feat_summary_path: finished_summaries/shmoop/The Brothers Karamazov/section_67_part_0.txt
feat_book_id: The Brothers Karamazov.book 10.chapter 6
feat_summary_id: book 10, chapter 6
feat_summary: {"name": "Book 10, Chapter 6", "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20201023112808/https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/brothers-karamazov/summary/book-10-chapter-6", "summary": "Outside, Kolya and Alyosha get to know each other. At first Kolya tries to impress Alyosha with his knowledge - disparaging religion and championing socialism, among other things. Frustrated, he asks Alyosha if he despises him, a question that surprises Alyosha. Alyosha quickly reassures Kolya. Kolya is won over by his frankness and lack of condescension. He opens up to Alyosha and confesses that he knows he suffers from vanity. Alyosha tells Kolya that he shouldn't be so worried about appearing ridiculous, and they both declare their friendship. Their conversation is cut short when the famous doctor emerges from the room.", "analysis": ""}
text: Chapter VI. Precocity
  
  
  "What do you think the doctor will say to him?" Kolya asked quickly. "What
  a repulsive mug, though, hasn't he? I can't endure medicine!"
  
  "Ilusha is dying. I think that's certain," answered Alyosha, mournfully.
  
  "They are rogues! Medicine's a fraud! I am glad to have made your
  acquaintance, though, Karamazov. I wanted to know you for a long time. I
  am only sorry we meet in such sad circumstances."
  
  Kolya had a great inclination to say something even warmer and more
  demonstrative, but he felt ill at ease. Alyosha noticed this, smiled, and
  pressed his hand.
  
  "I've long learned to respect you as a rare person," Kolya muttered again,
  faltering and uncertain. "I have heard you are a mystic and have been in
  the monastery. I know you are a mystic, but ... that hasn't put me off.
  Contact with real life will cure you.... It's always so with characters
  like yours."
  
  "What do you mean by mystic? Cure me of what?" Alyosha was rather
  astonished.
  
  "Oh, God and all the rest of it."
  
  "What, don't you believe in God?"
  
  "Oh, I've nothing against God. Of course, God is only a hypothesis, but
  ... I admit that He is needed ... for the order of the universe and all
  that ... and that if there were no God He would have to be invented,"
  added Kolya, beginning to blush. He suddenly fancied that Alyosha might
  think he was trying to show off his knowledge and to prove that he was
  "grown up." "I haven't the slightest desire to show off my knowledge to
  him," Kolya thought indignantly. And all of a sudden he felt horribly
  annoyed.
  
  "I must confess I can't endure entering on such discussions," he said with
  a final air. "It's possible for one who doesn't believe in God to love
  mankind, don't you think so? Voltaire didn't believe in God and loved
  mankind?" ("I am at it again," he thought to himself.)
  
  "Voltaire believed in God, though not very much, I think, and I don't
  think he loved mankind very much either," said Alyosha quietly, gently,
  and quite naturally, as though he were talking to some one of his own age,
  or even older. Kolya was particularly struck by Alyosha's apparent
  diffidence about his opinion of Voltaire. He seemed to be leaving the
  question for him, little Kolya, to settle.
  
  "Have you read Voltaire?" Alyosha finished.
  
  "No, not to say read.... But I've read _Candide_ in the Russian
  translation ... in an absurd, grotesque, old translation ... (At it again!
  again!)"
  
  "And did you understand it?"
  
  "Oh, yes, everything.... That is ... Why do you suppose I shouldn't
  understand it? There's a lot of nastiness in it, of course.... Of course I
  can understand that it's a philosophical novel and written to advocate an
  idea...." Kolya was getting mixed by now. "I am a Socialist, Karamazov, I
  am an incurable Socialist," he announced suddenly, apropos of nothing.
  
  "A Socialist?" laughed Alyosha. "But when have you had time to become one?
  Why, I thought you were only thirteen?"
  
  Kolya winced.
  
