Copyright copy 2004 by Northwestern University Press Published 2004 All rights reserved

Orwin Donna Tussing ldquoDid Dostoevsky or Tolstoy Believe in Miraclesrdquo from A New Word on the Brothers Karamazov edited by Robert Louis Jackson Evanston

Northwestern University Press 2004 pp 105-141

httpwwwnupressnorthwesternedu

A New Vord on The Brothers Karamazov

A New Vord on The Brothers Karamazov

ANew Word on The Brothers Karamazov

Edited by Robert Louis Jackson With an introductory essay by Robin Feuer Miller

and a concluding one by William Mills Todd III

NOI1THWESTERN UN IVERSITY PRESS EVANSTON ILLINOIS

Northwestern University Press Evanston Illinois 60208-4210

Copyright copy 2004 by Northwestern University Press Published 2004 All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

ISBN 0-8101-1949-8

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data are available from the LibraJ) of Congress

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the Amerishycan National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials ANSI Z3948-1992

Donna Orwin

Did Dostoevsky or Tolstoy Believe in Miracles

SEANCES AND MEDIUMS claiming to be in contact with the dead were very fashionable in the 1870s among the educated Russhysian public Within the context of larger debates of that time spiritualism had a weightiness and plausibility not apparent when we view it in isolation In the United States where the modern spiritualist movement had arisen in 1848 the eminent philosopher and scientist William James investigated it in the 1890s and found its claims to be valid l Two scientists at the U nishyversity of St Petersburg chemist A M Butlerov and zoologist N P Vagner spearheaded the spiritualist movement in the 1870s in Russia 2 In polemics of the time the chief antagonist of these two was N N Strakhov a close friend of both Dostoevsky and Tolstoy3 Philosopher V S Soloviev a proshytege of Strakhov and a fliend of Dostoevsky met his philosophical mentor p D Iurkevich at a seance in 1874 and supposedly remained in communishycation with him after his death 4 In this climate it is not surprising that both Dostoevsky and Tolstoy comment on the subject in their writings For both it is connected to the larger issue of the role of miracles and religion in the modern world

In Anna Karenina Tolstoy created a medium named Jules Landau based on a clairvoyant whom he himself had seen in Paris in 1857 and who had conducted seances and lectures in Russia in the early 1870s5 When the hysterical and sexually repressed Lydia Ivanovna convinces Aleksey Karenin to consult Landau on whether he should grant Anna a divorce Landau whether by accident or design obliges the secret wish of Lydia Ivanovna and Karenin to torture Anna by forbidding the divorce 6 This surshyrender of his conscience to a clairvoyant signals the moral bankruptcy of Karenin who now also believes in miraculous salvation without good works or repentance Yet it is appropriate that it is he and Lydia Ivanovna rather than Stiva Oblonsky (who is horrified by the whole event) who are dravvll to spiritualism It supplies answers debased and compromised though they may be to ethical questions that do not even exist for Stiva

Dostoevskys January 1876 Diary of a Writer included a satire on spirshyitualism in which he argued that the discord on this issue was sown by dev-

125

Donna Orwin

ils whose real existence it therefore proved The implication is that the whole debate about devils and angels if sCientifically illegitimate is psychoshylogically and ethically understandable and sound Dostoevsky subsequently visited a seance in February and reported on it in the Diary for March and April (Ps 2298-101 126-32) This seance with its concealed springs and wires as he explained in April deprived him of any wish he might have had to believe in spiritualism and therefore any possibility that he might ever actually believe in it Although spiritualism itself is not a topic in The Brothshyers Karamazov as it is in Anna Karenina the issues with which Dostoevsky associates it in his three issues of the Diary are Both the erstwhile exisshytence of devils and the relation betvveen a wish to believe and the possibilshyity of religious belief become important themes in the novel The malicious and prideful monk Ferapont sees devils because he wants to and Alyosha believes both in God and in miracles because he is temperamentally inshyclined to do so

Given Dostoevskys forceful denunciation of spiritualism in the April Diary it is striking that it includes an important caveat He tells his readers that even now despite his resolute rejection of spiritualism he does not deny the possibility of spiritualist phenomena [spiritskie iavleniial in other words he does not think that these phenomena of which he has had some personal experience can simply be disproved by the learned comshymissions currently investigating seances (Ps 22127) Spiritualism intershyested Tolstoy and Dostoevsky as psychologists and moralists because it expressed at one and the same time the spiritual poverty of contemporary life and a suppressed longing for spirituality Both Anna Karenina and The Brothers Karamazov locate the cause of spiritual impoverishment in modshyern scientific thought and both novels contain experiences that cannot be explained scientifically In this essay I will explore the status of the miracshyulous in the two novels with an eye finally to defining what kind of spirishytual phenomena if any the two writers might have regarded as real

In both Anna Kamiddotrenina and The Brothers Karamazov characters question their belief in God and religion Konstantin Levin weathers a relishygious crisis to ground his belief firmly in his own life and consciousness The Brothers Karamazov begun in 1878 just after these final episodes of Tolshystoys novel were published seems to stand in relation to them as an inferno to a brush fire that the town brigade beats back before it burns out of conshytrol Not only the four Karamazov brothers but also many other characters in the novel wrestle with the temptation of atheism and its consequmiddotences No matter how much Dostoevsky in his typical fashion has chosen to esshycalate the drama however and no matter how Tolstoy as is his wont plays it down the situations are similar at their core

Of the vatious crises of faith that occur in The Brothers Karamiddotmazov the one that most resembles Levins is that of Alyosha Karamazov Both are

126

Did Dostoevsky or Tolstoy Believe in Miracles

reactions to the death of someone close-in Levins case his brother Nikoshylai and in Alyoshas Father Zosima Before these deaths both men are said to have believed in miracles that would somehow save themselves and othshyers from annihilation (AK 720 BK 26) When his brother dies Levin abanshydons his innate optimism and interprets the death-and by extension the fate awaiting all men-as an evil mockery by some sort of devil (AK 721) Ideas acquired from an education dominated by scientific conceptsshyorganisms their destruction the indestructibility of matter the law of the conservation of energy development-are cold comfort to Levin (AK 711) No matter how hard he tries to escape the conclusions of scientific reasoning he eventually has to concede that if one relies on thought alone the human individual seems to be nothing but a bubble that persists for a while and then bursts This untruth is understood by him as the cruel mockelY by some evil power a wicked and disgusting power to which it was impossible to submit (AK 714)

In his February 1877 Diary of a Writer Dostoevsky calls Levin pure of heart [chistyi sertseml (Ps 2556) Alyosha Karamazov is a Dostoevskian version of this new Russian type Alyosha had attached himself to Father Zosima in order to escape the world He longs for a spiritual purity that the world lacks and Father Zosima exemplifies The rapid putrefaction of Zosimas corpse seems to Alyosha to be a direct slap in the face by Someshyone bent on humiliating the best of men For Alyosha as for Levin this inshysult takes the form of the subordination of everything human to mere physical laws

Where was Providence and its finger Why did it hide its finger at the most necessary moment (Alyosha thought) as if wanting to submit itself to the blind mute merciless laws of nature (BK 340)

Nineteenth-century science of course conceived of nature as merely indifshyferent Levin and Alyosha experience it as hostile because it makes no proshyvision for and indeed denies the value of the human individual Belief in science and especially in phYSiolOgical materialism which became wideshyspread in Russia for the first time in the 1860s gave rise to the modern psyshychological dilemma described first by Turgenev in Fathers and Children then by Dostoevsky in Notes from Underground of the human personality trapped inside a machine 8 Turgenevs Bazarov advocates a scientific undershystanding of nature but he mistakenly thinks that he will be exempt from the rules as he formulates them for others His creator is content simply to make this point and to record Bazarovs response when he is hoisted on his own petard In Notes From Underground Dostoevsky goes a step beyond Turgeshynev to explore the effects on personality of an internalized belief in physioshylOgical materialism The underground man makes fun of those whose actions are not consistent with their science and at the same time he struggles irra-

127

Donna Urwin

honally to assert his own freedom A decade later similar beliefs in a purely mechanistic univers3 prompt Konstantin Levins desire to kill himself

In the 1870s both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky worked out responses to the threat posed by modern scientific views If these responses seem simishylar that may be because each man was separately discussing his ideas with their mutual friend Strakhov The many letters preserved from an intense correspondence between Tolstoy and Strakhov give us some idea of their conversations which mostly took place at Iasnaia Poliana Dostoevs)-y and Strakhov were together in Petersburg for most of the 1870s and met freshyquently They were no longer soul mates as they had been in the early 1860s but they were still close intellectual fliends In a letter to Tolstoy written in May 1881 Strakhov wrote that he keenly missed the recently deshyceased Dostoevsky who as his most ardent reader had read and subtly understood his every article9 One of these articles a long monograph pubshylished in several installments in 1878 in the Zhumal ministerstva naroshydnogo prosveshcheniia (journal of the Ministry of Public Education) is called Db osnovnylch poniatiiakh pSikhologii (Basic Concepts of Psycholshyogy) It is both a history of modern psychology from Descartes onward and a treatise on the nature of the soul and its relation to external reality It is also a continuation of Strakhovs polemics against the spiritualists in which Strakhov sets out to delineate the physical and spiritual spheres with their respective and mutually exclusive laws lO

There can be no doubt that Strakhov was discussing these subjects with Tolstoy and Dostoevsky as he planned and wrote his monograph If proof were needed Tolstoy at least supplies it when he writes Strakhov that he had learned a great deal from reading the book but not as much as he would have had he read it two years ago [Nlow what you demonstrate is so indubitable and simple for me (as it is so for 99999 percent of humanshyity) that not carried away by proof of what rings so true to me I see as well inadequacies in the methods of the proofsll During the two years in which Tolstoy was absorbing the psychological truths that he finds so ably stated in Strakhovs monograph he was writing Anna Karenina The monoshygraph came out just as Dostoevsky was beginning The Brothers Karamazov Both novels depend upon an account of psychology similar to that given in it and both authors use that psychology in their defense of the possibilshyity of religion in a scientific age L2 To ground that psychology in transcenshydent reality both rely on methods of proof that are very different from Strakhovs

Strakhov proposes a psychology that validates the individual in terms that are not simply hostile to science He borrows from empirical psycholshyogy which he credits but which he also corrects in one critical respect Acshycording to him Descartes when he emptied the external world of spiritual content laid the basis for a modern psychology that relocates all meaning

128

Did Dostoevsky or Tolstoy Believe in Miracles

in the individual soul Only my soul understood as just the self itself (prosto samogo sebia) indubitably exists for me Everything else including my body is part of the external world whose existence can be doubted (Oop 20-25) The self becomes Descartess Arcbimedean pOint from which he can investigate everything else To know something means to separate it from the self and hence to objectify it Each object of analysis requires a subject which as the knower cannot itself be known The subject then by its vely nature is not susceptible to being known as an object By the self Strakhov claims that Descartes meant that part of tbe soul that generates not only thoughts but all emanations of psychic life (Oop 10) All thoughts feelings and acts of will can be objectified and studied but their cause within the soul cannot The cause itself has no content no number it is alshyways one and always unchanging (vsegda edinoe i vsegda neizmennoe Oop 58) We can know it only negatively by stating what it is not

This insistence on the unknowability of the self is Strakhovs main departure from contemporary empirical psychology and both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky develop its implications Strakhov defends human autonomy and dignity from attacks by science by distinguishing between what is and is not susceptible to scientific analysis according to him materialists and scientists alike make the mistake of applying tools appropriate to the invesshytigation of the objective world to the subjective one (Oop 30 60) As he prepared in his notes to the novel to defend Alyoshas faith and speCifically his belief in miracles Dostoevsky put it this way And as for so-called scishyentific proofs he [Alyoshal did not believe in them and was right in not beshylieving in them even though he had not finished his studies it was not possible to disprove matters that by their essence were not of this world by knowledge that was of this worldn

Vhat we speak of as scientific knowledge moreover has its own limishytations Materialists and positivists believe that we can know only objective or empirical reality On the contrary argues Strakhov the only thing an inshydividual experiences directly is himself his own existence and psychic pheshynomena that are reactions to an external world to which he has no direct access Even the ways in which we organize reality are in fact the results of a priori categories of time and space inhering in our own minds rather than in external reality If that is so and if in the other direction the self is unknowable then Strakhov paints a bleak picture indeed of what human beings can hope to understand But neither StraldlOv nor Tolstoy or Dostoshyevsky actually accepted these limitations on knowledge as absolute While Strakhov agreed with Schopenhauer that the world is my representation he did not mean by it that the world did not exist Perceptions do reflect some kind of physical reality and most important feelings thoughts and will must be grounded in transcendental prinCiples that make them more than merely subjective

129

Donna Orwin

What Strakhov has done in his monograph is to put a Kantian spin on early modern philosophy Descartes was most concerned to establish the self as the point from which an objective scientific investigation of the world could proceed To do so he was willing to sacrifice the very possibility of self-knowledge by positing the self as the pure subject (chistyi subekt) of all objects Inaccessible to dissection by human reason after Kant the self becomes a potential safe haven for spiritual truths not verifiable by empirshyical science This inner spiritual reality is often said to be known to the heart rather than the mind as such it is more the purview of poets than philososhyphers and it was his belief in the greater profundity of the knowledge of the heart that made Strakhov feel inferior to his poet friends H Both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky benefited from Strakhovs dualism Self-knowledge undershystood as knowledge of that supposedly unknowable subject which is the self is reconstituted in their works as inner knowledge of metaphysical reality the true realm of the miraculous To anticipate what follows Dostoevsky goes further than Tolstoy in depicting the other world as he sometimes calls it whose objective existence cannot be proven

In The Brothers Karamazov Dostoevsky employs the ideas briefly sketched earlier to solve the problem of the possibility of religiOUS belief in the modern world All the characters in the novel are OIiginally selfshycentered and unsure of the feelings or thoughts of others which is preshysented as natural All of them see external reality through the subjective lens of their own personalities and each crea tes a version of the world corshyresponding to these visions The clashes that arise among them stem from the incompatibility of these multiple subjective realities Such is the case even for Alyosha who makes the mistake (and cannot but make it) of assumshying that all others share his own consistently good intentions Once he has changed his opinion of Grushenka for instance he feels certain that she will give herself to her former lover rather than knife him The reader lisshytening to Grushenka and observing her expressions cannot be so sure

The solution to the conflicts that alise from this natural self-centeredness lies not in an escape from the self as might have been required in earlier Christianity but in deeper self-understanding In the notebooks to the novel one of Zosimas maxims reads What is life-To define oneself as much as possible I am I exist To be like the Lord who says I am who is but already in the whole plenitude of the whole universels When characshyters reform in the novel they affirm their own existence and for the first time the existence of others in the whole plenitude of the whole universe

This paradigm applies very neatly to Alyosha Karamazov He is introshyduced to the reader as a man who naturally believes in miracles because his subjective point of view mandates this belief He is as much a realist as is the atheist whose exclusive belief in the laws of nature predisposes him to discount any miracle In the realis t faith is not born from miracles but

130

Did Dostoevsky or Tolstoy Believe in Miracles

miracles from faith (BIlt 26) Alyoshas education results not in a repudiashytion of miracles but in a reassessment of the concept of the miraculous

When Zosimas body begins to stink Alyosha already shaken by Ivan s argument about divine injustice or indifference experiences this situation as a kind of reverse miracle Why he asks himself did the body have to deshycay so rapidly and conspicuously In other words Alyosha as the narrator tells us remains true to his fundamentally religiOUS temperament but proshyvoked by Ivan he rebels against Gods world What restores Alyoshas trust in God is the revelation of Grushenkas innate goodness Like his brothers Alyosha has created the world in his own image With his passionate comshymitment to purity-what the narrator calls in one place his wild frenzied modesty and chastity (dikaia istuplennaia stydlivost i tselomudrennost BIlt 20)-Alyosha has denied his own corporeality and espeCially his sensushyality He projects onto the world a distorted image of humanity divided into saints like Zosima and sinners like Grushenka whom he sees as a prisoner and advocate of the dumb and blind laws of carnal pleasure In revenge for the humiliation of Zosima Alyosha decides to submit himself exclusively to her and those laws When he arrives at Grushenkas however he finds her in a state that cannot be explained with reference to them In the final fourth chapter of book 7 Alyoshas faith in humanity then not only revives but expands

For all its ecstatic tone (which is meant to convey Alyoshas mood) the description of Alyoshas reconCiliation with faith is very preCise and psyshychologically detailed First he has a sensation of inner commotion and orshyderliness at the same time

His soul was overflowing but somehow vaguely and no Single sensation stood out making itself felt too much on the contrary one followed another in a sort of slow and calm rotation But there was sweetness in his heart and strangely Alyosha was not surplised at that (BIlt 359)

Alyosha is having the experience dubbed sweet and rare in Dostoevskys world of feeling himself altogether in one place The sensations (oshchushyshcheniia) do not move in and out as they would in a moment of active involvement with the world but circle slowly not forming into actual pershyceptions These sensations are wholly internal yet they are reactions to exshyternal events their internal assimilation After them (and perhaps arising out of them) come thoughts

Fragments of thoughts [myslil flashed in his soul catching fire like little stars and dying out at once to give way to others yet there reigned in his soul something whole firm assuaging and he was conscious of himself (BI( 359)

Sensation by its nature is not self-conscious but thought is and so at this moment the same I that feels sweet both emits thoughts and at the same

131

Donna Oruin

time is conscious of itself as something whole As he recovers from the disorientating experiences of the previous day dming which he has doubted his connection to immortality the one and unchanging part of Alyoshas soul (to use Strakhovs terminology) makes itself felt

There follows Alyoshas half-waking dream in which thought weaves sensation into fantasy and commentary on the text of the marriage at Cana that is being read over Zosimas body in the background Awakening from the dream Alyosha runs outdoors to fall down on the earth (as he had done when his crisis began) but this time in ecstatic joy Nature presents itself to him in the form of a great cathedral with the sky its dome (nebesnyi lwpol)

Over him the heavenly dome full of quiet shining stars hung boundlessly From the zenith to the horizon the still-dim Milky Way stretched its double strand Night fresh and quiet almost unstirring enveloped the earth The white towers and golden domes of the church gleamed in the sapphire sky The luxuriant autumn Rowers in the Rowerbeds near the house had fallen asleep until morning The silence of the earth seemed to merge with the sishylence of the heavens the mystery of the earth touched the mystery of the stars Alyosha stood gazing ancl suddenly as if he had been cut dovvn threw himself to the earth (BK 362)

In the last sentence Alyosha is said to be cut down by the appearance of nature as a sacred cathedral But the appearance is itself a product of his newly formed consciousness and in this sense it is as much a fantasy as the dream sequence that precedes it It differs from the dream only because it presents itself to Alyosha as external reality Alyoshas own thoughts which were said to have flashed like stars through his soul and therefore anticipate the starry sky that he sees are responsible for this new interpretation His mind actively if unself-consciously interprets and thereby shapes sensations stimulated in him by external reality it turns them into perceptions which in this case are more like symbols Alyosha responds to the symbolism as if it came from outside

Alyoshas embrace of the earth is a physical expression of his embrace of the whole plentitude of the whole universe of which Dostoevsky had spoken in the notebooks to the novel Once he has opened himself in this way he experiences the sensation of being at a center point where all worlds meet and vibrating in tune with all of them He is in a frenzy of forshygiving and forgiveness in a state where boundaries between himself and the world seem to be dissolved At the same time as he flows outward howshyever a reverse motion is occurring

But vith each moment he felt clearly and almost tangibly something as firm and immovable as this heavenly vault [nebesbyi svocll descend into his soul Some sort of idea as it were was coming to reign in his mind-now for the whole of his life and unto ages of ages He fell to the earth a weak youth and

132

Did IJostO(lky (lr T(ll~toy Believe ill Mirld(s

rose lip a fighte r stedflSt for I ll( res t o f his life m] he knew it and fdt it sudde nly (It til (lt very mome nt of his (CSt a~ NeCr ncf r in his li fe would AI)osha forget this moment ~SOllllOllC isIl(1 HI) MIIII in that hour- ht wou ld $Y afte rwards with fi rm telief ill his words (Jj K 362-63)

As Alyosha moves ou t o f the e ro tic fre nzy of which (like David danci ng nake d before the ark) Mhe was nut asilltrllld ~on l lllt i llg frlllll o ll tsid e and ahove-it is Iike~ the heaven ly aTch and thprcfore is not it-sN ms to him to possess hi~ soul ami o rganize it (I((Ording to what he calls nn - idea- that In m s him frolll a wctk hoy into a warrior As should be clear by now Alyoshas later version of what happflII d to hlm-SOIlltOIlC i si t(d 1Ilt~shydocs not jibe in any si mple way with the nnrrntors account of the (cnl as it unfolds A (omplc( inte raction IJetw(c n AI)osh11 and -T(tlity- takes place in which Dostoevsky intentionally I(lw$ uuctftlli ll what c( unes from imide and what from outside Th e heilVcnly vault Hs( lf is o ne case in point it is a nWl apho r huil 0 11 the unavoidahle but scil lItifically fa[sc human pe rcepshytion of Ihc sl-y IS round and i nittgt [n th is St lIS it C( lnlCS lol from reality b ill from Alyosha who the n fee ls somet h ing [i kc it cnter him in the fonn of moml pri ncipks

The helcnly vault mnkes IIIl lIp pt arlItlCl in hook S or AIIIUI Kllrelli lw and also in iJasic CmlUIJI of gtsyclwlugy Strakhov cites it- using th( term 1It)yi ~VO(I-as an (~~al1lplc of the Tluut) of universal perctgtplions whether o r nul Ihc) cOrrespond 10 (xtenml ralily (0011 38) 1(111 uses it to Issert the validi ty of his ~slJhje(tiH~- be lief in II humanly llleaningfulllnierse

Liug Illl hi back hc IS now gazing 111 till high d oudlcss sky DolIt I know that tllUl is infinite spu middot amI nnt a rollnd~1 twit [knl1lyi slJO(l] But howshyever I Inll ~fW III eycs and stram my sight I call1lot 1(lp ltt-eing il as rml TOuml lIud not limitcd alill dasp it t III) kllO k-ilge of limitless spalaquoe I am illmiddot dubitably ri~ht when 1 S(-f a nml rou nd ault JVlrrlyi jolilboi ~nKI] and mOTt ri~h t tll1I1 wllcn I stmin tn ~t( beyoml it ~ (AK 724 )

Dostocvsl-ys lise of thc heacn l) ali it may be a hidden referencoe to one o r ho th of the previo us ones Be this as it may thc metaphor figures in atlth ree texts as part of a defense of the IlIlImm from the degrading rcd ultionism of sciell le The two poets carry this argllmen t milch furthe r than the scientistshyphilosophe r bul Stmkllu lays the groundwork for their more ambitious 5ions whe n he tn ()lifi(s e mpirical psychology to 1II0ve the nucleus of lhe ps)chc the sclf into the realm of rl1(taphysical knowledge that is inltC(tsshysible to IUlman reason For both Dostoevsky and Tolstoy the individual psyshyche bpoundlonws 11 gatcway tu a tnlllscellde ntal reali ty othe rwisc inat(cssihlc

Despite thes( corHl(tions howcver ali(I CVClI ifho DostOtsk) and Strakhov are quo ting To lstoy the two I)()fts haC di ffe ring hleL of what we Call actually know alx lII thc transcendc ntal reali ty in which h()th leed to heliew Til is eviderll fro m II c()rnpa rison of the respective (piphaHies of

133

Alyosha and Levin Levin d ist overs a tnlth that he feels be luLS always l1own Fyodors words p roclm-ecl in his so ul the cfktt of an e lectric spark sudshydpoundnly t ransfurm ing and we lding in tu une a whol( g roup of d isjointed il nposhytent separate ideas wtich fwd mllf ccmud to occufY him These ideas lIubckll (JWflst to himself wac occupyiug him wile n he WILS talking ahout letshyling the land (e mphasis added) Su ilHc mal but separate idca_~ that toshygethe r make III a larger lnalll we re waiting only for all exle rnal catalyst to make the mselves known Whe n they do ~Oll1e together Le vin decmiddotlares that he IloW ~ kl1ow~ what not only he but all of llllillankind have always know n MAlld [did not finu this klluwledgt in any way bu t it was given tO IIIU gilr u l-ecausc I lOUl t lWt han takcm it from a l1)whe re16 lcin says flll1hershymore that he hngt lwen liJlg right while he lhinks wTOng Thl of cours( is what saves him from tile fat e o f Anna who becausc she lives wrollg does no t have aeltcss to the knowlelge thl t is hidde n ill he r too

Unlike u vin Alyosha feels thnt his 1l(W kllowlcdge comes from UIlIshy

lgt idc Ill is is whal be means when he says ~ Someonc i sitcu me lie has a sense that a fonll ntivl moml idea e nte rs him and turus him frOlll a middotmiddotwetk )oulh to a warrior As I have shown prcviously this sense is mistake n 10 the ed l llt that Alyosbas rortitudc rests IIpoll newly constituted inne r foundashytions Despite this hid howc c r AI)1Jshas PCJIc ption that his HCW resolushylioll comes fmm o utside him is n lluable dill both to his slate of mind alld allgto tn the relation of real alld ideal acconling to Dustocvsky As with Len another persoll s ltortlS-in Alyoshas llISC the words and deeds of c rushf lIka---cr(atl Ihe initi al oonrnlions fur his epiphany As with Lcin Ihcs( wurd~ bOlh IInseltle his feelings Iud thou)hl s and preci pi tat e signill shyt1Il1 knowledf(c Before this knflII(I~e can coalesce howeve r Alr nsha has anothe r cperic nct a dream l i e falls asleep LS tile b ihlical passtlge alxlIIl the 1lllrrillge at Calla is being ruad ove r Ihe (Offin ofZosilllltt He (Ommenls on this passage in his skCp Iud Ihe n Zosima appears hefore hinl and sumshymons h im to the marriage fPast At this point Alyoshas dream slille dcfp shyens and the physical laws o f lIatufe are ~lIs pell(l((1 To mark this shifl from ohj(Actif to subjeltti() fe-al ity LJostOlvsky me ntions thai (ill Aly shas pershycep tion) the mom lUoves (k()wlfl mdlligmsII ) Hnd Ihc n to enlphL~ize it he rqktI S the info rmatioll in the sunf parag raph (oP(J mflvIlIl(JS kOIlIlW ) When tht ph)sicallaws that hold a room in place no longer ohshylain the dL( rce uf 1I(alh isil ed on eYc ry individual who lils lived or lives is also lifted Zosill1a does not ri se rrom his w flin whidl has d isappeared Iyosha simply reltOgnizes hi III as nile of the gllcsts al the table It is usiliia whll ealls Alyosha ~ th words that suggest liis resurrection Why hle )011 buricd yourself 11 (1( where we can t seL you corne and join us r Zaclle1t1 siuda skhuronilsia cillo lie vidal Ic bia po idelll i ty k lI am ~

UK 361) The c ITfC t is Ihal AI)llsha wakes from lht clead 10 Ihf living life of hi s urr-3m

Did Doslocvs l) or Tol~IO Bclitlt( ill ~lim(ICli

The statns of dreallls in Ih( nowl and the appeamme in the m of Imllshysccmlenlal ideal realily lJ(ltOmes clearer if we oompme Alyillhas dream wilh lh e appeamncc of the devil to Iyan laler in the novel As is approprishy(lIe for an advocate of philosophical lIHtt e rialisrn lilt devi l illsists tlmt he is part of the phy~ical world Ivan howeer WlIlls tlfmiddotspe rat e l) In 1 ~~Heve

thai the devi l is a fi gme nt of his irnagination li e is in fact drea med lip by [van and vanishes wllcn Alyosha knocks on his willdow hut- Illost si~ni fl shyeanlly-that docs not 1l1fan thai the devil is not rfn l Usin~ analytic rCL~OIl h lUl has assu lIlrtl the staluc of an outside observer is-u-vis not only exlershynal hil i also his own intenml rt ality He ell t~ himse lf ofT from transccll dcnshytal reality through his mtionnlislIl and his egotism Whe n his irnaginitiull mujures til) the devil he wanlgt 10 k~p lhis stirrin~ of spirilIIallife salely fi ctional evell though his dcvil is much closer to him personally than say the Cmnd Infllisitor in his safely d istanced story o r medie val limcraquo Alyosua by con trast Inkes his drculI littrally as a timeless visitation to him by Zmillla lind ttn Christ This is what he means when he says thai - someshyone visi ted him

Just how real is this o ther deathless world Dostoesky seems 10 sugshygest that it call actually apclIr 10 liS in ou r drciulis a lld fa ut ilsies7 AI)05has dream seems 10 transpose hi m 10 another world nol nppar~nt in oll r wakshying life UcelUse II priori rules of time and splce b lock ollr u(tss to it In dreams thesl rules a re suspe nded and Alym has fi nal epiphany takes place at the crossroads of wn1 1mbcrless- worlds Illat momentarily il1lcrscd wit hil l him 1111 confidence that DoslneSJ) In in Ih~ rea li t)~ of Al)oshas vision is expressed in his lISC of the Hussian word kflJJuJ--dollle--for the sl) as it appelrs to 1 I)osha when he sleps o ul inlo nature WI( 3(2) t few lines latN wsornc thillg (IS firm and immovable a$ this heavenl) ault IlIcbeslyi middotIltHl t is said 10 desc(nd into AI)oshas SOIl I A klllo in Bussiall is not the inside of Ihe do me of a enthedmllmt it outsitic DostoclI J) i t~hokC of worcls suggests that lit thi s epiphanic Illoment AI)nsha 1I1ollltntarily see the other tnms(c llde l1lal world whole and from the ()ulside

BltCk in 111111 VlfClillll I--vin has no dream and his e pipbU1Y runs a dilTc re nt ((lIIrse from Alyoshamiddots F)1xlors w(Jrd~ i~nitc a ehai n of intcrvJOwn Ihoughllgt IIml re miniscen(es but during this PlOCf SS Levin remains enti re ly wi thin himself His insp ired idea orgallitcs a whol e swarm ufvarious imshypolent separate thoughts that had always pr(()(Cllpicd him It oomes not frOlll the Bible but fro m trldilional peasant wi~dom which Levin lIlainshytains is Oolh unive rsal and Hahira Wllcreas Al~osha fllllL his ideals in a book-nncl later writes a book himsllr- Lcvin finds the Ifllth only whe n Fedor s words release ~ undear bu t Significant though ts that before had 1kl1 - locked up in h is soul hut now all streaming loward a single goal began 10 whirl in his head blind ing hi m wit h Ihei r lighl ~ (AI( 719)_ Whe u he hilS fini shed spinning out the consequences of his re turn to truth he

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stops thinking and listens to mysterious voiees jo)fully aud eamestl) disshycussing sOlllcllling amo ng I hemsektmiddots~ (AK 724 )

Eistwberp in the novel Levin too makes lontact with anothe r world Tll is happe ns not wh he is eont e mplating Iml during fundallUlItal life exshyperie nces (ollrtsil ip alld marriage the death of his brother and the birt h of hi s SOil Birth md dcatll arc - mimcts- that e levate the ordinary life aboV( mechanical proecss ami infu sc it with the sacred In the w()rd~ of tile I)()t Fet lo lII lenUn~ un the l(lIlncction bc lwtt1l Nikolais dpath and ~ I itya s hirth hirth and death arc - Iwo holfs [from the 1l1ltcrialJ into the ~piri t lal world into NirvUla Tlwy are middot two visible and ete rnally l11yste ri shyOIL~ ~ nduws t~ 111 Mil k(lk woJ (The World (IS OIW Wllole ) puhlished in 1872 Stmkhov ar~u~ thaI b irth and death the main events of organic (as oppos(ltu mechanical) life lannol be understood Sltienlificul1y

I l er( in hinh and death J evcT)1hiug is ituo lllprehfllsiblc cWI1 hilig is mysshyt c riou~ a nti MienC( d()(i not S(f (tll a path u) wltieh it might nrrivc at II resshyolution to the IUlSlit llls Ilmt prt~e nt I hemselws 111Cstigations ~how that thSl mi raclegt art lakin~ pltlCC now Ic rc he fore our H ry eyes From this point of view it is wry JUSI III say Diine creation d~s nol cease even ffir n In il ll1tc that thtmiddot J rent ~tCfc t of tllc crealil)n of till world is taking place bcshyfort us up t ( l tll is ve ry fltOlllcnt m

Tlwc aft the (enlT3lmyste rics that cevate ordinary life above tlw mere ly mechanical and of lOlirsc give I sacred dime nsion to the faHlil) Although Toisto nowhe re 1dnltJwl(ltges this the - family idea in Amw iVl rellill(l

mav derive its th(ore tieal validity from TIU World n~ Dlle Wholc whidl hl f~ 1l111Cll admircdO lt llis is s~ tllcn Stflkhov is o ne irnpo rtmlt SOU rLC o f the pantheism that is till presellt in IIIW IVm IllrI albe it in a difTe fCnt and much tl imi ll is hed fnnn than ill Var (fI1l1 Pf(f(Y

Tht - fa mily idea (l ike tIle - idea o f tit p(Ople h in War lIIullfflce ) has nothing to do with Ihe mi nd at all In the passage from The World (IS Dill Wlwle Strakhov plalcs limits on what human rC1$I)U can diSlte rB and this idea wOllld have been vcI) lltt mc tive to Tolstoy lle rever Stmkhov stepl)(1 Oe)ontl those limits Tulstoy wOl1 ld take h im to tas k for doing so In IUlSic

C()IICepl~ of PSljchol(Jy ill a chapte r entitled l he Real Life o f the SOl1 l ~

(H lleal T1 1a zhzn middot dllshn Strakhov trieli to prove the objetti c status of psychic life whetllCr awake or aslc(middotp by d((ltieing a priori ohjeetic cateshygori es u f tmlh (isliuul goodness (bllgo J alld frfeltlolil (ltwouodnnio dd(lshyIcrlllJ~t) tllll IInderlie tho ught feeling alld will resp(CIieiy

Our ulolights hawmiddot to comprise real knowletlgc 11m fecling~ hae 10 relat l to our fcal ~ooJ they twt to he part of OUf rcalluppincss our desires have 10

IJe possible to rcali71 ucstimtl fo r rellizatilll1 (lnd [destined to ] he trl1Islated into ftal actiuns Umlcr tlifs( m ndilions tlur inner world takes on the s i ~n ifmiddot ical1(1middot I f full reali t ami luses its illu sory charaelN life tllrns frolll a dr( ilHI intu nal lift (001 73)

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Northwestern University Press Evanston Illinois 60208-4210

Copyright copy 2004 by Northwestern University Press Published 2004 All rights reserved

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Donna Orwin

Did Dostoevsky or Tolstoy Believe in Miracles

SEANCES AND MEDIUMS claiming to be in contact with the dead were very fashionable in the 1870s among the educated Russhysian public Within the context of larger debates of that time spiritualism had a weightiness and plausibility not apparent when we view it in isolation In the United States where the modern spiritualist movement had arisen in 1848 the eminent philosopher and scientist William James investigated it in the 1890s and found its claims to be valid l Two scientists at the U nishyversity of St Petersburg chemist A M Butlerov and zoologist N P Vagner spearheaded the spiritualist movement in the 1870s in Russia 2 In polemics of the time the chief antagonist of these two was N N Strakhov a close friend of both Dostoevsky and Tolstoy3 Philosopher V S Soloviev a proshytege of Strakhov and a fliend of Dostoevsky met his philosophical mentor p D Iurkevich at a seance in 1874 and supposedly remained in communishycation with him after his death 4 In this climate it is not surprising that both Dostoevsky and Tolstoy comment on the subject in their writings For both it is connected to the larger issue of the role of miracles and religion in the modern world

In Anna Karenina Tolstoy created a medium named Jules Landau based on a clairvoyant whom he himself had seen in Paris in 1857 and who had conducted seances and lectures in Russia in the early 1870s5 When the hysterical and sexually repressed Lydia Ivanovna convinces Aleksey Karenin to consult Landau on whether he should grant Anna a divorce Landau whether by accident or design obliges the secret wish of Lydia Ivanovna and Karenin to torture Anna by forbidding the divorce 6 This surshyrender of his conscience to a clairvoyant signals the moral bankruptcy of Karenin who now also believes in miraculous salvation without good works or repentance Yet it is appropriate that it is he and Lydia Ivanovna rather than Stiva Oblonsky (who is horrified by the whole event) who are dravvll to spiritualism It supplies answers debased and compromised though they may be to ethical questions that do not even exist for Stiva

Dostoevskys January 1876 Diary of a Writer included a satire on spirshyitualism in which he argued that the discord on this issue was sown by dev-

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ils whose real existence it therefore proved The implication is that the whole debate about devils and angels if sCientifically illegitimate is psychoshylogically and ethically understandable and sound Dostoevsky subsequently visited a seance in February and reported on it in the Diary for March and April (Ps 2298-101 126-32) This seance with its concealed springs and wires as he explained in April deprived him of any wish he might have had to believe in spiritualism and therefore any possibility that he might ever actually believe in it Although spiritualism itself is not a topic in The Brothshyers Karamazov as it is in Anna Karenina the issues with which Dostoevsky associates it in his three issues of the Diary are Both the erstwhile exisshytence of devils and the relation betvveen a wish to believe and the possibilshyity of religious belief become important themes in the novel The malicious and prideful monk Ferapont sees devils because he wants to and Alyosha believes both in God and in miracles because he is temperamentally inshyclined to do so

Given Dostoevskys forceful denunciation of spiritualism in the April Diary it is striking that it includes an important caveat He tells his readers that even now despite his resolute rejection of spiritualism he does not deny the possibility of spiritualist phenomena [spiritskie iavleniial in other words he does not think that these phenomena of which he has had some personal experience can simply be disproved by the learned comshymissions currently investigating seances (Ps 22127) Spiritualism intershyested Tolstoy and Dostoevsky as psychologists and moralists because it expressed at one and the same time the spiritual poverty of contemporary life and a suppressed longing for spirituality Both Anna Karenina and The Brothers Karamazov locate the cause of spiritual impoverishment in modshyern scientific thought and both novels contain experiences that cannot be explained scientifically In this essay I will explore the status of the miracshyulous in the two novels with an eye finally to defining what kind of spirishytual phenomena if any the two writers might have regarded as real

In both Anna Kamiddotrenina and The Brothers Karamazov characters question their belief in God and religion Konstantin Levin weathers a relishygious crisis to ground his belief firmly in his own life and consciousness The Brothers Karamazov begun in 1878 just after these final episodes of Tolshystoys novel were published seems to stand in relation to them as an inferno to a brush fire that the town brigade beats back before it burns out of conshytrol Not only the four Karamazov brothers but also many other characters in the novel wrestle with the temptation of atheism and its consequmiddotences No matter how much Dostoevsky in his typical fashion has chosen to esshycalate the drama however and no matter how Tolstoy as is his wont plays it down the situations are similar at their core

Of the vatious crises of faith that occur in The Brothers Karamiddotmazov the one that most resembles Levins is that of Alyosha Karamazov Both are

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Did Dostoevsky or Tolstoy Believe in Miracles

reactions to the death of someone close-in Levins case his brother Nikoshylai and in Alyoshas Father Zosima Before these deaths both men are said to have believed in miracles that would somehow save themselves and othshyers from annihilation (AK 720 BK 26) When his brother dies Levin abanshydons his innate optimism and interprets the death-and by extension the fate awaiting all men-as an evil mockery by some sort of devil (AK 721) Ideas acquired from an education dominated by scientific conceptsshyorganisms their destruction the indestructibility of matter the law of the conservation of energy development-are cold comfort to Levin (AK 711) No matter how hard he tries to escape the conclusions of scientific reasoning he eventually has to concede that if one relies on thought alone the human individual seems to be nothing but a bubble that persists for a while and then bursts This untruth is understood by him as the cruel mockelY by some evil power a wicked and disgusting power to which it was impossible to submit (AK 714)

In his February 1877 Diary of a Writer Dostoevsky calls Levin pure of heart [chistyi sertseml (Ps 2556) Alyosha Karamazov is a Dostoevskian version of this new Russian type Alyosha had attached himself to Father Zosima in order to escape the world He longs for a spiritual purity that the world lacks and Father Zosima exemplifies The rapid putrefaction of Zosimas corpse seems to Alyosha to be a direct slap in the face by Someshyone bent on humiliating the best of men For Alyosha as for Levin this inshysult takes the form of the subordination of everything human to mere physical laws

Where was Providence and its finger Why did it hide its finger at the most necessary moment (Alyosha thought) as if wanting to submit itself to the blind mute merciless laws of nature (BK 340)

Nineteenth-century science of course conceived of nature as merely indifshyferent Levin and Alyosha experience it as hostile because it makes no proshyvision for and indeed denies the value of the human individual Belief in science and especially in phYSiolOgical materialism which became wideshyspread in Russia for the first time in the 1860s gave rise to the modern psyshychological dilemma described first by Turgenev in Fathers and Children then by Dostoevsky in Notes from Underground of the human personality trapped inside a machine 8 Turgenevs Bazarov advocates a scientific undershystanding of nature but he mistakenly thinks that he will be exempt from the rules as he formulates them for others His creator is content simply to make this point and to record Bazarovs response when he is hoisted on his own petard In Notes From Underground Dostoevsky goes a step beyond Turgeshynev to explore the effects on personality of an internalized belief in physioshylOgical materialism The underground man makes fun of those whose actions are not consistent with their science and at the same time he struggles irra-

