Dostoevsky novels are ultimately dialogic.
He presented interacting characters with contrasting views or ideas, any of which may be used as a key to reading the text as whole. Dostoevsky's central obsession was God, whom his characters constantly search through pain, evil and humiliations. I, for one, have long since freed myself from all shackles, and even obligations. I only recognize obligations when I see I have something to gain by them. You yearn for the ideal, for virtue.