W: LP: LG: FD: BK: The Struggle

A little later in the section of Brothers Karamazov quoted in the last entry, Dmitri goes on to discuss or confess with his brother his internal struggle regarding enlightenment ideas & faith. From biographical accounts, this seemed to be a struggle that Dostoevsky fought with himself. Here is a piece of prose that captures this internal conflict:

Quote:

“You see, before I didn't have any of these doubts, but they were all hiding in me. Maybe I was drinking and fighting and raging, just because unknown ideas were storming inside me. I was fighting to quell them within me, to tame them, to subdue them. Brother Ivan is not Rakitin, he hides his idea. Brother Ivan is a sphinx; he's silent, silent all the time. And I'm tormented by God. Tormented only by that. What if he doesn't exist? What if Rakitin is right, that it's an artificial idea of mankind? So then, if he doesn't exist, man is chief of the earth, of the universe. Splendid! Only how is he going to be virtuous without God? A good question! I keep thinking about it. Because whom will he love then--man, I mean? To whom will he be thankful, to whom will he sing the hymn? Rakitin laughs. Rakitin says it's possible to love mankind even without God. Well, only a snotty little shrimp can affirm such a thing, but I can't understand it. Life is simple for Rakitin: ‘You'd do better to worry about extending man's civil rights,’ he told me today, ‘or at least about not letting the price of beef go up; you'd render your love for mankind more simply and directly that way than with any philosophies.’ But I came back at him: ‘And without God,’ I said, ‘you'll hike up the price of beef yourself, if the chance comes your way, and make a ruble on every kopeck.’ He got angry. Because what is virtue?--answer me that, Alexei. I have one virtue and a Chinese has another--so it's a relative thing. Or not? Not relative? Insidious question! You mustn't laugh if I tell you that I didn't sleep for two nights because of it. I just keep wondering now how people can live and think nothing about these things. Vanity! Ivan does not have God. He has his idea. Not on my scale. But he's silent.”