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honally to assert his own freedom A decade later similar beliefs in a purely mechanistic univers3 prompt Konstantin Levins desire to kill himself

In the 1870s both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky worked out responses to the threat posed by modern scientific views If these responses seem simishylar that may be because each man was separately discussing his ideas with their mutual friend Strakhov The many letters preserved from an intense correspondence between Tolstoy and Strakhov give us some idea of their conversations which mostly took place at Iasnaia Poliana Dostoevs)-y and Strakhov were together in Petersburg for most of the 1870s and met freshyquently They were no longer soul mates as they had been in the early 1860s but they were still close intellectual fliends In a letter to Tolstoy written in May 1881 Strakhov wrote that he keenly missed the recently deshyceased Dostoevsky who as his most ardent reader had read and subtly understood his every article9 One of these articles a long monograph pubshylished in several installments in 1878 in the Zhumal ministerstva naroshydnogo prosveshcheniia (journal of the Ministry of Public Education) is called Db osnovnylch poniatiiakh pSikhologii (Basic Concepts of Psycholshyogy) It is both a history of modern psychology from Descartes onward and a treatise on the nature of the soul and its relation to external reality It is also a continuation of Strakhovs polemics against the spiritualists in which Strakhov sets out to delineate the physical and spiritual spheres with their respective and mutually exclusive laws lO

There can be no doubt that Strakhov was discussing these subjects with Tolstoy and Dostoevsky as he planned and wrote his monograph If proof were needed Tolstoy at least supplies it when he writes Strakhov that he had learned a great deal from reading the book but not as much as he would have had he read it two years ago [Nlow what you demonstrate is so indubitable and simple for me (as it is so for 99999 percent of humanshyity) that not carried away by proof of what rings so true to me I see as well inadequacies in the methods of the proofsll During the two years in which Tolstoy was absorbing the psychological truths that he finds so ably stated in Strakhovs monograph he was writing Anna Karenina The monoshygraph came out just as Dostoevsky was beginning The Brothers Karamazov Both novels depend upon an account of psychology similar to that given in it and both authors use that psychology in their defense of the possibilshyity of religion in a scientific age L2 To ground that psychology in transcenshydent reality both rely on methods of proof that are very different from Strakhovs

Strakhov proposes a psychology that validates the individual in terms that are not simply hostile to science He borrows from empirical psycholshyogy which he credits but which he also corrects in one critical respect Acshycording to him Descartes when he emptied the external world of spiritual content laid the basis for a modern psychology that relocates all meaning

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in the individual soul Only my soul understood as just the self itself (prosto samogo sebia) indubitably exists for me Everything else including my body is part of the external world whose existence can be doubted (Oop 20-25) The self becomes Descartess Arcbimedean pOint from which he can investigate everything else To know something means to separate it from the self and hence to objectify it Each object of analysis requires a subject which as the knower cannot itself be known The subject then by its vely nature is not susceptible to being known as an object By the self Strakhov claims that Descartes meant that part of tbe soul that generates not only thoughts but all emanations of psychic life (Oop 10) All thoughts feelings and acts of will can be objectified and studied but their cause within the soul cannot The cause itself has no content no number it is alshyways one and always unchanging (vsegda edinoe i vsegda neizmennoe Oop 58) We can know it only negatively by stating what it is not

This insistence on the unknowability of the self is Strakhovs main departure from contemporary empirical psychology and both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky develop its implications Strakhov defends human autonomy and dignity from attacks by science by distinguishing between what is and is not susceptible to scientific analysis according to him materialists and scientists alike make the mistake of applying tools appropriate to the invesshytigation of the objective world to the subjective one (Oop 30 60) As he prepared in his notes to the novel to defend Alyoshas faith and speCifically his belief in miracles Dostoevsky put it this way And as for so-called scishyentific proofs he [Alyoshal did not believe in them and was right in not beshylieving in them even though he had not finished his studies it was not possible to disprove matters that by their essence were not of this world by knowledge that was of this worldn

Vhat we speak of as scientific knowledge moreover has its own limishytations Materialists and positivists believe that we can know only objective or empirical reality On the contrary argues Strakhov the only thing an inshydividual experiences directly is himself his own existence and psychic pheshynomena that are reactions to an external world to which he has no direct access Even the ways in which we organize reality are in fact the results of a priori categories of time and space inhering in our own minds rather than in external reality If that is so and if in the other direction the self is unknowable then Strakhov paints a bleak picture indeed of what human beings can hope to understand But neither StraldlOv nor Tolstoy or Dostoshyevsky actually accepted these limitations on knowledge as absolute While Strakhov agreed with Schopenhauer that the world is my representation he did not mean by it that the world did not exist Perceptions do reflect some kind of physical reality and most important feelings thoughts and will must be grounded in transcendental prinCiples that make them more than merely subjective

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What Strakhov has done in his monograph is to put a Kantian spin on early modern philosophy Descartes was most concerned to establish the self as the point from which an objective scientific investigation of the world could proceed To do so he was willing to sacrifice the very possibility of self-knowledge by positing the self as the pure subject (chistyi subekt) of all objects Inaccessible to dissection by human reason after Kant the self becomes a potential safe haven for spiritual truths not verifiable by empirshyical science This inner spiritual reality is often said to be known to the heart rather than the mind as such it is more the purview of poets than philososhyphers and it was his belief in the greater profundity of the knowledge of the heart that made Strakhov feel inferior to his poet friends H Both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky benefited from Strakhovs dualism Self-knowledge undershystood as knowledge of that supposedly unknowable subject which is the self is reconstituted in their works as inner knowledge of metaphysical reality the true realm of the miraculous To anticipate what follows Dostoevsky goes further than Tolstoy in depicting the other world as he sometimes calls it whose objective existence cannot be proven

In The Brothers Karamazov Dostoevsky employs the ideas briefly sketched earlier to solve the problem of the possibility of religiOUS belief in the modern world All the characters in the novel are OIiginally selfshycentered and unsure of the feelings or thoughts of others which is preshysented as natural All of them see external reality through the subjective lens of their own personalities and each crea tes a version of the world corshyresponding to these visions The clashes that arise among them stem from the incompatibility of these multiple subjective realities Such is the case even for Alyosha who makes the mistake (and cannot but make it) of assumshying that all others share his own consistently good intentions Once he has changed his opinion of Grushenka for instance he feels certain that she will give herself to her former lover rather than knife him The reader lisshytening to Grushenka and observing her expressions cannot be so sure

The solution to the conflicts that alise from this natural self-centeredness lies not in an escape from the self as might have been required in earlier Christianity but in deeper self-understanding In the notebooks to the novel one of Zosimas maxims reads What is life-To define oneself as much as possible I am I exist To be like the Lord who says I am who is but already in the whole plenitude of the whole universels When characshyters reform in the novel they affirm their own existence and for the first time the existence of others in the whole plenitude of the whole universe

This paradigm applies very neatly to Alyosha Karamazov He is introshyduced to the reader as a man who naturally believes in miracles because his subjective point of view mandates this belief He is as much a realist as is the atheist whose exclusive belief in the laws of nature predisposes him to discount any miracle In the realis t faith is not born from miracles but

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Did Dostoevsky or Tolstoy Believe in Miracles

miracles from faith (BIlt 26) Alyoshas education results not in a repudiashytion of miracles but in a reassessment of the concept of the miraculous

When Zosimas body begins to stink Alyosha already shaken by Ivan s argument about divine injustice or indifference experiences this situation as a kind of reverse miracle Why he asks himself did the body have to deshycay so rapidly and conspicuously In other words Alyosha as the narrator tells us remains true to his fundamentally religiOUS temperament but proshyvoked by Ivan he rebels against Gods world What restores Alyoshas trust in God is the revelation of Grushenkas innate goodness Like his brothers Alyosha has created the world in his own image With his passionate comshymitment to purity-what the narrator calls in one place his wild frenzied modesty and chastity (dikaia istuplennaia stydlivost i tselomudrennost BIlt 20)-Alyosha has denied his own corporeality and espeCially his sensushyality He projects onto the world a distorted image of humanity divided into saints like Zosima and sinners like Grushenka whom he sees as a prisoner and advocate of the dumb and blind laws of carnal pleasure In revenge for the humiliation of Zosima Alyosha decides to submit himself exclusively to her and those laws When he arrives at Grushenkas however he finds her in a state that cannot be explained with reference to them In the final fourth chapter of book 7 Alyoshas faith in humanity then not only revives but expands

For all its ecstatic tone (which is meant to convey Alyoshas mood) the description of Alyoshas reconCiliation with faith is very preCise and psyshychologically detailed First he has a sensation of inner commotion and orshyderliness at the same time

His soul was overflowing but somehow vaguely and no Single sensation stood out making itself felt too much on the contrary one followed another in a sort of slow and calm rotation But there was sweetness in his heart and strangely Alyosha was not surplised at that (BIlt 359)

Alyosha is having the experience dubbed sweet and rare in Dostoevskys world of feeling himself altogether in one place The sensations (oshchushyshcheniia) do not move in and out as they would in a moment of active involvement with the world but circle slowly not forming into actual pershyceptions These sensations are wholly internal yet they are reactions to exshyternal events their internal assimilation After them (and perhaps arising out of them) come thoughts

Fragments of thoughts [myslil flashed in his soul catching fire like little stars and dying out at once to give way to others yet there reigned in his soul something whole firm assuaging and he was conscious of himself (BI( 359)

Sensation by its nature is not self-conscious but thought is and so at this moment the same I that feels sweet both emits thoughts and at the same

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time is conscious of itself as something whole As he recovers from the disorientating experiences of the previous day dming which he has doubted his connection to immortality the one and unchanging part of Alyoshas soul (to use Strakhovs terminology) makes itself felt

There follows Alyoshas half-waking dream in which thought weaves sensation into fantasy and commentary on the text of the marriage at Cana that is being read over Zosimas body in the background Awakening from the dream Alyosha runs outdoors to fall down on the earth (as he had done when his crisis began) but this time in ecstatic joy Nature presents itself to him in the form of a great cathedral with the sky its dome (nebesnyi lwpol)

Over him the heavenly dome full of quiet shining stars hung boundlessly From the zenith to the horizon the still-dim Milky Way stretched its double strand Night fresh and quiet almost unstirring enveloped the earth The white towers and golden domes of the church gleamed in the sapphire sky The luxuriant autumn Rowers in the Rowerbeds near the house had fallen asleep until morning The silence of the earth seemed to merge with the sishylence of the heavens the mystery of the earth touched the mystery of the stars Alyosha stood gazing ancl suddenly as if he had been cut dovvn threw himself to the earth (BK 362)

In the last sentence Alyosha is said to be cut down by the appearance of nature as a sacred cathedral But the appearance is itself a product of his newly formed consciousness and in this sense it is as much a fantasy as the dream sequence that precedes it It differs from the dream only because it presents itself to Alyosha as external reality Alyoshas own thoughts which were said to have flashed like stars through his soul and therefore anticipate the starry sky that he sees are responsible for this new interpretation His mind actively if unself-consciously interprets and thereby shapes sensations stimulated in him by external reality it turns them into perceptions which in this case are more like symbols Alyosha responds to the symbolism as if it came from outside

Alyoshas embrace of the earth is a physical expression of his embrace of the whole plentitude of the whole universe of which Dostoevsky had spoken in the notebooks to the novel Once he has opened himself in this way he experiences the sensation of being at a center point where all worlds meet and vibrating in tune with all of them He is in a frenzy of forshygiving and forgiveness in a state where boundaries between himself and the world seem to be dissolved At the same time as he flows outward howshyever a reverse motion is occurring

But vith each moment he felt clearly and almost tangibly something as firm and immovable as this heavenly vault [nebesbyi svocll descend into his soul Some sort of idea as it were was coming to reign in his mind-now for the whole of his life and unto ages of ages He fell to the earth a weak youth and

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Did IJostO(lky (lr T(ll~toy Believe ill Mirld(s

rose lip a fighte r stedflSt for I ll( res t o f his life m] he knew it and fdt it sudde nly (It til (lt very mome nt of his (CSt a~ NeCr ncf r in his li fe would AI)osha forget this moment ~SOllllOllC isIl(1 HI) MIIII in that hour- ht wou ld $Y afte rwards with fi rm telief ill his words (Jj K 362-63)

As Alyosha moves ou t o f the e ro tic fre nzy of which (like David danci ng nake d before the ark) Mhe was nut asilltrllld ~on l lllt i llg frlllll o ll tsid e and ahove-it is Iike~ the heaven ly aTch and thprcfore is not it-sN ms to him to possess hi~ soul ami o rganize it (I((Ording to what he calls nn - idea- that In m s him frolll a wctk hoy into a warrior As should be clear by now Alyoshas later version of what happflII d to hlm-SOIlltOIlC i si t(d 1Ilt~shydocs not jibe in any si mple way with the nnrrntors account of the (cnl as it unfolds A (omplc( inte raction IJetw(c n AI)osh11 and -T(tlity- takes place in which Dostoevsky intentionally I(lw$ uuctftlli ll what c( unes from imide and what from outside Th e heilVcnly vault Hs( lf is o ne case in point it is a nWl apho r huil 0 11 the unavoidahle but scil lItifically fa[sc human pe rcepshytion of Ihc sl-y IS round and i nittgt [n th is St lIS it C( lnlCS lol from reality b ill from Alyosha who the n fee ls somet h ing [i kc it cnter him in the fonn of moml pri ncipks

The helcnly vault mnkes IIIl lIp pt arlItlCl in hook S or AIIIUI Kllrelli lw and also in iJasic CmlUIJI of gtsyclwlugy Strakhov cites it- using th( term 1It)yi ~VO(I-as an (~~al1lplc of the Tluut) of universal perctgtplions whether o r nul Ihc) cOrrespond 10 (xtenml ralily (0011 38) 1(111 uses it to Issert the validi ty of his ~slJhje(tiH~- be lief in II humanly llleaningfulllnierse

Liug Illl hi back hc IS now gazing 111 till high d oudlcss sky DolIt I know that tllUl is infinite spu middot amI nnt a rollnd~1 twit [knl1lyi slJO(l] But howshyever I Inll ~fW III eycs and stram my sight I call1lot 1(lp ltt-eing il as rml TOuml lIud not limitcd alill dasp it t III) kllO k-ilge of limitless spalaquoe I am illmiddot dubitably ri~ht when 1 S(-f a nml rou nd ault JVlrrlyi jolilboi ~nKI] and mOTt ri~h t tll1I1 wllcn I stmin tn ~t( beyoml it ~ (AK 724 )

Dostocvsl-ys lise of thc heacn l) ali it may be a hidden referencoe to one o r ho th of the previo us ones Be this as it may thc metaphor figures in atlth ree texts as part of a defense of the IlIlImm from the degrading rcd ultionism of sciell le The two poets carry this argllmen t milch furthe r than the scientistshyphilosophe r bul Stmkllu lays the groundwork for their more ambitious 5ions whe n he tn ()lifi(s e mpirical psychology to 1II0ve the nucleus of lhe ps)chc the sclf into the realm of rl1(taphysical knowledge that is inltC(tsshysible to IUlman reason For both Dostoevsky and Tolstoy the individual psyshyche bpoundlonws 11 gatcway tu a tnlllscellde ntal reali ty othe rwisc inat(cssihlc

Despite thes( corHl(tions howcver ali(I CVClI ifho DostOtsk) and Strakhov are quo ting To lstoy the two I)()fts haC di ffe ring hleL of what we Call actually know alx lII thc transcendc ntal reali ty in which h()th leed to heliew Til is eviderll fro m II c()rnpa rison of the respective (piphaHies of

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Alyosha and Levin Levin d ist overs a tnlth that he feels be luLS always l1own Fyodors words p roclm-ecl in his so ul the cfktt of an e lectric spark sudshydpoundnly t ransfurm ing and we lding in tu une a whol( g roup of d isjointed il nposhytent separate ideas wtich fwd mllf ccmud to occufY him These ideas lIubckll (JWflst to himself wac occupyiug him wile n he WILS talking ahout letshyling the land (e mphasis added) Su ilHc mal but separate idca_~ that toshygethe r make III a larger lnalll we re waiting only for all exle rnal catalyst to make the mselves known Whe n they do ~Oll1e together Le vin decmiddotlares that he IloW ~ kl1ow~ what not only he but all of llllillankind have always know n MAlld [did not finu this klluwledgt in any way bu t it was given tO IIIU gilr u l-ecausc I lOUl t lWt han takcm it from a l1)whe re16 lcin says flll1hershymore that he hngt lwen liJlg right while he lhinks wTOng Thl of cours( is what saves him from tile fat e o f Anna who becausc she lives wrollg does no t have aeltcss to the knowlelge thl t is hidde n ill he r too

Unlike u vin Alyosha feels thnt his 1l(W kllowlcdge comes from UIlIshy

lgt idc Ill is is whal be means when he says ~ Someonc i sitcu me lie has a sense that a fonll ntivl moml idea e nte rs him and turus him frOlll a middotmiddotwetk )oulh to a warrior As I have shown prcviously this sense is mistake n 10 the ed l llt that Alyosbas rortitudc rests IIpoll newly constituted inne r foundashytions Despite this hid howc c r AI)1Jshas PCJIc ption that his HCW resolushylioll comes fmm o utside him is n lluable dill both to his slate of mind alld allgto tn the relation of real alld ideal acconling to Dustocvsky As with Len another persoll s ltortlS-in Alyoshas llISC the words and deeds of c rushf lIka---cr(atl Ihe initi al oonrnlions fur his epiphany As with Lcin Ihcs( wurd~ bOlh IInseltle his feelings Iud thou)hl s and preci pi tat e signill shyt1Il1 knowledf(c Before this knflII(I~e can coalesce howeve r Alr nsha has anothe r cperic nct a dream l i e falls asleep LS tile b ihlical passtlge alxlIIl the 1lllrrillge at Calla is being ruad ove r Ihe (Offin ofZosilllltt He (Ommenls on this passage in his skCp Iud Ihe n Zosima appears hefore hinl and sumshymons h im to the marriage fPast At this point Alyoshas dream slille dcfp shyens and the physical laws o f lIatufe are ~lIs pell(l((1 To mark this shifl from ohj(Actif to subjeltti() fe-al ity LJostOlvsky me ntions thai (ill Aly shas pershycep tion) the mom lUoves (k()wlfl mdlligmsII ) Hnd Ihc n to enlphL~ize it he rqktI S the info rmatioll in the sunf parag raph (oP(J mflvIlIl(JS kOIlIlW ) When tht ph)sicallaws that hold a room in place no longer ohshylain the dL( rce uf 1I(alh isil ed on eYc ry individual who lils lived or lives is also lifted Zosill1a does not ri se rrom his w flin whidl has d isappeared Iyosha simply reltOgnizes hi III as nile of the gllcsts al the table It is usiliia whll ealls Alyosha ~ th words that suggest liis resurrection Why hle )011 buricd yourself 11 (1( where we can t seL you corne and join us r Zaclle1t1 siuda skhuronilsia cillo lie vidal Ic bia po idelll i ty k lI am ~

UK 361) The c ITfC t is Ihal AI)llsha wakes from lht clead 10 Ihf living life of hi s urr-3m

Did Doslocvs l) or Tol~IO Bclitlt( ill ~lim(ICli

The statns of dreallls in Ih( nowl and the appeamme in the m of Imllshysccmlenlal ideal realily lJ(ltOmes clearer if we oompme Alyillhas dream wilh lh e appeamncc of the devil to Iyan laler in the novel As is approprishy(lIe for an advocate of philosophical lIHtt e rialisrn lilt devi l illsists tlmt he is part of the phy~ical world Ivan howeer WlIlls tlfmiddotspe rat e l) In 1 ~~Heve

thai the devi l is a fi gme nt of his irnagination li e is in fact drea med lip by [van and vanishes wllcn Alyosha knocks on his willdow hut- Illost si~ni fl shyeanlly-that docs not 1l1fan thai the devil is not rfn l Usin~ analytic rCL~OIl h lUl has assu lIlrtl the staluc of an outside observer is-u-vis not only exlershynal hil i also his own intenml rt ality He ell t~ himse lf ofT from transccll dcnshytal reality through his mtionnlislIl and his egotism Whe n his irnaginitiull mujures til) the devil he wanlgt 10 k~p lhis stirrin~ of spirilIIallife salely fi ctional evell though his dcvil is much closer to him personally than say the Cmnd Infllisitor in his safely d istanced story o r medie val limcraquo Alyosua by con trast Inkes his drculI littrally as a timeless visitation to him by Zmillla lind ttn Christ This is what he means when he says thai - someshyone visi ted him

Just how real is this o ther deathless world Dostoesky seems 10 sugshygest that it call actually apclIr 10 liS in ou r drciulis a lld fa ut ilsies7 AI)05has dream seems 10 transpose hi m 10 another world nol nppar~nt in oll r wakshying life UcelUse II priori rules of time and splce b lock ollr u(tss to it In dreams thesl rules a re suspe nded and Alym has fi nal epiphany takes place at the crossroads of wn1 1mbcrless- worlds Illat momentarily il1lcrscd wit hil l him 1111 confidence that DoslneSJ) In in Ih~ rea li t)~ of Al)oshas vision is expressed in his lISC of the Hussian word kflJJuJ--dollle--for the sl) as it appelrs to 1 I)osha when he sleps o ul inlo nature WI( 3(2) t few lines latN wsornc thillg (IS firm and immovable a$ this heavenl) ault IlIcbeslyi middotIltHl t is said 10 desc(nd into AI)oshas SOIl I A klllo in Bussiall is not the inside of Ihe do me of a enthedmllmt it outsitic DostoclI J) i t~hokC of worcls suggests that lit thi s epiphanic Illoment AI)nsha 1I1ollltntarily see the other tnms(c llde l1lal world whole and from the ()ulside

BltCk in 111111 VlfClillll I--vin has no dream and his e pipbU1Y runs a dilTc re nt ((lIIrse from Alyoshamiddots F)1xlors w(Jrd~ i~nitc a ehai n of intcrvJOwn Ihoughllgt IIml re miniscen(es but during this PlOCf SS Levin remains enti re ly wi thin himself His insp ired idea orgallitcs a whol e swarm ufvarious imshypolent separate thoughts that had always pr(()(Cllpicd him It oomes not frOlll the Bible but fro m trldilional peasant wi~dom which Levin lIlainshytains is Oolh unive rsal and Hahira Wllcreas Al~osha fllllL his ideals in a book-nncl later writes a book himsllr- Lcvin finds the Ifllth only whe n Fedor s words release ~ undear bu t Significant though ts that before had 1kl1 - locked up in h is soul hut now all streaming loward a single goal began 10 whirl in his head blind ing hi m wit h Ihei r lighl ~ (AI( 719)_ Whe u he hilS fini shed spinning out the consequences of his re turn to truth he

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stops thinking and listens to mysterious voiees jo)fully aud eamestl) disshycussing sOlllcllling amo ng I hemsektmiddots~ (AK 724 )

Eistwberp in the novel Levin too makes lontact with anothe r world Tll is happe ns not wh he is eont e mplating Iml during fundallUlItal life exshyperie nces (ollrtsil ip alld marriage the death of his brother and the birt h of hi s SOil Birth md dcatll arc - mimcts- that e levate the ordinary life aboV( mechanical proecss ami infu sc it with the sacred In the w()rd~ of tile I)()t Fet lo lII lenUn~ un the l(lIlncction bc lwtt1l Nikolais dpath and ~ I itya s hirth hirth and death arc - Iwo holfs [from the 1l1ltcrialJ into the ~piri t lal world into NirvUla Tlwy are middot two visible and ete rnally l11yste ri shyOIL~ ~ nduws t~ 111 Mil k(lk woJ (The World (IS OIW Wllole ) puhlished in 1872 Stmkhov ar~u~ thaI b irth and death the main events of organic (as oppos(ltu mechanical) life lannol be understood Sltienlificul1y

I l er( in hinh and death J evcT)1hiug is ituo lllprehfllsiblc cWI1 hilig is mysshyt c riou~ a nti MienC( d()(i not S(f (tll a path u) wltieh it might nrrivc at II resshyolution to the IUlSlit llls Ilmt prt~e nt I hemselws 111Cstigations ~how that thSl mi raclegt art lakin~ pltlCC now Ic rc he fore our H ry eyes From this point of view it is wry JUSI III say Diine creation d~s nol cease even ffir n In il ll1tc that thtmiddot J rent ~tCfc t of tllc crealil)n of till world is taking place bcshyfort us up t ( l tll is ve ry fltOlllcnt m

Tlwc aft the (enlT3lmyste rics that cevate ordinary life above tlw mere ly mechanical and of lOlirsc give I sacred dime nsion to the faHlil) Although Toisto nowhe re 1dnltJwl(ltges this the - family idea in Amw iVl rellill(l

mav derive its th(ore tieal validity from TIU World n~ Dlle Wholc whidl hl f~ 1l111Cll admircdO lt llis is s~ tllcn Stflkhov is o ne irnpo rtmlt SOU rLC o f the pantheism that is till presellt in IIIW IVm IllrI albe it in a difTe fCnt and much tl imi ll is hed fnnn than ill Var (fI1l1 Pf(f(Y

Tht - fa mily idea (l ike tIle - idea o f tit p(Ople h in War lIIullfflce ) has nothing to do with Ihe mi nd at all In the passage from The World (IS Dill Wlwle Strakhov plalcs limits on what human rC1$I)U can diSlte rB and this idea wOllld have been vcI) lltt mc tive to Tolstoy lle rever Stmkhov stepl)(1 Oe)ontl those limits Tulstoy wOl1 ld take h im to tas k for doing so In IUlSic

C()IICepl~ of PSljchol(Jy ill a chapte r entitled l he Real Life o f the SOl1 l ~

(H lleal T1 1a zhzn middot dllshn Strakhov trieli to prove the objetti c status of psychic life whetllCr awake or aslc(middotp by d((ltieing a priori ohjeetic cateshygori es u f tmlh (isliuul goodness (bllgo J alld frfeltlolil (ltwouodnnio dd(lshyIcrlllJ~t) tllll IInderlie tho ught feeling alld will resp(CIieiy

Our ulolights hawmiddot to comprise real knowletlgc 11m fecling~ hae 10 relat l to our fcal ~ooJ they twt to he part of OUf rcalluppincss our desires have 10

IJe possible to rcali71 ucstimtl fo r rellizatilll1 (lnd [destined to ] he trl1Islated into ftal actiuns Umlcr tlifs( m ndilions tlur inner world takes on the s i ~n ifmiddot ical1(1middot I f full reali t ami luses its illu sory charaelN life tllrns frolll a dr( ilHI intu nal lift (001 73)

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Did Dostoevsky or Tolstoy Believe in Miracles

SEANCES AND MEDIUMS claiming to be in contact with the dead were very fashionable in the 1870s among the educated Russhysian public Within the context of larger debates of that time spiritualism had a weightiness and plausibility not apparent when we view it in isolation In the United States where the modern spiritualist movement had arisen in 1848 the eminent philosopher and scientist William James investigated it in the 1890s and found its claims to be valid l Two scientists at the U nishyversity of St Petersburg chemist A M Butlerov and zoologist N P Vagner spearheaded the spiritualist movement in the 1870s in Russia 2 In polemics of the time the chief antagonist of these two was N N Strakhov a close friend of both Dostoevsky and Tolstoy3 Philosopher V S Soloviev a proshytege of Strakhov and a fliend of Dostoevsky met his philosophical mentor p D Iurkevich at a seance in 1874 and supposedly remained in communishycation with him after his death 4 In this climate it is not surprising that both Dostoevsky and Tolstoy comment on the subject in their writings For both it is connected to the larger issue of the role of miracles and religion in the modern world

In Anna Karenina Tolstoy created a medium named Jules Landau based on a clairvoyant whom he himself had seen in Paris in 1857 and who had conducted seances and lectures in Russia in the early 1870s5 When the hysterical and sexually repressed Lydia Ivanovna convinces Aleksey Karenin to consult Landau on whether he should grant Anna a divorce Landau whether by accident or design obliges the secret wish of Lydia Ivanovna and Karenin to torture Anna by forbidding the divorce 6 This surshyrender of his conscience to a clairvoyant signals the moral bankruptcy of Karenin who now also believes in miraculous salvation without good works or repentance Yet it is appropriate that it is he and Lydia Ivanovna rather than Stiva Oblonsky (who is horrified by the whole event) who are dravvll to spiritualism It supplies answers debased and compromised though they may be to ethical questions that do not even exist for Stiva

Dostoevskys January 1876 Diary of a Writer included a satire on spirshyitualism in which he argued that the discord on this issue was sown by dev-

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ils whose real existence it therefore proved The implication is that the whole debate about devils and angels if sCientifically illegitimate is psychoshylogically and ethically understandable and sound Dostoevsky subsequently visited a seance in February and reported on it in the Diary for March and April (Ps 2298-101 126-32) This seance with its concealed springs and wires as he explained in April deprived him of any wish he might have had to believe in spiritualism and therefore any possibility that he might ever actually believe in it Although spiritualism itself is not a topic in The Brothshyers Karamazov as it is in Anna Karenina the issues with which Dostoevsky associates it in his three issues of the Diary are Both the erstwhile exisshytence of devils and the relation betvveen a wish to believe and the possibilshyity of religious belief become important themes in the novel The malicious and prideful monk Ferapont sees devils because he wants to and Alyosha believes both in God and in miracles because he is temperamentally inshyclined to do so

Given Dostoevskys forceful denunciation of spiritualism in the April Diary it is striking that it includes an important caveat He tells his readers that even now despite his resolute rejection of spiritualism he does not deny the possibility of spiritualist phenomena [spiritskie iavleniial in other words he does not think that these phenomena of which he has had some personal experience can simply be disproved by the learned comshymissions currently investigating seances (Ps 22127) Spiritualism intershyested Tolstoy and Dostoevsky as psychologists and moralists because it expressed at one and the same time the spiritual poverty of contemporary life and a suppressed longing for spirituality Both Anna Karenina and The Brothers Karamazov locate the cause of spiritual impoverishment in modshyern scientific thought and both novels contain experiences that cannot be explained scientifically In this essay I will explore the status of the miracshyulous in the two novels with an eye finally to defining what kind of spirishytual phenomena if any the two writers might have regarded as real

In both Anna Kamiddotrenina and The Brothers Karamazov characters question their belief in God and religion Konstantin Levin weathers a relishygious crisis to ground his belief firmly in his own life and consciousness The Brothers Karamazov begun in 1878 just after these final episodes of Tolshystoys novel were published seems to stand in relation to them as an inferno to a brush fire that the town brigade beats back before it burns out of conshytrol Not only the four Karamazov brothers but also many other characters in the novel wrestle with the temptation of atheism and its consequmiddotences No matter how much Dostoevsky in his typical fashion has chosen to esshycalate the drama however and no matter how Tolstoy as is his wont plays it down the situations are similar at their core

Of the vatious crises of faith that occur in The Brothers Karamiddotmazov the one that most resembles Levins is that of Alyosha Karamazov Both are

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Did Dostoevsky or Tolstoy Believe in Miracles

reactions to the death of someone close-in Levins case his brother Nikoshylai and in Alyoshas Father Zosima Before these deaths both men are said to have believed in miracles that would somehow save themselves and othshyers from annihilation (AK 720 BK 26) When his brother dies Levin abanshydons his innate optimism and interprets the death-and by extension the fate awaiting all men-as an evil mockery by some sort of devil (AK 721) Ideas acquired from an education dominated by scientific conceptsshyorganisms their destruction the indestructibility of matter the law of the conservation of energy development-are cold comfort to Levin (AK 711) No matter how hard he tries to escape the conclusions of scientific reasoning he eventually has to concede that if one relies on thought alone the human individual seems to be nothing but a bubble that persists for a while and then bursts This untruth is understood by him as the cruel mockelY by some evil power a wicked and disgusting power to which it was impossible to submit (AK 714)

In his February 1877 Diary of a Writer Dostoevsky calls Levin pure of heart [chistyi sertseml (Ps 2556) Alyosha Karamazov is a Dostoevskian version of this new Russian type Alyosha had attached himself to Father Zosima in order to escape the world He longs for a spiritual purity that the world lacks and Father Zosima exemplifies The rapid putrefaction of Zosimas corpse seems to Alyosha to be a direct slap in the face by Someshyone bent on humiliating the best of men For Alyosha as for Levin this inshysult takes the form of the subordination of everything human to mere physical laws

Where was Providence and its finger Why did it hide its finger at the most necessary moment (Alyosha thought) as if wanting to submit itself to the blind mute merciless laws of nature (BK 340)

Nineteenth-century science of course conceived of nature as merely indifshyferent Levin and Alyosha experience it as hostile because it makes no proshyvision for and indeed denies the value of the human individual Belief in science and especially in phYSiolOgical materialism which became wideshyspread in Russia for the first time in the 1860s gave rise to the modern psyshychological dilemma described first by Turgenev in Fathers and Children then by Dostoevsky in Notes from Underground of the human personality trapped inside a machine 8 Turgenevs Bazarov advocates a scientific undershystanding of nature but he mistakenly thinks that he will be exempt from the rules as he formulates them for others His creator is content simply to make this point and to record Bazarovs response when he is hoisted on his own petard In Notes From Underground Dostoevsky goes a step beyond Turgeshynev to explore the effects on personality of an internalized belief in physioshylOgical materialism The underground man makes fun of those whose actions are not consistent with their science and at the same time he struggles irra-

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honally to assert his own freedom A decade later similar beliefs in a purely mechanistic univers3 prompt Konstantin Levins desire to kill himself

In the 1870s both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky worked out responses to the threat posed by modern scientific views If these responses seem simishylar that may be because each man was separately discussing his ideas with their mutual friend Strakhov The many letters preserved from an intense correspondence between Tolstoy and Strakhov give us some idea of their conversations which mostly took place at Iasnaia Poliana Dostoevs)-y and Strakhov were together in Petersburg for most of the 1870s and met freshyquently They were no longer soul mates as they had been in the early 1860s but they were still close intellectual fliends In a letter to Tolstoy written in May 1881 Strakhov wrote that he keenly missed the recently deshyceased Dostoevsky who as his most ardent reader had read and subtly understood his every article9 One of these articles a long monograph pubshylished in several installments in 1878 in the Zhumal ministerstva naroshydnogo prosveshcheniia (journal of the Ministry of Public Education) is called Db osnovnylch poniatiiakh pSikhologii (Basic Concepts of Psycholshyogy) It is both a history of modern psychology from Descartes onward and a treatise on the nature of the soul and its relation to external reality It is also a continuation of Strakhovs polemics against the spiritualists in which Strakhov sets out to delineate the physical and spiritual spheres with their respective and mutually exclusive laws lO

There can be no doubt that Strakhov was discussing these subjects with Tolstoy and Dostoevsky as he planned and wrote his monograph If proof were needed Tolstoy at least supplies it when he writes Strakhov that he had learned a great deal from reading the book but not as much as he would have had he read it two years ago [Nlow what you demonstrate is so indubitable and simple for me (as it is so for 99999 percent of humanshyity) that not carried away by proof of what rings so true to me I see as well inadequacies in the methods of the proofsll During the two years in which Tolstoy was absorbing the psychological truths that he finds so ably stated in Strakhovs monograph he was writing Anna Karenina The monoshygraph came out just as Dostoevsky was beginning The Brothers Karamazov Both novels depend upon an account of psychology similar to that given in it and both authors use that psychology in their defense of the possibilshyity of religion in a scientific age L2 To ground that psychology in transcenshydent reality both rely on methods of proof that are very different from Strakhovs

Strakhov proposes a psychology that validates the individual in terms that are not simply hostile to science He borrows from empirical psycholshyogy which he credits but which he also corrects in one critical respect Acshycording to him Descartes when he emptied the external world of spiritual content laid the basis for a modern psychology that relocates all meaning

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Did Dostoevsky or Tolstoy Believe in Miracles

in the individual soul Only my soul understood as just the self itself (prosto samogo sebia) indubitably exists for me Everything else including my body is part of the external world whose existence can be doubted (Oop 20-25) The self becomes Descartess Arcbimedean pOint from which he can investigate everything else To know something means to separate it from the self and hence to objectify it Each object of analysis requires a subject which as the knower cannot itself be known The subject then by its vely nature is not susceptible to being known as an object By the self Strakhov claims that Descartes meant that part of tbe soul that generates not only thoughts but all emanations of psychic life (Oop 10) All thoughts feelings and acts of will can be objectified and studied but their cause within the soul cannot The cause itself has no content no number it is alshyways one and always unchanging (vsegda edinoe i vsegda neizmennoe Oop 58) We can know it only negatively by stating what it is not

This insistence on the unknowability of the self is Strakhovs main departure from contemporary empirical psychology and both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky develop its implications Strakhov defends human autonomy and dignity from attacks by science by distinguishing between what is and is not susceptible to scientific analysis according to him materialists and scientists alike make the mistake of applying tools appropriate to the invesshytigation of the objective world to the subjective one (Oop 30 60) As he prepared in his notes to the novel to defend Alyoshas faith and speCifically his belief in miracles Dostoevsky put it this way And as for so-called scishyentific proofs he [Alyoshal did not believe in them and was right in not beshylieving in them even though he had not finished his studies it was not possible to disprove matters that by their essence were not of this world by knowledge that was of this worldn

Vhat we speak of as scientific knowledge moreover has its own limishytations Materialists and positivists believe that we can know only objective or empirical reality On the contrary argues Strakhov the only thing an inshydividual experiences directly is himself his own existence and psychic pheshynomena that are reactions to an external world to which he has no direct access Even the ways in which we organize reality are in fact the results of a priori categories of time and space inhering in our own minds rather than in external reality If that is so and if in the other direction the self is unknowable then Strakhov paints a bleak picture indeed of what human beings can hope to understand But neither StraldlOv nor Tolstoy or Dostoshyevsky actually accepted these limitations on knowledge as absolute While Strakhov agreed with Schopenhauer that the world is my representation he did not mean by it that the world did not exist Perceptions do reflect some kind of physical reality and most important feelings thoughts and will must be grounded in transcendental prinCiples that make them more than merely subjective

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What Strakhov has done in his monograph is to put a Kantian spin on early modern philosophy Descartes was most concerned to establish the self as the point from which an objective scientific investigation of the world could proceed To do so he was willing to sacrifice the very possibility of self-knowledge by positing the self as the pure subject (chistyi subekt) of all objects Inaccessible to dissection by human reason after Kant the self becomes a potential safe haven for spiritual truths not verifiable by empirshyical science This inner spiritual reality is often said to be known to the heart rather than the mind as such it is more the purview of poets than philososhyphers and it was his belief in the greater profundity of the knowledge of the heart that made Strakhov feel inferior to his poet friends H Both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky benefited from Strakhovs dualism Self-knowledge undershystood as knowledge of that supposedly unknowable subject which is the self is reconstituted in their works as inner knowledge of metaphysical reality the true realm of the miraculous To anticipate what follows Dostoevsky goes further than Tolstoy in depicting the other world as he sometimes calls it whose objective existence cannot be proven

In The Brothers Karamazov Dostoevsky employs the ideas briefly sketched earlier to solve the problem of the possibility of religiOUS belief in the modern world All the characters in the novel are OIiginally selfshycentered and unsure of the feelings or thoughts of others which is preshysented as natural All of them see external reality through the subjective lens of their own personalities and each crea tes a version of the world corshyresponding to these visions The clashes that arise among them stem from the incompatibility of these multiple subjective realities Such is the case even for Alyosha who makes the mistake (and cannot but make it) of assumshying that all others share his own consistently good intentions Once he has changed his opinion of Grushenka for instance he feels certain that she will give herself to her former lover rather than knife him The reader lisshytening to Grushenka and observing her expressions cannot be so sure

The solution to the conflicts that alise from this natural self-centeredness lies not in an escape from the self as might have been required in earlier Christianity but in deeper self-understanding In the notebooks to the novel one of Zosimas maxims reads What is life-To define oneself as much as possible I am I exist To be like the Lord who says I am who is but already in the whole plenitude of the whole universels When characshyters reform in the novel they affirm their own existence and for the first time the existence of others in the whole plenitude of the whole universe

This paradigm applies very neatly to Alyosha Karamazov He is introshyduced to the reader as a man who naturally believes in miracles because his subjective point of view mandates this belief He is as much a realist as is the atheist whose exclusive belief in the laws of nature predisposes him to discount any miracle In the realis t faith is not born from miracles but

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miracles from faith (BIlt 26) Alyoshas education results not in a repudiashytion of miracles but in a reassessment of the concept of the miraculous

