RUSSIAN LITERATURE | EUROPEAN LITERATURE | NTA UGC NET ENGLISH | 2020 SEP

What is the subject of Ivan’s controversial essay in Brothers Karamazov?

1. Transubstantiation
2. The evils of clergy
3. The Eucharist
4. Ecclesiastical courts

Ans: d

Explanation:  The Brothers Karamazov, the last novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky was published in a serial form from 1879 to 1880. It tells the story of Karamazov and his 3 sons, Dimitri, Ivan and Alexi. Ivan is sullen and isolated, but also intellectually brilliant. In the chapter titled “Rebellion”, Ivan proclaims that he rejects the world that God has created because it is built on a foundation of suffering. In perhaps the most famous chapter in the novel, “The Grand Inquisitor”, Ivan narrates to Alyosha his imagined poem that describes an encounter between a leader from the Spanish Inquisition and Jesus, who has made his return to Earth. The opposition between reason and faith is dramatised and symbolised in a forceful monologue of the Grand Inquisitor who, having ordered the arrest of Jesus, visits Him in prison at night.