In the Grand Inquisitor chapter, we see how Christ rejects
the Devil’s temptation to throw himself off the pinnacle, seek salvation from
the angels, and show the people below a miracle that would restore
their faith. The Grand Inquisitor’s insistence that Christ made
a mistake in refusing to show the people a miracle is based on his
emphatic belief that free will is not enough for most people to find
salvation through faith: the monks illustrate this general principle
that people need to witness miracles, because they are too weak to
hold onto their faith without them. Everyone, even Alyosha, is optimistic
about the possibility of a miracle after Zosima’s death, and the
speedy putrefaction of Zosima’s corpse is an unpleasant reminder
that, in the real world, there are no dazzling miracles, and faith
is something that must be achieved without evidence.
In these chapters, Dostoevsky creates a powerful
and disturbing symbol of the problem of free will in religious belief.
Without the security of miracles, people are left to their own devices,
to choose either faith or doubt. The choice to doubt or disbelieve
can be based on a model of rational evidence, but the choice to
believe must be more mystical, based on a positive feeling of meaning
and profundity that is often at odds with the world as we usually
experience it. Zosima’s corpse represents a worldly impediment to
faith. The physical reality of the world stubbornly works against
the claims of faith, giving believers no validation for their belief.
Even Alyosha, whose veneration of Zosima continually strengthens
and protects his own faith, is driven to doubt by the events surrounding
Zosima’s death. The anger that he feels toward God is similar to
the cold, intellectual fury that underlies Ivan’s entire project
of doubt. Both men are angry about God’s injustice: Alyosha because
God permits the posthumous humiliation of his beloved Zosima, and
Ivan because God permits the suffering of children.
Rakitin and Grushenka first conspire to bring
Alyosha to Grushenka’s because they are threatened by his apparently
unshakable purity. Their mistrust and self-doubt are manifest in
Rakitin’s smirking cynicism and Grushenka’s angry pride. They want
to upset, frighten, or corrupt Alyosha so that his own faith no
longer threatens their shared belief that the world is corrupt,
painful, and ugly. When the opposite happens, and Alyosha’s troubled
goodness elicits a chord of feeling and sympathy in Grushenka, the
two young people each find unexpected salvation in their sudden
understanding of one another. For Grushenka, finding a man who cares
about her renews her faith in the world. Alyosha’s experience with
Grushenka, on the other hand, reminds him that the validation of
faith lies not in miracles, but in good deeds. He believes that
faith is not invalidated simply because a corpse develops a stench,
but that it can be validated by active love of mankind.
Alyosha’s dream of Zosima demonstrates that Zosima’s
legacy has not died with his body, but lives on in Alyosha’s good
deeds, in the forgiveness and love that are the cornerstones of
his faith. -Alyosha’s kissing of the earth after he wakes up is
a turning point for him. A deliberate echo of Zosima’s final act
before dying, it signifies that Alyosha has stepped into Zosima’s
shoes and is now fully committed to leaving the monastery and doing
good in the world.