When Zosimas body begins to stink Alyosha already shaken by Ivan s argument about divine injustice or indifference experiences this situation as a kind of reverse miracle Why he asks himself did the body have to deshycay so rapidly and conspicuously In other words Alyosha as the narrator tells us remains true to his fundamentally religiOUS temperament but proshyvoked by Ivan he rebels against Gods world What restores Alyoshas trust in God is the revelation of Grushenkas innate goodness Like his brothers Alyosha has created the world in his own image With his passionate comshymitment to purity-what the narrator calls in one place his wild frenzied modesty and chastity (dikaia istuplennaia stydlivost i tselomudrennost BIlt 20)-Alyosha has denied his own corporeality and espeCially his sensushyality He projects onto the world a distorted image of humanity divided into saints like Zosima and sinners like Grushenka whom he sees as a prisoner and advocate of the dumb and blind laws of carnal pleasure In revenge for the humiliation of Zosima Alyosha decides to submit himself exclusively to her and those laws When he arrives at Grushenkas however he finds her in a state that cannot be explained with reference to them In the final fourth chapter of book 7 Alyoshas faith in humanity then not only revives but expands

For all its ecstatic tone (which is meant to convey Alyoshas mood) the description of Alyoshas reconCiliation with faith is very preCise and psyshychologically detailed First he has a sensation of inner commotion and orshyderliness at the same time

His soul was overflowing but somehow vaguely and no Single sensation stood out making itself felt too much on the contrary one followed another in a sort of slow and calm rotation But there was sweetness in his heart and strangely Alyosha was not surplised at that (BIlt 359)

Alyosha is having the experience dubbed sweet and rare in Dostoevskys world of feeling himself altogether in one place The sensations (oshchushyshcheniia) do not move in and out as they would in a moment of active involvement with the world but circle slowly not forming into actual pershyceptions These sensations are wholly internal yet they are reactions to exshyternal events their internal assimilation After them (and perhaps arising out of them) come thoughts

Fragments of thoughts [myslil flashed in his soul catching fire like little stars and dying out at once to give way to others yet there reigned in his soul something whole firm assuaging and he was conscious of himself (BI( 359)

Sensation by its nature is not self-conscious but thought is and so at this moment the same I that feels sweet both emits thoughts and at the same

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time is conscious of itself as something whole As he recovers from the disorientating experiences of the previous day dming which he has doubted his connection to immortality the one and unchanging part of Alyoshas soul (to use Strakhovs terminology) makes itself felt

There follows Alyoshas half-waking dream in which thought weaves sensation into fantasy and commentary on the text of the marriage at Cana that is being read over Zosimas body in the background Awakening from the dream Alyosha runs outdoors to fall down on the earth (as he had done when his crisis began) but this time in ecstatic joy Nature presents itself to him in the form of a great cathedral with the sky its dome (nebesnyi lwpol)

Over him the heavenly dome full of quiet shining stars hung boundlessly From the zenith to the horizon the still-dim Milky Way stretched its double strand Night fresh and quiet almost unstirring enveloped the earth The white towers and golden domes of the church gleamed in the sapphire sky The luxuriant autumn Rowers in the Rowerbeds near the house had fallen asleep until morning The silence of the earth seemed to merge with the sishylence of the heavens the mystery of the earth touched the mystery of the stars Alyosha stood gazing ancl suddenly as if he had been cut dovvn threw himself to the earth (BK 362)

In the last sentence Alyosha is said to be cut down by the appearance of nature as a sacred cathedral But the appearance is itself a product of his newly formed consciousness and in this sense it is as much a fantasy as the dream sequence that precedes it It differs from the dream only because it presents itself to Alyosha as external reality Alyoshas own thoughts which were said to have flashed like stars through his soul and therefore anticipate the starry sky that he sees are responsible for this new interpretation His mind actively if unself-consciously interprets and thereby shapes sensations stimulated in him by external reality it turns them into perceptions which in this case are more like symbols Alyosha responds to the symbolism as if it came from outside

Alyoshas embrace of the earth is a physical expression of his embrace of the whole plentitude of the whole universe of which Dostoevsky had spoken in the notebooks to the novel Once he has opened himself in this way he experiences the sensation of being at a center point where all worlds meet and vibrating in tune with all of them He is in a frenzy of forshygiving and forgiveness in a state where boundaries between himself and the world seem to be dissolved At the same time as he flows outward howshyever a reverse motion is occurring

But vith each moment he felt clearly and almost tangibly something as firm and immovable as this heavenly vault [nebesbyi svocll descend into his soul Some sort of idea as it were was coming to reign in his mind-now for the whole of his life and unto ages of ages He fell to the earth a weak youth and

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rose lip a fighte r stedflSt for I ll( res t o f his life m] he knew it and fdt it sudde nly (It til (lt very mome nt of his (CSt a~ NeCr ncf r in his li fe would AI)osha forget this moment ~SOllllOllC isIl(1 HI) MIIII in that hour- ht wou ld $Y afte rwards with fi rm telief ill his words (Jj K 362-63)

As Alyosha moves ou t o f the e ro tic fre nzy of which (like David danci ng nake d before the ark) Mhe was nut asilltrllld ~on l lllt i llg frlllll o ll tsid e and ahove-it is Iike~ the heaven ly aTch and thprcfore is not it-sN ms to him to possess hi~ soul ami o rganize it (I((Ording to what he calls nn - idea- that In m s him frolll a wctk hoy into a warrior As should be clear by now Alyoshas later version of what happflII d to hlm-SOIlltOIlC i si t(d 1Ilt~shydocs not jibe in any si mple way with the nnrrntors account of the (cnl as it unfolds A (omplc( inte raction IJetw(c n AI)osh11 and -T(tlity- takes place in which Dostoevsky intentionally I(lw$ uuctftlli ll what c( unes from imide and what from outside Th e heilVcnly vault Hs( lf is o ne case in point it is a nWl apho r huil 0 11 the unavoidahle but scil lItifically fa[sc human pe rcepshytion of Ihc sl-y IS round and i nittgt [n th is St lIS it C( lnlCS lol from reality b ill from Alyosha who the n fee ls somet h ing [i kc it cnter him in the fonn of moml pri ncipks

The helcnly vault mnkes IIIl lIp pt arlItlCl in hook S or AIIIUI Kllrelli lw and also in iJasic CmlUIJI of gtsyclwlugy Strakhov cites it- using th( term 1It)yi ~VO(I-as an (~~al1lplc of the Tluut) of universal perctgtplions whether o r nul Ihc) cOrrespond 10 (xtenml ralily (0011 38) 1(111 uses it to Issert the validi ty of his ~slJhje(tiH~- be lief in II humanly llleaningfulllnierse

Liug Illl hi back hc IS now gazing 111 till high d oudlcss sky DolIt I know that tllUl is infinite spu middot amI nnt a rollnd~1 twit [knl1lyi slJO(l] But howshyever I Inll ~fW III eycs and stram my sight I call1lot 1(lp ltt-eing il as rml TOuml lIud not limitcd alill dasp it t III) kllO k-ilge of limitless spalaquoe I am illmiddot dubitably ri~ht when 1 S(-f a nml rou nd ault JVlrrlyi jolilboi ~nKI] and mOTt ri~h t tll1I1 wllcn I stmin tn ~t( beyoml it ~ (AK 724 )

Dostocvsl-ys lise of thc heacn l) ali it may be a hidden referencoe to one o r ho th of the previo us ones Be this as it may thc metaphor figures in atlth ree texts as part of a defense of the IlIlImm from the degrading rcd ultionism of sciell le The two poets carry this argllmen t milch furthe r than the scientistshyphilosophe r bul Stmkllu lays the groundwork for their more ambitious 5ions whe n he tn ()lifi(s e mpirical psychology to 1II0ve the nucleus of lhe ps)chc the sclf into the realm of rl1(taphysical knowledge that is inltC(tsshysible to IUlman reason For both Dostoevsky and Tolstoy the individual psyshyche bpoundlonws 11 gatcway tu a tnlllscellde ntal reali ty othe rwisc inat(cssihlc

Despite thes( corHl(tions howcver ali(I CVClI ifho DostOtsk) and Strakhov are quo ting To lstoy the two I)()fts haC di ffe ring hleL of what we Call actually know alx lII thc transcendc ntal reali ty in which h()th leed to heliew Til is eviderll fro m II c()rnpa rison of the respective (piphaHies of

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Alyosha and Levin Levin d ist overs a tnlth that he feels be luLS always l1own Fyodors words p roclm-ecl in his so ul the cfktt of an e lectric spark sudshydpoundnly t ransfurm ing and we lding in tu une a whol( g roup of d isjointed il nposhytent separate ideas wtich fwd mllf ccmud to occufY him These ideas lIubckll (JWflst to himself wac occupyiug him wile n he WILS talking ahout letshyling the land (e mphasis added) Su ilHc mal but separate idca_~ that toshygethe r make III a larger lnalll we re waiting only for all exle rnal catalyst to make the mselves known Whe n they do ~Oll1e together Le vin decmiddotlares that he IloW ~ kl1ow~ what not only he but all of llllillankind have always know n MAlld [did not finu this klluwledgt in any way bu t it was given tO IIIU gilr u l-ecausc I lOUl t lWt han takcm it from a l1)whe re16 lcin says flll1hershymore that he hngt lwen liJlg right while he lhinks wTOng Thl of cours( is what saves him from tile fat e o f Anna who becausc she lives wrollg does no t have aeltcss to the knowlelge thl t is hidde n ill he r too

Unlike u vin Alyosha feels thnt his 1l(W kllowlcdge comes from UIlIshy

lgt idc Ill is is whal be means when he says ~ Someonc i sitcu me lie has a sense that a fonll ntivl moml idea e nte rs him and turus him frOlll a middotmiddotwetk )oulh to a warrior As I have shown prcviously this sense is mistake n 10 the ed l llt that Alyosbas rortitudc rests IIpoll newly constituted inne r foundashytions Despite this hid howc c r AI)1Jshas PCJIc ption that his HCW resolushylioll comes fmm o utside him is n lluable dill both to his slate of mind alld allgto tn the relation of real alld ideal acconling to Dustocvsky As with Len another persoll s ltortlS-in Alyoshas llISC the words and deeds of c rushf lIka---cr(atl Ihe initi al oonrnlions fur his epiphany As with Lcin Ihcs( wurd~ bOlh IInseltle his feelings Iud thou)hl s and preci pi tat e signill shyt1Il1 knowledf(c Before this knflII(I~e can coalesce howeve r Alr nsha has anothe r cperic nct a dream l i e falls asleep LS tile b ihlical passtlge alxlIIl the 1lllrrillge at Calla is being ruad ove r Ihe (Offin ofZosilllltt He (Ommenls on this passage in his skCp Iud Ihe n Zosima appears hefore hinl and sumshymons h im to the marriage fPast At this point Alyoshas dream slille dcfp shyens and the physical laws o f lIatufe are ~lIs pell(l((1 To mark this shifl from ohj(Actif to subjeltti() fe-al ity LJostOlvsky me ntions thai (ill Aly shas pershycep tion) the mom lUoves (k()wlfl mdlligmsII ) Hnd Ihc n to enlphL~ize it he rqktI S the info rmatioll in the sunf parag raph (oP(J mflvIlIl(JS kOIlIlW ) When tht ph)sicallaws that hold a room in place no longer ohshylain the dL( rce uf 1I(alh isil ed on eYc ry individual who lils lived or lives is also lifted Zosill1a does not ri se rrom his w flin whidl has d isappeared Iyosha simply reltOgnizes hi III as nile of the gllcsts al the table It is usiliia whll ealls Alyosha ~ th words that suggest liis resurrection Why hle )011 buricd yourself 11 (1( where we can t seL you corne and join us r Zaclle1t1 siuda skhuronilsia cillo lie vidal Ic bia po idelll i ty k lI am ~

UK 361) The c ITfC t is Ihal AI)llsha wakes from lht clead 10 Ihf living life of hi s urr-3m

Did Doslocvs l) or Tol~IO Bclitlt( ill ~lim(ICli

The statns of dreallls in Ih( nowl and the appeamme in the m of Imllshysccmlenlal ideal realily lJ(ltOmes clearer if we oompme Alyillhas dream wilh lh e appeamncc of the devil to Iyan laler in the novel As is approprishy(lIe for an advocate of philosophical lIHtt e rialisrn lilt devi l illsists tlmt he is part of the phy~ical world Ivan howeer WlIlls tlfmiddotspe rat e l) In 1 ~~Heve

thai the devi l is a fi gme nt of his irnagination li e is in fact drea med lip by [van and vanishes wllcn Alyosha knocks on his willdow hut- Illost si~ni fl shyeanlly-that docs not 1l1fan thai the devil is not rfn l Usin~ analytic rCL~OIl h lUl has assu lIlrtl the staluc of an outside observer is-u-vis not only exlershynal hil i also his own intenml rt ality He ell t~ himse lf ofT from transccll dcnshytal reality through his mtionnlislIl and his egotism Whe n his irnaginitiull mujures til) the devil he wanlgt 10 k~p lhis stirrin~ of spirilIIallife salely fi ctional evell though his dcvil is much closer to him personally than say the Cmnd Infllisitor in his safely d istanced story o r medie val limcraquo Alyosua by con trast Inkes his drculI littrally as a timeless visitation to him by Zmillla lind ttn Christ This is what he means when he says thai - someshyone visi ted him

Just how real is this o ther deathless world Dostoesky seems 10 sugshygest that it call actually apclIr 10 liS in ou r drciulis a lld fa ut ilsies7 AI)05has dream seems 10 transpose hi m 10 another world nol nppar~nt in oll r wakshying life UcelUse II priori rules of time and splce b lock ollr u(tss to it In dreams thesl rules a re suspe nded and Alym has fi nal epiphany takes place at the crossroads of wn1 1mbcrless- worlds Illat momentarily il1lcrscd wit hil l him 1111 confidence that DoslneSJ) In in Ih~ rea li t)~ of Al)oshas vision is expressed in his lISC of the Hussian word kflJJuJ--dollle--for the sl) as it appelrs to 1 I)osha when he sleps o ul inlo nature WI( 3(2) t few lines latN wsornc thillg (IS firm and immovable a$ this heavenl) ault IlIcbeslyi middotIltHl t is said 10 desc(nd into AI)oshas SOIl I A klllo in Bussiall is not the inside of Ihe do me of a enthedmllmt it outsitic DostoclI J) i t~hokC of worcls suggests that lit thi s epiphanic Illoment AI)nsha 1I1ollltntarily see the other tnms(c llde l1lal world whole and from the ()ulside

BltCk in 111111 VlfClillll I--vin has no dream and his e pipbU1Y runs a dilTc re nt ((lIIrse from Alyoshamiddots F)1xlors w(Jrd~ i~nitc a ehai n of intcrvJOwn Ihoughllgt IIml re miniscen(es but during this PlOCf SS Levin remains enti re ly wi thin himself His insp ired idea orgallitcs a whol e swarm ufvarious imshypolent separate thoughts that had always pr(()(Cllpicd him It oomes not frOlll the Bible but fro m trldilional peasant wi~dom which Levin lIlainshytains is Oolh unive rsal and Hahira Wllcreas Al~osha fllllL his ideals in a book-nncl later writes a book himsllr- Lcvin finds the Ifllth only whe n Fedor s words release ~ undear bu t Significant though ts that before had 1kl1 - locked up in h is soul hut now all streaming loward a single goal began 10 whirl in his head blind ing hi m wit h Ihei r lighl ~ (AI( 719)_ Whe u he hilS fini shed spinning out the consequences of his re turn to truth he

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stops thinking and listens to mysterious voiees jo)fully aud eamestl) disshycussing sOlllcllling amo ng I hemsektmiddots~ (AK 724 )

Eistwberp in the novel Levin too makes lontact with anothe r world Tll is happe ns not wh he is eont e mplating Iml during fundallUlItal life exshyperie nces (ollrtsil ip alld marriage the death of his brother and the birt h of hi s SOil Birth md dcatll arc - mimcts- that e levate the ordinary life aboV( mechanical proecss ami infu sc it with the sacred In the w()rd~ of tile I)()t Fet lo lII lenUn~ un the l(lIlncction bc lwtt1l Nikolais dpath and ~ I itya s hirth hirth and death arc - Iwo holfs [from the 1l1ltcrialJ into the ~piri t lal world into NirvUla Tlwy are middot two visible and ete rnally l11yste ri shyOIL~ ~ nduws t~ 111 Mil k(lk woJ (The World (IS OIW Wllole ) puhlished in 1872 Stmkhov ar~u~ thaI b irth and death the main events of organic (as oppos(ltu mechanical) life lannol be understood Sltienlificul1y

I l er( in hinh and death J evcT)1hiug is ituo lllprehfllsiblc cWI1 hilig is mysshyt c riou~ a nti MienC( d()(i not S(f (tll a path u) wltieh it might nrrivc at II resshyolution to the IUlSlit llls Ilmt prt~e nt I hemselws 111Cstigations ~how that thSl mi raclegt art lakin~ pltlCC now Ic rc he fore our H ry eyes From this point of view it is wry JUSI III say Diine creation d~s nol cease even ffir n In il ll1tc that thtmiddot J rent ~tCfc t of tllc crealil)n of till world is taking place bcshyfort us up t ( l tll is ve ry fltOlllcnt m

Tlwc aft the (enlT3lmyste rics that cevate ordinary life above tlw mere ly mechanical and of lOlirsc give I sacred dime nsion to the faHlil) Although Toisto nowhe re 1dnltJwl(ltges this the - family idea in Amw iVl rellill(l

mav derive its th(ore tieal validity from TIU World n~ Dlle Wholc whidl hl f~ 1l111Cll admircdO lt llis is s~ tllcn Stflkhov is o ne irnpo rtmlt SOU rLC o f the pantheism that is till presellt in IIIW IVm IllrI albe it in a difTe fCnt and much tl imi ll is hed fnnn than ill Var (fI1l1 Pf(f(Y

Tht - fa mily idea (l ike tIle - idea o f tit p(Ople h in War lIIullfflce ) has nothing to do with Ihe mi nd at all In the passage from The World (IS Dill Wlwle Strakhov plalcs limits on what human rC1$I)U can diSlte rB and this idea wOllld have been vcI) lltt mc tive to Tolstoy lle rever Stmkhov stepl)(1 Oe)ontl those limits Tulstoy wOl1 ld take h im to tas k for doing so In IUlSic

C()IICepl~ of PSljchol(Jy ill a chapte r entitled l he Real Life o f the SOl1 l ~

(H lleal T1 1a zhzn middot dllshn Strakhov trieli to prove the objetti c status of psychic life whetllCr awake or aslc(middotp by d((ltieing a priori ohjeetic cateshygori es u f tmlh (isliuul goodness (bllgo J alld frfeltlolil (ltwouodnnio dd(lshyIcrlllJ~t) tllll IInderlie tho ught feeling alld will resp(CIieiy

Our ulolights hawmiddot to comprise real knowletlgc 11m fecling~ hae 10 relat l to our fcal ~ooJ they twt to he part of OUf rcalluppincss our desires have 10

IJe possible to rcali71 ucstimtl fo r rellizatilll1 (lnd [destined to ] he trl1Islated into ftal actiuns Umlcr tlifs( m ndilions tlur inner world takes on the s i ~n ifmiddot ical1(1middot I f full reali t ami luses its illu sory charaelN life tllrns frolll a dr( ilHI intu nal lift (001 73)

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ils whose real existence it therefore proved The implication is that the whole debate about devils and angels if sCientifically illegitimate is psychoshylogically and ethically understandable and sound Dostoevsky subsequently visited a seance in February and reported on it in the Diary for March and April (Ps 2298-101 126-32) This seance with its concealed springs and wires as he explained in April deprived him of any wish he might have had to believe in spiritualism and therefore any possibility that he might ever actually believe in it Although spiritualism itself is not a topic in The Brothshyers Karamazov as it is in Anna Karenina the issues with which Dostoevsky associates it in his three issues of the Diary are Both the erstwhile exisshytence of devils and the relation betvveen a wish to believe and the possibilshyity of religious belief become important themes in the novel The malicious and prideful monk Ferapont sees devils because he wants to and Alyosha believes both in God and in miracles because he is temperamentally inshyclined to do so

Given Dostoevskys forceful denunciation of spiritualism in the April Diary it is striking that it includes an important caveat He tells his readers that even now despite his resolute rejection of spiritualism he does not deny the possibility of spiritualist phenomena [spiritskie iavleniial in other words he does not think that these phenomena of which he has had some personal experience can simply be disproved by the learned comshymissions currently investigating seances (Ps 22127) Spiritualism intershyested Tolstoy and Dostoevsky as psychologists and moralists because it expressed at one and the same time the spiritual poverty of contemporary life and a suppressed longing for spirituality Both Anna Karenina and The Brothers Karamazov locate the cause of spiritual impoverishment in modshyern scientific thought and both novels contain experiences that cannot be explained scientifically In this essay I will explore the status of the miracshyulous in the two novels with an eye finally to defining what kind of spirishytual phenomena if any the two writers might have regarded as real

In both Anna Kamiddotrenina and The Brothers Karamazov characters question their belief in God and religion Konstantin Levin weathers a relishygious crisis to ground his belief firmly in his own life and consciousness The Brothers Karamazov begun in 1878 just after these final episodes of Tolshystoys novel were published seems to stand in relation to them as an inferno to a brush fire that the town brigade beats back before it burns out of conshytrol Not only the four Karamazov brothers but also many other characters in the novel wrestle with the temptation of atheism and its consequmiddotences No matter how much Dostoevsky in his typical fashion has chosen to esshycalate the drama however and no matter how Tolstoy as is his wont plays it down the situations are similar at their core

Of the vatious crises of faith that occur in The Brothers Karamiddotmazov the one that most resembles Levins is that of Alyosha Karamazov Both are

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reactions to the death of someone close-in Levins case his brother Nikoshylai and in Alyoshas Father Zosima Before these deaths both men are said to have believed in miracles that would somehow save themselves and othshyers from annihilation (AK 720 BK 26) When his brother dies Levin abanshydons his innate optimism and interprets the death-and by extension the fate awaiting all men-as an evil mockery by some sort of devil (AK 721) Ideas acquired from an education dominated by scientific conceptsshyorganisms their destruction the indestructibility of matter the law of the conservation of energy development-are cold comfort to Levin (AK 711) No matter how hard he tries to escape the conclusions of scientific reasoning he eventually has to concede that if one relies on thought alone the human individual seems to be nothing but a bubble that persists for a while and then bursts This untruth is understood by him as the cruel mockelY by some evil power a wicked and disgusting power to which it was impossible to submit (AK 714)

In his February 1877 Diary of a Writer Dostoevsky calls Levin pure of heart [chistyi sertseml (Ps 2556) Alyosha Karamazov is a Dostoevskian version of this new Russian type Alyosha had attached himself to Father Zosima in order to escape the world He longs for a spiritual purity that the world lacks and Father Zosima exemplifies The rapid putrefaction of Zosimas corpse seems to Alyosha to be a direct slap in the face by Someshyone bent on humiliating the best of men For Alyosha as for Levin this inshysult takes the form of the subordination of everything human to mere physical laws

Where was Providence and its finger Why did it hide its finger at the most necessary moment (Alyosha thought) as if wanting to submit itself to the blind mute merciless laws of nature (BK 340)

Nineteenth-century science of course conceived of nature as merely indifshyferent Levin and Alyosha experience it as hostile because it makes no proshyvision for and indeed denies the value of the human individual Belief in science and especially in phYSiolOgical materialism which became wideshyspread in Russia for the first time in the 1860s gave rise to the modern psyshychological dilemma described first by Turgenev in Fathers and Children then by Dostoevsky in Notes from Underground of the human personality trapped inside a machine 8 Turgenevs Bazarov advocates a scientific undershystanding of nature but he mistakenly thinks that he will be exempt from the rules as he formulates them for others His creator is content simply to make this point and to record Bazarovs response when he is hoisted on his own petard In Notes From Underground Dostoevsky goes a step beyond Turgeshynev to explore the effects on personality of an internalized belief in physioshylOgical materialism The underground man makes fun of those whose actions are not consistent with their science and at the same time he struggles irra-

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honally to assert his own freedom A decade later similar beliefs in a purely mechanistic univers3 prompt Konstantin Levins desire to kill himself

In the 1870s both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky worked out responses to the threat posed by modern scientific views If these responses seem simishylar that may be because each man was separately discussing his ideas with their mutual friend Strakhov The many letters preserved from an intense correspondence between Tolstoy and Strakhov give us some idea of their conversations which mostly took place at Iasnaia Poliana Dostoevs)-y and Strakhov were together in Petersburg for most of the 1870s and met freshyquently They were no longer soul mates as they had been in the early 1860s but they were still close intellectual fliends In a letter to Tolstoy written in May 1881 Strakhov wrote that he keenly missed the recently deshyceased Dostoevsky who as his most ardent reader had read and subtly understood his every article9 One of these articles a long monograph pubshylished in several installments in 1878 in the Zhumal ministerstva naroshydnogo prosveshcheniia (journal of the Ministry of Public Education) is called Db osnovnylch poniatiiakh pSikhologii (Basic Concepts of Psycholshyogy) It is both a history of modern psychology from Descartes onward and a treatise on the nature of the soul and its relation to external reality It is also a continuation of Strakhovs polemics against the spiritualists in which Strakhov sets out to delineate the physical and spiritual spheres with their respective and mutually exclusive laws lO

There can be no doubt that Strakhov was discussing these subjects with Tolstoy and Dostoevsky as he planned and wrote his monograph If proof were needed Tolstoy at least supplies it when he writes Strakhov that he had learned a great deal from reading the book but not as much as he would have had he read it two years ago [Nlow what you demonstrate is so indubitable and simple for me (as it is so for 99999 percent of humanshyity) that not carried away by proof of what rings so true to me I see as well inadequacies in the methods of the proofsll During the two years in which Tolstoy was absorbing the psychological truths that he finds so ably stated in Strakhovs monograph he was writing Anna Karenina The monoshygraph came out just as Dostoevsky was beginning The Brothers Karamazov Both novels depend upon an account of psychology similar to that given in it and both authors use that psychology in their defense of the possibilshyity of religion in a scientific age L2 To ground that psychology in transcenshydent reality both rely on methods of proof that are very different from Strakhovs

Strakhov proposes a psychology that validates the individual in terms that are not simply hostile to science He borrows from empirical psycholshyogy which he credits but which he also corrects in one critical respect Acshycording to him Descartes when he emptied the external world of spiritual content laid the basis for a modern psychology that relocates all meaning

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in the individual soul Only my soul understood as just the self itself (prosto samogo sebia) indubitably exists for me Everything else including my body is part of the external world whose existence can be doubted (Oop 20-25) The self becomes Descartess Arcbimedean pOint from which he can investigate everything else To know something means to separate it from the self and hence to objectify it Each object of analysis requires a subject which as the knower cannot itself be known The subject then by its vely nature is not susceptible to being known as an object By the self Strakhov claims that Descartes meant that part of tbe soul that generates not only thoughts but all emanations of psychic life (Oop 10) All thoughts feelings and acts of will can be objectified and studied but their cause within the soul cannot The cause itself has no content no number it is alshyways one and always unchanging (vsegda edinoe i vsegda neizmennoe Oop 58) We can know it only negatively by stating what it is not

This insistence on the unknowability of the self is Strakhovs main departure from contemporary empirical psychology and both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky develop its implications Strakhov defends human autonomy and dignity from attacks by science by distinguishing between what is and is not susceptible to scientific analysis according to him materialists and scientists alike make the mistake of applying tools appropriate to the invesshytigation of the objective world to the subjective one (Oop 30 60) As he prepared in his notes to the novel to defend Alyoshas faith and speCifically his belief in miracles Dostoevsky put it this way And as for so-called scishyentific proofs he [Alyoshal did not believe in them and was right in not beshylieving in them even though he had not finished his studies it was not possible to disprove matters that by their essence were not of this world by knowledge that was of this worldn

Vhat we speak of as scientific knowledge moreover has its own limishytations Materialists and positivists believe that we can know only objective or empirical reality On the contrary argues Strakhov the only thing an inshydividual experiences directly is himself his own existence and psychic pheshynomena that are reactions to an external world to which he has no direct access Even the ways in which we organize reality are in fact the results of a priori categories of time and space inhering in our own minds rather than in external reality If that is so and if in the other direction the self is unknowable then Strakhov paints a bleak picture indeed of what human beings can hope to understand But neither StraldlOv nor Tolstoy or Dostoshyevsky actually accepted these limitations on knowledge as absolute While Strakhov agreed with Schopenhauer that the world is my representation he did not mean by it that the world did not exist Perceptions do reflect some kind of physical reality and most important feelings thoughts and will must be grounded in transcendental prinCiples that make them more than merely subjective

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What Strakhov has done in his monograph is to put a Kantian spin on early modern philosophy Descartes was most concerned to establish the self as the point from which an objective scientific investigation of the world could proceed To do so he was willing to sacrifice the very possibility of self-knowledge by positing the self as the pure subject (chistyi subekt) of all objects Inaccessible to dissection by human reason after Kant the self becomes a potential safe haven for spiritual truths not verifiable by empirshyical science This inner spiritual reality is often said to be known to the heart rather than the mind as such it is more the purview of poets than philososhyphers and it was his belief in the greater profundity of the knowledge of the heart that made Strakhov feel inferior to his poet friends H Both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky benefited from Strakhovs dualism Self-knowledge undershystood as knowledge of that supposedly unknowable subject which is the self is reconstituted in their works as inner knowledge of metaphysical reality the true realm of the miraculous To anticipate what follows Dostoevsky goes further than Tolstoy in depicting the other world as he sometimes calls it whose objective existence cannot be proven

In The Brothers Karamazov Dostoevsky employs the ideas briefly sketched earlier to solve the problem of the possibility of religiOUS belief in the modern world All the characters in the novel are OIiginally selfshycentered and unsure of the feelings or thoughts of others which is preshysented as natural All of them see external reality through the subjective lens of their own personalities and each crea tes a version of the world corshyresponding to these visions The clashes that arise among them stem from the incompatibility of these multiple subjective realities Such is the case even for Alyosha who makes the mistake (and cannot but make it) of assumshying that all others share his own consistently good intentions Once he has changed his opinion of Grushenka for instance he feels certain that she will give herself to her former lover rather than knife him The reader lisshytening to Grushenka and observing her expressions cannot be so sure

The solution to the conflicts that alise from this natural self-centeredness lies not in an escape from the self as might have been required in earlier Christianity but in deeper self-understanding In the notebooks to the novel one of Zosimas maxims reads What is life-To define oneself as much as possible I am I exist To be like the Lord who says I am who is but already in the whole plenitude of the whole universels When characshyters reform in the novel they affirm their own existence and for the first time the existence of others in the whole plenitude of the whole universe

This paradigm applies very neatly to Alyosha Karamazov He is introshyduced to the reader as a man who naturally believes in miracles because his subjective point of view mandates this belief He is as much a realist as is the atheist whose exclusive belief in the laws of nature predisposes him to discount any miracle In the realis t faith is not born from miracles but

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miracles from faith (BIlt 26) Alyoshas education results not in a repudiashytion of miracles but in a reassessment of the concept of the miraculous

When Zosimas body begins to stink Alyosha already shaken by Ivan s argument about divine injustice or indifference experiences this situation as a kind of reverse miracle Why he asks himself did the body have to deshycay so rapidly and conspicuously In other words Alyosha as the narrator tells us remains true to his fundamentally religiOUS temperament but proshyvoked by Ivan he rebels against Gods world What restores Alyoshas trust in God is the revelation of Grushenkas innate goodness Like his brothers Alyosha has created the world in his own image With his passionate comshymitment to purity-what the narrator calls in one place his wild frenzied modesty and chastity (dikaia istuplennaia stydlivost i tselomudrennost BIlt 20)-Alyosha has denied his own corporeality and espeCially his sensushyality He projects onto the world a distorted image of humanity divided into saints like Zosima and sinners like Grushenka whom he sees as a prisoner and advocate of the dumb and blind laws of carnal pleasure In revenge for the humiliation of Zosima Alyosha decides to submit himself exclusively to her and those laws When he arrives at Grushenkas however he finds her in a state that cannot be explained with reference to them In the final fourth chapter of book 7 Alyoshas faith in humanity then not only revives but expands

For all its ecstatic tone (which is meant to convey Alyoshas mood) the description of Alyoshas reconCiliation with faith is very preCise and psyshychologically detailed First he has a sensation of inner commotion and orshyderliness at the same time

His soul was overflowing but somehow vaguely and no Single sensation stood out making itself felt too much on the contrary one followed another in a sort of slow and calm rotation But there was sweetness in his heart and strangely Alyosha was not surplised at that (BIlt 359)

Alyosha is having the experience dubbed sweet and rare in Dostoevskys world of feeling himself altogether in one place The sensations (oshchushyshcheniia) do not move in and out as they would in a moment of active involvement with the world but circle slowly not forming into actual pershyceptions These sensations are wholly internal yet they are reactions to exshyternal events their internal assimilation After them (and perhaps arising out of them) come thoughts

Fragments of thoughts [myslil flashed in his soul catching fire like little stars and dying out at once to give way to others yet there reigned in his soul something whole firm assuaging and he was conscious of himself (BI( 359)

Sensation by its nature is not self-conscious but thought is and so at this moment the same I that feels sweet both emits thoughts and at the same

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time is conscious of itself as something whole As he recovers from the disorientating experiences of the previous day dming which he has doubted his connection to immortality the one and unchanging part of Alyoshas soul (to use Strakhovs terminology) makes itself felt

There follows Alyoshas half-waking dream in which thought weaves sensation into fantasy and commentary on the text of the marriage at Cana that is being read over Zosimas body in the background Awakening from the dream Alyosha runs outdoors to fall down on the earth (as he had done when his crisis began) but this time in ecstatic joy Nature presents itself to him in the form of a great cathedral with the sky its dome (nebesnyi lwpol)

Over him the heavenly dome full of quiet shining stars hung boundlessly From the zenith to the horizon the still-dim Milky Way stretched its double strand Night fresh and quiet almost unstirring enveloped the earth The white towers and golden domes of the church gleamed in the sapphire sky The luxuriant autumn Rowers in the Rowerbeds near the house had fallen asleep until morning The silence of the earth seemed to merge with the sishylence of the heavens the mystery of the earth touched the mystery of the stars Alyosha stood gazing ancl suddenly as if he had been cut dovvn threw himself to the earth (BK 362)

In the last sentence Alyosha is said to be cut down by the appearance of nature as a sacred cathedral But the appearance is itself a product of his newly formed consciousness and in this sense it is as much a fantasy as the dream sequence that precedes it It differs from the dream only because it presents itself to Alyosha as external reality Alyoshas own thoughts which were said to have flashed like stars through his soul and therefore anticipate the starry sky that he sees are responsible for this new interpretation His mind actively if unself-consciously interprets and thereby shapes sensations stimulated in him by external reality it turns them into perceptions which in this case are more like symbols Alyosha responds to the symbolism as if it came from outside

Alyoshas embrace of the earth is a physical expression of his embrace of the whole plentitude of the whole universe of which Dostoevsky had spoken in the notebooks to the novel Once he has opened himself in this way he experiences the sensation of being at a center point where all worlds meet and vibrating in tune with all of them He is in a frenzy of forshygiving and forgiveness in a state where boundaries between himself and the world seem to be dissolved At the same time as he flows outward howshyever a reverse motion is occurring

But vith each moment he felt clearly and almost tangibly something as firm and immovable as this heavenly vault [nebesbyi svocll descend into his soul Some sort of idea as it were was coming to reign in his mind-now for the whole of his life and unto ages of ages He fell to the earth a weak youth and

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Did IJostO(lky (lr T(ll~toy Believe ill Mirld(s

rose lip a fighte r stedflSt for I ll( res t o f his life m] he knew it and fdt it sudde nly (It til (lt very mome nt of his (CSt a~ NeCr ncf r in his li fe would AI)osha forget this moment ~SOllllOllC isIl(1 HI) MIIII in that hour- ht wou ld $Y afte rwards with fi rm telief ill his words (Jj K 362-63)

As Alyosha moves ou t o f the e ro tic fre nzy of which (like David danci ng nake d before the ark) Mhe was nut asilltrllld ~on l lllt i llg frlllll o ll tsid e and ahove-it is Iike~ the heaven ly aTch and thprcfore is not it-sN ms to him to possess hi~ soul ami o rganize it (I((Ording to what he calls nn - idea- that In m s him frolll a wctk hoy into a warrior As should be clear by now Alyoshas later version of what happflII d to hlm-SOIlltOIlC i si t(d 1Ilt~shydocs not jibe in any si mple way with the nnrrntors account of the (cnl as it unfolds A (omplc( inte raction IJetw(c n AI)osh11 and -T(tlity- takes place in which Dostoevsky intentionally I(lw$ uuctftlli ll what c( unes from imide and what from outside Th e heilVcnly vault Hs( lf is o ne case in point it is a nWl apho r huil 0 11 the unavoidahle but scil lItifically fa[sc human pe rcepshytion of Ihc sl-y IS round and i nittgt [n th is St lIS it C( lnlCS lol from reality b ill from Alyosha who the n fee ls somet h ing [i kc it cnter him in the fonn of moml pri ncipks

The helcnly vault mnkes IIIl lIp pt arlItlCl in hook S or AIIIUI Kllrelli lw and also in iJasic CmlUIJI of gtsyclwlugy Strakhov cites it- using th( term 1It)yi ~VO(I-as an (~~al1lplc of the Tluut) of universal perctgtplions whether o r nul Ihc) cOrrespond 10 (xtenml ralily (0011 38) 1(111 uses it to Issert the validi ty of his ~slJhje(tiH~- be lief in II humanly llleaningfulllnierse

Liug Illl hi back hc IS now gazing 111 till high d oudlcss sky DolIt I know that tllUl is infinite spu middot amI nnt a rollnd~1 twit [knl1lyi slJO(l] But howshyever I Inll ~fW III eycs and stram my sight I call1lot 1(lp ltt-eing il as rml TOuml lIud not limitcd alill dasp it t III) kllO k-ilge of limitless spalaquoe I am illmiddot dubitably ri~ht when 1 S(-f a nml rou nd ault JVlrrlyi jolilboi ~nKI] and mOTt ri~h t tll1I1 wllcn I stmin tn ~t( beyoml it ~ (AK 724 )

Dostocvsl-ys lise of thc heacn l) ali it may be a hidden referencoe to one o r ho th of the previo us ones Be this as it may thc metaphor figures in atlth ree texts as part of a defense of the IlIlImm from the degrading rcd ultionism of sciell le The two poets carry this argllmen t milch furthe r than the scientistshyphilosophe r bul Stmkllu lays the groundwork for their more ambitious 5ions whe n he tn ()lifi(s e mpirical psychology to 1II0ve the nucleus of lhe ps)chc the sclf into the realm of rl1(taphysical knowledge that is inltC(tsshysible to IUlman reason For both Dostoevsky and Tolstoy the individual psyshyche bpoundlonws 11 gatcway tu a tnlllscellde ntal reali ty othe rwisc inat(cssihlc

Despite thes( corHl(tions howcver ali(I CVClI ifho DostOtsk) and Strakhov are quo ting To lstoy the two I)()fts haC di ffe ring hleL of what we Call actually know alx lII thc transcendc ntal reali ty in which h()th leed to heliew Til is eviderll fro m II c()rnpa rison of the respective (piphaHies of

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Alyosha and Levin Levin d ist overs a tnlth that he feels be luLS always l1own Fyodors words p roclm-ecl in his so ul the cfktt of an e lectric spark sudshydpoundnly t ransfurm ing and we lding in tu une a whol( g roup of d isjointed il nposhytent separate ideas wtich fwd mllf ccmud to occufY him These ideas lIubckll (JWflst to himself wac occupyiug him wile n he WILS talking ahout letshyling the land (e mphasis added) Su ilHc mal but separate idca_~ that toshygethe r make III a larger lnalll we re waiting only for all exle rnal catalyst to make the mselves known Whe n they do ~Oll1e together Le vin decmiddotlares that he IloW ~ kl1ow~ what not only he but all of llllillankind have always know n MAlld [did not finu this klluwledgt in any way bu t it was given tO IIIU gilr u l-ecausc I lOUl t lWt han takcm it from a l1)whe re16 lcin says flll1hershymore that he hngt lwen liJlg right while he lhinks wTOng Thl of cours( is what saves him from tile fat e o f Anna who becausc she lives wrollg does no t have aeltcss to the knowlelge thl t is hidde n ill he r too