  "In the first place I am not thirteen, but fourteen, fourteen in a
  fortnight," he flushed angrily, "and in the second place I am at a
  complete loss to understand what my age has to do with it? The question is
  what are my convictions, not what is my age, isn't it?"
  
  "When you are older, you'll understand for yourself the influence of age
  on convictions. I fancied, too, that you were not expressing your own
  ideas," Alyosha answered serenely and modestly, but Kolya interrupted him
  hotly:
  
  "Come, you want obedience and mysticism. You must admit that the Christian
  religion, for instance, has only been of use to the rich and the powerful
  to keep the lower classes in slavery. That's so, isn't it?"
  
  "Ah, I know where you read that, and I am sure some one told you so!"
  cried Alyosha.
  
  "I say, what makes you think I read it? And certainly no one told me so. I
  can think for myself.... I am not opposed to Christ, if you like. He was a
  most humane person, and if He were alive to-day, He would be found in the
  ranks of the revolutionists, and would perhaps play a conspicuous part....
  There's no doubt about that."
  
  "Oh, where, where did you get that from? What fool have you made friends
  with?" exclaimed Alyosha.
  
  "Come, the truth will out! It has so chanced that I have often talked to
  Mr. Rakitin, of course, but ... old Byelinsky said that, too, so they
  say."
  
  "Byelinsky? I don't remember. He hasn't written that anywhere."
  
  "If he didn't write it, they say he said it. I heard that from a ... but
  never mind."
  
  "And have you read Byelinsky?"
  
  "Well, no ... I haven't read all of him, but ... I read the passage about
  Tatyana, why she didn't go off with Onyegin."
  
  "Didn't go off with Onyegin? Surely you don't ... understand that
  already?"
  
  "Why, you seem to take me for little Smurov," said Kolya, with a grin of
  irritation. "But please don't suppose I am such a revolutionist. I often
  disagree with Mr. Rakitin. Though I mention Tatyana, I am not at all for
  the emancipation of women. I acknowledge that women are a subject race and
  must obey. _Les femmes tricottent_, as Napoleon said." Kolya, for some
  reason, smiled, "And on that question at least I am quite of one mind with
  that pseudo-great man. I think, too, that to leave one's own country and
  fly to America is mean, worse than mean--silly. Why go to America when one
  may be of great service to humanity here? Now especially. There's a
  perfect mass of fruitful activity open to us. That's what I answered."
  
  "What do you mean? Answered whom? Has some one suggested your going to
  America already?"
  
  "I must own, they've been at me to go, but I declined. That's between
  ourselves, of course, Karamazov; do you hear, not a word to any one. I say
  this only to you. I am not at all anxious to fall into the clutches of the
  secret police and take lessons at the Chain bridge.
  
  
      _Long will you remember_
      _The house at the Chain bridge._
  
  
  Do you remember? It's splendid. Why are you laughing? You don't suppose I
  am fibbing, do you?" ("What if he should find out that I've only that one
  number of _The Bell_ in father's bookcase, and haven't read any more of
  it?" Kolya thought with a shudder.)
  
  "Oh, no, I am not laughing and don't suppose for a moment that you are
  lying. No, indeed, I can't suppose so, for all this, alas! is perfectly
  true. But tell me, have you read Pushkin--_Onyegin_, for instance?... You
  spoke just now of Tatyana."
  
  "No, I haven't read it yet, but I want to read it. I have no prejudices,
  Karamazov; I want to hear both sides. What makes you ask?"
  
  "Oh, nothing."
  
  "Tell me, Karamazov, have you an awful contempt for me?" Kolya rapped out
  suddenly and drew himself up before Alyosha, as though he were on drill.
  "Be so kind as to tell me, without beating about the bush."
  
  "I have a contempt for you?" Alyosha looked at him wondering. "What for? I
  am only sad that a charming nature such as yours should be perverted by
  all this crude nonsense before you have begun life."
  
