treats plot development: at some points it is with extreme detail, and in others it seems alarmingly blunt (as in the case of Alyosha kissing Lise). I guess what I am saying is that I understand why some people are frustrated by this book, but having read Crime and Punishment, I know it will all be worth it at the end.
I wonder if Mrs. Khokhlakova's debilitating treatment of Lise is an analogy for the effect Fyodor Pavlovich has on his sons. Several times during the novel we have been told that the brothers suffer from a predisposition to lust after women, but this seems to be as psychosomatic as the little boy's condition in The Secret Garden. Dmitry, of course, seems to have inherited his father's voluptuousness, but the fear which Alyosha feels at being attracted to other women seems to be an overreaction to a desire to have a normal romantic relationship.
I agree with Demetri--about the business not about if Crime and Punishment was a good read or not. The introduction only promised a focused discussion of "one instance" way back in Alyosha's childhood. I don't know what that was exactly, but it does point to the idea that the rest of the novel shouldn't be centered around the death of Fyodor. People are much more interesting when they are alive anyways. I'm grateful for the comic relief of Fyodor. More to the end of your blog, I like your comparison between Jekyll, Hyde, and Ivan. That dualism within his personality is exactly how I see Ivan. It seems strange though that while Jekyll/Hyde have to physically transform in order to express such a dichotomy, Ivan contains both extremes simultaneously within himself.
Just to note. I'm not that intent with the whole to the business thing. I was just more commenting on the fact that it was frustrating. I have long sense given up that we are going to get there in a timely manner, so am now focusing on other aspects of the novel.
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