Unlike u vin Alyosha feels thnt his 1l(W kllowlcdge comes from UIlIshy

lgt idc Ill is is whal be means when he says ~ Someonc i sitcu me lie has a sense that a fonll ntivl moml idea e nte rs him and turus him frOlll a middotmiddotwetk )oulh to a warrior As I have shown prcviously this sense is mistake n 10 the ed l llt that Alyosbas rortitudc rests IIpoll newly constituted inne r foundashytions Despite this hid howc c r AI)1Jshas PCJIc ption that his HCW resolushylioll comes fmm o utside him is n lluable dill both to his slate of mind alld allgto tn the relation of real alld ideal acconling to Dustocvsky As with Len another persoll s ltortlS-in Alyoshas llISC the words and deeds of c rushf lIka---cr(atl Ihe initi al oonrnlions fur his epiphany As with Lcin Ihcs( wurd~ bOlh IInseltle his feelings Iud thou)hl s and preci pi tat e signill shyt1Il1 knowledf(c Before this knflII(I~e can coalesce howeve r Alr nsha has anothe r cperic nct a dream l i e falls asleep LS tile b ihlical passtlge alxlIIl the 1lllrrillge at Calla is being ruad ove r Ihe (Offin ofZosilllltt He (Ommenls on this passage in his skCp Iud Ihe n Zosima appears hefore hinl and sumshymons h im to the marriage fPast At this point Alyoshas dream slille dcfp shyens and the physical laws o f lIatufe are ~lIs pell(l((1 To mark this shifl from ohj(Actif to subjeltti() fe-al ity LJostOlvsky me ntions thai (ill Aly shas pershycep tion) the mom lUoves (k()wlfl mdlligmsII ) Hnd Ihc n to enlphL~ize it he rqktI S the info rmatioll in the sunf parag raph (oP(J mflvIlIl(JS kOIlIlW ) When tht ph)sicallaws that hold a room in place no longer ohshylain the dL( rce uf 1I(alh isil ed on eYc ry individual who lils lived or lives is also lifted Zosill1a does not ri se rrom his w flin whidl has d isappeared Iyosha simply reltOgnizes hi III as nile of the gllcsts al the table It is usiliia whll ealls Alyosha ~ th words that suggest liis resurrection Why hle )011 buricd yourself 11 (1( where we can t seL you corne and join us r Zaclle1t1 siuda skhuronilsia cillo lie vidal Ic bia po idelll i ty k lI am ~

UK 361) The c ITfC t is Ihal AI)llsha wakes from lht clead 10 Ihf living life of hi s urr-3m

Did Doslocvs l) or Tol~IO Bclitlt( ill ~lim(ICli

The statns of dreallls in Ih( nowl and the appeamme in the m of Imllshysccmlenlal ideal realily lJ(ltOmes clearer if we oompme Alyillhas dream wilh lh e appeamncc of the devil to Iyan laler in the novel As is approprishy(lIe for an advocate of philosophical lIHtt e rialisrn lilt devi l illsists tlmt he is part of the phy~ical world Ivan howeer WlIlls tlfmiddotspe rat e l) In 1 ~~Heve

thai the devi l is a fi gme nt of his irnagination li e is in fact drea med lip by [van and vanishes wllcn Alyosha knocks on his willdow hut- Illost si~ni fl shyeanlly-that docs not 1l1fan thai the devil is not rfn l Usin~ analytic rCL~OIl h lUl has assu lIlrtl the staluc of an outside observer is-u-vis not only exlershynal hil i also his own intenml rt ality He ell t~ himse lf ofT from transccll dcnshytal reality through his mtionnlislIl and his egotism Whe n his irnaginitiull mujures til) the devil he wanlgt 10 k~p lhis stirrin~ of spirilIIallife salely fi ctional evell though his dcvil is much closer to him personally than say the Cmnd Infllisitor in his safely d istanced story o r medie val limcraquo Alyosua by con trast Inkes his drculI littrally as a timeless visitation to him by Zmillla lind ttn Christ This is what he means when he says thai - someshyone visi ted him

Just how real is this o ther deathless world Dostoesky seems 10 sugshygest that it call actually apclIr 10 liS in ou r drciulis a lld fa ut ilsies7 AI)05has dream seems 10 transpose hi m 10 another world nol nppar~nt in oll r wakshying life UcelUse II priori rules of time and splce b lock ollr u(tss to it In dreams thesl rules a re suspe nded and Alym has fi nal epiphany takes place at the crossroads of wn1 1mbcrless- worlds Illat momentarily il1lcrscd wit hil l him 1111 confidence that DoslneSJ) In in Ih~ rea li t)~ of Al)oshas vision is expressed in his lISC of the Hussian word kflJJuJ--dollle--for the sl) as it appelrs to 1 I)osha when he sleps o ul inlo nature WI( 3(2) t few lines latN wsornc thillg (IS firm and immovable a$ this heavenl) ault IlIcbeslyi middotIltHl t is said 10 desc(nd into AI)oshas SOIl I A klllo in Bussiall is not the inside of Ihe do me of a enthedmllmt it outsitic DostoclI J) i t~hokC of worcls suggests that lit thi s epiphanic Illoment AI)nsha 1I1ollltntarily see the other tnms(c llde l1lal world whole and from the ()ulside

BltCk in 111111 VlfClillll I--vin has no dream and his e pipbU1Y runs a dilTc re nt ((lIIrse from Alyoshamiddots F)1xlors w(Jrd~ i~nitc a ehai n of intcrvJOwn Ihoughllgt IIml re miniscen(es but during this PlOCf SS Levin remains enti re ly wi thin himself His insp ired idea orgallitcs a whol e swarm ufvarious imshypolent separate thoughts that had always pr(()(Cllpicd him It oomes not frOlll the Bible but fro m trldilional peasant wi~dom which Levin lIlainshytains is Oolh unive rsal and Hahira Wllcreas Al~osha fllllL his ideals in a book-nncl later writes a book himsllr- Lcvin finds the Ifllth only whe n Fedor s words release ~ undear bu t Significant though ts that before had 1kl1 - locked up in h is soul hut now all streaming loward a single goal began 10 whirl in his head blind ing hi m wit h Ihei r lighl ~ (AI( 719)_ Whe u he hilS fini shed spinning out the consequences of his re turn to truth he

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stops thinking and listens to mysterious voiees jo)fully aud eamestl) disshycussing sOlllcllling amo ng I hemsektmiddots~ (AK 724 )

Eistwberp in the novel Levin too makes lontact with anothe r world Tll is happe ns not wh he is eont e mplating Iml during fundallUlItal life exshyperie nces (ollrtsil ip alld marriage the death of his brother and the birt h of hi s SOil Birth md dcatll arc - mimcts- that e levate the ordinary life aboV( mechanical proecss ami infu sc it with the sacred In the w()rd~ of tile I)()t Fet lo lII lenUn~ un the l(lIlncction bc lwtt1l Nikolais dpath and ~ I itya s hirth hirth and death arc - Iwo holfs [from the 1l1ltcrialJ into the ~piri t lal world into NirvUla Tlwy are middot two visible and ete rnally l11yste ri shyOIL~ ~ nduws t~ 111 Mil k(lk woJ (The World (IS OIW Wllole ) puhlished in 1872 Stmkhov ar~u~ thaI b irth and death the main events of organic (as oppos(ltu mechanical) life lannol be understood Sltienlificul1y

I l er( in hinh and death J evcT)1hiug is ituo lllprehfllsiblc cWI1 hilig is mysshyt c riou~ a nti MienC( d()(i not S(f (tll a path u) wltieh it might nrrivc at II resshyolution to the IUlSlit llls Ilmt prt~e nt I hemselws 111Cstigations ~how that thSl mi raclegt art lakin~ pltlCC now Ic rc he fore our H ry eyes From this point of view it is wry JUSI III say Diine creation d~s nol cease even ffir n In il ll1tc that thtmiddot J rent ~tCfc t of tllc crealil)n of till world is taking place bcshyfort us up t ( l tll is ve ry fltOlllcnt m

Tlwc aft the (enlT3lmyste rics that cevate ordinary life above tlw mere ly mechanical and of lOlirsc give I sacred dime nsion to the faHlil) Although Toisto nowhe re 1dnltJwl(ltges this the - family idea in Amw iVl rellill(l

mav derive its th(ore tieal validity from TIU World n~ Dlle Wholc whidl hl f~ 1l111Cll admircdO lt llis is s~ tllcn Stflkhov is o ne irnpo rtmlt SOU rLC o f the pantheism that is till presellt in IIIW IVm IllrI albe it in a difTe fCnt and much tl imi ll is hed fnnn than ill Var (fI1l1 Pf(f(Y

Tht - fa mily idea (l ike tIle - idea o f tit p(Ople h in War lIIullfflce ) has nothing to do with Ihe mi nd at all In the passage from The World (IS Dill Wlwle Strakhov plalcs limits on what human rC1$I)U can diSlte rB and this idea wOllld have been vcI) lltt mc tive to Tolstoy lle rever Stmkhov stepl)(1 Oe)ontl those limits Tulstoy wOl1 ld take h im to tas k for doing so In IUlSic

C()IICepl~ of PSljchol(Jy ill a chapte r entitled l he Real Life o f the SOl1 l ~

(H lleal T1 1a zhzn middot dllshn Strakhov trieli to prove the objetti c status of psychic life whetllCr awake or aslc(middotp by d((ltieing a priori ohjeetic cateshygori es u f tmlh (isliuul goodness (bllgo J alld frfeltlolil (ltwouodnnio dd(lshyIcrlllJ~t) tllll IInderlie tho ught feeling alld will resp(CIieiy

Our ulolights hawmiddot to comprise real knowletlgc 11m fecling~ hae 10 relat l to our fcal ~ooJ they twt to he part of OUf rcalluppincss our desires have 10

IJe possible to rcali71 ucstimtl fo r rellizatilll1 (lnd [destined to ] he trl1Islated into ftal actiuns Umlcr tlifs( m ndilions tlur inner world takes on the s i ~n ifmiddot ical1(1middot I f full reali t ami luses its illu sory charaelN life tllrns frolll a dr( ilHI intu nal lift (001 73)

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reactions to the death of someone close-in Levins case his brother Nikoshylai and in Alyoshas Father Zosima Before these deaths both men are said to have believed in miracles that would somehow save themselves and othshyers from annihilation (AK 720 BK 26) When his brother dies Levin abanshydons his innate optimism and interprets the death-and by extension the fate awaiting all men-as an evil mockery by some sort of devil (AK 721) Ideas acquired from an education dominated by scientific conceptsshyorganisms their destruction the indestructibility of matter the law of the conservation of energy development-are cold comfort to Levin (AK 711) No matter how hard he tries to escape the conclusions of scientific reasoning he eventually has to concede that if one relies on thought alone the human individual seems to be nothing but a bubble that persists for a while and then bursts This untruth is understood by him as the cruel mockelY by some evil power a wicked and disgusting power to which it was impossible to submit (AK 714)

In his February 1877 Diary of a Writer Dostoevsky calls Levin pure of heart [chistyi sertseml (Ps 2556) Alyosha Karamazov is a Dostoevskian version of this new Russian type Alyosha had attached himself to Father Zosima in order to escape the world He longs for a spiritual purity that the world lacks and Father Zosima exemplifies The rapid putrefaction of Zosimas corpse seems to Alyosha to be a direct slap in the face by Someshyone bent on humiliating the best of men For Alyosha as for Levin this inshysult takes the form of the subordination of everything human to mere physical laws

Where was Providence and its finger Why did it hide its finger at the most necessary moment (Alyosha thought) as if wanting to submit itself to the blind mute merciless laws of nature (BK 340)

Nineteenth-century science of course conceived of nature as merely indifshyferent Levin and Alyosha experience it as hostile because it makes no proshyvision for and indeed denies the value of the human individual Belief in science and especially in phYSiolOgical materialism which became wideshyspread in Russia for the first time in the 1860s gave rise to the modern psyshychological dilemma described first by Turgenev in Fathers and Children then by Dostoevsky in Notes from Underground of the human personality trapped inside a machine 8 Turgenevs Bazarov advocates a scientific undershystanding of nature but he mistakenly thinks that he will be exempt from the rules as he formulates them for others His creator is content simply to make this point and to record Bazarovs response when he is hoisted on his own petard In Notes From Underground Dostoevsky goes a step beyond Turgeshynev to explore the effects on personality of an internalized belief in physioshylOgical materialism The underground man makes fun of those whose actions are not consistent with their science and at the same time he struggles irra-

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honally to assert his own freedom A decade later similar beliefs in a purely mechanistic univers3 prompt Konstantin Levins desire to kill himself

In the 1870s both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky worked out responses to the threat posed by modern scientific views If these responses seem simishylar that may be because each man was separately discussing his ideas with their mutual friend Strakhov The many letters preserved from an intense correspondence between Tolstoy and Strakhov give us some idea of their conversations which mostly took place at Iasnaia Poliana Dostoevs)-y and Strakhov were together in Petersburg for most of the 1870s and met freshyquently They were no longer soul mates as they had been in the early 1860s but they were still close intellectual fliends In a letter to Tolstoy written in May 1881 Strakhov wrote that he keenly missed the recently deshyceased Dostoevsky who as his most ardent reader had read and subtly understood his every article9 One of these articles a long monograph pubshylished in several installments in 1878 in the Zhumal ministerstva naroshydnogo prosveshcheniia (journal of the Ministry of Public Education) is called Db osnovnylch poniatiiakh pSikhologii (Basic Concepts of Psycholshyogy) It is both a history of modern psychology from Descartes onward and a treatise on the nature of the soul and its relation to external reality It is also a continuation of Strakhovs polemics against the spiritualists in which Strakhov sets out to delineate the physical and spiritual spheres with their respective and mutually exclusive laws lO

There can be no doubt that Strakhov was discussing these subjects with Tolstoy and Dostoevsky as he planned and wrote his monograph If proof were needed Tolstoy at least supplies it when he writes Strakhov that he had learned a great deal from reading the book but not as much as he would have had he read it two years ago [Nlow what you demonstrate is so indubitable and simple for me (as it is so for 99999 percent of humanshyity) that not carried away by proof of what rings so true to me I see as well inadequacies in the methods of the proofsll During the two years in which Tolstoy was absorbing the psychological truths that he finds so ably stated in Strakhovs monograph he was writing Anna Karenina The monoshygraph came out just as Dostoevsky was beginning The Brothers Karamazov Both novels depend upon an account of psychology similar to that given in it and both authors use that psychology in their defense of the possibilshyity of religion in a scientific age L2 To ground that psychology in transcenshydent reality both rely on methods of proof that are very different from Strakhovs

Strakhov proposes a psychology that validates the individual in terms that are not simply hostile to science He borrows from empirical psycholshyogy which he credits but which he also corrects in one critical respect Acshycording to him Descartes when he emptied the external world of spiritual content laid the basis for a modern psychology that relocates all meaning

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in the individual soul Only my soul understood as just the self itself (prosto samogo sebia) indubitably exists for me Everything else including my body is part of the external world whose existence can be doubted (Oop 20-25) The self becomes Descartess Arcbimedean pOint from which he can investigate everything else To know something means to separate it from the self and hence to objectify it Each object of analysis requires a subject which as the knower cannot itself be known The subject then by its vely nature is not susceptible to being known as an object By the self Strakhov claims that Descartes meant that part of tbe soul that generates not only thoughts but all emanations of psychic life (Oop 10) All thoughts feelings and acts of will can be objectified and studied but their cause within the soul cannot The cause itself has no content no number it is alshyways one and always unchanging (vsegda edinoe i vsegda neizmennoe Oop 58) We can know it only negatively by stating what it is not

This insistence on the unknowability of the self is Strakhovs main departure from contemporary empirical psychology and both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky develop its implications Strakhov defends human autonomy and dignity from attacks by science by distinguishing between what is and is not susceptible to scientific analysis according to him materialists and scientists alike make the mistake of applying tools appropriate to the invesshytigation of the objective world to the subjective one (Oop 30 60) As he prepared in his notes to the novel to defend Alyoshas faith and speCifically his belief in miracles Dostoevsky put it this way And as for so-called scishyentific proofs he [Alyoshal did not believe in them and was right in not beshylieving in them even though he had not finished his studies it was not possible to disprove matters that by their essence were not of this world by knowledge that was of this worldn

Vhat we speak of as scientific knowledge moreover has its own limishytations Materialists and positivists believe that we can know only objective or empirical reality On the contrary argues Strakhov the only thing an inshydividual experiences directly is himself his own existence and psychic pheshynomena that are reactions to an external world to which he has no direct access Even the ways in which we organize reality are in fact the results of a priori categories of time and space inhering in our own minds rather than in external reality If that is so and if in the other direction the self is unknowable then Strakhov paints a bleak picture indeed of what human beings can hope to understand But neither StraldlOv nor Tolstoy or Dostoshyevsky actually accepted these limitations on knowledge as absolute While Strakhov agreed with Schopenhauer that the world is my representation he did not mean by it that the world did not exist Perceptions do reflect some kind of physical reality and most important feelings thoughts and will must be grounded in transcendental prinCiples that make them more than merely subjective

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What Strakhov has done in his monograph is to put a Kantian spin on early modern philosophy Descartes was most concerned to establish the self as the point from which an objective scientific investigation of the world could proceed To do so he was willing to sacrifice the very possibility of self-knowledge by positing the self as the pure subject (chistyi subekt) of all objects Inaccessible to dissection by human reason after Kant the self becomes a potential safe haven for spiritual truths not verifiable by empirshyical science This inner spiritual reality is often said to be known to the heart rather than the mind as such it is more the purview of poets than philososhyphers and it was his belief in the greater profundity of the knowledge of the heart that made Strakhov feel inferior to his poet friends H Both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky benefited from Strakhovs dualism Self-knowledge undershystood as knowledge of that supposedly unknowable subject which is the self is reconstituted in their works as inner knowledge of metaphysical reality the true realm of the miraculous To anticipate what follows Dostoevsky goes further than Tolstoy in depicting the other world as he sometimes calls it whose objective existence cannot be proven

In The Brothers Karamazov Dostoevsky employs the ideas briefly sketched earlier to solve the problem of the possibility of religiOUS belief in the modern world All the characters in the novel are OIiginally selfshycentered and unsure of the feelings or thoughts of others which is preshysented as natural All of them see external reality through the subjective lens of their own personalities and each crea tes a version of the world corshyresponding to these visions The clashes that arise among them stem from the incompatibility of these multiple subjective realities Such is the case even for Alyosha who makes the mistake (and cannot but make it) of assumshying that all others share his own consistently good intentions Once he has changed his opinion of Grushenka for instance he feels certain that she will give herself to her former lover rather than knife him The reader lisshytening to Grushenka and observing her expressions cannot be so sure

The solution to the conflicts that alise from this natural self-centeredness lies not in an escape from the self as might have been required in earlier Christianity but in deeper self-understanding In the notebooks to the novel one of Zosimas maxims reads What is life-To define oneself as much as possible I am I exist To be like the Lord who says I am who is but already in the whole plenitude of the whole universels When characshyters reform in the novel they affirm their own existence and for the first time the existence of others in the whole plenitude of the whole universe

This paradigm applies very neatly to Alyosha Karamazov He is introshyduced to the reader as a man who naturally believes in miracles because his subjective point of view mandates this belief He is as much a realist as is the atheist whose exclusive belief in the laws of nature predisposes him to discount any miracle In the realis t faith is not born from miracles but

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miracles from faith (BIlt 26) Alyoshas education results not in a repudiashytion of miracles but in a reassessment of the concept of the miraculous

When Zosimas body begins to stink Alyosha already shaken by Ivan s argument about divine injustice or indifference experiences this situation as a kind of reverse miracle Why he asks himself did the body have to deshycay so rapidly and conspicuously In other words Alyosha as the narrator tells us remains true to his fundamentally religiOUS temperament but proshyvoked by Ivan he rebels against Gods world What restores Alyoshas trust in God is the revelation of Grushenkas innate goodness Like his brothers Alyosha has created the world in his own image With his passionate comshymitment to purity-what the narrator calls in one place his wild frenzied modesty and chastity (dikaia istuplennaia stydlivost i tselomudrennost BIlt 20)-Alyosha has denied his own corporeality and espeCially his sensushyality He projects onto the world a distorted image of humanity divided into saints like Zosima and sinners like Grushenka whom he sees as a prisoner and advocate of the dumb and blind laws of carnal pleasure In revenge for the humiliation of Zosima Alyosha decides to submit himself exclusively to her and those laws When he arrives at Grushenkas however he finds her in a state that cannot be explained with reference to them In the final fourth chapter of book 7 Alyoshas faith in humanity then not only revives but expands

For all its ecstatic tone (which is meant to convey Alyoshas mood) the description of Alyoshas reconCiliation with faith is very preCise and psyshychologically detailed First he has a sensation of inner commotion and orshyderliness at the same time

His soul was overflowing but somehow vaguely and no Single sensation stood out making itself felt too much on the contrary one followed another in a sort of slow and calm rotation But there was sweetness in his heart and strangely Alyosha was not surplised at that (BIlt 359)

Alyosha is having the experience dubbed sweet and rare in Dostoevskys world of feeling himself altogether in one place The sensations (oshchushyshcheniia) do not move in and out as they would in a moment of active involvement with the world but circle slowly not forming into actual pershyceptions These sensations are wholly internal yet they are reactions to exshyternal events their internal assimilation After them (and perhaps arising out of them) come thoughts

Fragments of thoughts [myslil flashed in his soul catching fire like little stars and dying out at once to give way to others yet there reigned in his soul something whole firm assuaging and he was conscious of himself (BI( 359)

Sensation by its nature is not self-conscious but thought is and so at this moment the same I that feels sweet both emits thoughts and at the same

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time is conscious of itself as something whole As he recovers from the disorientating experiences of the previous day dming which he has doubted his connection to immortality the one and unchanging part of Alyoshas soul (to use Strakhovs terminology) makes itself felt

There follows Alyoshas half-waking dream in which thought weaves sensation into fantasy and commentary on the text of the marriage at Cana that is being read over Zosimas body in the background Awakening from the dream Alyosha runs outdoors to fall down on the earth (as he had done when his crisis began) but this time in ecstatic joy Nature presents itself to him in the form of a great cathedral with the sky its dome (nebesnyi lwpol)

Over him the heavenly dome full of quiet shining stars hung boundlessly From the zenith to the horizon the still-dim Milky Way stretched its double strand Night fresh and quiet almost unstirring enveloped the earth The white towers and golden domes of the church gleamed in the sapphire sky The luxuriant autumn Rowers in the Rowerbeds near the house had fallen asleep until morning The silence of the earth seemed to merge with the sishylence of the heavens the mystery of the earth touched the mystery of the stars Alyosha stood gazing ancl suddenly as if he had been cut dovvn threw himself to the earth (BK 362)

In the last sentence Alyosha is said to be cut down by the appearance of nature as a sacred cathedral But the appearance is itself a product of his newly formed consciousness and in this sense it is as much a fantasy as the dream sequence that precedes it It differs from the dream only because it presents itself to Alyosha as external reality Alyoshas own thoughts which were said to have flashed like stars through his soul and therefore anticipate the starry sky that he sees are responsible for this new interpretation His mind actively if unself-consciously interprets and thereby shapes sensations stimulated in him by external reality it turns them into perceptions which in this case are more like symbols Alyosha responds to the symbolism as if it came from outside

Alyoshas embrace of the earth is a physical expression of his embrace of the whole plentitude of the whole universe of which Dostoevsky had spoken in the notebooks to the novel Once he has opened himself in this way he experiences the sensation of being at a center point where all worlds meet and vibrating in tune with all of them He is in a frenzy of forshygiving and forgiveness in a state where boundaries between himself and the world seem to be dissolved At the same time as he flows outward howshyever a reverse motion is occurring

But vith each moment he felt clearly and almost tangibly something as firm and immovable as this heavenly vault [nebesbyi svocll descend into his soul Some sort of idea as it were was coming to reign in his mind-now for the whole of his life and unto ages of ages He fell to the earth a weak youth and

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Did IJostO(lky (lr T(ll~toy Believe ill Mirld(s

rose lip a fighte r stedflSt for I ll( res t o f his life m] he knew it and fdt it sudde nly (It til (lt very mome nt of his (CSt a~ NeCr ncf r in his li fe would AI)osha forget this moment ~SOllllOllC isIl(1 HI) MIIII in that hour- ht wou ld $Y afte rwards with fi rm telief ill his words (Jj K 362-63)

As Alyosha moves ou t o f the e ro tic fre nzy of which (like David danci ng nake d before the ark) Mhe was nut asilltrllld ~on l lllt i llg frlllll o ll tsid e and ahove-it is Iike~ the heaven ly aTch and thprcfore is not it-sN ms to him to possess hi~ soul ami o rganize it (I((Ording to what he calls nn - idea- that In m s him frolll a wctk hoy into a warrior As should be clear by now Alyoshas later version of what happflII d to hlm-SOIlltOIlC i si t(d 1Ilt~shydocs not jibe in any si mple way with the nnrrntors account of the (cnl as it unfolds A (omplc( inte raction IJetw(c n AI)osh11 and -T(tlity- takes place in which Dostoevsky intentionally I(lw$ uuctftlli ll what c( unes from imide and what from outside Th e heilVcnly vault Hs( lf is o ne case in point it is a nWl apho r huil 0 11 the unavoidahle but scil lItifically fa[sc human pe rcepshytion of Ihc sl-y IS round and i nittgt [n th is St lIS it C( lnlCS lol from reality b ill from Alyosha who the n fee ls somet h ing [i kc it cnter him in the fonn of moml pri ncipks

The helcnly vault mnkes IIIl lIp pt arlItlCl in hook S or AIIIUI Kllrelli lw and also in iJasic CmlUIJI of gtsyclwlugy Strakhov cites it- using th( term 1It)yi ~VO(I-as an (~~al1lplc of the Tluut) of universal perctgtplions whether o r nul Ihc) cOrrespond 10 (xtenml ralily (0011 38) 1(111 uses it to Issert the validi ty of his ~slJhje(tiH~- be lief in II humanly llleaningfulllnierse

Liug Illl hi back hc IS now gazing 111 till high d oudlcss sky DolIt I know that tllUl is infinite spu middot amI nnt a rollnd~1 twit [knl1lyi slJO(l] But howshyever I Inll ~fW III eycs and stram my sight I call1lot 1(lp ltt-eing il as rml TOuml lIud not limitcd alill dasp it t III) kllO k-ilge of limitless spalaquoe I am illmiddot dubitably ri~ht when 1 S(-f a nml rou nd ault JVlrrlyi jolilboi ~nKI] and mOTt ri~h t tll1I1 wllcn I stmin tn ~t( beyoml it ~ (AK 724 )

Dostocvsl-ys lise of thc heacn l) ali it may be a hidden referencoe to one o r ho th of the previo us ones Be this as it may thc metaphor figures in atlth ree texts as part of a defense of the IlIlImm from the degrading rcd ultionism of sciell le The two poets carry this argllmen t milch furthe r than the scientistshyphilosophe r bul Stmkllu lays the groundwork for their more ambitious 5ions whe n he tn ()lifi(s e mpirical psychology to 1II0ve the nucleus of lhe ps)chc the sclf into the realm of rl1(taphysical knowledge that is inltC(tsshysible to IUlman reason For both Dostoevsky and Tolstoy the individual psyshyche bpoundlonws 11 gatcway tu a tnlllscellde ntal reali ty othe rwisc inat(cssihlc

Despite thes( corHl(tions howcver ali(I CVClI ifho DostOtsk) and Strakhov are quo ting To lstoy the two I)()fts haC di ffe ring hleL of what we Call actually know alx lII thc transcendc ntal reali ty in which h()th leed to heliew Til is eviderll fro m II c()rnpa rison of the respective (piphaHies of

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Alyosha and Levin Levin d ist overs a tnlth that he feels be luLS always l1own Fyodors words p roclm-ecl in his so ul the cfktt of an e lectric spark sudshydpoundnly t ransfurm ing and we lding in tu une a whol( g roup of d isjointed il nposhytent separate ideas wtich fwd mllf ccmud to occufY him These ideas lIubckll (JWflst to himself wac occupyiug him wile n he WILS talking ahout letshyling the land (e mphasis added) Su ilHc mal but separate idca_~ that toshygethe r make III a larger lnalll we re waiting only for all exle rnal catalyst to make the mselves known Whe n they do ~Oll1e together Le vin decmiddotlares that he IloW ~ kl1ow~ what not only he but all of llllillankind have always know n MAlld [did not finu this klluwledgt in any way bu t it was given tO IIIU gilr u l-ecausc I lOUl t lWt han takcm it from a l1)whe re16 lcin says flll1hershymore that he hngt lwen liJlg right while he lhinks wTOng Thl of cours( is what saves him from tile fat e o f Anna who becausc she lives wrollg does no t have aeltcss to the knowlelge thl t is hidde n ill he r too

Unlike u vin Alyosha feels thnt his 1l(W kllowlcdge comes from UIlIshy

lgt idc Ill is is whal be means when he says ~ Someonc i sitcu me lie has a sense that a fonll ntivl moml idea e nte rs him and turus him frOlll a middotmiddotwetk )oulh to a warrior As I have shown prcviously this sense is mistake n 10 the ed l llt that Alyosbas rortitudc rests IIpoll newly constituted inne r foundashytions Despite this hid howc c r AI)1Jshas PCJIc ption that his HCW resolushylioll comes fmm o utside him is n lluable dill both to his slate of mind alld allgto tn the relation of real alld ideal acconling to Dustocvsky As with Len another persoll s ltortlS-in Alyoshas llISC the words and deeds of c rushf lIka---cr(atl Ihe initi al oonrnlions fur his epiphany As with Lcin Ihcs( wurd~ bOlh IInseltle his feelings Iud thou)hl s and preci pi tat e signill shyt1Il1 knowledf(c Before this knflII(I~e can coalesce howeve r Alr nsha has anothe r cperic nct a dream l i e falls asleep LS tile b ihlical passtlge alxlIIl the 1lllrrillge at Calla is being ruad ove r Ihe (Offin ofZosilllltt He (Ommenls on this passage in his skCp Iud Ihe n Zosima appears hefore hinl and sumshymons h im to the marriage fPast At this point Alyoshas dream slille dcfp shyens and the physical laws o f lIatufe are ~lIs pell(l((1 To mark this shifl from ohj(Actif to subjeltti() fe-al ity LJostOlvsky me ntions thai (ill Aly shas pershycep tion) the mom lUoves (k()wlfl mdlligmsII ) Hnd Ihc n to enlphL~ize it he rqktI S the info rmatioll in the sunf parag raph (oP(J mflvIlIl(JS kOIlIlW ) When tht ph)sicallaws that hold a room in place no longer ohshylain the dL( rce uf 1I(alh isil ed on eYc ry individual who lils lived or lives is also lifted Zosill1a does not ri se rrom his w flin whidl has d isappeared Iyosha simply reltOgnizes hi III as nile of the gllcsts al the table It is usiliia whll ealls Alyosha ~ th words that suggest liis resurrection Why hle )011 buricd yourself 11 (1( where we can t seL you corne and join us r Zaclle1t1 siuda skhuronilsia cillo lie vidal Ic bia po idelll i ty k lI am ~

UK 361) The c ITfC t is Ihal AI)llsha wakes from lht clead 10 Ihf living life of hi s urr-3m

Did Doslocvs l) or Tol~IO Bclitlt( ill ~lim(ICli

The statns of dreallls in Ih( nowl and the appeamme in the m of Imllshysccmlenlal ideal realily lJ(ltOmes clearer if we oompme Alyillhas dream wilh lh e appeamncc of the devil to Iyan laler in the novel As is approprishy(lIe for an advocate of philosophical lIHtt e rialisrn lilt devi l illsists tlmt he is part of the phy~ical world Ivan howeer WlIlls tlfmiddotspe rat e l) In 1 ~~Heve

thai the devi l is a fi gme nt of his irnagination li e is in fact drea med lip by [van and vanishes wllcn Alyosha knocks on his willdow hut- Illost si~ni fl shyeanlly-that docs not 1l1fan thai the devil is not rfn l Usin~ analytic rCL~OIl h lUl has assu lIlrtl the staluc of an outside observer is-u-vis not only exlershynal hil i also his own intenml rt ality He ell t~ himse lf ofT from transccll dcnshytal reality through his mtionnlislIl and his egotism Whe n his irnaginitiull mujures til) the devil he wanlgt 10 k~p lhis stirrin~ of spirilIIallife salely fi ctional evell though his dcvil is much closer to him personally than say the Cmnd Infllisitor in his safely d istanced story o r medie val limcraquo Alyosua by con trast Inkes his drculI littrally as a timeless visitation to him by Zmillla lind ttn Christ This is what he means when he says thai - someshyone visi ted him

Just how real is this o ther deathless world Dostoesky seems 10 sugshygest that it call actually apclIr 10 liS in ou r drciulis a lld fa ut ilsies7 AI)05has dream seems 10 transpose hi m 10 another world nol nppar~nt in oll r wakshying life UcelUse II priori rules of time and splce b lock ollr u(tss to it In dreams thesl rules a re suspe nded and Alym has fi nal epiphany takes place at the crossroads of wn1 1mbcrless- worlds Illat momentarily il1lcrscd wit hil l him 1111 confidence that DoslneSJ) In in Ih~ rea li t)~ of Al)oshas vision is expressed in his lISC of the Hussian word kflJJuJ--dollle--for the sl) as it appelrs to 1 I)osha when he sleps o ul inlo nature WI( 3(2) t few lines latN wsornc thillg (IS firm and immovable a$ this heavenl) ault IlIcbeslyi middotIltHl t is said 10 desc(nd into AI)oshas SOIl I A klllo in Bussiall is not the inside of Ihe do me of a enthedmllmt it outsitic DostoclI J) i t~hokC of worcls suggests that lit thi s epiphanic Illoment AI)nsha 1I1ollltntarily see the other tnms(c llde l1lal world whole and from the ()ulside

BltCk in 111111 VlfClillll I--vin has no dream and his e pipbU1Y runs a dilTc re nt ((lIIrse from Alyoshamiddots F)1xlors w(Jrd~ i~nitc a ehai n of intcrvJOwn Ihoughllgt IIml re miniscen(es but during this PlOCf SS Levin remains enti re ly wi thin himself His insp ired idea orgallitcs a whol e swarm ufvarious imshypolent separate thoughts that had always pr(()(Cllpicd him It oomes not frOlll the Bible but fro m trldilional peasant wi~dom which Levin lIlainshytains is Oolh unive rsal and Hahira Wllcreas Al~osha fllllL his ideals in a book-nncl later writes a book himsllr- Lcvin finds the Ifllth only whe n Fedor s words release ~ undear bu t Significant though ts that before had 1kl1 - locked up in h is soul hut now all streaming loward a single goal began 10 whirl in his head blind ing hi m wit h Ihei r lighl ~ (AI( 719)_ Whe u he hilS fini shed spinning out the consequences of his re turn to truth he

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stops thinking and listens to mysterious voiees jo)fully aud eamestl) disshycussing sOlllcllling amo ng I hemsektmiddots~ (AK 724 )

Eistwberp in the novel Levin too makes lontact with anothe r world Tll is happe ns not wh he is eont e mplating Iml during fundallUlItal life exshyperie nces (ollrtsil ip alld marriage the death of his brother and the birt h of hi s SOil Birth md dcatll arc - mimcts- that e levate the ordinary life aboV( mechanical proecss ami infu sc it with the sacred In the w()rd~ of tile I)()t Fet lo lII lenUn~ un the l(lIlncction bc lwtt1l Nikolais dpath and ~ I itya s hirth hirth and death arc - Iwo holfs [from the 1l1ltcrialJ into the ~piri t lal world into NirvUla Tlwy are middot two visible and ete rnally l11yste ri shyOIL~ ~ nduws t~ 111 Mil k(lk woJ (The World (IS OIW Wllole ) puhlished in 1872 Stmkhov ar~u~ thaI b irth and death the main events of organic (as oppos(ltu mechanical) life lannol be understood Sltienlificul1y

I l er( in hinh and death J evcT)1hiug is ituo lllprehfllsiblc cWI1 hilig is mysshyt c riou~ a nti MienC( d()(i not S(f (tll a path u) wltieh it might nrrivc at II resshyolution to the IUlSlit llls Ilmt prt~e nt I hemselws 111Cstigations ~how that thSl mi raclegt art lakin~ pltlCC now Ic rc he fore our H ry eyes From this point of view it is wry JUSI III say Diine creation d~s nol cease even ffir n In il ll1tc that thtmiddot J rent ~tCfc t of tllc crealil)n of till world is taking place bcshyfort us up t ( l tll is ve ry fltOlllcnt m

Tlwc aft the (enlT3lmyste rics that cevate ordinary life above tlw mere ly mechanical and of lOlirsc give I sacred dime nsion to the faHlil) Although Toisto nowhe re 1dnltJwl(ltges this the - family idea in Amw iVl rellill(l

mav derive its th(ore tieal validity from TIU World n~ Dlle Wholc whidl hl f~ 1l111Cll admircdO lt llis is s~ tllcn Stflkhov is o ne irnpo rtmlt SOU rLC o f the pantheism that is till presellt in IIIW IVm IllrI albe it in a difTe fCnt and much tl imi ll is hed fnnn than ill Var (fI1l1 Pf(f(Y

Tht - fa mily idea (l ike tIle - idea o f tit p(Ople h in War lIIullfflce ) has nothing to do with Ihe mi nd at all In the passage from The World (IS Dill Wlwle Strakhov plalcs limits on what human rC1$I)U can diSlte rB and this idea wOllld have been vcI) lltt mc tive to Tolstoy lle rever Stmkhov stepl)(1 Oe)ontl those limits Tulstoy wOl1 ld take h im to tas k for doing so In IUlSic

C()IICepl~ of PSljchol(Jy ill a chapte r entitled l he Real Life o f the SOl1 l ~

(H lleal T1 1a zhzn middot dllshn Strakhov trieli to prove the objetti c status of psychic life whetllCr awake or aslc(middotp by d((ltieing a priori ohjeetic cateshygori es u f tmlh (isliuul goodness (bllgo J alld frfeltlolil (ltwouodnnio dd(lshyIcrlllJ~t) tllll IInderlie tho ught feeling alld will resp(CIieiy

Our ulolights hawmiddot to comprise real knowletlgc 11m fecling~ hae 10 relat l to our fcal ~ooJ they twt to he part of OUf rcalluppincss our desires have 10

IJe possible to rcali71 ucstimtl fo r rellizatilll1 (lnd [destined to ] he trl1Islated into ftal actiuns Umlcr tlifs( m ndilions tlur inner world takes on the s i ~n ifmiddot ical1(1middot I f full reali t ami luses its illu sory charaelN life tllrns frolll a dr( ilHI intu nal lift (001 73)

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honally to assert his own freedom A decade later similar beliefs in a purely mechanistic univers3 prompt Konstantin Levins desire to kill himself

In the 1870s both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky worked out responses to the threat posed by modern scientific views If these responses seem simishylar that may be because each man was separately discussing his ideas with their mutual friend Strakhov The many letters preserved from an intense correspondence between Tolstoy and Strakhov give us some idea of their conversations which mostly took place at Iasnaia Poliana Dostoevs)-y and Strakhov were together in Petersburg for most of the 1870s and met freshyquently They were no longer soul mates as they had been in the early 1860s but they were still close intellectual fliends In a letter to Tolstoy written in May 1881 Strakhov wrote that he keenly missed the recently deshyceased Dostoevsky who as his most ardent reader had read and subtly understood his every article9 One of these articles a long monograph pubshylished in several installments in 1878 in the Zhumal ministerstva naroshydnogo prosveshcheniia (journal of the Ministry of Public Education) is called Db osnovnylch poniatiiakh pSikhologii (Basic Concepts of Psycholshyogy) It is both a history of modern psychology from Descartes onward and a treatise on the nature of the soul and its relation to external reality It is also a continuation of Strakhovs polemics against the spiritualists in which Strakhov sets out to delineate the physical and spiritual spheres with their respective and mutually exclusive laws lO

There can be no doubt that Strakhov was discussing these subjects with Tolstoy and Dostoevsky as he planned and wrote his monograph If proof were needed Tolstoy at least supplies it when he writes Strakhov that he had learned a great deal from reading the book but not as much as he would have had he read it two years ago [Nlow what you demonstrate is so indubitable and simple for me (as it is so for 99999 percent of humanshyity) that not carried away by proof of what rings so true to me I see as well inadequacies in the methods of the proofsll During the two years in which Tolstoy was absorbing the psychological truths that he finds so ably stated in Strakhovs monograph he was writing Anna Karenina The monoshygraph came out just as Dostoevsky was beginning The Brothers Karamazov Both novels depend upon an account of psychology similar to that given in it and both authors use that psychology in their defense of the possibilshyity of religion in a scientific age L2 To ground that psychology in transcenshydent reality both rely on methods of proof that are very different from Strakhovs

Strakhov proposes a psychology that validates the individual in terms that are not simply hostile to science He borrows from empirical psycholshyogy which he credits but which he also corrects in one critical respect Acshycording to him Descartes when he emptied the external world of spiritual content laid the basis for a modern psychology that relocates all meaning

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Did Dostoevsky or Tolstoy Believe in Miracles

in the individual soul Only my soul understood as just the self itself (prosto samogo sebia) indubitably exists for me Everything else including my body is part of the external world whose existence can be doubted (Oop 20-25) The self becomes Descartess Arcbimedean pOint from which he can investigate everything else To know something means to separate it from the self and hence to objectify it Each object of analysis requires a subject which as the knower cannot itself be known The subject then by its vely nature is not susceptible to being known as an object By the self Strakhov claims that Descartes meant that part of tbe soul that generates not only thoughts but all emanations of psychic life (Oop 10) All thoughts feelings and acts of will can be objectified and studied but their cause within the soul cannot The cause itself has no content no number it is alshyways one and always unchanging (vsegda edinoe i vsegda neizmennoe Oop 58) We can know it only negatively by stating what it is not

