A Sketch of Love’s Treatment in The Brothers Karamozov

Written as a 2-hour paper for Humanities 402 on 14 April 2015. I have corrected typos in the original. The first three paragraphs make simple observations on the role of love, especially eros, in the novel, the fourth paragraph restates Zosima's ethical teaching regarding human love, and the final paragraph makes a genuinely philosophical contribution in the relationship between reason and emotion.

Different kinds of love recur frequently throughout The Brothers Karamazov. A very common love is romantic love, a love that seems to affect the plot itself, or to at least add intrigue and layering to character interaction.

Dimitri and his father Fyodor both fall in love with Grushenka. Both men seem not so much to want to love her and give their lives to her service so much as to defeat the other in competition and possess her as the object of their eros.

Later, after his father is murdered, Dimitri tries to gain the hand of his beloved. He finds out that she is involved with a Polish officer and is heartily disheartened. In the course of the evening, however, the Polish chap proves himself to be far more possessive than Dimitri ever was; it can be doubted whether the Polish man ever loved Grushenka, since he does not seem to care for her subtle feelings and openly insults Russia. At this point Dimitri proves that he does love her, truly, and that he wants what is best for her. It should be noted that he definitely thinks that what is best for her is to marry him, it still seems primarily motivated by true eros and not a perversion of erotic love.

Zosima exhorts his brethren to love everything, the trees, leaves, children, animals—everything. He teaches that everyone can love occasionally, even evil people. This statement seems surprising at first, but Jesus confirms this by saying ‘if you who are evil know how to do good to your children, how much more will you Heavenly Father take care of you?’. God loves all things all the time, since God is Love. Human persons, however, have trouble loving all the time. Zosima, therefore, urges his followers—and us—to strive to love all things at all times, since if all our energy is being spent on love than none can be spent on hatred.

The narrator provides a curious reference to love in the context of people jeering at Zosima and Alyosha’s reaction. Alyosha even questions why God has not vindicated his humble servant and made the holiness of Zosima apparent to all. The narrator recounts that he is glad that love gains the upper hand over reason in this instance, since a reasonable man will always come back to reason, but there are times when love must overrule reason. The narrator seems to create a divide between love and reason, at least certain types of love and reason. For Christians this is impossible in the strict sense, since God is Love and God is Logos. However, in a more general way, could this be possible? What does this divide mean? I think the narrator—and maybe the ‘author’—is trying to show us the limits of the “narrow Euclidian mind” that he wrote about. There are times when a certain kind of reasoning, formed by the strict application of logic to actions and events without any consultation, advice, or influence of emotions, is inappropriate. There are certain times when feelings trump reasonings. This is what Dostoevsky is showing us, that mere reason, reductionistic reason, Enlightenment reason is not the absolute indicator of propriety vis-à-vis reality. The emotions—strictly speaking ‘non-rational’ in themselves—must be consulted in making rational judgments and in taking action. Dostoevsky does not place a strict dichotomy between reason and love. He shows that love, not merely an emotion but certainly with emotional power, can sometimes overrule the “narrow Euclidian mind”. Sometimes it should. Sometimes it must.