  "Don't be anxious about my nature," Kolya interrupted, not without
  complacency. "But it's true that I am stupidly sensitive, crudely
  sensitive. You smiled just now, and I fancied you seemed to--"
  
  "Oh, my smile meant something quite different. I'll tell you why I smiled.
  Not long ago I read the criticism made by a German who had lived in
  Russia, on our students and schoolboys of to-day. 'Show a Russian
  schoolboy,' he writes, 'a map of the stars, which he knows nothing about,
  and he will give you back the map next day with corrections on it.' No
  knowledge and unbounded conceit--that's what the German meant to say about
  the Russian schoolboy."
  
  "Yes, that's perfectly right," Kolya laughed suddenly, "exactly so! Bravo
  the German! But he did not see the good side, what do you think? Conceit
  may be, that comes from youth, that will be corrected if need be, but, on
  the other hand, there is an independent spirit almost from childhood,
  boldness of thought and conviction, and not the spirit of these sausage
  makers, groveling before authority.... But the German was right all the
  same. Bravo the German! But Germans want strangling all the same. Though
  they are so good at science and learning they must be strangled."
  
  "Strangled, what for?" smiled Alyosha.
  
  "Well, perhaps I am talking nonsense, I agree. I am awfully childish
  sometimes, and when I am pleased about anything I can't restrain myself
  and am ready to talk any stuff. But, I say, we are chattering away here
  about nothing, and that doctor has been a long time in there. But perhaps
  he's examining the mamma and that poor crippled Nina. I liked that Nina,
  you know. She whispered to me suddenly as I was coming away, 'Why didn't
  you come before?' And in such a voice, so reproachfully! I think she is
  awfully nice and pathetic."
  
  "Yes, yes! Well, you'll be coming often, you will see what she is like. It
  would do you a great deal of good to know people like that, to learn to
  value a great deal which you will find out from knowing these people,"
  Alyosha observed warmly. "That would have more effect on you than
  anything."
  
  "Oh, how I regret and blame myself for not having come sooner!" Kolya
  exclaimed, with bitter feeling.
  
  "Yes, it's a great pity. You saw for yourself how delighted the poor child
  was to see you. And how he fretted for you to come!"
  
  "Don't tell me! You make it worse! But it serves me right. What kept me
  from coming was my conceit, my egoistic vanity, and the beastly
  wilfullness, which I never can get rid of, though I've been struggling
  with it all my life. I see that now. I am a beast in lots of ways,
  Karamazov!"
  
  "No, you have a charming nature, though it's been distorted, and I quite
  understand why you have had such an influence on this generous, morbidly
  sensitive boy," Alyosha answered warmly.
  
  "And you say that to me!" cried Kolya; "and would you believe it, I
  thought--I've thought several times since I've been here--that you despised
  me! If only you knew how I prize your opinion!"
  
  "But are you really so sensitive? At your age! Would you believe it, just
  now, when you were telling your story, I thought, as I watched you, that
  you must be very sensitive!"
  
  "You thought so? What an eye you've got, I say! I bet that was when I was
  talking about the goose. That was just when I was fancying you had a great
  contempt for me for being in such a hurry to show off, and for a moment I
  quite hated you for it, and began talking like a fool. Then I fancied--just
  now, here--when I said that if there were no God He would have to be
  invented, that I was in too great a hurry to display my knowledge,
  especially as I got that phrase out of a book. But I swear I wasn't
  showing off out of vanity, though I really don't know why. Because I was
  so pleased? Yes, I believe it was because I was so pleased ... though it's
  perfectly disgraceful for any one to be gushing directly they are pleased,
  I know that. But I am convinced now that you don't despise me; it was all
  my imagination. Oh, Karamazov, I am profoundly unhappy. I sometimes fancy
  all sorts of things, that every one is laughing at me, the whole world,
  and then I feel ready to overturn the whole order of things."
  
  "And you worry every one about you," smiled Alyosha.
  