This insistence on the unknowability of the self is Strakhovs main departure from contemporary empirical psychology and both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky develop its implications Strakhov defends human autonomy and dignity from attacks by science by distinguishing between what is and is not susceptible to scientific analysis according to him materialists and scientists alike make the mistake of applying tools appropriate to the invesshytigation of the objective world to the subjective one (Oop 30 60) As he prepared in his notes to the novel to defend Alyoshas faith and speCifically his belief in miracles Dostoevsky put it this way And as for so-called scishyentific proofs he [Alyoshal did not believe in them and was right in not beshylieving in them even though he had not finished his studies it was not possible to disprove matters that by their essence were not of this world by knowledge that was of this worldn

Vhat we speak of as scientific knowledge moreover has its own limishytations Materialists and positivists believe that we can know only objective or empirical reality On the contrary argues Strakhov the only thing an inshydividual experiences directly is himself his own existence and psychic pheshynomena that are reactions to an external world to which he has no direct access Even the ways in which we organize reality are in fact the results of a priori categories of time and space inhering in our own minds rather than in external reality If that is so and if in the other direction the self is unknowable then Strakhov paints a bleak picture indeed of what human beings can hope to understand But neither StraldlOv nor Tolstoy or Dostoshyevsky actually accepted these limitations on knowledge as absolute While Strakhov agreed with Schopenhauer that the world is my representation he did not mean by it that the world did not exist Perceptions do reflect some kind of physical reality and most important feelings thoughts and will must be grounded in transcendental prinCiples that make them more than merely subjective

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What Strakhov has done in his monograph is to put a Kantian spin on early modern philosophy Descartes was most concerned to establish the self as the point from which an objective scientific investigation of the world could proceed To do so he was willing to sacrifice the very possibility of self-knowledge by positing the self as the pure subject (chistyi subekt) of all objects Inaccessible to dissection by human reason after Kant the self becomes a potential safe haven for spiritual truths not verifiable by empirshyical science This inner spiritual reality is often said to be known to the heart rather than the mind as such it is more the purview of poets than philososhyphers and it was his belief in the greater profundity of the knowledge of the heart that made Strakhov feel inferior to his poet friends H Both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky benefited from Strakhovs dualism Self-knowledge undershystood as knowledge of that supposedly unknowable subject which is the self is reconstituted in their works as inner knowledge of metaphysical reality the true realm of the miraculous To anticipate what follows Dostoevsky goes further than Tolstoy in depicting the other world as he sometimes calls it whose objective existence cannot be proven

In The Brothers Karamazov Dostoevsky employs the ideas briefly sketched earlier to solve the problem of the possibility of religiOUS belief in the modern world All the characters in the novel are OIiginally selfshycentered and unsure of the feelings or thoughts of others which is preshysented as natural All of them see external reality through the subjective lens of their own personalities and each crea tes a version of the world corshyresponding to these visions The clashes that arise among them stem from the incompatibility of these multiple subjective realities Such is the case even for Alyosha who makes the mistake (and cannot but make it) of assumshying that all others share his own consistently good intentions Once he has changed his opinion of Grushenka for instance he feels certain that she will give herself to her former lover rather than knife him The reader lisshytening to Grushenka and observing her expressions cannot be so sure

The solution to the conflicts that alise from this natural self-centeredness lies not in an escape from the self as might have been required in earlier Christianity but in deeper self-understanding In the notebooks to the novel one of Zosimas maxims reads What is life-To define oneself as much as possible I am I exist To be like the Lord who says I am who is but already in the whole plenitude of the whole universels When characshyters reform in the novel they affirm their own existence and for the first time the existence of others in the whole plenitude of the whole universe

This paradigm applies very neatly to Alyosha Karamazov He is introshyduced to the reader as a man who naturally believes in miracles because his subjective point of view mandates this belief He is as much a realist as is the atheist whose exclusive belief in the laws of nature predisposes him to discount any miracle In the realis t faith is not born from miracles but

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miracles from faith (BIlt 26) Alyoshas education results not in a repudiashytion of miracles but in a reassessment of the concept of the miraculous

When Zosimas body begins to stink Alyosha already shaken by Ivan s argument about divine injustice or indifference experiences this situation as a kind of reverse miracle Why he asks himself did the body have to deshycay so rapidly and conspicuously In other words Alyosha as the narrator tells us remains true to his fundamentally religiOUS temperament but proshyvoked by Ivan he rebels against Gods world What restores Alyoshas trust in God is the revelation of Grushenkas innate goodness Like his brothers Alyosha has created the world in his own image With his passionate comshymitment to purity-what the narrator calls in one place his wild frenzied modesty and chastity (dikaia istuplennaia stydlivost i tselomudrennost BIlt 20)-Alyosha has denied his own corporeality and espeCially his sensushyality He projects onto the world a distorted image of humanity divided into saints like Zosima and sinners like Grushenka whom he sees as a prisoner and advocate of the dumb and blind laws of carnal pleasure In revenge for the humiliation of Zosima Alyosha decides to submit himself exclusively to her and those laws When he arrives at Grushenkas however he finds her in a state that cannot be explained with reference to them In the final fourth chapter of book 7 Alyoshas faith in humanity then not only revives but expands

For all its ecstatic tone (which is meant to convey Alyoshas mood) the description of Alyoshas reconCiliation with faith is very preCise and psyshychologically detailed First he has a sensation of inner commotion and orshyderliness at the same time

His soul was overflowing but somehow vaguely and no Single sensation stood out making itself felt too much on the contrary one followed another in a sort of slow and calm rotation But there was sweetness in his heart and strangely Alyosha was not surplised at that (BIlt 359)

Alyosha is having the experience dubbed sweet and rare in Dostoevskys world of feeling himself altogether in one place The sensations (oshchushyshcheniia) do not move in and out as they would in a moment of active involvement with the world but circle slowly not forming into actual pershyceptions These sensations are wholly internal yet they are reactions to exshyternal events their internal assimilation After them (and perhaps arising out of them) come thoughts

Fragments of thoughts [myslil flashed in his soul catching fire like little stars and dying out at once to give way to others yet there reigned in his soul something whole firm assuaging and he was conscious of himself (BI( 359)

Sensation by its nature is not self-conscious but thought is and so at this moment the same I that feels sweet both emits thoughts and at the same

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Donna Oruin

time is conscious of itself as something whole As he recovers from the disorientating experiences of the previous day dming which he has doubted his connection to immortality the one and unchanging part of Alyoshas soul (to use Strakhovs terminology) makes itself felt

There follows Alyoshas half-waking dream in which thought weaves sensation into fantasy and commentary on the text of the marriage at Cana that is being read over Zosimas body in the background Awakening from the dream Alyosha runs outdoors to fall down on the earth (as he had done when his crisis began) but this time in ecstatic joy Nature presents itself to him in the form of a great cathedral with the sky its dome (nebesnyi lwpol)

Over him the heavenly dome full of quiet shining stars hung boundlessly From the zenith to the horizon the still-dim Milky Way stretched its double strand Night fresh and quiet almost unstirring enveloped the earth The white towers and golden domes of the church gleamed in the sapphire sky The luxuriant autumn Rowers in the Rowerbeds near the house had fallen asleep until morning The silence of the earth seemed to merge with the sishylence of the heavens the mystery of the earth touched the mystery of the stars Alyosha stood gazing ancl suddenly as if he had been cut dovvn threw himself to the earth (BK 362)

In the last sentence Alyosha is said to be cut down by the appearance of nature as a sacred cathedral But the appearance is itself a product of his newly formed consciousness and in this sense it is as much a fantasy as the dream sequence that precedes it It differs from the dream only because it presents itself to Alyosha as external reality Alyoshas own thoughts which were said to have flashed like stars through his soul and therefore anticipate the starry sky that he sees are responsible for this new interpretation His mind actively if unself-consciously interprets and thereby shapes sensations stimulated in him by external reality it turns them into perceptions which in this case are more like symbols Alyosha responds to the symbolism as if it came from outside

Alyoshas embrace of the earth is a physical expression of his embrace of the whole plentitude of the whole universe of which Dostoevsky had spoken in the notebooks to the novel Once he has opened himself in this way he experiences the sensation of being at a center point where all worlds meet and vibrating in tune with all of them He is in a frenzy of forshygiving and forgiveness in a state where boundaries between himself and the world seem to be dissolved At the same time as he flows outward howshyever a reverse motion is occurring

But vith each moment he felt clearly and almost tangibly something as firm and immovable as this heavenly vault [nebesbyi svocll descend into his soul Some sort of idea as it were was coming to reign in his mind-now for the whole of his life and unto ages of ages He fell to the earth a weak youth and

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Did IJostO(lky (lr T(ll~toy Believe ill Mirld(s

rose lip a fighte r stedflSt for I ll( res t o f his life m] he knew it and fdt it sudde nly (It til (lt very mome nt of his (CSt a~ NeCr ncf r in his li fe would AI)osha forget this moment ~SOllllOllC isIl(1 HI) MIIII in that hour- ht wou ld $Y afte rwards with fi rm telief ill his words (Jj K 362-63)

As Alyosha moves ou t o f the e ro tic fre nzy of which (like David danci ng nake d before the ark) Mhe was nut asilltrllld ~on l lllt i llg frlllll o ll tsid e and ahove-it is Iike~ the heaven ly aTch and thprcfore is not it-sN ms to him to possess hi~ soul ami o rganize it (I((Ording to what he calls nn - idea- that In m s him frolll a wctk hoy into a warrior As should be clear by now Alyoshas later version of what happflII d to hlm-SOIlltOIlC i si t(d 1Ilt~shydocs not jibe in any si mple way with the nnrrntors account of the (cnl as it unfolds A (omplc( inte raction IJetw(c n AI)osh11 and -T(tlity- takes place in which Dostoevsky intentionally I(lw$ uuctftlli ll what c( unes from imide and what from outside Th e heilVcnly vault Hs( lf is o ne case in point it is a nWl apho r huil 0 11 the unavoidahle but scil lItifically fa[sc human pe rcepshytion of Ihc sl-y IS round and i nittgt [n th is St lIS it C( lnlCS lol from reality b ill from Alyosha who the n fee ls somet h ing [i kc it cnter him in the fonn of moml pri ncipks

The helcnly vault mnkes IIIl lIp pt arlItlCl in hook S or AIIIUI Kllrelli lw and also in iJasic CmlUIJI of gtsyclwlugy Strakhov cites it- using th( term 1It)yi ~VO(I-as an (~~al1lplc of the Tluut) of universal perctgtplions whether o r nul Ihc) cOrrespond 10 (xtenml ralily (0011 38) 1(111 uses it to Issert the validi ty of his ~slJhje(tiH~- be lief in II humanly llleaningfulllnierse

Liug Illl hi back hc IS now gazing 111 till high d oudlcss sky DolIt I know that tllUl is infinite spu middot amI nnt a rollnd~1 twit [knl1lyi slJO(l] But howshyever I Inll ~fW III eycs and stram my sight I call1lot 1(lp ltt-eing il as rml TOuml lIud not limitcd alill dasp it t III) kllO k-ilge of limitless spalaquoe I am illmiddot dubitably ri~ht when 1 S(-f a nml rou nd ault JVlrrlyi jolilboi ~nKI] and mOTt ri~h t tll1I1 wllcn I stmin tn ~t( beyoml it ~ (AK 724 )

Dostocvsl-ys lise of thc heacn l) ali it may be a hidden referencoe to one o r ho th of the previo us ones Be this as it may thc metaphor figures in atlth ree texts as part of a defense of the IlIlImm from the degrading rcd ultionism of sciell le The two poets carry this argllmen t milch furthe r than the scientistshyphilosophe r bul Stmkllu lays the groundwork for their more ambitious 5ions whe n he tn ()lifi(s e mpirical psychology to 1II0ve the nucleus of lhe ps)chc the sclf into the realm of rl1(taphysical knowledge that is inltC(tsshysible to IUlman reason For both Dostoevsky and Tolstoy the individual psyshyche bpoundlonws 11 gatcway tu a tnlllscellde ntal reali ty othe rwisc inat(cssihlc

Despite thes( corHl(tions howcver ali(I CVClI ifho DostOtsk) and Strakhov are quo ting To lstoy the two I)()fts haC di ffe ring hleL of what we Call actually know alx lII thc transcendc ntal reali ty in which h()th leed to heliew Til is eviderll fro m II c()rnpa rison of the respective (piphaHies of

133

Alyosha and Levin Levin d ist overs a tnlth that he feels be luLS always l1own Fyodors words p roclm-ecl in his so ul the cfktt of an e lectric spark sudshydpoundnly t ransfurm ing and we lding in tu une a whol( g roup of d isjointed il nposhytent separate ideas wtich fwd mllf ccmud to occufY him These ideas lIubckll (JWflst to himself wac occupyiug him wile n he WILS talking ahout letshyling the land (e mphasis added) Su ilHc mal but separate idca_~ that toshygethe r make III a larger lnalll we re waiting only for all exle rnal catalyst to make the mselves known Whe n they do ~Oll1e together Le vin decmiddotlares that he IloW ~ kl1ow~ what not only he but all of llllillankind have always know n MAlld [did not finu this klluwledgt in any way bu t it was given tO IIIU gilr u l-ecausc I lOUl t lWt han takcm it from a l1)whe re16 lcin says flll1hershymore that he hngt lwen liJlg right while he lhinks wTOng Thl of cours( is what saves him from tile fat e o f Anna who becausc she lives wrollg does no t have aeltcss to the knowlelge thl t is hidde n ill he r too

Unlike u vin Alyosha feels thnt his 1l(W kllowlcdge comes from UIlIshy

lgt idc Ill is is whal be means when he says ~ Someonc i sitcu me lie has a sense that a fonll ntivl moml idea e nte rs him and turus him frOlll a middotmiddotwetk )oulh to a warrior As I have shown prcviously this sense is mistake n 10 the ed l llt that Alyosbas rortitudc rests IIpoll newly constituted inne r foundashytions Despite this hid howc c r AI)1Jshas PCJIc ption that his HCW resolushylioll comes fmm o utside him is n lluable dill both to his slate of mind alld allgto tn the relation of real alld ideal acconling to Dustocvsky As with Len another persoll s ltortlS-in Alyoshas llISC the words and deeds of c rushf lIka---cr(atl Ihe initi al oonrnlions fur his epiphany As with Lcin Ihcs( wurd~ bOlh IInseltle his feelings Iud thou)hl s and preci pi tat e signill shyt1Il1 knowledf(c Before this knflII(I~e can coalesce howeve r Alr nsha has anothe r cperic nct a dream l i e falls asleep LS tile b ihlical passtlge alxlIIl the 1lllrrillge at Calla is being ruad ove r Ihe (Offin ofZosilllltt He (Ommenls on this passage in his skCp Iud Ihe n Zosima appears hefore hinl and sumshymons h im to the marriage fPast At this point Alyoshas dream slille dcfp shyens and the physical laws o f lIatufe are ~lIs pell(l((1 To mark this shifl from ohj(Actif to subjeltti() fe-al ity LJostOlvsky me ntions thai (ill Aly shas pershycep tion) the mom lUoves (k()wlfl mdlligmsII ) Hnd Ihc n to enlphL~ize it he rqktI S the info rmatioll in the sunf parag raph (oP(J mflvIlIl(JS kOIlIlW ) When tht ph)sicallaws that hold a room in place no longer ohshylain the dL( rce uf 1I(alh isil ed on eYc ry individual who lils lived or lives is also lifted Zosill1a does not ri se rrom his w flin whidl has d isappeared Iyosha simply reltOgnizes hi III as nile of the gllcsts al the table It is usiliia whll ealls Alyosha ~ th words that suggest liis resurrection Why hle )011 buricd yourself 11 (1( where we can t seL you corne and join us r Zaclle1t1 siuda skhuronilsia cillo lie vidal Ic bia po idelll i ty k lI am ~

UK 361) The c ITfC t is Ihal AI)llsha wakes from lht clead 10 Ihf living life of hi s urr-3m

Did Doslocvs l) or Tol~IO Bclitlt( ill ~lim(ICli

The statns of dreallls in Ih( nowl and the appeamme in the m of Imllshysccmlenlal ideal realily lJ(ltOmes clearer if we oompme Alyillhas dream wilh lh e appeamncc of the devil to Iyan laler in the novel As is approprishy(lIe for an advocate of philosophical lIHtt e rialisrn lilt devi l illsists tlmt he is part of the phy~ical world Ivan howeer WlIlls tlfmiddotspe rat e l) In 1 ~~Heve

thai the devi l is a fi gme nt of his irnagination li e is in fact drea med lip by [van and vanishes wllcn Alyosha knocks on his willdow hut- Illost si~ni fl shyeanlly-that docs not 1l1fan thai the devil is not rfn l Usin~ analytic rCL~OIl h lUl has assu lIlrtl the staluc of an outside observer is-u-vis not only exlershynal hil i also his own intenml rt ality He ell t~ himse lf ofT from transccll dcnshytal reality through his mtionnlislIl and his egotism Whe n his irnaginitiull mujures til) the devil he wanlgt 10 k~p lhis stirrin~ of spirilIIallife salely fi ctional evell though his dcvil is much closer to him personally than say the Cmnd Infllisitor in his safely d istanced story o r medie val limcraquo Alyosua by con trast Inkes his drculI littrally as a timeless visitation to him by Zmillla lind ttn Christ This is what he means when he says thai - someshyone visi ted him

Just how real is this o ther deathless world Dostoesky seems 10 sugshygest that it call actually apclIr 10 liS in ou r drciulis a lld fa ut ilsies7 AI)05has dream seems 10 transpose hi m 10 another world nol nppar~nt in oll r wakshying life UcelUse II priori rules of time and splce b lock ollr u(tss to it In dreams thesl rules a re suspe nded and Alym has fi nal epiphany takes place at the crossroads of wn1 1mbcrless- worlds Illat momentarily il1lcrscd wit hil l him 1111 confidence that DoslneSJ) In in Ih~ rea li t)~ of Al)oshas vision is expressed in his lISC of the Hussian word kflJJuJ--dollle--for the sl) as it appelrs to 1 I)osha when he sleps o ul inlo nature WI( 3(2) t few lines latN wsornc thillg (IS firm and immovable a$ this heavenl) ault IlIcbeslyi middotIltHl t is said 10 desc(nd into AI)oshas SOIl I A klllo in Bussiall is not the inside of Ihe do me of a enthedmllmt it outsitic DostoclI J) i t~hokC of worcls suggests that lit thi s epiphanic Illoment AI)nsha 1I1ollltntarily see the other tnms(c llde l1lal world whole and from the ()ulside

BltCk in 111111 VlfClillll I--vin has no dream and his e pipbU1Y runs a dilTc re nt ((lIIrse from Alyoshamiddots F)1xlors w(Jrd~ i~nitc a ehai n of intcrvJOwn Ihoughllgt IIml re miniscen(es but during this PlOCf SS Levin remains enti re ly wi thin himself His insp ired idea orgallitcs a whol e swarm ufvarious imshypolent separate thoughts that had always pr(()(Cllpicd him It oomes not frOlll the Bible but fro m trldilional peasant wi~dom which Levin lIlainshytains is Oolh unive rsal and Hahira Wllcreas Al~osha fllllL his ideals in a book-nncl later writes a book himsllr- Lcvin finds the Ifllth only whe n Fedor s words release ~ undear bu t Significant though ts that before had 1kl1 - locked up in h is soul hut now all streaming loward a single goal began 10 whirl in his head blind ing hi m wit h Ihei r lighl ~ (AI( 719)_ Whe u he hilS fini shed spinning out the consequences of his re turn to truth he

135

stops thinking and listens to mysterious voiees jo)fully aud eamestl) disshycussing sOlllcllling amo ng I hemsektmiddots~ (AK 724 )

Eistwberp in the novel Levin too makes lontact with anothe r world Tll is happe ns not wh he is eont e mplating Iml during fundallUlItal life exshyperie nces (ollrtsil ip alld marriage the death of his brother and the birt h of hi s SOil Birth md dcatll arc - mimcts- that e levate the ordinary life aboV( mechanical proecss ami infu sc it with the sacred In the w()rd~ of tile I)()t Fet lo lII lenUn~ un the l(lIlncction bc lwtt1l Nikolais dpath and ~ I itya s hirth hirth and death arc - Iwo holfs [from the 1l1ltcrialJ into the ~piri t lal world into NirvUla Tlwy are middot two visible and ete rnally l11yste ri shyOIL~ ~ nduws t~ 111 Mil k(lk woJ (The World (IS OIW Wllole ) puhlished in 1872 Stmkhov ar~u~ thaI b irth and death the main events of organic (as oppos(ltu mechanical) life lannol be understood Sltienlificul1y

I l er( in hinh and death J evcT)1hiug is ituo lllprehfllsiblc cWI1 hilig is mysshyt c riou~ a nti MienC( d()(i not S(f (tll a path u) wltieh it might nrrivc at II resshyolution to the IUlSlit llls Ilmt prt~e nt I hemselws 111Cstigations ~how that thSl mi raclegt art lakin~ pltlCC now Ic rc he fore our H ry eyes From this point of view it is wry JUSI III say Diine creation d~s nol cease even ffir n In il ll1tc that thtmiddot J rent ~tCfc t of tllc crealil)n of till world is taking place bcshyfort us up t ( l tll is ve ry fltOlllcnt m

Tlwc aft the (enlT3lmyste rics that cevate ordinary life above tlw mere ly mechanical and of lOlirsc give I sacred dime nsion to the faHlil) Although Toisto nowhe re 1dnltJwl(ltges this the - family idea in Amw iVl rellill(l

mav derive its th(ore tieal validity from TIU World n~ Dlle Wholc whidl hl f~ 1l111Cll admircdO lt llis is s~ tllcn Stflkhov is o ne irnpo rtmlt SOU rLC o f the pantheism that is till presellt in IIIW IVm IllrI albe it in a difTe fCnt and much tl imi ll is hed fnnn than ill Var (fI1l1 Pf(f(Y

Tht - fa mily idea (l ike tIle - idea o f tit p(Ople h in War lIIullfflce ) has nothing to do with Ihe mi nd at all In the passage from The World (IS Dill Wlwle Strakhov plalcs limits on what human rC1$I)U can diSlte rB and this idea wOllld have been vcI) lltt mc tive to Tolstoy lle rever Stmkhov stepl)(1 Oe)ontl those limits Tulstoy wOl1 ld take h im to tas k for doing so In IUlSic

C()IICepl~ of PSljchol(Jy ill a chapte r entitled l he Real Life o f the SOl1 l ~

(H lleal T1 1a zhzn middot dllshn Strakhov trieli to prove the objetti c status of psychic life whetllCr awake or aslc(middotp by d((ltieing a priori ohjeetic cateshygori es u f tmlh (isliuul goodness (bllgo J alld frfeltlolil (ltwouodnnio dd(lshyIcrlllJ~t) tllll IInderlie tho ught feeling alld will resp(CIieiy

Our ulolights hawmiddot to comprise real knowletlgc 11m fecling~ hae 10 relat l to our fcal ~ooJ they twt to he part of OUf rcalluppincss our desires have 10

IJe possible to rcali71 ucstimtl fo r rellizatilll1 (lnd [destined to ] he trl1Islated into ftal actiuns Umlcr tlifs( m ndilions tlur inner world takes on the s i ~n ifmiddot ical1(1middot I f full reali t ami luses its illu sory charaelN life tllrns frolll a dr( ilHI intu nal lift (001 73)

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Did Dostoevsky or Tolstoy Believe in Miracles

in the individual soul Only my soul understood as just the self itself (prosto samogo sebia) indubitably exists for me Everything else including my body is part of the external world whose existence can be doubted (Oop 20-25) The self becomes Descartess Arcbimedean pOint from which he can investigate everything else To know something means to separate it from the self and hence to objectify it Each object of analysis requires a subject which as the knower cannot itself be known The subject then by its vely nature is not susceptible to being known as an object By the self Strakhov claims that Descartes meant that part of tbe soul that generates not only thoughts but all emanations of psychic life (Oop 10) All thoughts feelings and acts of will can be objectified and studied but their cause within the soul cannot The cause itself has no content no number it is alshyways one and always unchanging (vsegda edinoe i vsegda neizmennoe Oop 58) We can know it only negatively by stating what it is not

This insistence on the unknowability of the self is Strakhovs main departure from contemporary empirical psychology and both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky develop its implications Strakhov defends human autonomy and dignity from attacks by science by distinguishing between what is and is not susceptible to scientific analysis according to him materialists and scientists alike make the mistake of applying tools appropriate to the invesshytigation of the objective world to the subjective one (Oop 30 60) As he prepared in his notes to the novel to defend Alyoshas faith and speCifically his belief in miracles Dostoevsky put it this way And as for so-called scishyentific proofs he [Alyoshal did not believe in them and was right in not beshylieving in them even though he had not finished his studies it was not possible to disprove matters that by their essence were not of this world by knowledge that was of this worldn

Vhat we speak of as scientific knowledge moreover has its own limishytations Materialists and positivists believe that we can know only objective or empirical reality On the contrary argues Strakhov the only thing an inshydividual experiences directly is himself his own existence and psychic pheshynomena that are reactions to an external world to which he has no direct access Even the ways in which we organize reality are in fact the results of a priori categories of time and space inhering in our own minds rather than in external reality If that is so and if in the other direction the self is unknowable then Strakhov paints a bleak picture indeed of what human beings can hope to understand But neither StraldlOv nor Tolstoy or Dostoshyevsky actually accepted these limitations on knowledge as absolute While Strakhov agreed with Schopenhauer that the world is my representation he did not mean by it that the world did not exist Perceptions do reflect some kind of physical reality and most important feelings thoughts and will must be grounded in transcendental prinCiples that make them more than merely subjective

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Donna Orwin

What Strakhov has done in his monograph is to put a Kantian spin on early modern philosophy Descartes was most concerned to establish the self as the point from which an objective scientific investigation of the world could proceed To do so he was willing to sacrifice the very possibility of self-knowledge by positing the self as the pure subject (chistyi subekt) of all objects Inaccessible to dissection by human reason after Kant the self becomes a potential safe haven for spiritual truths not verifiable by empirshyical science This inner spiritual reality is often said to be known to the heart rather than the mind as such it is more the purview of poets than philososhyphers and it was his belief in the greater profundity of the knowledge of the heart that made Strakhov feel inferior to his poet friends H Both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky benefited from Strakhovs dualism Self-knowledge undershystood as knowledge of that supposedly unknowable subject which is the self is reconstituted in their works as inner knowledge of metaphysical reality the true realm of the miraculous To anticipate what follows Dostoevsky goes further than Tolstoy in depicting the other world as he sometimes calls it whose objective existence cannot be proven

In The Brothers Karamazov Dostoevsky employs the ideas briefly sketched earlier to solve the problem of the possibility of religiOUS belief in the modern world All the characters in the novel are OIiginally selfshycentered and unsure of the feelings or thoughts of others which is preshysented as natural All of them see external reality through the subjective lens of their own personalities and each crea tes a version of the world corshyresponding to these visions The clashes that arise among them stem from the incompatibility of these multiple subjective realities Such is the case even for Alyosha who makes the mistake (and cannot but make it) of assumshying that all others share his own consistently good intentions Once he has changed his opinion of Grushenka for instance he feels certain that she will give herself to her former lover rather than knife him The reader lisshytening to Grushenka and observing her expressions cannot be so sure

The solution to the conflicts that alise from this natural self-centeredness lies not in an escape from the self as might have been required in earlier Christianity but in deeper self-understanding In the notebooks to the novel one of Zosimas maxims reads What is life-To define oneself as much as possible I am I exist To be like the Lord who says I am who is but already in the whole plenitude of the whole universels When characshyters reform in the novel they affirm their own existence and for the first time the existence of others in the whole plenitude of the whole universe

This paradigm applies very neatly to Alyosha Karamazov He is introshyduced to the reader as a man who naturally believes in miracles because his subjective point of view mandates this belief He is as much a realist as is the atheist whose exclusive belief in the laws of nature predisposes him to discount any miracle In the realis t faith is not born from miracles but

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miracles from faith (BIlt 26) Alyoshas education results not in a repudiashytion of miracles but in a reassessment of the concept of the miraculous

When Zosimas body begins to stink Alyosha already shaken by Ivan s argument about divine injustice or indifference experiences this situation as a kind of reverse miracle Why he asks himself did the body have to deshycay so rapidly and conspicuously In other words Alyosha as the narrator tells us remains true to his fundamentally religiOUS temperament but proshyvoked by Ivan he rebels against Gods world What restores Alyoshas trust in God is the revelation of Grushenkas innate goodness Like his brothers Alyosha has created the world in his own image With his passionate comshymitment to purity-what the narrator calls in one place his wild frenzied modesty and chastity (dikaia istuplennaia stydlivost i tselomudrennost BIlt 20)-Alyosha has denied his own corporeality and espeCially his sensushyality He projects onto the world a distorted image of humanity divided into saints like Zosima and sinners like Grushenka whom he sees as a prisoner and advocate of the dumb and blind laws of carnal pleasure In revenge for the humiliation of Zosima Alyosha decides to submit himself exclusively to her and those laws When he arrives at Grushenkas however he finds her in a state that cannot be explained with reference to them In the final fourth chapter of book 7 Alyoshas faith in humanity then not only revives but expands

For all its ecstatic tone (which is meant to convey Alyoshas mood) the description of Alyoshas reconCiliation with faith is very preCise and psyshychologically detailed First he has a sensation of inner commotion and orshyderliness at the same time

His soul was overflowing but somehow vaguely and no Single sensation stood out making itself felt too much on the contrary one followed another in a sort of slow and calm rotation But there was sweetness in his heart and strangely Alyosha was not surplised at that (BIlt 359)

Alyosha is having the experience dubbed sweet and rare in Dostoevskys world of feeling himself altogether in one place The sensations (oshchushyshcheniia) do not move in and out as they would in a moment of active involvement with the world but circle slowly not forming into actual pershyceptions These sensations are wholly internal yet they are reactions to exshyternal events their internal assimilation After them (and perhaps arising out of them) come thoughts

Fragments of thoughts [myslil flashed in his soul catching fire like little stars and dying out at once to give way to others yet there reigned in his soul something whole firm assuaging and he was conscious of himself (BI( 359)

Sensation by its nature is not self-conscious but thought is and so at this moment the same I that feels sweet both emits thoughts and at the same

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Donna Oruin

time is conscious of itself as something whole As he recovers from the disorientating experiences of the previous day dming which he has doubted his connection to immortality the one and unchanging part of Alyoshas soul (to use Strakhovs terminology) makes itself felt

There follows Alyoshas half-waking dream in which thought weaves sensation into fantasy and commentary on the text of the marriage at Cana that is being read over Zosimas body in the background Awakening from the dream Alyosha runs outdoors to fall down on the earth (as he had done when his crisis began) but this time in ecstatic joy Nature presents itself to him in the form of a great cathedral with the sky its dome (nebesnyi lwpol)

Over him the heavenly dome full of quiet shining stars hung boundlessly From the zenith to the horizon the still-dim Milky Way stretched its double strand Night fresh and quiet almost unstirring enveloped the earth The white towers and golden domes of the church gleamed in the sapphire sky The luxuriant autumn Rowers in the Rowerbeds near the house had fallen asleep until morning The silence of the earth seemed to merge with the sishylence of the heavens the mystery of the earth touched the mystery of the stars Alyosha stood gazing ancl suddenly as if he had been cut dovvn threw himself to the earth (BK 362)

In the last sentence Alyosha is said to be cut down by the appearance of nature as a sacred cathedral But the appearance is itself a product of his newly formed consciousness and in this sense it is as much a fantasy as the dream sequence that precedes it It differs from the dream only because it presents itself to Alyosha as external reality Alyoshas own thoughts which were said to have flashed like stars through his soul and therefore anticipate the starry sky that he sees are responsible for this new interpretation His mind actively if unself-consciously interprets and thereby shapes sensations stimulated in him by external reality it turns them into perceptions which in this case are more like symbols Alyosha responds to the symbolism as if it came from outside

Alyoshas embrace of the earth is a physical expression of his embrace of the whole plentitude of the whole universe of which Dostoevsky had spoken in the notebooks to the novel Once he has opened himself in this way he experiences the sensation of being at a center point where all worlds meet and vibrating in tune with all of them He is in a frenzy of forshygiving and forgiveness in a state where boundaries between himself and the world seem to be dissolved At the same time as he flows outward howshyever a reverse motion is occurring

But vith each moment he felt clearly and almost tangibly something as firm and immovable as this heavenly vault [nebesbyi svocll descend into his soul Some sort of idea as it were was coming to reign in his mind-now for the whole of his life and unto ages of ages He fell to the earth a weak youth and

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Did IJostO(lky (lr T(ll~toy Believe ill Mirld(s

rose lip a fighte r stedflSt for I ll( res t o f his life m] he knew it and fdt it sudde nly (It til (lt very mome nt of his (CSt a~ NeCr ncf r in his li fe would AI)osha forget this moment ~SOllllOllC isIl(1 HI) MIIII in that hour- ht wou ld $Y afte rwards with fi rm telief ill his words (Jj K 362-63)

As Alyosha moves ou t o f the e ro tic fre nzy of which (like David danci ng nake d before the ark) Mhe was nut asilltrllld ~on l lllt i llg frlllll o ll tsid e and ahove-it is Iike~ the heaven ly aTch and thprcfore is not it-sN ms to him to possess hi~ soul ami o rganize it (I((Ording to what he calls nn - idea- that In m s him frolll a wctk hoy into a warrior As should be clear by now Alyoshas later version of what happflII d to hlm-SOIlltOIlC i si t(d 1Ilt~shydocs not jibe in any si mple way with the nnrrntors account of the (cnl as it unfolds A (omplc( inte raction IJetw(c n AI)osh11 and -T(tlity- takes place in which Dostoevsky intentionally I(lw$ uuctftlli ll what c( unes from imide and what from outside Th e heilVcnly vault Hs( lf is o ne case in point it is a nWl apho r huil 0 11 the unavoidahle but scil lItifically fa[sc human pe rcepshytion of Ihc sl-y IS round and i nittgt [n th is St lIS it C( lnlCS lol from reality b ill from Alyosha who the n fee ls somet h ing [i kc it cnter him in the fonn of moml pri ncipks

The helcnly vault mnkes IIIl lIp pt arlItlCl in hook S or AIIIUI Kllrelli lw and also in iJasic CmlUIJI of gtsyclwlugy Strakhov cites it- using th( term 1It)yi ~VO(I-as an (~~al1lplc of the Tluut) of universal perctgtplions whether o r nul Ihc) cOrrespond 10 (xtenml ralily (0011 38) 1(111 uses it to Issert the validi ty of his ~slJhje(tiH~- be lief in II humanly llleaningfulllnierse

Liug Illl hi back hc IS now gazing 111 till high d oudlcss sky DolIt I know that tllUl is infinite spu middot amI nnt a rollnd~1 twit [knl1lyi slJO(l] But howshyever I Inll ~fW III eycs and stram my sight I call1lot 1(lp ltt-eing il as rml TOuml lIud not limitcd alill dasp it t III) kllO k-ilge of limitless spalaquoe I am illmiddot dubitably ri~ht when 1 S(-f a nml rou nd ault JVlrrlyi jolilboi ~nKI] and mOTt ri~h t tll1I1 wllcn I stmin tn ~t( beyoml it ~ (AK 724 )

Dostocvsl-ys lise of thc heacn l) ali it may be a hidden referencoe to one o r ho th of the previo us ones Be this as it may thc metaphor figures in atlth ree texts as part of a defense of the IlIlImm from the degrading rcd ultionism of sciell le The two poets carry this argllmen t milch furthe r than the scientistshyphilosophe r bul Stmkllu lays the groundwork for their more ambitious 5ions whe n he tn ()lifi(s e mpirical psychology to 1II0ve the nucleus of lhe ps)chc the sclf into the realm of rl1(taphysical knowledge that is inltC(tsshysible to IUlman reason For both Dostoevsky and Tolstoy the individual psyshyche bpoundlonws 11 gatcway tu a tnlllscellde ntal reali ty othe rwisc inat(cssihlc

Despite thes( corHl(tions howcver ali(I CVClI ifho DostOtsk) and Strakhov are quo ting To lstoy the two I)()fts haC di ffe ring hleL of what we Call actually know alx lII thc transcendc ntal reali ty in which h()th leed to heliew Til is eviderll fro m II c()rnpa rison of the respective (piphaHies of

133

Alyosha and Levin Levin d ist overs a tnlth that he feels be luLS always l1own Fyodors words p roclm-ecl in his so ul the cfktt of an e lectric spark sudshydpoundnly t ransfurm ing and we lding in tu une a whol( g roup of d isjointed il nposhytent separate ideas wtich fwd mllf ccmud to occufY him These ideas lIubckll (JWflst to himself wac occupyiug him wile n he WILS talking ahout letshyling the land (e mphasis added) Su ilHc mal but separate idca_~ that toshygethe r make III a larger lnalll we re waiting only for all exle rnal catalyst to make the mselves known Whe n they do ~Oll1e together Le vin decmiddotlares that he IloW ~ kl1ow~ what not only he but all of llllillankind have always know n MAlld [did not finu this klluwledgt in any way bu t it was given tO IIIU gilr u l-ecausc I lOUl t lWt han takcm it from a l1)whe re16 lcin says flll1hershymore that he hngt lwen liJlg right while he lhinks wTOng Thl of cours( is what saves him from tile fat e o f Anna who becausc she lives wrollg does no t have aeltcss to the knowlelge thl t is hidde n ill he r too

Unlike u vin Alyosha feels thnt his 1l(W kllowlcdge comes from UIlIshy

lgt idc Ill is is whal be means when he says ~ Someonc i sitcu me lie has a sense that a fonll ntivl moml idea e nte rs him and turus him frOlll a middotmiddotwetk )oulh to a warrior As I have shown prcviously this sense is mistake n 10 the ed l llt that Alyosbas rortitudc rests IIpoll newly constituted inne r foundashytions Despite this hid howc c r AI)1Jshas PCJIc ption that his HCW resolushylioll comes fmm o utside him is n lluable dill both to his slate of mind alld allgto tn the relation of real alld ideal acconling to Dustocvsky As with Len another persoll s ltortlS-in Alyoshas llISC the words and deeds of c rushf lIka---cr(atl Ihe initi al oonrnlions fur his epiphany As with Lcin Ihcs( wurd~ bOlh IInseltle his feelings Iud thou)hl s and preci pi tat e signill shyt1Il1 knowledf(c Before this knflII(I~e can coalesce howeve r Alr nsha has anothe r cperic nct a dream l i e falls asleep LS tile b ihlical passtlge alxlIIl the 1lllrrillge at Calla is being ruad ove r Ihe (Offin ofZosilllltt He (Ommenls on this passage in his skCp Iud Ihe n Zosima appears hefore hinl and sumshymons h im to the marriage fPast At this point Alyoshas dream slille dcfp shyens and the physical laws o f lIatufe are ~lIs pell(l((1 To mark this shifl from ohj(Actif to subjeltti() fe-al ity LJostOlvsky me ntions thai (ill Aly shas pershycep tion) the mom lUoves (k()wlfl mdlligmsII ) Hnd Ihc n to enlphL~ize it he rqktI S the info rmatioll in the sunf parag raph (oP(J mflvIlIl(JS kOIlIlW ) When tht ph)sicallaws that hold a room in place no longer ohshylain the dL( rce uf 1I(alh isil ed on eYc ry individual who lils lived or lives is also lifted Zosill1a does not ri se rrom his w flin whidl has d isappeared Iyosha simply reltOgnizes hi III as nile of the gllcsts al the table It is usiliia whll ealls Alyosha ~ th words that suggest liis resurrection Why hle )011 buricd yourself 11 (1( where we can t seL you corne and join us r Zaclle1t1 siuda skhuronilsia cillo lie vidal Ic bia po idelll i ty k lI am ~

UK 361) The c ITfC t is Ihal AI)llsha wakes from lht clead 10 Ihf living life of hi s urr-3m

Did Doslocvs l) or Tol~IO Bclitlt( ill ~lim(ICli

The statns of dreallls in Ih( nowl and the appeamme in the m of Imllshysccmlenlal ideal realily lJ(ltOmes clearer if we oompme Alyillhas dream wilh lh e appeamncc of the devil to Iyan laler in the novel As is approprishy(lIe for an advocate of philosophical lIHtt e rialisrn lilt devi l illsists tlmt he is part of the phy~ical world Ivan howeer WlIlls tlfmiddotspe rat e l) In 1 ~~Heve

thai the devi l is a fi gme nt of his irnagination li e is in fact drea med lip by [van and vanishes wllcn Alyosha knocks on his willdow hut- Illost si~ni fl shyeanlly-that docs not 1l1fan thai the devil is not rfn l Usin~ analytic rCL~OIl h lUl has assu lIlrtl the staluc of an outside observer is-u-vis not only exlershynal hil i also his own intenml rt ality He ell t~ himse lf ofT from transccll dcnshytal reality through his mtionnlislIl and his egotism Whe n his irnaginitiull mujures til) the devil he wanlgt 10 k~p lhis stirrin~ of spirilIIallife salely fi ctional evell though his dcvil is much closer to him personally than say the Cmnd Infllisitor in his safely d istanced story o r medie val limcraquo Alyosua by con trast Inkes his drculI littrally as a timeless visitation to him by Zmillla lind ttn Christ This is what he means when he says thai - someshyone visi ted him

