New-York tribune., 1918-01-27
MARIE .MORpSTROM
-2lNGS GIRL o'MlNE

evidence crusheS Dn1itri's defence and
he is condemned.
Smerdiakov accuses Ivan Of having
bewildered his weak judgment and Of
having impelled him to commit the
crime. He then hangs himself in de-
spair. After this series Of horrors, ter
rificd by the corpse of the suicide, and
finally convinced of his responsibility
for his fathers murder, Ivan loses his
reason. The two women Of tho play,
although introduced episodically, are
wonderfully drawn. Both are in love
with Dmitri. Katherine Ivanovna, ar
dent and naughty, sacrifices love to the
necessity she feels for humiIiatins
Dmitri to retain the mastery. Grou-
shenka, a courtesan, who is at once per-
verse and naive, a creature Of impulse,
accompanies Dm1tri to Siberia.
THE whole gallery Of characters is
L. evolved from within, including
the mysteries Of their intentions, of
their thoughts and of their most transi-
tory inclinations. They suggest always
more than they say, and the sum total
OF these unavowed thoughts constitutes
the atmosphere of the drama. But the
characters are not perversc in their
reticence. They arc. on the contrary,
perfectly frank. It is their intention
to reveal the very depths of their
souls, but the truest sentiments fire.
qucntly find expression only in half
phrase or a furtivc gesture. Dostoicv-
ski of all men had divine insight into
the submerged realm Of the conscience
in which exist the springs Of human
action.
When Dostoieyski began TO deal with
tho sickness Of the SOUP he discov-
cred the problem of the divided self in
the depths Of his own personality.
Writing to his brother at the age Of
twcnty-four, he admitted the disorder
ly way in which he was living and Che
ncurotic and helpless state to which
lis dissoluteness had reduced him. In
his Letters From the Underworld" he
wrote: "At the very moment when
have appeared to be most in a position
to appreciate the finer shades of the
great and the beautiful have not only
invariably failed to recognize as un-
scemly, but also have never failed to
commit actions which--well, in q word.
actions which all men commit but
which I have always pcrpetrated iust
when was most acutely sensible that
| ONUhf tn <3c
have recognized what is good, the deep
er have plunged into the miro"
TINE experiences of Dostoevski's
l. trial and imprisonment rcvolu
tlonizcd his life and left him strong
er and better man. In his prison he
was familiar with men whom he looked
upon as wild beasts and abhorred ne
such, yet when he least expected it
these very men would exhibit an abund-
ancc Of feeling Of the best kind. Mere
jkowski wrote: Remarkable is tho in
! evitable blood bond between the mon
stor Smcrdiakov; Ivan, who fought
with God; Dmitri, the cruel sensual
isl, who seemed as il stung by CAD
ny; the stainless cherub, Aliocha, and
their father according to the flesh, the
outcast Feodor Karamazov. Equally
remarkable is the bond between them
and their father in the spirit. Dos.
toievski himself"
Dostoievski planned "The Karamazov
trothors' to consist Of a series OF five
| stories. The hero was to be Aliocha
who, in the only part given to the
world, appears as the young monk full
Of spiritual passion and the love to
mankind. Nevertheless, in this pure
anG gentle nature there is the inherited
taint which will eventually plunge his
soul into the throes of great conflict.
The elder brother once tells him the
truth in drunken fit of candor and
remorse. II want to tell you now"
ne says, "about the insects to whom
God gave sensual lust. I am tina, in
sect brother. All we Karamazovs are
such insects, and, angel as you are,
that insect lives in you, too, and vii!
Stir up tempest in your blood"