  "Yes, I worry every one about me, especially my mother. Karamazov, tell
  me, am I very ridiculous now?"
  
  "Don't think about that, don't think of it at all!" cried Alyosha. "And
  what does ridiculous mean? Isn't every one constantly being or seeming
  ridiculous? Besides, nearly all clever people now are fearfully afraid of
  being ridiculous, and that makes them unhappy. All I am surprised at is
  that you should be feeling that so early, though I've observed it for some
  time past, and not only in you. Nowadays the very children have begun to
  suffer from it. It's almost a sort of insanity. The devil has taken the
  form of that vanity and entered into the whole generation; it's simply the
  devil," added Alyosha, without a trace of the smile that Kolya, staring at
  him, expected to see. "You are like every one else," said Alyosha, in
  conclusion, "that is, like very many others. Only you must not be like
  everybody else, that's all."
  
  "Even if every one is like that?"
  
  "Yes, even if every one is like that. You be the only one not like it. You
  really are not like every one else, here you are not ashamed to confess to
  something bad and even ridiculous. And who will admit so much in these
  days? No one. And people have even ceased to feel the impulse to self-
  criticism. Don't be like every one else, even if you are the only one."
  
  "Splendid! I was not mistaken in you. You know how to console one. Oh, how
  I have longed to know you, Karamazov! I've long been eager for this
  meeting. Can you really have thought about me, too? You said just now that
  you thought of me, too?"
  
  "Yes, I'd heard of you and had thought of you, too ... and if it's partly
  vanity that makes you ask, it doesn't matter."
  
  "Do you know, Karamazov, our talk has been like a declaration of love,"
  said Kolya, in a bashful and melting voice. "That's not ridiculous, is
  it?"
  
  "Not at all ridiculous, and if it were, it wouldn't matter, because it's
  been a good thing." Alyosha smiled brightly.
  
  "But do you know, Karamazov, you must admit that you are a little ashamed
  yourself, now.... I see it by your eyes." Kolya smiled with a sort of sly
  happiness.
  
  "Why ashamed?"
  
  "Well, why are you blushing?"
  
  "It was you made me blush," laughed Alyosha, and he really did blush. "Oh,
  well, I am a little, goodness knows why, I don't know..." he muttered,
  almost embarrassed.
  
  "Oh, how I love you and admire you at this moment just because you are
  rather ashamed! Because you are just like me," cried Kolya, in positive
  ecstasy. His cheeks glowed, his eyes beamed.
  
  "You know, Kolya, you will be very unhappy in your life," something made
  Alyosha say suddenly.
  
  "I know, I know. How you know it all beforehand!" Kolya agreed at once.
  
  "But you will bless life on the whole, all the same."
  
  "Just so, hurrah! You are a prophet. Oh, we shall get on together,
  Karamazov! Do you know, what delights me most, is that you treat me quite
  like an equal. But we are not equals, no, we are not, you are better! But
  we shall get on. Do you know, all this last month, I've been saying to
  myself, 'Either we shall be friends at once, for ever, or we shall part
  enemies to the grave!' "
  
  "And saying that, of course, you loved me," Alyosha laughed gayly.
  
  "I did. I loved you awfully. I've been loving and dreaming of you. And how
  do you know it all beforehand? Ah, here's the doctor. Goodness! What will
  he tell us? Look at his face!"
  
  
  
  
  
feat_summary_name: Book 10, Chapter 6
target: Outside, Kolya and Alyosha get to know each other. At first Kolya tries to impress Alyosha with his knowledge - disparaging religion and championing socialism, among other things. Frustrated, he asks Alyosha if he despises him, a question that surprises Alyosha. Alyosha quickly reassures Kolya. Kolya is won over by his frankness and lack of condescension. He opens up to Alyosha and confesses that he knows he suffers from vanity. Alyosha tells Kolya that he shouldn't be so worried about appearing ridiculous, and they both declare their friendship. Their conversation is cut short when the famous doctor emerges from the room.