Just how real is this o ther deathless world Dostoesky seems 10 sugshygest that it call actually apclIr 10 liS in ou r drciulis a lld fa ut ilsies7 AI)05has dream seems 10 transpose hi m 10 another world nol nppar~nt in oll r wakshying life UcelUse II priori rules of time and splce b lock ollr u(tss to it In dreams thesl rules a re suspe nded and Alym has fi nal epiphany takes place at the crossroads of wn1 1mbcrless- worlds Illat momentarily il1lcrscd wit hil l him 1111 confidence that DoslneSJ) In in Ih~ rea li t)~ of Al)oshas vision is expressed in his lISC of the Hussian word kflJJuJ--dollle--for the sl) as it appelrs to 1 I)osha when he sleps o ul inlo nature WI( 3(2) t few lines latN wsornc thillg (IS firm and immovable a$ this heavenl) ault IlIcbeslyi middotIltHl t is said 10 desc(nd into AI)oshas SOIl I A klllo in Bussiall is not the inside of Ihe do me of a enthedmllmt it outsitic DostoclI J) i t~hokC of worcls suggests that lit thi s epiphanic Illoment AI)nsha 1I1ollltntarily see the other tnms(c llde l1lal world whole and from the ()ulside

BltCk in 111111 VlfClillll I--vin has no dream and his e pipbU1Y runs a dilTc re nt ((lIIrse from Alyoshamiddots F)1xlors w(Jrd~ i~nitc a ehai n of intcrvJOwn Ihoughllgt IIml re miniscen(es but during this PlOCf SS Levin remains enti re ly wi thin himself His insp ired idea orgallitcs a whol e swarm ufvarious imshypolent separate thoughts that had always pr(()(Cllpicd him It oomes not frOlll the Bible but fro m trldilional peasant wi~dom which Levin lIlainshytains is Oolh unive rsal and Hahira Wllcreas Al~osha fllllL his ideals in a book-nncl later writes a book himsllr- Lcvin finds the Ifllth only whe n Fedor s words release ~ undear bu t Significant though ts that before had 1kl1 - locked up in h is soul hut now all streaming loward a single goal began 10 whirl in his head blind ing hi m wit h Ihei r lighl ~ (AI( 719)_ Whe u he hilS fini shed spinning out the consequences of his re turn to truth he

135

stops thinking and listens to mysterious voiees jo)fully aud eamestl) disshycussing sOlllcllling amo ng I hemsektmiddots~ (AK 724 )

Eistwberp in the novel Levin too makes lontact with anothe r world Tll is happe ns not wh he is eont e mplating Iml during fundallUlItal life exshyperie nces (ollrtsil ip alld marriage the death of his brother and the birt h of hi s SOil Birth md dcatll arc - mimcts- that e levate the ordinary life aboV( mechanical proecss ami infu sc it with the sacred In the w()rd~ of tile I)()t Fet lo lII lenUn~ un the l(lIlncction bc lwtt1l Nikolais dpath and ~ I itya s hirth hirth and death arc - Iwo holfs [from the 1l1ltcrialJ into the ~piri t lal world into NirvUla Tlwy are middot two visible and ete rnally l11yste ri shyOIL~ ~ nduws t~ 111 Mil k(lk woJ (The World (IS OIW Wllole ) puhlished in 1872 Stmkhov ar~u~ thaI b irth and death the main events of organic (as oppos(ltu mechanical) life lannol be understood Sltienlificul1y

I l er( in hinh and death J evcT)1hiug is ituo lllprehfllsiblc cWI1 hilig is mysshyt c riou~ a nti MienC( d()(i not S(f (tll a path u) wltieh it might nrrivc at II resshyolution to the IUlSlit llls Ilmt prt~e nt I hemselws 111Cstigations ~how that thSl mi raclegt art lakin~ pltlCC now Ic rc he fore our H ry eyes From this point of view it is wry JUSI III say Diine creation d~s nol cease even ffir n In il ll1tc that thtmiddot J rent ~tCfc t of tllc crealil)n of till world is taking place bcshyfort us up t ( l tll is ve ry fltOlllcnt m

Tlwc aft the (enlT3lmyste rics that cevate ordinary life above tlw mere ly mechanical and of lOlirsc give I sacred dime nsion to the faHlil) Although Toisto nowhe re 1dnltJwl(ltges this the - family idea in Amw iVl rellill(l

mav derive its th(ore tieal validity from TIU World n~ Dlle Wholc whidl hl f~ 1l111Cll admircdO lt llis is s~ tllcn Stflkhov is o ne irnpo rtmlt SOU rLC o f the pantheism that is till presellt in IIIW IVm IllrI albe it in a difTe fCnt and much tl imi ll is hed fnnn than ill Var (fI1l1 Pf(f(Y

Tht - fa mily idea (l ike tIle - idea o f tit p(Ople h in War lIIullfflce ) has nothing to do with Ihe mi nd at all In the passage from The World (IS Dill Wlwle Strakhov plalcs limits on what human rC1$I)U can diSlte rB and this idea wOllld have been vcI) lltt mc tive to Tolstoy lle rever Stmkhov stepl)(1 Oe)ontl those limits Tulstoy wOl1 ld take h im to tas k for doing so In IUlSic

C()IICepl~ of PSljchol(Jy ill a chapte r entitled l he Real Life o f the SOl1 l ~

(H lleal T1 1a zhzn middot dllshn Strakhov trieli to prove the objetti c status of psychic life whetllCr awake or aslc(middotp by d((ltieing a priori ohjeetic cateshygori es u f tmlh (isliuul goodness (bllgo J alld frfeltlolil (ltwouodnnio dd(lshyIcrlllJ~t) tllll IInderlie tho ught feeling alld will resp(CIieiy

Our ulolights hawmiddot to comprise real knowletlgc 11m fecling~ hae 10 relat l to our fcal ~ooJ they twt to he part of OUf rcalluppincss our desires have 10

IJe possible to rcali71 ucstimtl fo r rellizatilll1 (lnd [destined to ] he trl1Islated into ftal actiuns Umlcr tlifs( m ndilions tlur inner world takes on the s i ~n ifmiddot ical1(1middot I f full reali t ami luses its illu sory charaelN life tllrns frolll a dr( ilHI intu nal lift (001 73)

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Donna Orwin

What Strakhov has done in his monograph is to put a Kantian spin on early modern philosophy Descartes was most concerned to establish the self as the point from which an objective scientific investigation of the world could proceed To do so he was willing to sacrifice the very possibility of self-knowledge by positing the self as the pure subject (chistyi subekt) of all objects Inaccessible to dissection by human reason after Kant the self becomes a potential safe haven for spiritual truths not verifiable by empirshyical science This inner spiritual reality is often said to be known to the heart rather than the mind as such it is more the purview of poets than philososhyphers and it was his belief in the greater profundity of the knowledge of the heart that made Strakhov feel inferior to his poet friends H Both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky benefited from Strakhovs dualism Self-knowledge undershystood as knowledge of that supposedly unknowable subject which is the self is reconstituted in their works as inner knowledge of metaphysical reality the true realm of the miraculous To anticipate what follows Dostoevsky goes further than Tolstoy in depicting the other world as he sometimes calls it whose objective existence cannot be proven

In The Brothers Karamazov Dostoevsky employs the ideas briefly sketched earlier to solve the problem of the possibility of religiOUS belief in the modern world All the characters in the novel are OIiginally selfshycentered and unsure of the feelings or thoughts of others which is preshysented as natural All of them see external reality through the subjective lens of their own personalities and each crea tes a version of the world corshyresponding to these visions The clashes that arise among them stem from the incompatibility of these multiple subjective realities Such is the case even for Alyosha who makes the mistake (and cannot but make it) of assumshying that all others share his own consistently good intentions Once he has changed his opinion of Grushenka for instance he feels certain that she will give herself to her former lover rather than knife him The reader lisshytening to Grushenka and observing her expressions cannot be so sure

The solution to the conflicts that alise from this natural self-centeredness lies not in an escape from the self as might have been required in earlier Christianity but in deeper self-understanding In the notebooks to the novel one of Zosimas maxims reads What is life-To define oneself as much as possible I am I exist To be like the Lord who says I am who is but already in the whole plenitude of the whole universels When characshyters reform in the novel they affirm their own existence and for the first time the existence of others in the whole plenitude of the whole universe

This paradigm applies very neatly to Alyosha Karamazov He is introshyduced to the reader as a man who naturally believes in miracles because his subjective point of view mandates this belief He is as much a realist as is the atheist whose exclusive belief in the laws of nature predisposes him to discount any miracle In the realis t faith is not born from miracles but

130

Did Dostoevsky or Tolstoy Believe in Miracles

miracles from faith (BIlt 26) Alyoshas education results not in a repudiashytion of miracles but in a reassessment of the concept of the miraculous

When Zosimas body begins to stink Alyosha already shaken by Ivan s argument about divine injustice or indifference experiences this situation as a kind of reverse miracle Why he asks himself did the body have to deshycay so rapidly and conspicuously In other words Alyosha as the narrator tells us remains true to his fundamentally religiOUS temperament but proshyvoked by Ivan he rebels against Gods world What restores Alyoshas trust in God is the revelation of Grushenkas innate goodness Like his brothers Alyosha has created the world in his own image With his passionate comshymitment to purity-what the narrator calls in one place his wild frenzied modesty and chastity (dikaia istuplennaia stydlivost i tselomudrennost BIlt 20)-Alyosha has denied his own corporeality and espeCially his sensushyality He projects onto the world a distorted image of humanity divided into saints like Zosima and sinners like Grushenka whom he sees as a prisoner and advocate of the dumb and blind laws of carnal pleasure In revenge for the humiliation of Zosima Alyosha decides to submit himself exclusively to her and those laws When he arrives at Grushenkas however he finds her in a state that cannot be explained with reference to them In the final fourth chapter of book 7 Alyoshas faith in humanity then not only revives but expands

For all its ecstatic tone (which is meant to convey Alyoshas mood) the description of Alyoshas reconCiliation with faith is very preCise and psyshychologically detailed First he has a sensation of inner commotion and orshyderliness at the same time

His soul was overflowing but somehow vaguely and no Single sensation stood out making itself felt too much on the contrary one followed another in a sort of slow and calm rotation But there was sweetness in his heart and strangely Alyosha was not surplised at that (BIlt 359)

Alyosha is having the experience dubbed sweet and rare in Dostoevskys world of feeling himself altogether in one place The sensations (oshchushyshcheniia) do not move in and out as they would in a moment of active involvement with the world but circle slowly not forming into actual pershyceptions These sensations are wholly internal yet they are reactions to exshyternal events their internal assimilation After them (and perhaps arising out of them) come thoughts

Fragments of thoughts [myslil flashed in his soul catching fire like little stars and dying out at once to give way to others yet there reigned in his soul something whole firm assuaging and he was conscious of himself (BI( 359)

Sensation by its nature is not self-conscious but thought is and so at this moment the same I that feels sweet both emits thoughts and at the same

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Donna Oruin

time is conscious of itself as something whole As he recovers from the disorientating experiences of the previous day dming which he has doubted his connection to immortality the one and unchanging part of Alyoshas soul (to use Strakhovs terminology) makes itself felt

There follows Alyoshas half-waking dream in which thought weaves sensation into fantasy and commentary on the text of the marriage at Cana that is being read over Zosimas body in the background Awakening from the dream Alyosha runs outdoors to fall down on the earth (as he had done when his crisis began) but this time in ecstatic joy Nature presents itself to him in the form of a great cathedral with the sky its dome (nebesnyi lwpol)

Over him the heavenly dome full of quiet shining stars hung boundlessly From the zenith to the horizon the still-dim Milky Way stretched its double strand Night fresh and quiet almost unstirring enveloped the earth The white towers and golden domes of the church gleamed in the sapphire sky The luxuriant autumn Rowers in the Rowerbeds near the house had fallen asleep until morning The silence of the earth seemed to merge with the sishylence of the heavens the mystery of the earth touched the mystery of the stars Alyosha stood gazing ancl suddenly as if he had been cut dovvn threw himself to the earth (BK 362)

In the last sentence Alyosha is said to be cut down by the appearance of nature as a sacred cathedral But the appearance is itself a product of his newly formed consciousness and in this sense it is as much a fantasy as the dream sequence that precedes it It differs from the dream only because it presents itself to Alyosha as external reality Alyoshas own thoughts which were said to have flashed like stars through his soul and therefore anticipate the starry sky that he sees are responsible for this new interpretation His mind actively if unself-consciously interprets and thereby shapes sensations stimulated in him by external reality it turns them into perceptions which in this case are more like symbols Alyosha responds to the symbolism as if it came from outside

Alyoshas embrace of the earth is a physical expression of his embrace of the whole plentitude of the whole universe of which Dostoevsky had spoken in the notebooks to the novel Once he has opened himself in this way he experiences the sensation of being at a center point where all worlds meet and vibrating in tune with all of them He is in a frenzy of forshygiving and forgiveness in a state where boundaries between himself and the world seem to be dissolved At the same time as he flows outward howshyever a reverse motion is occurring

But vith each moment he felt clearly and almost tangibly something as firm and immovable as this heavenly vault [nebesbyi svocll descend into his soul Some sort of idea as it were was coming to reign in his mind-now for the whole of his life and unto ages of ages He fell to the earth a weak youth and

132

Did IJostO(lky (lr T(ll~toy Believe ill Mirld(s

rose lip a fighte r stedflSt for I ll( res t o f his life m] he knew it and fdt it sudde nly (It til (lt very mome nt of his (CSt a~ NeCr ncf r in his li fe would AI)osha forget this moment ~SOllllOllC isIl(1 HI) MIIII in that hour- ht wou ld $Y afte rwards with fi rm telief ill his words (Jj K 362-63)

As Alyosha moves ou t o f the e ro tic fre nzy of which (like David danci ng nake d before the ark) Mhe was nut asilltrllld ~on l lllt i llg frlllll o ll tsid e and ahove-it is Iike~ the heaven ly aTch and thprcfore is not it-sN ms to him to possess hi~ soul ami o rganize it (I((Ording to what he calls nn - idea- that In m s him frolll a wctk hoy into a warrior As should be clear by now Alyoshas later version of what happflII d to hlm-SOIlltOIlC i si t(d 1Ilt~shydocs not jibe in any si mple way with the nnrrntors account of the (cnl as it unfolds A (omplc( inte raction IJetw(c n AI)osh11 and -T(tlity- takes place in which Dostoevsky intentionally I(lw$ uuctftlli ll what c( unes from imide and what from outside Th e heilVcnly vault Hs( lf is o ne case in point it is a nWl apho r huil 0 11 the unavoidahle but scil lItifically fa[sc human pe rcepshytion of Ihc sl-y IS round and i nittgt [n th is St lIS it C( lnlCS lol from reality b ill from Alyosha who the n fee ls somet h ing [i kc it cnter him in the fonn of moml pri ncipks

The helcnly vault mnkes IIIl lIp pt arlItlCl in hook S or AIIIUI Kllrelli lw and also in iJasic CmlUIJI of gtsyclwlugy Strakhov cites it- using th( term 1It)yi ~VO(I-as an (~~al1lplc of the Tluut) of universal perctgtplions whether o r nul Ihc) cOrrespond 10 (xtenml ralily (0011 38) 1(111 uses it to Issert the validi ty of his ~slJhje(tiH~- be lief in II humanly llleaningfulllnierse

Liug Illl hi back hc IS now gazing 111 till high d oudlcss sky DolIt I know that tllUl is infinite spu middot amI nnt a rollnd~1 twit [knl1lyi slJO(l] But howshyever I Inll ~fW III eycs and stram my sight I call1lot 1(lp ltt-eing il as rml TOuml lIud not limitcd alill dasp it t III) kllO k-ilge of limitless spalaquoe I am illmiddot dubitably ri~ht when 1 S(-f a nml rou nd ault JVlrrlyi jolilboi ~nKI] and mOTt ri~h t tll1I1 wllcn I stmin tn ~t( beyoml it ~ (AK 724 )

Dostocvsl-ys lise of thc heacn l) ali it may be a hidden referencoe to one o r ho th of the previo us ones Be this as it may thc metaphor figures in atlth ree texts as part of a defense of the IlIlImm from the degrading rcd ultionism of sciell le The two poets carry this argllmen t milch furthe r than the scientistshyphilosophe r bul Stmkllu lays the groundwork for their more ambitious 5ions whe n he tn ()lifi(s e mpirical psychology to 1II0ve the nucleus of lhe ps)chc the sclf into the realm of rl1(taphysical knowledge that is inltC(tsshysible to IUlman reason For both Dostoevsky and Tolstoy the individual psyshyche bpoundlonws 11 gatcway tu a tnlllscellde ntal reali ty othe rwisc inat(cssihlc

Despite thes( corHl(tions howcver ali(I CVClI ifho DostOtsk) and Strakhov are quo ting To lstoy the two I)()fts haC di ffe ring hleL of what we Call actually know alx lII thc transcendc ntal reali ty in which h()th leed to heliew Til is eviderll fro m II c()rnpa rison of the respective (piphaHies of

133

Alyosha and Levin Levin d ist overs a tnlth that he feels be luLS always l1own Fyodors words p roclm-ecl in his so ul the cfktt of an e lectric spark sudshydpoundnly t ransfurm ing and we lding in tu une a whol( g roup of d isjointed il nposhytent separate ideas wtich fwd mllf ccmud to occufY him These ideas lIubckll (JWflst to himself wac occupyiug him wile n he WILS talking ahout letshyling the land (e mphasis added) Su ilHc mal but separate idca_~ that toshygethe r make III a larger lnalll we re waiting only for all exle rnal catalyst to make the mselves known Whe n they do ~Oll1e together Le vin decmiddotlares that he IloW ~ kl1ow~ what not only he but all of llllillankind have always know n MAlld [did not finu this klluwledgt in any way bu t it was given tO IIIU gilr u l-ecausc I lOUl t lWt han takcm it from a l1)whe re16 lcin says flll1hershymore that he hngt lwen liJlg right while he lhinks wTOng Thl of cours( is what saves him from tile fat e o f Anna who becausc she lives wrollg does no t have aeltcss to the knowlelge thl t is hidde n ill he r too

Unlike u vin Alyosha feels thnt his 1l(W kllowlcdge comes from UIlIshy

lgt idc Ill is is whal be means when he says ~ Someonc i sitcu me lie has a sense that a fonll ntivl moml idea e nte rs him and turus him frOlll a middotmiddotwetk )oulh to a warrior As I have shown prcviously this sense is mistake n 10 the ed l llt that Alyosbas rortitudc rests IIpoll newly constituted inne r foundashytions Despite this hid howc c r AI)1Jshas PCJIc ption that his HCW resolushylioll comes fmm o utside him is n lluable dill both to his slate of mind alld allgto tn the relation of real alld ideal acconling to Dustocvsky As with Len another persoll s ltortlS-in Alyoshas llISC the words and deeds of c rushf lIka---cr(atl Ihe initi al oonrnlions fur his epiphany As with Lcin Ihcs( wurd~ bOlh IInseltle his feelings Iud thou)hl s and preci pi tat e signill shyt1Il1 knowledf(c Before this knflII(I~e can coalesce howeve r Alr nsha has anothe r cperic nct a dream l i e falls asleep LS tile b ihlical passtlge alxlIIl the 1lllrrillge at Calla is being ruad ove r Ihe (Offin ofZosilllltt He (Ommenls on this passage in his skCp Iud Ihe n Zosima appears hefore hinl and sumshymons h im to the marriage fPast At this point Alyoshas dream slille dcfp shyens and the physical laws o f lIatufe are ~lIs pell(l((1 To mark this shifl from ohj(Actif to subjeltti() fe-al ity LJostOlvsky me ntions thai (ill Aly shas pershycep tion) the mom lUoves (k()wlfl mdlligmsII ) Hnd Ihc n to enlphL~ize it he rqktI S the info rmatioll in the sunf parag raph (oP(J mflvIlIl(JS kOIlIlW ) When tht ph)sicallaws that hold a room in place no longer ohshylain the dL( rce uf 1I(alh isil ed on eYc ry individual who lils lived or lives is also lifted Zosill1a does not ri se rrom his w flin whidl has d isappeared Iyosha simply reltOgnizes hi III as nile of the gllcsts al the table It is usiliia whll ealls Alyosha ~ th words that suggest liis resurrection Why hle )011 buricd yourself 11 (1( where we can t seL you corne and join us r Zaclle1t1 siuda skhuronilsia cillo lie vidal Ic bia po idelll i ty k lI am ~

UK 361) The c ITfC t is Ihal AI)llsha wakes from lht clead 10 Ihf living life of hi s urr-3m

Did Doslocvs l) or Tol~IO Bclitlt( ill ~lim(ICli

The statns of dreallls in Ih( nowl and the appeamme in the m of Imllshysccmlenlal ideal realily lJ(ltOmes clearer if we oompme Alyillhas dream wilh lh e appeamncc of the devil to Iyan laler in the novel As is approprishy(lIe for an advocate of philosophical lIHtt e rialisrn lilt devi l illsists tlmt he is part of the phy~ical world Ivan howeer WlIlls tlfmiddotspe rat e l) In 1 ~~Heve

thai the devi l is a fi gme nt of his irnagination li e is in fact drea med lip by [van and vanishes wllcn Alyosha knocks on his willdow hut- Illost si~ni fl shyeanlly-that docs not 1l1fan thai the devil is not rfn l Usin~ analytic rCL~OIl h lUl has assu lIlrtl the staluc of an outside observer is-u-vis not only exlershynal hil i also his own intenml rt ality He ell t~ himse lf ofT from transccll dcnshytal reality through his mtionnlislIl and his egotism Whe n his irnaginitiull mujures til) the devil he wanlgt 10 k~p lhis stirrin~ of spirilIIallife salely fi ctional evell though his dcvil is much closer to him personally than say the Cmnd Infllisitor in his safely d istanced story o r medie val limcraquo Alyosua by con trast Inkes his drculI littrally as a timeless visitation to him by Zmillla lind ttn Christ This is what he means when he says thai - someshyone visi ted him

Just how real is this o ther deathless world Dostoesky seems 10 sugshygest that it call actually apclIr 10 liS in ou r drciulis a lld fa ut ilsies7 AI)05has dream seems 10 transpose hi m 10 another world nol nppar~nt in oll r wakshying life UcelUse II priori rules of time and splce b lock ollr u(tss to it In dreams thesl rules a re suspe nded and Alym has fi nal epiphany takes place at the crossroads of wn1 1mbcrless- worlds Illat momentarily il1lcrscd wit hil l him 1111 confidence that DoslneSJ) In in Ih~ rea li t)~ of Al)oshas vision is expressed in his lISC of the Hussian word kflJJuJ--dollle--for the sl) as it appelrs to 1 I)osha when he sleps o ul inlo nature WI( 3(2) t few lines latN wsornc thillg (IS firm and immovable a$ this heavenl) ault IlIcbeslyi middotIltHl t is said 10 desc(nd into AI)oshas SOIl I A klllo in Bussiall is not the inside of Ihe do me of a enthedmllmt it outsitic DostoclI J) i t~hokC of worcls suggests that lit thi s epiphanic Illoment AI)nsha 1I1ollltntarily see the other tnms(c llde l1lal world whole and from the ()ulside

BltCk in 111111 VlfClillll I--vin has no dream and his e pipbU1Y runs a dilTc re nt ((lIIrse from Alyoshamiddots F)1xlors w(Jrd~ i~nitc a ehai n of intcrvJOwn Ihoughllgt IIml re miniscen(es but during this PlOCf SS Levin remains enti re ly wi thin himself His insp ired idea orgallitcs a whol e swarm ufvarious imshypolent separate thoughts that had always pr(()(Cllpicd him It oomes not frOlll the Bible but fro m trldilional peasant wi~dom which Levin lIlainshytains is Oolh unive rsal and Hahira Wllcreas Al~osha fllllL his ideals in a book-nncl later writes a book himsllr- Lcvin finds the Ifllth only whe n Fedor s words release ~ undear bu t Significant though ts that before had 1kl1 - locked up in h is soul hut now all streaming loward a single goal began 10 whirl in his head blind ing hi m wit h Ihei r lighl ~ (AI( 719)_ Whe u he hilS fini shed spinning out the consequences of his re turn to truth he

135

stops thinking and listens to mysterious voiees jo)fully aud eamestl) disshycussing sOlllcllling amo ng I hemsektmiddots~ (AK 724 )

Eistwberp in the novel Levin too makes lontact with anothe r world Tll is happe ns not wh he is eont e mplating Iml during fundallUlItal life exshyperie nces (ollrtsil ip alld marriage the death of his brother and the birt h of hi s SOil Birth md dcatll arc - mimcts- that e levate the ordinary life aboV( mechanical proecss ami infu sc it with the sacred In the w()rd~ of tile I)()t Fet lo lII lenUn~ un the l(lIlncction bc lwtt1l Nikolais dpath and ~ I itya s hirth hirth and death arc - Iwo holfs [from the 1l1ltcrialJ into the ~piri t lal world into NirvUla Tlwy are middot two visible and ete rnally l11yste ri shyOIL~ ~ nduws t~ 111 Mil k(lk woJ (The World (IS OIW Wllole ) puhlished in 1872 Stmkhov ar~u~ thaI b irth and death the main events of organic (as oppos(ltu mechanical) life lannol be understood Sltienlificul1y

I l er( in hinh and death J evcT)1hiug is ituo lllprehfllsiblc cWI1 hilig is mysshyt c riou~ a nti MienC( d()(i not S(f (tll a path u) wltieh it might nrrivc at II resshyolution to the IUlSlit llls Ilmt prt~e nt I hemselws 111Cstigations ~how that thSl mi raclegt art lakin~ pltlCC now Ic rc he fore our H ry eyes From this point of view it is wry JUSI III say Diine creation d~s nol cease even ffir n In il ll1tc that thtmiddot J rent ~tCfc t of tllc crealil)n of till world is taking place bcshyfort us up t ( l tll is ve ry fltOlllcnt m

Tlwc aft the (enlT3lmyste rics that cevate ordinary life above tlw mere ly mechanical and of lOlirsc give I sacred dime nsion to the faHlil) Although Toisto nowhe re 1dnltJwl(ltges this the - family idea in Amw iVl rellill(l

mav derive its th(ore tieal validity from TIU World n~ Dlle Wholc whidl hl f~ 1l111Cll admircdO lt llis is s~ tllcn Stflkhov is o ne irnpo rtmlt SOU rLC o f the pantheism that is till presellt in IIIW IVm IllrI albe it in a difTe fCnt and much tl imi ll is hed fnnn than ill Var (fI1l1 Pf(f(Y

Tht - fa mily idea (l ike tIle - idea o f tit p(Ople h in War lIIullfflce ) has nothing to do with Ihe mi nd at all In the passage from The World (IS Dill Wlwle Strakhov plalcs limits on what human rC1$I)U can diSlte rB and this idea wOllld have been vcI) lltt mc tive to Tolstoy lle rever Stmkhov stepl)(1 Oe)ontl those limits Tulstoy wOl1 ld take h im to tas k for doing so In IUlSic

C()IICepl~ of PSljchol(Jy ill a chapte r entitled l he Real Life o f the SOl1 l ~

(H lleal T1 1a zhzn middot dllshn Strakhov trieli to prove the objetti c status of psychic life whetllCr awake or aslc(middotp by d((ltieing a priori ohjeetic cateshygori es u f tmlh (isliuul goodness (bllgo J alld frfeltlolil (ltwouodnnio dd(lshyIcrlllJ~t) tllll IInderlie tho ught feeling alld will resp(CIieiy

Our ulolights hawmiddot to comprise real knowletlgc 11m fecling~ hae 10 relat l to our fcal ~ooJ they twt to he part of OUf rcalluppincss our desires have 10

IJe possible to rcali71 ucstimtl fo r rellizatilll1 (lnd [destined to ] he trl1Islated into ftal actiuns Umlcr tlifs( m ndilions tlur inner world takes on the s i ~n ifmiddot ical1(1middot I f full reali t ami luses its illu sory charaelN life tllrns frolll a dr( ilHI intu nal lift (001 73)

136

Did Dostoevsky or Tolstoy Believe in Miracles

miracles from faith (BIlt 26) Alyoshas education results not in a repudiashytion of miracles but in a reassessment of the concept of the miraculous

When Zosimas body begins to stink Alyosha already shaken by Ivan s argument about divine injustice or indifference experiences this situation as a kind of reverse miracle Why he asks himself did the body have to deshycay so rapidly and conspicuously In other words Alyosha as the narrator tells us remains true to his fundamentally religiOUS temperament but proshyvoked by Ivan he rebels against Gods world What restores Alyoshas trust in God is the revelation of Grushenkas innate goodness Like his brothers Alyosha has created the world in his own image With his passionate comshymitment to purity-what the narrator calls in one place his wild frenzied modesty and chastity (dikaia istuplennaia stydlivost i tselomudrennost BIlt 20)-Alyosha has denied his own corporeality and espeCially his sensushyality He projects onto the world a distorted image of humanity divided into saints like Zosima and sinners like Grushenka whom he sees as a prisoner and advocate of the dumb and blind laws of carnal pleasure In revenge for the humiliation of Zosima Alyosha decides to submit himself exclusively to her and those laws When he arrives at Grushenkas however he finds her in a state that cannot be explained with reference to them In the final fourth chapter of book 7 Alyoshas faith in humanity then not only revives but expands

For all its ecstatic tone (which is meant to convey Alyoshas mood) the description of Alyoshas reconCiliation with faith is very preCise and psyshychologically detailed First he has a sensation of inner commotion and orshyderliness at the same time

His soul was overflowing but somehow vaguely and no Single sensation stood out making itself felt too much on the contrary one followed another in a sort of slow and calm rotation But there was sweetness in his heart and strangely Alyosha was not surplised at that (BIlt 359)

Alyosha is having the experience dubbed sweet and rare in Dostoevskys world of feeling himself altogether in one place The sensations (oshchushyshcheniia) do not move in and out as they would in a moment of active involvement with the world but circle slowly not forming into actual pershyceptions These sensations are wholly internal yet they are reactions to exshyternal events their internal assimilation After them (and perhaps arising out of them) come thoughts

Fragments of thoughts [myslil flashed in his soul catching fire like little stars and dying out at once to give way to others yet there reigned in his soul something whole firm assuaging and he was conscious of himself (BI( 359)

Sensation by its nature is not self-conscious but thought is and so at this moment the same I that feels sweet both emits thoughts and at the same

131

Donna Oruin

time is conscious of itself as something whole As he recovers from the disorientating experiences of the previous day dming which he has doubted his connection to immortality the one and unchanging part of Alyoshas soul (to use Strakhovs terminology) makes itself felt

There follows Alyoshas half-waking dream in which thought weaves sensation into fantasy and commentary on the text of the marriage at Cana that is being read over Zosimas body in the background Awakening from the dream Alyosha runs outdoors to fall down on the earth (as he had done when his crisis began) but this time in ecstatic joy Nature presents itself to him in the form of a great cathedral with the sky its dome (nebesnyi lwpol)

Over him the heavenly dome full of quiet shining stars hung boundlessly From the zenith to the horizon the still-dim Milky Way stretched its double strand Night fresh and quiet almost unstirring enveloped the earth The white towers and golden domes of the church gleamed in the sapphire sky The luxuriant autumn Rowers in the Rowerbeds near the house had fallen asleep until morning The silence of the earth seemed to merge with the sishylence of the heavens the mystery of the earth touched the mystery of the stars Alyosha stood gazing ancl suddenly as if he had been cut dovvn threw himself to the earth (BK 362)

In the last sentence Alyosha is said to be cut down by the appearance of nature as a sacred cathedral But the appearance is itself a product of his newly formed consciousness and in this sense it is as much a fantasy as the dream sequence that precedes it It differs from the dream only because it presents itself to Alyosha as external reality Alyoshas own thoughts which were said to have flashed like stars through his soul and therefore anticipate the starry sky that he sees are responsible for this new interpretation His mind actively if unself-consciously interprets and thereby shapes sensations stimulated in him by external reality it turns them into perceptions which in this case are more like symbols Alyosha responds to the symbolism as if it came from outside

Alyoshas embrace of the earth is a physical expression of his embrace of the whole plentitude of the whole universe of which Dostoevsky had spoken in the notebooks to the novel Once he has opened himself in this way he experiences the sensation of being at a center point where all worlds meet and vibrating in tune with all of them He is in a frenzy of forshygiving and forgiveness in a state where boundaries between himself and the world seem to be dissolved At the same time as he flows outward howshyever a reverse motion is occurring

But vith each moment he felt clearly and almost tangibly something as firm and immovable as this heavenly vault [nebesbyi svocll descend into his soul Some sort of idea as it were was coming to reign in his mind-now for the whole of his life and unto ages of ages He fell to the earth a weak youth and

132

Did IJostO(lky (lr T(ll~toy Believe ill Mirld(s

rose lip a fighte r stedflSt for I ll( res t o f his life m] he knew it and fdt it sudde nly (It til (lt very mome nt of his (CSt a~ NeCr ncf r in his li fe would AI)osha forget this moment ~SOllllOllC isIl(1 HI) MIIII in that hour- ht wou ld $Y afte rwards with fi rm telief ill his words (Jj K 362-63)

As Alyosha moves ou t o f the e ro tic fre nzy of which (like David danci ng nake d before the ark) Mhe was nut asilltrllld ~on l lllt i llg frlllll o ll tsid e and ahove-it is Iike~ the heaven ly aTch and thprcfore is not it-sN ms to him to possess hi~ soul ami o rganize it (I((Ording to what he calls nn - idea- that In m s him frolll a wctk hoy into a warrior As should be clear by now Alyoshas later version of what happflII d to hlm-SOIlltOIlC i si t(d 1Ilt~shydocs not jibe in any si mple way with the nnrrntors account of the (cnl as it unfolds A (omplc( inte raction IJetw(c n AI)osh11 and -T(tlity- takes place in which Dostoevsky intentionally I(lw$ uuctftlli ll what c( unes from imide and what from outside Th e heilVcnly vault Hs( lf is o ne case in point it is a nWl apho r huil 0 11 the unavoidahle but scil lItifically fa[sc human pe rcepshytion of Ihc sl-y IS round and i nittgt [n th is St lIS it C( lnlCS lol from reality b ill from Alyosha who the n fee ls somet h ing [i kc it cnter him in the fonn of moml pri ncipks

The helcnly vault mnkes IIIl lIp pt arlItlCl in hook S or AIIIUI Kllrelli lw and also in iJasic CmlUIJI of gtsyclwlugy Strakhov cites it- using th( term 1It)yi ~VO(I-as an (~~al1lplc of the Tluut) of universal perctgtplions whether o r nul Ihc) cOrrespond 10 (xtenml ralily (0011 38) 1(111 uses it to Issert the validi ty of his ~slJhje(tiH~- be lief in II humanly llleaningfulllnierse

Liug Illl hi back hc IS now gazing 111 till high d oudlcss sky DolIt I know that tllUl is infinite spu middot amI nnt a rollnd~1 twit [knl1lyi slJO(l] But howshyever I Inll ~fW III eycs and stram my sight I call1lot 1(lp ltt-eing il as rml TOuml lIud not limitcd alill dasp it t III) kllO k-ilge of limitless spalaquoe I am illmiddot dubitably ri~ht when 1 S(-f a nml rou nd ault JVlrrlyi jolilboi ~nKI] and mOTt ri~h t tll1I1 wllcn I stmin tn ~t( beyoml it ~ (AK 724 )

Dostocvsl-ys lise of thc heacn l) ali it may be a hidden referencoe to one o r ho th of the previo us ones Be this as it may thc metaphor figures in atlth ree texts as part of a defense of the IlIlImm from the degrading rcd ultionism of sciell le The two poets carry this argllmen t milch furthe r than the scientistshyphilosophe r bul Stmkllu lays the groundwork for their more ambitious 5ions whe n he tn ()lifi(s e mpirical psychology to 1II0ve the nucleus of lhe ps)chc the sclf into the realm of rl1(taphysical knowledge that is inltC(tsshysible to IUlman reason For both Dostoevsky and Tolstoy the individual psyshyche bpoundlonws 11 gatcway tu a tnlllscellde ntal reali ty othe rwisc inat(cssihlc

Despite thes( corHl(tions howcver ali(I CVClI ifho DostOtsk) and Strakhov are quo ting To lstoy the two I)()fts haC di ffe ring hleL of what we Call actually know alx lII thc transcendc ntal reali ty in which h()th leed to heliew Til is eviderll fro m II c()rnpa rison of the respective (piphaHies of

133

Alyosha and Levin Levin d ist overs a tnlth that he feels be luLS always l1own Fyodors words p roclm-ecl in his so ul the cfktt of an e lectric spark sudshydpoundnly t ransfurm ing and we lding in tu une a whol( g roup of d isjointed il nposhytent separate ideas wtich fwd mllf ccmud to occufY him These ideas lIubckll (JWflst to himself wac occupyiug him wile n he WILS talking ahout letshyling the land (e mphasis added) Su ilHc mal but separate idca_~ that toshygethe r make III a larger lnalll we re waiting only for all exle rnal catalyst to make the mselves known Whe n they do ~Oll1e together Le vin decmiddotlares that he IloW ~ kl1ow~ what not only he but all of llllillankind have always know n MAlld [did not finu this klluwledgt in any way bu t it was given tO IIIU gilr u l-ecausc I lOUl t lWt han takcm it from a l1)whe re16 lcin says flll1hershymore that he hngt lwen liJlg right while he lhinks wTOng Thl of cours( is what saves him from tile fat e o f Anna who becausc she lives wrollg does no t have aeltcss to the knowlelge thl t is hidde n ill he r too

Unlike u vin Alyosha feels thnt his 1l(W kllowlcdge comes from UIlIshy

lgt idc Ill is is whal be means when he says ~ Someonc i sitcu me lie has a sense that a fonll ntivl moml idea e nte rs him and turus him frOlll a middotmiddotwetk )oulh to a warrior As I have shown prcviously this sense is mistake n 10 the ed l llt that Alyosbas rortitudc rests IIpoll newly constituted inne r foundashytions Despite this hid howc c r AI)1Jshas PCJIc ption that his HCW resolushylioll comes fmm o utside him is n lluable dill both to his slate of mind alld allgto tn the relation of real alld ideal acconling to Dustocvsky As with Len another persoll s ltortlS-in Alyoshas llISC the words and deeds of c rushf lIka---cr(atl Ihe initi al oonrnlions fur his epiphany As with Lcin Ihcs( wurd~ bOlh IInseltle his feelings Iud thou)hl s and preci pi tat e signill shyt1Il1 knowledf(c Before this knflII(I~e can coalesce howeve r Alr nsha has anothe r cperic nct a dream l i e falls asleep LS tile b ihlical passtlge alxlIIl the 1lllrrillge at Calla is being ruad ove r Ihe (Offin ofZosilllltt He (Ommenls on this passage in his skCp Iud Ihe n Zosima appears hefore hinl and sumshymons h im to the marriage fPast At this point Alyoshas dream slille dcfp shyens and the physical laws o f lIatufe are ~lIs pell(l((1 To mark this shifl from ohj(Actif to subjeltti() fe-al ity LJostOlvsky me ntions thai (ill Aly shas pershycep tion) the mom lUoves (k()wlfl mdlligmsII ) Hnd Ihc n to enlphL~ize it he rqktI S the info rmatioll in the sunf parag raph (oP(J mflvIlIl(JS kOIlIlW ) When tht ph)sicallaws that hold a room in place no longer ohshylain the dL( rce uf 1I(alh isil ed on eYc ry individual who lils lived or lives is also lifted Zosill1a does not ri se rrom his w flin whidl has d isappeared Iyosha simply reltOgnizes hi III as nile of the gllcsts al the table It is usiliia whll ealls Alyosha ~ th words that suggest liis resurrection Why hle )011 buricd yourself 11 (1( where we can t seL you corne and join us r Zaclle1t1 siuda skhuronilsia cillo lie vidal Ic bia po idelll i ty k lI am ~

UK 361) The c ITfC t is Ihal AI)llsha wakes from lht clead 10 Ihf living life of hi s urr-3m

