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Comparison Of Zosima And Alyosha In The Brothers Karamazov

Decent Essays
In the Brothers Karamazov written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, books 6 and 7 provided additional details on the characters Zosima and Alyosha. More specifically, the books provide insights on how similar the two characters are to one another in terms of their personal lives and paths to spiritual awakening. One similarity between the two characters are how internal struggles triggered both their spiritual realizations. Prior to Zosima entering the monastery, Zosima was very similar to Dmitri, which is exhibited when Zosima says, “we were all but proud of our drunkenness, debauchery, and bravado . . . behaved wickedly . . . I had come into my own money, and with that I threw myself in a life of pleasure, with all the impetuousness of youth, without restraints” (Dostoyevsky 296). Furthermore, like Dmitri, Zosima was willing to commit a crime in the name of love by dueling Zosima’s past lovers husband: “I learned with certainty that he had accepted my challenge . . . [however,] at the time, duels were strictly forbidden” (Dostoyevsky 297). Correspondingly, before the duel was to take place, Zosima suddenly undergoes a spiritual awakening through thoughts of his deceased brother, Merkel (discussed later): “what was I setting out to do? I was setting out to kill a kind, intelligent, noble man, who was not at fault before me in any way, thereby depriving his wife of happiness forever, tormenting and killing her” (Dostoyevsky 298). It is through this conflict that triggered Zosima into
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