Did Doslocvs l) or Tol~IO Bclitlt( ill ~lim(ICli

The statns of dreallls in Ih( nowl and the appeamme in the m of Imllshysccmlenlal ideal realily lJ(ltOmes clearer if we oompme Alyillhas dream wilh lh e appeamncc of the devil to Iyan laler in the novel As is approprishy(lIe for an advocate of philosophical lIHtt e rialisrn lilt devi l illsists tlmt he is part of the phy~ical world Ivan howeer WlIlls tlfmiddotspe rat e l) In 1 ~~Heve

thai the devi l is a fi gme nt of his irnagination li e is in fact drea med lip by [van and vanishes wllcn Alyosha knocks on his willdow hut- Illost si~ni fl shyeanlly-that docs not 1l1fan thai the devil is not rfn l Usin~ analytic rCL~OIl h lUl has assu lIlrtl the staluc of an outside observer is-u-vis not only exlershynal hil i also his own intenml rt ality He ell t~ himse lf ofT from transccll dcnshytal reality through his mtionnlislIl and his egotism Whe n his irnaginitiull mujures til) the devil he wanlgt 10 k~p lhis stirrin~ of spirilIIallife salely fi ctional evell though his dcvil is much closer to him personally than say the Cmnd Infllisitor in his safely d istanced story o r medie val limcraquo Alyosua by con trast Inkes his drculI littrally as a timeless visitation to him by Zmillla lind ttn Christ This is what he means when he says thai - someshyone visi ted him

Just how real is this o ther deathless world Dostoesky seems 10 sugshygest that it call actually apclIr 10 liS in ou r drciulis a lld fa ut ilsies7 AI)05has dream seems 10 transpose hi m 10 another world nol nppar~nt in oll r wakshying life UcelUse II priori rules of time and splce b lock ollr u(tss to it In dreams thesl rules a re suspe nded and Alym has fi nal epiphany takes place at the crossroads of wn1 1mbcrless- worlds Illat momentarily il1lcrscd wit hil l him 1111 confidence that DoslneSJ) In in Ih~ rea li t)~ of Al)oshas vision is expressed in his lISC of the Hussian word kflJJuJ--dollle--for the sl) as it appelrs to 1 I)osha when he sleps o ul inlo nature WI( 3(2) t few lines latN wsornc thillg (IS firm and immovable a$ this heavenl) ault IlIcbeslyi middotIltHl t is said 10 desc(nd into AI)oshas SOIl I A klllo in Bussiall is not the inside of Ihe do me of a enthedmllmt it outsitic DostoclI J) i t~hokC of worcls suggests that lit thi s epiphanic Illoment AI)nsha 1I1ollltntarily see the other tnms(c llde l1lal world whole and from the ()ulside

BltCk in 111111 VlfClillll I--vin has no dream and his e pipbU1Y runs a dilTc re nt ((lIIrse from Alyoshamiddots F)1xlors w(Jrd~ i~nitc a ehai n of intcrvJOwn Ihoughllgt IIml re miniscen(es but during this PlOCf SS Levin remains enti re ly wi thin himself His insp ired idea orgallitcs a whol e swarm ufvarious imshypolent separate thoughts that had always pr(()(Cllpicd him It oomes not frOlll the Bible but fro m trldilional peasant wi~dom which Levin lIlainshytains is Oolh unive rsal and Hahira Wllcreas Al~osha fllllL his ideals in a book-nncl later writes a book himsllr- Lcvin finds the Ifllth only whe n Fedor s words release ~ undear bu t Significant though ts that before had 1kl1 - locked up in h is soul hut now all streaming loward a single goal began 10 whirl in his head blind ing hi m wit h Ihei r lighl ~ (AI( 719)_ Whe u he hilS fini shed spinning out the consequences of his re turn to truth he

135

stops thinking and listens to mysterious voiees jo)fully aud eamestl) disshycussing sOlllcllling amo ng I hemsektmiddots~ (AK 724 )

Eistwberp in the novel Levin too makes lontact with anothe r world Tll is happe ns not wh he is eont e mplating Iml during fundallUlItal life exshyperie nces (ollrtsil ip alld marriage the death of his brother and the birt h of hi s SOil Birth md dcatll arc - mimcts- that e levate the ordinary life aboV( mechanical proecss ami infu sc it with the sacred In the w()rd~ of tile I)()t Fet lo lII lenUn~ un the l(lIlncction bc lwtt1l Nikolais dpath and ~ I itya s hirth hirth and death arc - Iwo holfs [from the 1l1ltcrialJ into the ~piri t lal world into NirvUla Tlwy are middot two visible and ete rnally l11yste ri shyOIL~ ~ nduws t~ 111 Mil k(lk woJ (The World (IS OIW Wllole ) puhlished in 1872 Stmkhov ar~u~ thaI b irth and death the main events of organic (as oppos(ltu mechanical) life lannol be understood Sltienlificul1y

I l er( in hinh and death J evcT)1hiug is ituo lllprehfllsiblc cWI1 hilig is mysshyt c riou~ a nti MienC( d()(i not S(f (tll a path u) wltieh it might nrrivc at II resshyolution to the IUlSlit llls Ilmt prt~e nt I hemselws 111Cstigations ~how that thSl mi raclegt art lakin~ pltlCC now Ic rc he fore our H ry eyes From this point of view it is wry JUSI III say Diine creation d~s nol cease even ffir n In il ll1tc that thtmiddot J rent ~tCfc t of tllc crealil)n of till world is taking place bcshyfort us up t ( l tll is ve ry fltOlllcnt m

Tlwc aft the (enlT3lmyste rics that cevate ordinary life above tlw mere ly mechanical and of lOlirsc give I sacred dime nsion to the faHlil) Although Toisto nowhe re 1dnltJwl(ltges this the - family idea in Amw iVl rellill(l

mav derive its th(ore tieal validity from TIU World n~ Dlle Wholc whidl hl f~ 1l111Cll admircdO lt llis is s~ tllcn Stflkhov is o ne irnpo rtmlt SOU rLC o f the pantheism that is till presellt in IIIW IVm IllrI albe it in a difTe fCnt and much tl imi ll is hed fnnn than ill Var (fI1l1 Pf(f(Y

Tht - fa mily idea (l ike tIle - idea o f tit p(Ople h in War lIIullfflce ) has nothing to do with Ihe mi nd at all In the passage from The World (IS Dill Wlwle Strakhov plalcs limits on what human rC1$I)U can diSlte rB and this idea wOllld have been vcI) lltt mc tive to Tolstoy lle rever Stmkhov stepl)(1 Oe)ontl those limits Tulstoy wOl1 ld take h im to tas k for doing so In IUlSic

C()IICepl~ of PSljchol(Jy ill a chapte r entitled l he Real Life o f the SOl1 l ~

(H lleal T1 1a zhzn middot dllshn Strakhov trieli to prove the objetti c status of psychic life whetllCr awake or aslc(middotp by d((ltieing a priori ohjeetic cateshygori es u f tmlh (isliuul goodness (bllgo J alld frfeltlolil (ltwouodnnio dd(lshyIcrlllJ~t) tllll IInderlie tho ught feeling alld will resp(CIieiy

Our ulolights hawmiddot to comprise real knowletlgc 11m fecling~ hae 10 relat l to our fcal ~ooJ they twt to he part of OUf rcalluppincss our desires have 10

IJe possible to rcali71 ucstimtl fo r rellizatilll1 (lnd [destined to ] he trl1Islated into ftal actiuns Umlcr tlifs( m ndilions tlur inner world takes on the s i ~n ifmiddot ical1(1middot I f full reali t ami luses its illu sory charaelN life tllrns frolll a dr( ilHI intu nal lift (001 73)

136

Donna Oruin

time is conscious of itself as something whole As he recovers from the disorientating experiences of the previous day dming which he has doubted his connection to immortality the one and unchanging part of Alyoshas soul (to use Strakhovs terminology) makes itself felt

There follows Alyoshas half-waking dream in which thought weaves sensation into fantasy and commentary on the text of the marriage at Cana that is being read over Zosimas body in the background Awakening from the dream Alyosha runs outdoors to fall down on the earth (as he had done when his crisis began) but this time in ecstatic joy Nature presents itself to him in the form of a great cathedral with the sky its dome (nebesnyi lwpol)

Over him the heavenly dome full of quiet shining stars hung boundlessly From the zenith to the horizon the still-dim Milky Way stretched its double strand Night fresh and quiet almost unstirring enveloped the earth The white towers and golden domes of the church gleamed in the sapphire sky The luxuriant autumn Rowers in the Rowerbeds near the house had fallen asleep until morning The silence of the earth seemed to merge with the sishylence of the heavens the mystery of the earth touched the mystery of the stars Alyosha stood gazing ancl suddenly as if he had been cut dovvn threw himself to the earth (BK 362)

In the last sentence Alyosha is said to be cut down by the appearance of nature as a sacred cathedral But the appearance is itself a product of his newly formed consciousness and in this sense it is as much a fantasy as the dream sequence that precedes it It differs from the dream only because it presents itself to Alyosha as external reality Alyoshas own thoughts which were said to have flashed like stars through his soul and therefore anticipate the starry sky that he sees are responsible for this new interpretation His mind actively if unself-consciously interprets and thereby shapes sensations stimulated in him by external reality it turns them into perceptions which in this case are more like symbols Alyosha responds to the symbolism as if it came from outside

Alyoshas embrace of the earth is a physical expression of his embrace of the whole plentitude of the whole universe of which Dostoevsky had spoken in the notebooks to the novel Once he has opened himself in this way he experiences the sensation of being at a center point where all worlds meet and vibrating in tune with all of them He is in a frenzy of forshygiving and forgiveness in a state where boundaries between himself and the world seem to be dissolved At the same time as he flows outward howshyever a reverse motion is occurring

But vith each moment he felt clearly and almost tangibly something as firm and immovable as this heavenly vault [nebesbyi svocll descend into his soul Some sort of idea as it were was coming to reign in his mind-now for the whole of his life and unto ages of ages He fell to the earth a weak youth and

132

Did IJostO(lky (lr T(ll~toy Believe ill Mirld(s

rose lip a fighte r stedflSt for I ll( res t o f his life m] he knew it and fdt it sudde nly (It til (lt very mome nt of his (CSt a~ NeCr ncf r in his li fe would AI)osha forget this moment ~SOllllOllC isIl(1 HI) MIIII in that hour- ht wou ld $Y afte rwards with fi rm telief ill his words (Jj K 362-63)

As Alyosha moves ou t o f the e ro tic fre nzy of which (like David danci ng nake d before the ark) Mhe was nut asilltrllld ~on l lllt i llg frlllll o ll tsid e and ahove-it is Iike~ the heaven ly aTch and thprcfore is not it-sN ms to him to possess hi~ soul ami o rganize it (I((Ording to what he calls nn - idea- that In m s him frolll a wctk hoy into a warrior As should be clear by now Alyoshas later version of what happflII d to hlm-SOIlltOIlC i si t(d 1Ilt~shydocs not jibe in any si mple way with the nnrrntors account of the (cnl as it unfolds A (omplc( inte raction IJetw(c n AI)osh11 and -T(tlity- takes place in which Dostoevsky intentionally I(lw$ uuctftlli ll what c( unes from imide and what from outside Th e heilVcnly vault Hs( lf is o ne case in point it is a nWl apho r huil 0 11 the unavoidahle but scil lItifically fa[sc human pe rcepshytion of Ihc sl-y IS round and i nittgt [n th is St lIS it C( lnlCS lol from reality b ill from Alyosha who the n fee ls somet h ing [i kc it cnter him in the fonn of moml pri ncipks

The helcnly vault mnkes IIIl lIp pt arlItlCl in hook S or AIIIUI Kllrelli lw and also in iJasic CmlUIJI of gtsyclwlugy Strakhov cites it- using th( term 1It)yi ~VO(I-as an (~~al1lplc of the Tluut) of universal perctgtplions whether o r nul Ihc) cOrrespond 10 (xtenml ralily (0011 38) 1(111 uses it to Issert the validi ty of his ~slJhje(tiH~- be lief in II humanly llleaningfulllnierse

Liug Illl hi back hc IS now gazing 111 till high d oudlcss sky DolIt I know that tllUl is infinite spu middot amI nnt a rollnd~1 twit [knl1lyi slJO(l] But howshyever I Inll ~fW III eycs and stram my sight I call1lot 1(lp ltt-eing il as rml TOuml lIud not limitcd alill dasp it t III) kllO k-ilge of limitless spalaquoe I am illmiddot dubitably ri~ht when 1 S(-f a nml rou nd ault JVlrrlyi jolilboi ~nKI] and mOTt ri~h t tll1I1 wllcn I stmin tn ~t( beyoml it ~ (AK 724 )

Dostocvsl-ys lise of thc heacn l) ali it may be a hidden referencoe to one o r ho th of the previo us ones Be this as it may thc metaphor figures in atlth ree texts as part of a defense of the IlIlImm from the degrading rcd ultionism of sciell le The two poets carry this argllmen t milch furthe r than the scientistshyphilosophe r bul Stmkllu lays the groundwork for their more ambitious 5ions whe n he tn ()lifi(s e mpirical psychology to 1II0ve the nucleus of lhe ps)chc the sclf into the realm of rl1(taphysical knowledge that is inltC(tsshysible to IUlman reason For both Dostoevsky and Tolstoy the individual psyshyche bpoundlonws 11 gatcway tu a tnlllscellde ntal reali ty othe rwisc inat(cssihlc

Despite thes( corHl(tions howcver ali(I CVClI ifho DostOtsk) and Strakhov are quo ting To lstoy the two I)()fts haC di ffe ring hleL of what we Call actually know alx lII thc transcendc ntal reali ty in which h()th leed to heliew Til is eviderll fro m II c()rnpa rison of the respective (piphaHies of

133

Alyosha and Levin Levin d ist overs a tnlth that he feels be luLS always l1own Fyodors words p roclm-ecl in his so ul the cfktt of an e lectric spark sudshydpoundnly t ransfurm ing and we lding in tu une a whol( g roup of d isjointed il nposhytent separate ideas wtich fwd mllf ccmud to occufY him These ideas lIubckll (JWflst to himself wac occupyiug him wile n he WILS talking ahout letshyling the land (e mphasis added) Su ilHc mal but separate idca_~ that toshygethe r make III a larger lnalll we re waiting only for all exle rnal catalyst to make the mselves known Whe n they do ~Oll1e together Le vin decmiddotlares that he IloW ~ kl1ow~ what not only he but all of llllillankind have always know n MAlld [did not finu this klluwledgt in any way bu t it was given tO IIIU gilr u l-ecausc I lOUl t lWt han takcm it from a l1)whe re16 lcin says flll1hershymore that he hngt lwen liJlg right while he lhinks wTOng Thl of cours( is what saves him from tile fat e o f Anna who becausc she lives wrollg does no t have aeltcss to the knowlelge thl t is hidde n ill he r too

Unlike u vin Alyosha feels thnt his 1l(W kllowlcdge comes from UIlIshy

lgt idc Ill is is whal be means when he says ~ Someonc i sitcu me lie has a sense that a fonll ntivl moml idea e nte rs him and turus him frOlll a middotmiddotwetk )oulh to a warrior As I have shown prcviously this sense is mistake n 10 the ed l llt that Alyosbas rortitudc rests IIpoll newly constituted inne r foundashytions Despite this hid howc c r AI)1Jshas PCJIc ption that his HCW resolushylioll comes fmm o utside him is n lluable dill both to his slate of mind alld allgto tn the relation of real alld ideal acconling to Dustocvsky As with Len another persoll s ltortlS-in Alyoshas llISC the words and deeds of c rushf lIka---cr(atl Ihe initi al oonrnlions fur his epiphany As with Lcin Ihcs( wurd~ bOlh IInseltle his feelings Iud thou)hl s and preci pi tat e signill shyt1Il1 knowledf(c Before this knflII(I~e can coalesce howeve r Alr nsha has anothe r cperic nct a dream l i e falls asleep LS tile b ihlical passtlge alxlIIl the 1lllrrillge at Calla is being ruad ove r Ihe (Offin ofZosilllltt He (Ommenls on this passage in his skCp Iud Ihe n Zosima appears hefore hinl and sumshymons h im to the marriage fPast At this point Alyoshas dream slille dcfp shyens and the physical laws o f lIatufe are ~lIs pell(l((1 To mark this shifl from ohj(Actif to subjeltti() fe-al ity LJostOlvsky me ntions thai (ill Aly shas pershycep tion) the mom lUoves (k()wlfl mdlligmsII ) Hnd Ihc n to enlphL~ize it he rqktI S the info rmatioll in the sunf parag raph (oP(J mflvIlIl(JS kOIlIlW ) When tht ph)sicallaws that hold a room in place no longer ohshylain the dL( rce uf 1I(alh isil ed on eYc ry individual who lils lived or lives is also lifted Zosill1a does not ri se rrom his w flin whidl has d isappeared Iyosha simply reltOgnizes hi III as nile of the gllcsts al the table It is usiliia whll ealls Alyosha ~ th words that suggest liis resurrection Why hle )011 buricd yourself 11 (1( where we can t seL you corne and join us r Zaclle1t1 siuda skhuronilsia cillo lie vidal Ic bia po idelll i ty k lI am ~

UK 361) The c ITfC t is Ihal AI)llsha wakes from lht clead 10 Ihf living life of hi s urr-3m

Did Doslocvs l) or Tol~IO Bclitlt( ill ~lim(ICli

The statns of dreallls in Ih( nowl and the appeamme in the m of Imllshysccmlenlal ideal realily lJ(ltOmes clearer if we oompme Alyillhas dream wilh lh e appeamncc of the devil to Iyan laler in the novel As is approprishy(lIe for an advocate of philosophical lIHtt e rialisrn lilt devi l illsists tlmt he is part of the phy~ical world Ivan howeer WlIlls tlfmiddotspe rat e l) In 1 ~~Heve

thai the devi l is a fi gme nt of his irnagination li e is in fact drea med lip by [van and vanishes wllcn Alyosha knocks on his willdow hut- Illost si~ni fl shyeanlly-that docs not 1l1fan thai the devil is not rfn l Usin~ analytic rCL~OIl h lUl has assu lIlrtl the staluc of an outside observer is-u-vis not only exlershynal hil i also his own intenml rt ality He ell t~ himse lf ofT from transccll dcnshytal reality through his mtionnlislIl and his egotism Whe n his irnaginitiull mujures til) the devil he wanlgt 10 k~p lhis stirrin~ of spirilIIallife salely fi ctional evell though his dcvil is much closer to him personally than say the Cmnd Infllisitor in his safely d istanced story o r medie val limcraquo Alyosua by con trast Inkes his drculI littrally as a timeless visitation to him by Zmillla lind ttn Christ This is what he means when he says thai - someshyone visi ted him

Just how real is this o ther deathless world Dostoesky seems 10 sugshygest that it call actually apclIr 10 liS in ou r drciulis a lld fa ut ilsies7 AI)05has dream seems 10 transpose hi m 10 another world nol nppar~nt in oll r wakshying life UcelUse II priori rules of time and splce b lock ollr u(tss to it In dreams thesl rules a re suspe nded and Alym has fi nal epiphany takes place at the crossroads of wn1 1mbcrless- worlds Illat momentarily il1lcrscd wit hil l him 1111 confidence that DoslneSJ) In in Ih~ rea li t)~ of Al)oshas vision is expressed in his lISC of the Hussian word kflJJuJ--dollle--for the sl) as it appelrs to 1 I)osha when he sleps o ul inlo nature WI( 3(2) t few lines latN wsornc thillg (IS firm and immovable a$ this heavenl) ault IlIcbeslyi middotIltHl t is said 10 desc(nd into AI)oshas SOIl I A klllo in Bussiall is not the inside of Ihe do me of a enthedmllmt it outsitic DostoclI J) i t~hokC of worcls suggests that lit thi s epiphanic Illoment AI)nsha 1I1ollltntarily see the other tnms(c llde l1lal world whole and from the ()ulside

BltCk in 111111 VlfClillll I--vin has no dream and his e pipbU1Y runs a dilTc re nt ((lIIrse from Alyoshamiddots F)1xlors w(Jrd~ i~nitc a ehai n of intcrvJOwn Ihoughllgt IIml re miniscen(es but during this PlOCf SS Levin remains enti re ly wi thin himself His insp ired idea orgallitcs a whol e swarm ufvarious imshypolent separate thoughts that had always pr(()(Cllpicd him It oomes not frOlll the Bible but fro m trldilional peasant wi~dom which Levin lIlainshytains is Oolh unive rsal and Hahira Wllcreas Al~osha fllllL his ideals in a book-nncl later writes a book himsllr- Lcvin finds the Ifllth only whe n Fedor s words release ~ undear bu t Significant though ts that before had 1kl1 - locked up in h is soul hut now all streaming loward a single goal began 10 whirl in his head blind ing hi m wit h Ihei r lighl ~ (AI( 719)_ Whe u he hilS fini shed spinning out the consequences of his re turn to truth he

135

stops thinking and listens to mysterious voiees jo)fully aud eamestl) disshycussing sOlllcllling amo ng I hemsektmiddots~ (AK 724 )

Eistwberp in the novel Levin too makes lontact with anothe r world Tll is happe ns not wh he is eont e mplating Iml during fundallUlItal life exshyperie nces (ollrtsil ip alld marriage the death of his brother and the birt h of hi s SOil Birth md dcatll arc - mimcts- that e levate the ordinary life aboV( mechanical proecss ami infu sc it with the sacred In the w()rd~ of tile I)()t Fet lo lII lenUn~ un the l(lIlncction bc lwtt1l Nikolais dpath and ~ I itya s hirth hirth and death arc - Iwo holfs [from the 1l1ltcrialJ into the ~piri t lal world into NirvUla Tlwy are middot two visible and ete rnally l11yste ri shyOIL~ ~ nduws t~ 111 Mil k(lk woJ (The World (IS OIW Wllole ) puhlished in 1872 Stmkhov ar~u~ thaI b irth and death the main events of organic (as oppos(ltu mechanical) life lannol be understood Sltienlificul1y

I l er( in hinh and death J evcT)1hiug is ituo lllprehfllsiblc cWI1 hilig is mysshyt c riou~ a nti MienC( d()(i not S(f (tll a path u) wltieh it might nrrivc at II resshyolution to the IUlSlit llls Ilmt prt~e nt I hemselws 111Cstigations ~how that thSl mi raclegt art lakin~ pltlCC now Ic rc he fore our H ry eyes From this point of view it is wry JUSI III say Diine creation d~s nol cease even ffir n In il ll1tc that thtmiddot J rent ~tCfc t of tllc crealil)n of till world is taking place bcshyfort us up t ( l tll is ve ry fltOlllcnt m

Tlwc aft the (enlT3lmyste rics that cevate ordinary life above tlw mere ly mechanical and of lOlirsc give I sacred dime nsion to the faHlil) Although Toisto nowhe re 1dnltJwl(ltges this the - family idea in Amw iVl rellill(l

mav derive its th(ore tieal validity from TIU World n~ Dlle Wholc whidl hl f~ 1l111Cll admircdO lt llis is s~ tllcn Stflkhov is o ne irnpo rtmlt SOU rLC o f the pantheism that is till presellt in IIIW IVm IllrI albe it in a difTe fCnt and much tl imi ll is hed fnnn than ill Var (fI1l1 Pf(f(Y

Tht - fa mily idea (l ike tIle - idea o f tit p(Ople h in War lIIullfflce ) has nothing to do with Ihe mi nd at all In the passage from The World (IS Dill Wlwle Strakhov plalcs limits on what human rC1$I)U can diSlte rB and this idea wOllld have been vcI) lltt mc tive to Tolstoy lle rever Stmkhov stepl)(1 Oe)ontl those limits Tulstoy wOl1 ld take h im to tas k for doing so In IUlSic

C()IICepl~ of PSljchol(Jy ill a chapte r entitled l he Real Life o f the SOl1 l ~

(H lleal T1 1a zhzn middot dllshn Strakhov trieli to prove the objetti c status of psychic life whetllCr awake or aslc(middotp by d((ltieing a priori ohjeetic cateshygori es u f tmlh (isliuul goodness (bllgo J alld frfeltlolil (ltwouodnnio dd(lshyIcrlllJ~t) tllll IInderlie tho ught feeling alld will resp(CIieiy

Our ulolights hawmiddot to comprise real knowletlgc 11m fecling~ hae 10 relat l to our fcal ~ooJ they twt to he part of OUf rcalluppincss our desires have 10

IJe possible to rcali71 ucstimtl fo r rellizatilll1 (lnd [destined to ] he trl1Islated into ftal actiuns Umlcr tlifs( m ndilions tlur inner world takes on the s i ~n ifmiddot ical1(1middot I f full reali t ami luses its illu sory charaelN life tllrns frolll a dr( ilHI intu nal lift (001 73)

136

Did IJostO(lky (lr T(ll~toy Believe ill Mirld(s

rose lip a fighte r stedflSt for I ll( res t o f his life m] he knew it and fdt it sudde nly (It til (lt very mome nt of his (CSt a~ NeCr ncf r in his li fe would AI)osha forget this moment ~SOllllOllC isIl(1 HI) MIIII in that hour- ht wou ld $Y afte rwards with fi rm telief ill his words (Jj K 362-63)

As Alyosha moves ou t o f the e ro tic fre nzy of which (like David danci ng nake d before the ark) Mhe was nut asilltrllld ~on l lllt i llg frlllll o ll tsid e and ahove-it is Iike~ the heaven ly aTch and thprcfore is not it-sN ms to him to possess hi~ soul ami o rganize it (I((Ording to what he calls nn - idea- that In m s him frolll a wctk hoy into a warrior As should be clear by now Alyoshas later version of what happflII d to hlm-SOIlltOIlC i si t(d 1Ilt~shydocs not jibe in any si mple way with the nnrrntors account of the (cnl as it unfolds A (omplc( inte raction IJetw(c n AI)osh11 and -T(tlity- takes place in which Dostoevsky intentionally I(lw$ uuctftlli ll what c( unes from imide and what from outside Th e heilVcnly vault Hs( lf is o ne case in point it is a nWl apho r huil 0 11 the unavoidahle but scil lItifically fa[sc human pe rcepshytion of Ihc sl-y IS round and i nittgt [n th is St lIS it C( lnlCS lol from reality b ill from Alyosha who the n fee ls somet h ing [i kc it cnter him in the fonn of moml pri ncipks

The helcnly vault mnkes IIIl lIp pt arlItlCl in hook S or AIIIUI Kllrelli lw and also in iJasic CmlUIJI of gtsyclwlugy Strakhov cites it- using th( term 1It)yi ~VO(I-as an (~~al1lplc of the Tluut) of universal perctgtplions whether o r nul Ihc) cOrrespond 10 (xtenml ralily (0011 38) 1(111 uses it to Issert the validi ty of his ~slJhje(tiH~- be lief in II humanly llleaningfulllnierse

Liug Illl hi back hc IS now gazing 111 till high d oudlcss sky DolIt I know that tllUl is infinite spu middot amI nnt a rollnd~1 twit [knl1lyi slJO(l] But howshyever I Inll ~fW III eycs and stram my sight I call1lot 1(lp ltt-eing il as rml TOuml lIud not limitcd alill dasp it t III) kllO k-ilge of limitless spalaquoe I am illmiddot dubitably ri~ht when 1 S(-f a nml rou nd ault JVlrrlyi jolilboi ~nKI] and mOTt ri~h t tll1I1 wllcn I stmin tn ~t( beyoml it ~ (AK 724 )

Dostocvsl-ys lise of thc heacn l) ali it may be a hidden referencoe to one o r ho th of the previo us ones Be this as it may thc metaphor figures in atlth ree texts as part of a defense of the IlIlImm from the degrading rcd ultionism of sciell le The two poets carry this argllmen t milch furthe r than the scientistshyphilosophe r bul Stmkllu lays the groundwork for their more ambitious 5ions whe n he tn ()lifi(s e mpirical psychology to 1II0ve the nucleus of lhe ps)chc the sclf into the realm of rl1(taphysical knowledge that is inltC(tsshysible to IUlman reason For both Dostoevsky and Tolstoy the individual psyshyche bpoundlonws 11 gatcway tu a tnlllscellde ntal reali ty othe rwisc inat(cssihlc

Despite thes( corHl(tions howcver ali(I CVClI ifho DostOtsk) and Strakhov are quo ting To lstoy the two I)()fts haC di ffe ring hleL of what we Call actually know alx lII thc transcendc ntal reali ty in which h()th leed to heliew Til is eviderll fro m II c()rnpa rison of the respective (piphaHies of

133

Alyosha and Levin Levin d ist overs a tnlth that he feels be luLS always l1own Fyodors words p roclm-ecl in his so ul the cfktt of an e lectric spark sudshydpoundnly t ransfurm ing and we lding in tu une a whol( g roup of d isjointed il nposhytent separate ideas wtich fwd mllf ccmud to occufY him These ideas lIubckll (JWflst to himself wac occupyiug him wile n he WILS talking ahout letshyling the land (e mphasis added) Su ilHc mal but separate idca_~ that toshygethe r make III a larger lnalll we re waiting only for all exle rnal catalyst to make the mselves known Whe n they do ~Oll1e together Le vin decmiddotlares that he IloW ~ kl1ow~ what not only he but all of llllillankind have always know n MAlld [did not finu this klluwledgt in any way bu t it was given tO IIIU gilr u l-ecausc I lOUl t lWt han takcm it from a l1)whe re16 lcin says flll1hershymore that he hngt lwen liJlg right while he lhinks wTOng Thl of cours( is what saves him from tile fat e o f Anna who becausc she lives wrollg does no t have aeltcss to the knowlelge thl t is hidde n ill he r too

Unlike u vin Alyosha feels thnt his 1l(W kllowlcdge comes from UIlIshy

lgt idc Ill is is whal be means when he says ~ Someonc i sitcu me lie has a sense that a fonll ntivl moml idea e nte rs him and turus him frOlll a middotmiddotwetk )oulh to a warrior As I have shown prcviously this sense is mistake n 10 the ed l llt that Alyosbas rortitudc rests IIpoll newly constituted inne r foundashytions Despite this hid howc c r AI)1Jshas PCJIc ption that his HCW resolushylioll comes fmm o utside him is n lluable dill both to his slate of mind alld allgto tn the relation of real alld ideal acconling to Dustocvsky As with Len another persoll s ltortlS-in Alyoshas llISC the words and deeds of c rushf lIka---cr(atl Ihe initi al oonrnlions fur his epiphany As with Lcin Ihcs( wurd~ bOlh IInseltle his feelings Iud thou)hl s and preci pi tat e signill shyt1Il1 knowledf(c Before this knflII(I~e can coalesce howeve r Alr nsha has anothe r cperic nct a dream l i e falls asleep LS tile b ihlical passtlge alxlIIl the 1lllrrillge at Calla is being ruad ove r Ihe (Offin ofZosilllltt He (Ommenls on this passage in his skCp Iud Ihe n Zosima appears hefore hinl and sumshymons h im to the marriage fPast At this point Alyoshas dream slille dcfp shyens and the physical laws o f lIatufe are ~lIs pell(l((1 To mark this shifl from ohj(Actif to subjeltti() fe-al ity LJostOlvsky me ntions thai (ill Aly shas pershycep tion) the mom lUoves (k()wlfl mdlligmsII ) Hnd Ihc n to enlphL~ize it he rqktI S the info rmatioll in the sunf parag raph (oP(J mflvIlIl(JS kOIlIlW ) When tht ph)sicallaws that hold a room in place no longer ohshylain the dL( rce uf 1I(alh isil ed on eYc ry individual who lils lived or lives is also lifted Zosill1a does not ri se rrom his w flin whidl has d isappeared Iyosha simply reltOgnizes hi III as nile of the gllcsts al the table It is usiliia whll ealls Alyosha ~ th words that suggest liis resurrection Why hle )011 buricd yourself 11 (1( where we can t seL you corne and join us r Zaclle1t1 siuda skhuronilsia cillo lie vidal Ic bia po idelll i ty k lI am ~

UK 361) The c ITfC t is Ihal AI)llsha wakes from lht clead 10 Ihf living life of hi s urr-3m

Did Doslocvs l) or Tol~IO Bclitlt( ill ~lim(ICli

The statns of dreallls in Ih( nowl and the appeamme in the m of Imllshysccmlenlal ideal realily lJ(ltOmes clearer if we oompme Alyillhas dream wilh lh e appeamncc of the devil to Iyan laler in the novel As is approprishy(lIe for an advocate of philosophical lIHtt e rialisrn lilt devi l illsists tlmt he is part of the phy~ical world Ivan howeer WlIlls tlfmiddotspe rat e l) In 1 ~~Heve

thai the devi l is a fi gme nt of his irnagination li e is in fact drea med lip by [van and vanishes wllcn Alyosha knocks on his willdow hut- Illost si~ni fl shyeanlly-that docs not 1l1fan thai the devil is not rfn l Usin~ analytic rCL~OIl h lUl has assu lIlrtl the staluc of an outside observer is-u-vis not only exlershynal hil i also his own intenml rt ality He ell t~ himse lf ofT from transccll dcnshytal reality through his mtionnlislIl and his egotism Whe n his irnaginitiull mujures til) the devil he wanlgt 10 k~p lhis stirrin~ of spirilIIallife salely fi ctional evell though his dcvil is much closer to him personally than say the Cmnd Infllisitor in his safely d istanced story o r medie val limcraquo Alyosua by con trast Inkes his drculI littrally as a timeless visitation to him by Zmillla lind ttn Christ This is what he means when he says thai - someshyone visi ted him

Just how real is this o ther deathless world Dostoesky seems 10 sugshygest that it call actually apclIr 10 liS in ou r drciulis a lld fa ut ilsies7 AI)05has dream seems 10 transpose hi m 10 another world nol nppar~nt in oll r wakshying life UcelUse II priori rules of time and splce b lock ollr u(tss to it In dreams thesl rules a re suspe nded and Alym has fi nal epiphany takes place at the crossroads of wn1 1mbcrless- worlds Illat momentarily il1lcrscd wit hil l him 1111 confidence that DoslneSJ) In in Ih~ rea li t)~ of Al)oshas vision is expressed in his lISC of the Hussian word kflJJuJ--dollle--for the sl) as it appelrs to 1 I)osha when he sleps o ul inlo nature WI( 3(2) t few lines latN wsornc thillg (IS firm and immovable a$ this heavenl) ault IlIcbeslyi middotIltHl t is said 10 desc(nd into AI)oshas SOIl I A klllo in Bussiall is not the inside of Ihe do me of a enthedmllmt it outsitic DostoclI J) i t~hokC of worcls suggests that lit thi s epiphanic Illoment AI)nsha 1I1ollltntarily see the other tnms(c llde l1lal world whole and from the ()ulside

BltCk in 111111 VlfClillll I--vin has no dream and his e pipbU1Y runs a dilTc re nt ((lIIrse from Alyoshamiddots F)1xlors w(Jrd~ i~nitc a ehai n of intcrvJOwn Ihoughllgt IIml re miniscen(es but during this PlOCf SS Levin remains enti re ly wi thin himself His insp ired idea orgallitcs a whol e swarm ufvarious imshypolent separate thoughts that had always pr(()(Cllpicd him It oomes not frOlll the Bible but fro m trldilional peasant wi~dom which Levin lIlainshytains is Oolh unive rsal and Hahira Wllcreas Al~osha fllllL his ideals in a book-nncl later writes a book himsllr- Lcvin finds the Ifllth only whe n Fedor s words release ~ undear bu t Significant though ts that before had 1kl1 - locked up in h is soul hut now all streaming loward a single goal began 10 whirl in his head blind ing hi m wit h Ihei r lighl ~ (AI( 719)_ Whe u he hilS fini shed spinning out the consequences of his re turn to truth he

135

stops thinking and listens to mysterious voiees jo)fully aud eamestl) disshycussing sOlllcllling amo ng I hemsektmiddots~ (AK 724 )

Eistwberp in the novel Levin too makes lontact with anothe r world Tll is happe ns not wh he is eont e mplating Iml during fundallUlItal life exshyperie nces (ollrtsil ip alld marriage the death of his brother and the birt h of hi s SOil Birth md dcatll arc - mimcts- that e levate the ordinary life aboV( mechanical proecss ami infu sc it with the sacred In the w()rd~ of tile I)()t Fet lo lII lenUn~ un the l(lIlncction bc lwtt1l Nikolais dpath and ~ I itya s hirth hirth and death arc - Iwo holfs [from the 1l1ltcrialJ into the ~piri t lal world into NirvUla Tlwy are middot two visible and ete rnally l11yste ri shyOIL~ ~ nduws t~ 111 Mil k(lk woJ (The World (IS OIW Wllole ) puhlished in 1872 Stmkhov ar~u~ thaI b irth and death the main events of organic (as oppos(ltu mechanical) life lannol be understood Sltienlificul1y

I l er( in hinh and death J evcT)1hiug is ituo lllprehfllsiblc cWI1 hilig is mysshyt c riou~ a nti MienC( d()(i not S(f (tll a path u) wltieh it might nrrivc at II resshyolution to the IUlSlit llls Ilmt prt~e nt I hemselws 111Cstigations ~how that thSl mi raclegt art lakin~ pltlCC now Ic rc he fore our H ry eyes From this point of view it is wry JUSI III say Diine creation d~s nol cease even ffir n In il ll1tc that thtmiddot J rent ~tCfc t of tllc crealil)n of till world is taking place bcshyfort us up t ( l tll is ve ry fltOlllcnt m

Tlwc aft the (enlT3lmyste rics that cevate ordinary life above tlw mere ly mechanical and of lOlirsc give I sacred dime nsion to the faHlil) Although Toisto nowhe re 1dnltJwl(ltges this the - family idea in Amw iVl rellill(l

mav derive its th(ore tieal validity from TIU World n~ Dlle Wholc whidl hl f~ 1l111Cll admircdO lt llis is s~ tllcn Stflkhov is o ne irnpo rtmlt SOU rLC o f the pantheism that is till presellt in IIIW IVm IllrI albe it in a difTe fCnt and much tl imi ll is hed fnnn than ill Var (fI1l1 Pf(f(Y

Tht - fa mily idea (l ike tIle - idea o f tit p(Ople h in War lIIullfflce ) has nothing to do with Ihe mi nd at all In the passage from The World (IS Dill Wlwle Strakhov plalcs limits on what human rC1$I)U can diSlte rB and this idea wOllld have been vcI) lltt mc tive to Tolstoy lle rever Stmkhov stepl)(1 Oe)ontl those limits Tulstoy wOl1 ld take h im to tas k for doing so In IUlSic

C()IICepl~ of PSljchol(Jy ill a chapte r entitled l he Real Life o f the SOl1 l ~

(H lleal T1 1a zhzn middot dllshn Strakhov trieli to prove the objetti c status of psychic life whetllCr awake or aslc(middotp by d((ltieing a priori ohjeetic cateshygori es u f tmlh (isliuul goodness (bllgo J alld frfeltlolil (ltwouodnnio dd(lshyIcrlllJ~t) tllll IInderlie tho ught feeling alld will resp(CIieiy

Our ulolights hawmiddot to comprise real knowletlgc 11m fecling~ hae 10 relat l to our fcal ~ooJ they twt to he part of OUf rcalluppincss our desires have 10

IJe possible to rcali71 ucstimtl fo r rellizatilll1 (lnd [destined to ] he trl1Islated into ftal actiuns Umlcr tlifs( m ndilions tlur inner world takes on the s i ~n ifmiddot ical1(1middot I f full reali t ami luses its illu sory charaelN life tllrns frolll a dr( ilHI intu nal lift (001 73)

136

Alyosha and Levin Levin d ist overs a tnlth that he feels be luLS always l1own Fyodors words p roclm-ecl in his so ul the cfktt of an e lectric spark sudshydpoundnly t ransfurm ing and we lding in tu une a whol( g roup of d isjointed il nposhytent separate ideas wtich fwd mllf ccmud to occufY him These ideas lIubckll (JWflst to himself wac occupyiug him wile n he WILS talking ahout letshyling the land (e mphasis added) Su ilHc mal but separate idca_~ that toshygethe r make III a larger lnalll we re waiting only for all exle rnal catalyst to make the mselves known Whe n they do ~Oll1e together Le vin decmiddotlares that he IloW ~ kl1ow~ what not only he but all of llllillankind have always know n MAlld [did not finu this klluwledgt in any way bu t it was given tO IIIU gilr u l-ecausc I lOUl t lWt han takcm it from a l1)whe re16 lcin says flll1hershymore that he hngt lwen liJlg right while he lhinks wTOng Thl of cours( is what saves him from tile fat e o f Anna who becausc she lives wrollg does no t have aeltcss to the knowlelge thl t is hidde n ill he r too

Unlike u vin Alyosha feels thnt his 1l(W kllowlcdge comes from UIlIshy

lgt idc Ill is is whal be means when he says ~ Someonc i sitcu me lie has a sense that a fonll ntivl moml idea e nte rs him and turus him frOlll a middotmiddotwetk )oulh to a warrior As I have shown prcviously this sense is mistake n 10 the ed l llt that Alyosbas rortitudc rests IIpoll newly constituted inne r foundashytions Despite this hid howc c r AI)1Jshas PCJIc ption that his HCW resolushylioll comes fmm o utside him is n lluable dill both to his slate of mind alld allgto tn the relation of real alld ideal acconling to Dustocvsky As with Len another persoll s ltortlS-in Alyoshas llISC the words and deeds of c rushf lIka---cr(atl Ihe initi al oonrnlions fur his epiphany As with Lcin Ihcs( wurd~ bOlh IInseltle his feelings Iud thou)hl s and preci pi tat e signill shyt1Il1 knowledf(c Before this knflII(I~e can coalesce howeve r Alr nsha has anothe r cperic nct a dream l i e falls asleep LS tile b ihlical passtlge alxlIIl the 1lllrrillge at Calla is being ruad ove r Ihe (Offin ofZosilllltt He (Ommenls on this passage in his skCp Iud Ihe n Zosima appears hefore hinl and sumshymons h im to the marriage fPast At this point Alyoshas dream slille dcfp shyens and the physical laws o f lIatufe are ~lIs pell(l((1 To mark this shifl from ohj(Actif to subjeltti() fe-al ity LJostOlvsky me ntions thai (ill Aly shas pershycep tion) the mom lUoves (k()wlfl mdlligmsII ) Hnd Ihc n to enlphL~ize it he rqktI S the info rmatioll in the sunf parag raph (oP(J mflvIlIl(JS kOIlIlW ) When tht ph)sicallaws that hold a room in place no longer ohshylain the dL( rce uf 1I(alh isil ed on eYc ry individual who lils lived or lives is also lifted Zosill1a does not ri se rrom his w flin whidl has d isappeared Iyosha simply reltOgnizes hi III as nile of the gllcsts al the table It is usiliia whll ealls Alyosha ~ th words that suggest liis resurrection Why hle )011 buricd yourself 11 (1( where we can t seL you corne and join us r Zaclle1t1 siuda skhuronilsia cillo lie vidal Ic bia po idelll i ty k lI am ~

UK 361) The c ITfC t is Ihal AI)llsha wakes from lht clead 10 Ihf living life of hi s urr-3m

Did Doslocvs l) or Tol~IO Bclitlt( ill ~lim(ICli

The statns of dreallls in Ih( nowl and the appeamme in the m of Imllshysccmlenlal ideal realily lJ(ltOmes clearer if we oompme Alyillhas dream wilh lh e appeamncc of the devil to Iyan laler in the novel As is approprishy(lIe for an advocate of philosophical lIHtt e rialisrn lilt devi l illsists tlmt he is part of the phy~ical world Ivan howeer WlIlls tlfmiddotspe rat e l) In 1 ~~Heve

thai the devi l is a fi gme nt of his irnagination li e is in fact drea med lip by [van and vanishes wllcn Alyosha knocks on his willdow hut- Illost si~ni fl shyeanlly-that docs not 1l1fan thai the devil is not rfn l Usin~ analytic rCL~OIl h lUl has assu lIlrtl the staluc of an outside observer is-u-vis not only exlershynal hil i also his own intenml rt ality He ell t~ himse lf ofT from transccll dcnshytal reality through his mtionnlislIl and his egotism Whe n his irnaginitiull mujures til) the devil he wanlgt 10 k~p lhis stirrin~ of spirilIIallife salely fi ctional evell though his dcvil is much closer to him personally than say the Cmnd Infllisitor in his safely d istanced story o r medie val limcraquo Alyosua by con trast Inkes his drculI littrally as a timeless visitation to him by Zmillla lind ttn Christ This is what he means when he says thai - someshyone visi ted him

Just how real is this o ther deathless world Dostoesky seems 10 sugshygest that it call actually apclIr 10 liS in ou r drciulis a lld fa ut ilsies7 AI)05has dream seems 10 transpose hi m 10 another world nol nppar~nt in oll r wakshying life UcelUse II priori rules of time and splce b lock ollr u(tss to it In dreams thesl rules a re suspe nded and Alym has fi nal epiphany takes place at the crossroads of wn1 1mbcrless- worlds Illat momentarily il1lcrscd wit hil l him 1111 confidence that DoslneSJ) In in Ih~ rea li t)~ of Al)oshas vision is expressed in his lISC of the Hussian word kflJJuJ--dollle--for the sl) as it appelrs to 1 I)osha when he sleps o ul inlo nature WI( 3(2) t few lines latN wsornc thillg (IS firm and immovable a$ this heavenl) ault IlIcbeslyi middotIltHl t is said 10 desc(nd into AI)oshas SOIl I A klllo in Bussiall is not the inside of Ihe do me of a enthedmllmt it outsitic DostoclI J) i t~hokC of worcls suggests that lit thi s epiphanic Illoment AI)nsha 1I1ollltntarily see the other tnms(c llde l1lal world whole and from the ()ulside

BltCk in 111111 VlfClillll I--vin has no dream and his e pipbU1Y runs a dilTc re nt ((lIIrse from Alyoshamiddots F)1xlors w(Jrd~ i~nitc a ehai n of intcrvJOwn Ihoughllgt IIml re miniscen(es but during this PlOCf SS Levin remains enti re ly wi thin himself His insp ired idea orgallitcs a whol e swarm ufvarious imshypolent separate thoughts that had always pr(()(Cllpicd him It oomes not frOlll the Bible but fro m trldilional peasant wi~dom which Levin lIlainshytains is Oolh unive rsal and Hahira Wllcreas Al~osha fllllL his ideals in a book-nncl later writes a book himsllr- Lcvin finds the Ifllth only whe n Fedor s words release ~ undear bu t Significant though ts that before had 1kl1 - locked up in h is soul hut now all streaming loward a single goal began 10 whirl in his head blind ing hi m wit h Ihei r lighl ~ (AI( 719)_ Whe u he hilS fini shed spinning out the consequences of his re turn to truth he

135

stops thinking and listens to mysterious voiees jo)fully aud eamestl) disshycussing sOlllcllling amo ng I hemsektmiddots~ (AK 724 )

Eistwberp in the novel Levin too makes lontact with anothe r world Tll is happe ns not wh he is eont e mplating Iml during fundallUlItal life exshyperie nces (ollrtsil ip alld marriage the death of his brother and the birt h of hi s SOil Birth md dcatll arc - mimcts- that e levate the ordinary life aboV( mechanical proecss ami infu sc it with the sacred In the w()rd~ of tile I)()t Fet lo lII lenUn~ un the l(lIlncction bc lwtt1l Nikolais dpath and ~ I itya s hirth hirth and death arc - Iwo holfs [from the 1l1ltcrialJ into the ~piri t lal world into NirvUla Tlwy are middot two visible and ete rnally l11yste ri shyOIL~ ~ nduws t~ 111 Mil k(lk woJ (The World (IS OIW Wllole ) puhlished in 1872 Stmkhov ar~u~ thaI b irth and death the main events of organic (as oppos(ltu mechanical) life lannol be understood Sltienlificul1y

I l er( in hinh and death J evcT)1hiug is ituo lllprehfllsiblc cWI1 hilig is mysshyt c riou~ a nti MienC( d()(i not S(f (tll a path u) wltieh it might nrrivc at II resshyolution to the IUlSlit llls Ilmt prt~e nt I hemselws 111Cstigations ~how that thSl mi raclegt art lakin~ pltlCC now Ic rc he fore our H ry eyes From this point of view it is wry JUSI III say Diine creation d~s nol cease even ffir n In il ll1tc that thtmiddot J rent ~tCfc t of tllc crealil)n of till world is taking place bcshyfort us up t ( l tll is ve ry fltOlllcnt m

Tlwc aft the (enlT3lmyste rics that cevate ordinary life above tlw mere ly mechanical and of lOlirsc give I sacred dime nsion to the faHlil) Although Toisto nowhe re 1dnltJwl(ltges this the - family idea in Amw iVl rellill(l

mav derive its th(ore tieal validity from TIU World n~ Dlle Wholc whidl hl f~ 1l111Cll admircdO lt llis is s~ tllcn Stflkhov is o ne irnpo rtmlt SOU rLC o f the pantheism that is till presellt in IIIW IVm IllrI albe it in a difTe fCnt and much tl imi ll is hed fnnn than ill Var (fI1l1 Pf(f(Y

Tht - fa mily idea (l ike tIle - idea o f tit p(Ople h in War lIIullfflce ) has nothing to do with Ihe mi nd at all In the passage from The World (IS Dill Wlwle Strakhov plalcs limits on what human rC1$I)U can diSlte rB and this idea wOllld have been vcI) lltt mc tive to Tolstoy lle rever Stmkhov stepl)(1 Oe)ontl those limits Tulstoy wOl1 ld take h im to tas k for doing so In IUlSic

C()IICepl~ of PSljchol(Jy ill a chapte r entitled l he Real Life o f the SOl1 l ~

(H lleal T1 1a zhzn middot dllshn Strakhov trieli to prove the objetti c status of psychic life whetllCr awake or aslc(middotp by d((ltieing a priori ohjeetic cateshygori es u f tmlh (isliuul goodness (bllgo J alld frfeltlolil (ltwouodnnio dd(lshyIcrlllJ~t) tllll IInderlie tho ught feeling alld will resp(CIieiy

Our ulolights hawmiddot to comprise real knowletlgc 11m fecling~ hae 10 relat l to our fcal ~ooJ they twt to he part of OUf rcalluppincss our desires have 10

IJe possible to rcali71 ucstimtl fo r rellizatilll1 (lnd [destined to ] he trl1Islated into ftal actiuns Umlcr tlifs( m ndilions tlur inner world takes on the s i ~n ifmiddot ical1(1middot I f full reali t ami luses its illu sory charaelN life tllrns frolll a dr( ilHI intu nal lift (001 73)

136

Did Doslocvs l) or Tol~IO Bclitlt( ill ~lim(ICli

The statns of dreallls in Ih( nowl and the appeamme in the m of Imllshysccmlenlal ideal realily lJ(ltOmes clearer if we oompme Alyillhas dream wilh lh e appeamncc of the devil to Iyan laler in the novel As is approprishy(lIe for an advocate of philosophical lIHtt e rialisrn lilt devi l illsists tlmt he is part of the phy~ical world Ivan howeer WlIlls tlfmiddotspe rat e l) In 1 ~~Heve

thai the devi l is a fi gme nt of his irnagination li e is in fact drea med lip by [van and vanishes wllcn Alyosha knocks on his willdow hut- Illost si~ni fl shyeanlly-that docs not 1l1fan thai the devil is not rfn l Usin~ analytic rCL~OIl h lUl has assu lIlrtl the staluc of an outside observer is-u-vis not only exlershynal hil i also his own intenml rt ality He ell t~ himse lf ofT from transccll dcnshytal reality through his mtionnlislIl and his egotism Whe n his irnaginitiull mujures til) the devil he wanlgt 10 k~p lhis stirrin~ of spirilIIallife salely fi ctional evell though his dcvil is much closer to him personally than say the Cmnd Infllisitor in his safely d istanced story o r medie val limcraquo Alyosua by con trast Inkes his drculI littrally as a timeless visitation to him by Zmillla lind ttn Christ This is what he means when he says thai - someshyone visi ted him

Just how real is this o ther deathless world Dostoesky seems 10 sugshygest that it call actually apclIr 10 liS in ou r drciulis a lld fa ut ilsies7 AI)05has dream seems 10 transpose hi m 10 another world nol nppar~nt in oll r wakshying life UcelUse II priori rules of time and splce b lock ollr u(tss to it In dreams thesl rules a re suspe nded and Alym has fi nal epiphany takes place at the crossroads of wn1 1mbcrless- worlds Illat momentarily il1lcrscd wit hil l him 1111 confidence that DoslneSJ) In in Ih~ rea li t)~ of Al)oshas vision is expressed in his lISC of the Hussian word kflJJuJ--dollle--for the sl) as it appelrs to 1 I)osha when he sleps o ul inlo nature WI( 3(2) t few lines latN wsornc thillg (IS firm and immovable a$ this heavenl) ault IlIcbeslyi middotIltHl t is said 10 desc(nd into AI)oshas SOIl I A klllo in Bussiall is not the inside of Ihe do me of a enthedmllmt it outsitic DostoclI J) i t~hokC of worcls suggests that lit thi s epiphanic Illoment AI)nsha 1I1ollltntarily see the other tnms(c llde l1lal world whole and from the ()ulside

BltCk in 111111 VlfClillll I--vin has no dream and his e pipbU1Y runs a dilTc re nt ((lIIrse from Alyoshamiddots F)1xlors w(Jrd~ i~nitc a ehai n of intcrvJOwn Ihoughllgt IIml re miniscen(es but during this PlOCf SS Levin remains enti re ly wi thin himself His insp ired idea orgallitcs a whol e swarm ufvarious imshypolent separate thoughts that had always pr(()(Cllpicd him It oomes not frOlll the Bible but fro m trldilional peasant wi~dom which Levin lIlainshytains is Oolh unive rsal and Hahira Wllcreas Al~osha fllllL his ideals in a book-nncl later writes a book himsllr- Lcvin finds the Ifllth only whe n Fedor s words release ~ undear bu t Significant though ts that before had 1kl1 - locked up in h is soul hut now all streaming loward a single goal began 10 whirl in his head blind ing hi m wit h Ihei r lighl ~ (AI( 719)_ Whe u he hilS fini shed spinning out the consequences of his re turn to truth he

135

stops thinking and listens to mysterious voiees jo)fully aud eamestl) disshycussing sOlllcllling amo ng I hemsektmiddots~ (AK 724 )

Eistwberp in the novel Levin too makes lontact with anothe r world Tll is happe ns not wh he is eont e mplating Iml during fundallUlItal life exshyperie nces (ollrtsil ip alld marriage the death of his brother and the birt h of hi s SOil Birth md dcatll arc - mimcts- that e levate the ordinary life aboV( mechanical proecss ami infu sc it with the sacred In the w()rd~ of tile I)()t Fet lo lII lenUn~ un the l(lIlncction bc lwtt1l Nikolais dpath and ~ I itya s hirth hirth and death arc - Iwo holfs [from the 1l1ltcrialJ into the ~piri t lal world into NirvUla Tlwy are middot two visible and ete rnally l11yste ri shyOIL~ ~ nduws t~ 111 Mil k(lk woJ (The World (IS OIW Wllole ) puhlished in 1872 Stmkhov ar~u~ thaI b irth and death the main events of organic (as oppos(ltu mechanical) life lannol be understood Sltienlificul1y

I l er( in hinh and death J evcT)1hiug is ituo lllprehfllsiblc cWI1 hilig is mysshyt c riou~ a nti MienC( d()(i not S(f (tll a path u) wltieh it might nrrivc at II resshyolution to the IUlSlit llls Ilmt prt~e nt I hemselws 111Cstigations ~how that thSl mi raclegt art lakin~ pltlCC now Ic rc he fore our H ry eyes From this point of view it is wry JUSI III say Diine creation d~s nol cease even ffir n In il ll1tc that thtmiddot J rent ~tCfc t of tllc crealil)n of till world is taking place bcshyfort us up t ( l tll is ve ry fltOlllcnt m

Tlwc aft the (enlT3lmyste rics that cevate ordinary life above tlw mere ly mechanical and of lOlirsc give I sacred dime nsion to the faHlil) Although Toisto nowhe re 1dnltJwl(ltges this the - family idea in Amw iVl rellill(l

mav derive its th(ore tieal validity from TIU World n~ Dlle Wholc whidl hl f~ 1l111Cll admircdO lt llis is s~ tllcn Stflkhov is o ne irnpo rtmlt SOU rLC o f the pantheism that is till presellt in IIIW IVm IllrI albe it in a difTe fCnt and much tl imi ll is hed fnnn than ill Var (fI1l1 Pf(f(Y

Tht - fa mily idea (l ike tIle - idea o f tit p(Ople h in War lIIullfflce ) has nothing to do with Ihe mi nd at all In the passage from The World (IS Dill Wlwle Strakhov plalcs limits on what human rC1$I)U can diSlte rB and this idea wOllld have been vcI) lltt mc tive to Tolstoy lle rever Stmkhov stepl)(1 Oe)ontl those limits Tulstoy wOl1 ld take h im to tas k for doing so In IUlSic

C()IICepl~ of PSljchol(Jy ill a chapte r entitled l he Real Life o f the SOl1 l ~

(H lleal T1 1a zhzn middot dllshn Strakhov trieli to prove the objetti c status of psychic life whetllCr awake or aslc(middotp by d((ltieing a priori ohjeetic cateshygori es u f tmlh (isliuul goodness (bllgo J alld frfeltlolil (ltwouodnnio dd(lshyIcrlllJ~t) tllll IInderlie tho ught feeling alld will resp(CIieiy

Our ulolights hawmiddot to comprise real knowletlgc 11m fecling~ hae 10 relat l to our fcal ~ooJ they twt to he part of OUf rcalluppincss our desires have 10

IJe possible to rcali71 ucstimtl fo r rellizatilll1 (lnd [destined to ] he trl1Islated into ftal actiuns Umlcr tlifs( m ndilions tlur inner world takes on the s i ~n ifmiddot ical1(1middot I f full reali t ami luses its illu sory charaelN life tllrns frolll a dr( ilHI intu nal lift (001 73)

136

stops thinking and listens to mysterious voiees jo)fully aud eamestl) disshycussing sOlllcllling amo ng I hemsektmiddots~ (AK 724 )

Eistwberp in the novel Levin too makes lontact with anothe r world Tll is happe ns not wh he is eont e mplating Iml during fundallUlItal life exshyperie nces (ollrtsil ip alld marriage the death of his brother and the birt h of hi s SOil Birth md dcatll arc - mimcts- that e levate the ordinary life aboV( mechanical proecss ami infu sc it with the sacred In the w()rd~ of tile I)()t Fet lo lII lenUn~ un the l(lIlncction bc lwtt1l Nikolais dpath and ~ I itya s hirth hirth and death arc - Iwo holfs [from the 1l1ltcrialJ into the ~piri t lal world into NirvUla Tlwy are middot two visible and ete rnally l11yste ri shyOIL~ ~ nduws t~ 111 Mil k(lk woJ (The World (IS OIW Wllole ) puhlished in 1872 Stmkhov ar~u~ thaI b irth and death the main events of organic (as oppos(ltu mechanical) life lannol be understood Sltienlificul1y

I l er( in hinh and death J evcT)1hiug is ituo lllprehfllsiblc cWI1 hilig is mysshyt c riou~ a nti MienC( d()(i not S(f (tll a path u) wltieh it might nrrivc at II resshyolution to the IUlSlit llls Ilmt prt~e nt I hemselws 111Cstigations ~how that thSl mi raclegt art lakin~ pltlCC now Ic rc he fore our H ry eyes From this point of view it is wry JUSI III say Diine creation d~s nol cease even ffir n In il ll1tc that thtmiddot J rent ~tCfc t of tllc crealil)n of till world is taking place bcshyfort us up t ( l tll is ve ry fltOlllcnt m

Tlwc aft the (enlT3lmyste rics that cevate ordinary life above tlw mere ly mechanical and of lOlirsc give I sacred dime nsion to the faHlil) Although Toisto nowhe re 1dnltJwl(ltges this the - family idea in Amw iVl rellill(l

mav derive its th(ore tieal validity from TIU World n~ Dlle Wholc whidl hl f~ 1l111Cll admircdO lt llis is s~ tllcn Stflkhov is o ne irnpo rtmlt SOU rLC o f the pantheism that is till presellt in IIIW IVm IllrI albe it in a difTe fCnt and much tl imi ll is hed fnnn than ill Var (fI1l1 Pf(f(Y

Tht - fa mily idea (l ike tIle - idea o f tit p(Ople h in War lIIullfflce ) has nothing to do with Ihe mi nd at all In the passage from The World (IS Dill Wlwle Strakhov plalcs limits on what human rC1$I)U can diSlte rB and this idea wOllld have been vcI) lltt mc tive to Tolstoy lle rever Stmkhov stepl)(1 Oe)ontl those limits Tulstoy wOl1 ld take h im to tas k for doing so In IUlSic

C()IICepl~ of PSljchol(Jy ill a chapte r entitled l he Real Life o f the SOl1 l ~

(H lleal T1 1a zhzn middot dllshn Strakhov trieli to prove the objetti c status of psychic life whetllCr awake or aslc(middotp by d((ltieing a priori ohjeetic cateshygori es u f tmlh (isliuul goodness (bllgo J alld frfeltlolil (ltwouodnnio dd(lshyIcrlllJ~t) tllll IInderlie tho ught feeling alld will resp(CIieiy

Our ulolights hawmiddot to comprise real knowletlgc 11m fecling~ hae 10 relat l to our fcal ~ooJ they twt to he part of OUf rcalluppincss our desires have 10

IJe possible to rcali71 ucstimtl fo r rellizatilll1 (lnd [destined to ] he trl1Islated into ftal actiuns Umlcr tlifs( m ndilions tlur inner world takes on the s i ~n ifmiddot ical1(1middot I f full reali t ami luses its illu sory charaelN life tllrns frolll a dr( ilHI intu nal lift (001 73)

136

DiJ Dostocvsky or To[stoy BcliI( in ~ l irldfS

Altho1lgh To lstoy agreed that it WiL~ IK(CSSlII) 10 me hor the life of I h~ psche and especially moral life in t ral1 s(Cud~uta l tmths he rtganlcd Slrl kl lUvs way of doing this b) lOgical ded uction as the welke-s t part of hi~ book (T-I81 6245) For Tolstoy us for Dostoevsky YOIl CUl t get tO 11Ietashyphysic-ll realit) via deductioJl Lo~ic II1 l1st be suppressed or at leas t Sllbshy

ordiuatcd to feeling before we have access to higher (ml hs The ~ t rll t hshy(iil linn ) or middotS( l1SC- (~middotIjysl) that Lcvill discovers comes to him in the form of the middotvoices of what lJori ~ Eikhe nhallm has called - 1I1oml instincts - J I T lusc vo ices originate in the consciencc which is p resented as hannoniolls and dialfctical rali le r lImn logical ami Levill conte mplates it din Ctl) afle he stops thinking - Levin had already L~ased thinking a nd only as it W ( lt hearshykC1led to lIlyste rious o i(Cs thai were joyolls1y ami eamest) d iscussillg somethi ng among the msehcs (AI( 724) The vo ices arC middot Illpt e riollsmiddot (tfl ill hull11ye) 1)(C~UISC tlly arc not l1cI ssible to the mim i I II 1111( Ktrcu shyillfl voitcs from the ot he r world ma) speak moml Imtlls ill our suuls a ud the birth and death of each individual may have some thing othe rworldly ahollt it hut no direct images of it evc r appear Ccu in dreams Tolstoy inshydicates the uncertain status of Levin Io expe rience with the wUIds -as it wCle~ (k(k flY ) neither Lcvin no r TolstoyS reader can be ~ure that Levin rcally hears those voices

We are now in a position to judge the relati ve position ()f Tol ~ t v) and Dostoevsky on middotspirituali st phe nome na in Amw Kfl f(ll i ll fl lind Tlw 8 m h shyers KJm UlUll)c In his hattlc witli the spili luaiisls $Irakho iusistcd lI[lo n a clear scpamtion between maile r anti spirit He conside red spi li tualislIl itshystlf to 1)( improper because il colilltenaneelt1 the ~ lllira C III)II ~ slIsptnsion of tll( laws of sP(C ami Lilllc in the realm of malte r whe re Ihese alT im-1I1utable] [n AllIll KJIIi lI i ll(l and slIhseqlle nl ly Tulslo) (I(ltptcd Slmkllos dual is m and therefore limited the m imClllous ~ to the sphe n o f e thies An ut lie r world 1II11) in fact (xist ami jtmay e levate the ortliuary to the Icmiddotel of the stlered but il expresses it self in Il ~ only thro l1gh the voice of the (Onshysd ell(C While Levin remains alone after his e pi phany he scts thr world amund him ill sY11100lie tc nHs iLl This assi milation of objccthe to suhjective reality comes to an abnlpt hall whe n he rejoi lls his fanli l) alld guests in a re turn to active life The insinuation as Levin IIi mse lf fOrllllllat ls il for llinjshyself later on is that sclf-c(JIllociousness and conscic ll(C do 110 t trausfonn 11lf world llthongh they g1C individuals some meaSUfe of lodf-conl rol and digshynity witlJin it [e n 11 hae 10 be conte nt with thai alill hcnltt m llte nt with his own 11IIIit((1 ~mowlcdgc unl mor11 fallibility

Dostoevsky too limitmiddots ~spiritllalis t plielloillena- to psychology ami ethics 1 11 fIle Jj mIU17gt IVIIYIIIUIoV howewr sllhjrctie rcalit) intn ldcs upon the objective world ~o powerfull) as to transform it into various hyshyhrids that mix the two Spiritualist phe liumvlla (nl ef Ihe world through the human p~)ehe through dreams flntasies anti visinns They have no

137

phpit-HI natural cxisle nL that can he validated by a scicnti fic commission such ns the One sct lip in 1875 by D l ~ I enddcyev to study spiritualism hut they arc nonetheless real I t is t Il rou~h these phenomena good lmd evil that moral progress (or rcgrtss) takes p1aec and the human world actually changes to rdlect thei r jHCSPIl(e AI)oshas dream of the marriage of Cami is sueh n visi tation 1-1 is embrace of tI ll earth lIld his vision of it L~ a stered teJl1plpound is an imposition on cxte m a[ reali ty of a psychologictl disposition LOndi tioned b) his viso l1 Through men like A[)odm who fell down a ~weak )oll th and rose lll) ~ fighter steudfast for the rcst of his Hfc~ the world acshy(Ilircs a spiri tual di mension Alyosha not only betomes the (o lllpiler and arranger of a saints lift bu t the end of the book fi nds him busy implanling sltcred memories 1 the bo)s who represcn t Bnssias next gcneratioll

1I)osha is not pS)thologically transformed by his experience rather une might say thai he iJ ps)cholorieall) confirlll tXl Even after hi s divinc visshyitation he still may be said to have too rosy lind the re fore suhjecthc a view of thc lltlllmn (Ondition Healily as it appears in the novel is sOI1l(thill~ difshyfenmt frum what AlyosJa illlagines it to be during this p rivileged moment Carnality and egotism are still presen t ill se~l fll lOe along with lhe e rotic desire tu sacriflct t he self that Al)osha it llcsses in Crushenka alld e~pcri shycncIs himself iu his ecstlS) The rcal miracle of hllnmH life tlmt we readers arpound 1leanl tocxlmcl frull l the scene with Crllshcnku is that the poten tial for ~ood as wtll l~ pure egotism coexist in the soul and thai we are frcc to choose the good even whe ll the laws of nature give us 110 reason for doing so But Alyoslm is more Hot less convincing as II chamcte r llCCausE he is not all wise Throllgll AI)osha Dostoevsky scts Ollt to fulfill two of his most cherished goals I lavi ng failC(1 (by 11 is own lights) in The Idi()t he tries once again to create 1I111ltln who is hOl h tl1J ly good and ltomincillgly human This good man i ll moe frorn a naive understanding of the miraculous to a valid one H is fait h vill be psycholugicall) grounded and comprehensible Ilii t not ~ i lllpl) sllbjrttivc Bathe r t l11ln argue for Ihe cxislenLC of rc li~ious priucishypies DosllXs J y wiJl emhody them in Al)osha (and o the r characters ill till book) Til t sl rtlIgt h of his arguHI lt nt will depend on tue degree to which we ac(e pt these characters L~ psychologically plausi ble If we do and if we lake thei r sclf-llllderst andillg as pll1lsible as well then DostOlmiddotsky ~1I have sllccecdelt1 n plauling scC(t~ of re1 i ~ious belief in lim IlllXlcrn world In the fu ture 1ll0reoc r these seeds i ll transform IUlt jusl indiiduals but 1111 world

Notes

An earlier t-rsion of this chapte r appeared in Hussiltn in 200() ill It Festshyschrift fm L D GiUlllova-Opulsb ya Sec - Psikhologiia vcry v nne Karc-

138

Did DostotVSk) or Tol~ toy Belie-middote ill Mimclts

ninOl 1 v Bmtiakh KanulIlzovykh ill Mir jilQfiI osvluslchaetiifl Li(i J)midcl)I( Cromowi-Opulskoi ( ~ l oskow Nasletlic 2( 00) 235--45

1 Two siste rs Kathe rine ilnd Ila r~are l Fox fmm Ilyt lesd alf New York near Bochestcr became world famous when Ihcy claimed in 1$18 10 hac communicated with the spirit o ra marl mu rdered in the ir lIouse The) laltr lOnfcsscd that they the mselves had made the tappin) sounds that Slipshy

po~ltlIy Clime from the dead man but lliis (onfcssion did not slap the mOcmc nt they had start~l

2 Linda Gerste in Nlkolfli Straklwv Ili iloltol ur MII of Rller~ Soshycial Cdtic (Cambridge lI arvard Unive rsi ty Press 19i 1) 162

3 l lis joumal art icles against Butle mv and Vngner we re en-ntunUy repuhlished in a collectio n entitled 0 illmykh h-tmJkh (St Pe te rsburg ISSi)

4 Gerste in Nikolai SfmkllOv l6i-68 Ke nnoskc Nakamurl (o1ll [lures the te ndenc) 10 mysticism in SoloviP 1I1t10oslocvs ky See KCli lloskc Naknllllrll Cllfl lStoo zh izlli I sme1i II IJostoevsk0f(J (St Petershur~ bshydanie Dmitri i Bilian in IWi) 265--7 1

5 C J G Tu rner A KIJIeIl w COlUptlfliou (Wate rloo Oil Vilfred La urier Univcrsity Press 1993) 18

6 L N Ta lslov Aw KnrC l i lll Till Maude Tralisatiflll 2t1 eel ed lind rev George Cibiull (NtW York W V Nortoll 1995) fi6 1-flS [he reafte r cited parenthe tically in Ic~1 as AK wilh p3ge l1ul1llwrJ

7 F M Dnstocskii Pollloe soiJnm il socil inellii i belll 3() Ois ( LeningTad 1972-88) 2232-37 [he reafte r d ied parenthetically ill ted as Is wit h volUllle and p3ge nu mber] lI e re and e lstwhen in tile (middotSgtI) tranl llshyliuns fronl tht HlIssi11l nre Illy own Cilations or rhr Ik Qtllln KfJ n lll lflZiW li re rrom the Pevear-Volokho llsky translation ~ N Iv York Vintage 8ooks 1091) and tm ns[lItions of All Iin KtJrtIl rw arf fmm AI( bu t I mod ify hoth wher ll tltCSSli ry to hrillg out special features in the Blissian text

S David jo rasky RUSIgt i(m Pmiddotycw0flj i Cri tical llis to y (O sford Basil Blackwell 1989) 5 55

9 The relatiuns bchecn Strakho lind lJostoevsky were tf)l nplkattd On Ihis subject SC( It lt lOllg othe rs A S JJoHnin - F - Dostoevsldi i N K S t rlkho~ in Slwstidedalye JOIly IIatltilliy IJO isturii liff l(It rmj i vbmiddot lrclwstelIllOIll Il d ViICl iill cd N K Piks1I10v (MosctI allCl I Rnin~md Izdate lslvo lIliadl rrl ii nallk SSS Il 19-10) 2JS-5t Hobert LOl lis Jae ksun - A Vilw rrom the Underground On Nikolai Nikoaevich St mkho s Lette r abo ut His Good Frie lld F)od or Mikhai IO~th [)ostOfsky a nd 011 u() Nikoshylae1ch Tohtoys Cautious Hesponsc to It middot i ll DialoU~ wil I)o~middottocvsky

Tile Ovrnvl lllmill Q UIS ti(l li Sla ufo rd Calif Stanford Univeni t Ilre ss 1993) 10+-20 L M HozenhHlIrll Lilemtunwe (hd~l f1) h3 (Wi t) 17- 23 rc p ri nl tmiddotd ill L ~ 1 Huzenbliunl foorclreskic dlierlJikl J()stO( IAmiddotkllO Moscow Iida te ls tvo ~allka 198 1)30-15 lIlId N Skato ~ N N Stmkhov

l 3U

Did DostotVSk) or Tol~ toy Belie-middote ill Mimclts

ninOl 1 v Bmtiakh KanulIlzovykh ill Mir jilQfiI osvluslchaetiifl Li(i J)midcl)I( Cromowi-Opulskoi ( ~ l oskow Nasletlic 2( 00) 235--45

1 Two siste rs Kathe rine ilnd Ila r~are l Fox fmm Ilyt lesd alf New York near Bochestcr became world famous when Ihcy claimed in 1$18 10 hac communicated with the spirit o ra marl mu rdered in the ir lIouse The) laltr lOnfcsscd that they the mselves had made the tappin) sounds that Slipshy

po~ltlIy Clime from the dead man but lliis (onfcssion did not slap the mOcmc nt they had start~l

2 Linda Gerste in Nlkolfli Straklwv Ili iloltol ur MII of Rller~ Soshycial Cdtic (Cambridge lI arvard Unive rsi ty Press 19i 1) 162

3 l lis joumal art icles against Butle mv and Vngner we re en-ntunUy repuhlished in a collectio n entitled 0 illmykh h-tmJkh (St Pe te rsburg ISSi)

4 Gerste in Nikolai SfmkllOv l6i-68 Ke nnoskc Nakamurl (o1ll [lures the te ndenc) 10 mysticism in SoloviP 1I1t10oslocvs ky See KCli lloskc Naknllllrll Cllfl lStoo zh izlli I sme1i II IJostoevsk0f(J (St Petershur~ bshydanie Dmitri i Bilian in IWi) 265--7 1

5 C J G Tu rner A KIJIeIl w COlUptlfliou (Wate rloo Oil Vilfred La urier Univcrsity Press 1993) 18

6 L N Ta lslov Aw KnrC l i lll Till Maude Tralisatiflll 2t1 eel ed lind rev George Cibiull (NtW York W V Nortoll 1995) fi6 1-flS [he reafte r cited parenthe tically in Ic~1 as AK wilh p3ge l1ul1llwrJ

7 F M Dnstocskii Pollloe soiJnm il socil inellii i belll 3() Ois ( LeningTad 1972-88) 2232-37 [he reafte r d ied parenthetically ill ted as Is wit h volUllle and p3ge nu mber] lI e re and e lstwhen in tile (middotSgtI) tranl llshyliuns fronl tht HlIssi11l nre Illy own Cilations or rhr Ik Qtllln KfJ n lll lflZiW li re rrom the Pevear-Volokho llsky translation ~ N Iv York Vintage 8ooks 1091) and tm ns[lItions of All Iin KtJrtIl rw arf fmm AI( bu t I mod ify hoth wher ll tltCSSli ry to hrillg out special features in the Blissian text

S David jo rasky RUSIgt i(m Pmiddotycw0flj i Cri tical llis to y (O sford Basil Blackwell 1989) 5 55

9 The relatiuns bchecn Strakho lind lJostoevsky were tf)l nplkattd On Ihis subject SC( It lt lOllg othe rs A S JJoHnin - F - Dostoevsldi i N K S t rlkho~ in Slwstidedalye JOIly IIatltilliy IJO isturii liff l(It rmj i vbmiddot lrclwstelIllOIll Il d ViICl iill cd N K Piks1I10v (MosctI allCl I Rnin~md Izdate lslvo lIliadl rrl ii nallk SSS Il 19-10) 2JS-5t Hobert LOl lis Jae ksun - A Vilw rrom the Underground On Nikolai Nikoaevich St mkho s Lette r abo ut His Good Frie lld F)od or Mikhai IO~th [)ostOfsky a nd 011 u() Nikoshylae1ch Tohtoys Cautious Hesponsc to It middot i ll DialoU~ wil I)o~middottocvsky

Tile Ovrnvl lllmill Q UIS ti(l li Sla ufo rd Calif Stanford Univeni t Ilre ss 1993) 10+-20 L M HozenhHlIrll Lilemtunwe (hd~l f1) h3 (Wi t) 17- 23 rc p ri nl tmiddotd ill L ~ 1 Huzenbliunl foorclreskic dlierlJikl J()stO( IAmiddotkllO Moscow Iida te ls tvo ~allka 198 1)30-15 lIlId N Skato ~ N N Stmkhov

l 3U

(1828- 1896) in N N Smkhol) l ielYlllIllwia k iiktl ( floS(o w Suvrll1ltnmiddot nik 1984) middot10-4 1

10 Ge rstein Nikol(j StrtlkWI) 161-65 11 To lstoy 10 St rakhov 29 May 1878 Sec L N Tolsloi PollOfSomiddot

Im lll ( sU(fdIJf IJH 90 vols (Mos(ow Cosudartvennoc ildatclstvo Khllshydozheslvcnnaia litc ralum 1928-58) 62425 (hereafte r cited as I J~ with vollllnc and page nurnhe r)

12 The monograph was rtmiddotp ri nted in 1886 as part of book called Ol) m UfJvllykh pouit ii(l k Isik lw (()ji i i fi Qogii (SI Pctersbur~ Tipografla hrat ev Panlc lLCv) kll ) I he reaft(f c ited us Oop wilh page Hlmber] Page refmiddot e re llClS to the lIlono~raph lI rc from this ed ition which is the o ne PlcMlpd it h Tol~tois margi nalia il t the la5naia Poliallu ibmT)

13 Fyoclor DostocSly The IVoltbooh for - flw Bro li ers Kn r (IWmiddot

ul) ((1 allli tnms Edward a iolek (Chicago Un iversi ty of Ch icOl)o Presgt 1971 ) 27

L4 Stt lor inslanct his conccs~ions to Dustoevsk) in the earl) 1860s (Lilcrtl l rmwe UInl~oo 86 11973 J 56 1--62) and his many expressions o f atl illiml iull to r TolstoyS poetic ~ifts One example o f th is would he an [( shydallwUon in an 1873 1dtcr to Tolstoy ~ [ J-I low joyflll fo r me is the tho ught tll(1 )011 ti ll kil ldesl of all poels Io tl fls~ fai th in good as the essence of hl man life I imagine thaI for )0 11 this thought lIs a warmth lUid ligltt completely inromprc hensiblc to blind me l sllch as r ( N N Strakhov IIetTp isko L N TuislOfOS N N Smkwvym 1870--1 891 01 2 ed and intro B L Modza l e ~ ki i 1St Pe ll rsburg Izdanie ohshchestva Toistovskogo Ill llzti ia 19 111 23-24 )

15 DoslotSk) No ebooks Bs IG I S Li7a Kllapp poil1t ~ 0111 the name Feodor cOllies from the

G reek T heodoros M

IIIca llin~ Vift of god and it is the pfa~IUl I Fyodor who ignites the t rain of tho light ill Levins lIIillll See Knapp M1 ue_la TII (gtmiddot le Death Sc ntemc s Vords and Inne r Mon()lo~re in To lstoys A w Ktr relli w and Th rep gtmiddotIore Deat hs Tolf()Y Studies j ounJ(l l1 (1 999) 12

17 On the cc of lXgin ll ing Tlte Brotlus KlInmwoc in his Difl ry (lJ ( Wi ter Dnstoevsk) publish((1 a tittle SIOry -The Drea m of a Bidicu lolJs ilan - which de~uds on just sitch a reersal as occurs to AIosha be tw(C1l waking reali ty and dre1l1l1s In both instanccs Ihe ontological status of the d nl1I1S is left tI(~ l ibemtel) Hgue

IS L N To lstoi l bull N Tolstoi 1(rcpiskflY ITIsskimi pisaImiddotlilllll eel S 1l 0iano~1 ( gt Ioslow Cos iidarstycnnoc izdattl stvo Khudozhestvennoi liteshyra tul) 19( 2) 336

19 N N Straklov Mi kk sei(H Cltm1y I IImrki (J primtll (St Peshyte rsbu rg 1872) 7S-79 82

20 Sec his I( tte rs uf Novc llIhe r 12 alld 17 1872 (T-P8lmiddot 6 1345-4H) and oflate IS75 (TmiddotPss 62235 )

l middottO

DiJ Dust()(vsky or Tolstoy Iklieve ill Mimdcs

21 Boris EikhenballlTI Lto 7olsIOi vol2 (192811$)3 1 MUllkh WiIshyhdm Fillk Ve rlag 19(8) 2 16

22 Gtrstein Nikoilli SlmkloIj 164-66 23 011 tl lis subject see Donnl Tussiug Orwill 1usluys Art fIIul

Humt 847- 1880 (Princeton NJ Princeton Uuivtlliity Press 1993) 20)- [

141

Copyright copy 2004 by Northwestern University Press Published 2004 All rights reserved

httpwwwnupressnorthwesternedu

DiJ Dust()(vsky or Tolstoy Iklieve ill Mimdcs

21 Boris EikhenballlTI Lto 7olsIOi vol2 (192811$)3 1 MUllkh WiIshyhdm Fillk Ve rlag 19(8) 2 16

22 Gtrstein Nikoilli SlmkloIj 164-66 23 011 tl lis subject see Donnl Tussiug Orwill 1usluys Art fIIul

Humt 847- 1880 (Princeton NJ Princeton Uuivtlliity Press 1993) 20)- [

141

Copyright copy 2004 by Northwestern University Press Published 2004 All rights reserved

httpwwwnupressnorthwesternedu

Copyright copy 2004 by Northwestern University Press Published 2004 All rights reserved

httpwwwnupressnorthwesternedu