Dmitry explains to Alyosha that when he was a soldier, he was angry that beautiful Katerina kept on ignoring him and he tried to her by saying he would give her 4,500 rubles her father needed to pay his debt if she came to his house. When her father tries to kill himself because of the debt, she comes to Dmitry’s house at night like he told her to. However, he is so amazed and by her self-sacrifice that he just gives her the money without trying to seduce her. Shocked, Katerina kneels and bows down to him, “like a simple Russian woman,” and runs out. Later, when a relative gave her a lot of money, she offered to marry Dmitry, and they became engaged. But when they came to Karamazov’s town, he fell in love with Grushenka instead, and even stole 3,000 rubles from Katerina to have a wild party with Grushenka. He asks Alyosha to tell Katerina that he cannot be engaged to her anymore, and also asks Alyosha to get 3,000 rubles from his father so he can pay Katerina back. Alyosha sadly agrees. He goes to his father’s house, where he argues about God with Ivan. In the middle of their argument, Dmitry suddenly runs in and “…all hell seemed to have broken loose…” He beats up his father and threatens to kill him someday. Alyosha helps his hurt father, and goes to visit Katerina at Mrs. Khokalov’s house.
When he goes there, he is shocked to see Grushenka there, too. Grushenka had just promised Katerina she would not marry Dmitry, and she would marry a lover she used to have long ago instead. Katerina is so happy she cries out that Grushenka is a “…dear angel,” and that she “has brought me back to life and made me happy.” Katerina even kisses Grushenka’s hands and lips, and “…acted as though she were in love with Grushenka.” But Grushenka suddenly insults Katerina, saying she might stay with Dmitry after all. “…just now I thought to myself: ‘And what if I take a fancy to him again, that Mitya fellow, since I took a fancy to him once and it lasted nearly a whole hour? I may even go right now and tell him to come and stay with me’…That’s how fickle (changing) I am.” She also talks about Katerina’s visit to Dmitry at night, crying, “…going to visit gentlemen after dark to try and peddle (sell) your charms for money? Why, I know all about that.” This makes Katerina so angry she goes into a hysterical fit. As Alyosha goes out of the house, a maid gives him a letter from Lise. Lise writes that she loves him and wants to marry him. Alyosha laughs “quietly and sweetly” as he reads the letter, and praying for all the sad people he loves, he goes to a peaceful sleep.
Zosima, knowing he will die soon, talks to the monks and to Alyosha about faith, love, and goodness. He also says that humans should not be judgmental, and “…above all, remember—do not be proud!” He also says, “Do not hate…Never cease to explain the Gospels to the people…Do not be avaricious (greedy)…Do not hoard…Have faith and defend its banner. Raise it, raise it high.”
Alyosha goes to visit Mrs. Khokhlakov’s house to see Katerina. On the way, he sees a group of boys throwing rocks at another small boy, who proudly and fights back. When the boy runs away, Alyosha tries to talk to him, but the boy hits him with a rock and bites his finger. Alyosha is concerned and sad.
He is surprised to see Ivan with Katerina, and realizes they love each other very much. He tries to make them be honest with themselves and realize their own feelings, but they are too proud to do so. Ivan thinks his love is not important and that Katerina needs Dmitry in her life, not him. Katerina, who has been very hurt because of Dmitry, thinks that she can never be happy and everybody will betray her in the end, so she proudly tries to sacrifice herself for other people. Ivan leaves.
Katerina tells Alyosha that Dmitry beat and a man named Captain Snegriev in front of his young son, and she asked him to “very tactfully, very delicately, as you and you only can do…try to give him these two hundred roubles.” Alyosha agrees. He goes to Captain Snegriev’s house and finds out that he is suffering even more than they knew: he was extremely poor, his children were sick, and his wife was mad; and Dmitry’s angry humiliation of him had taken away his honor, too. He also realizes that Ilyusha, his son, was the boy who bit his finger angrily, and now he knows that Ilyusha did like that because he was Dmitry’s brother: and because a rock hit Ilyusha in the chest, he has gotten very sick. Alyosha tries to give the 200 roubles to Captain Snegriev. At first he is overjoyed, but he is too proud to take it, and throwing the money down, runs away crying.
Alyosha has lunch with his brother Ivan in a restaurant, and Ivan explains to him why he cannot believe in God: “Listen: if everyone must suffer, in order to buy eternal harmony with their suffering, pray tell me what have children to do with it? It’s quite why they should have to suffer, and why they should buy harmony with their suffering.” He says that to love God would be like a tortured man loving his torturer. Alyosha reminds Ivan about Christ, and Ivan, in a famous chapter of the book, says a prose poem he made up called The Grand .
The Grand Inquisitor is a story about how in the 16th century, Jesus comes to a town in Spain. He begins to heal sick people, but a very powerful cardinal puts him in jail. At night, the cardinal says to Jesus that free will for humans is bad and impossible. “You overestimated them…Man is weak and .” He talks about Jesus’ rejecting (saying no) to Satan’s three were wrong. He says that people with free will are usually too weak to have strong faith, and most people will be damned forever. Because of this, he says, the Church is trying to give people security instead of freedom. He finishes his speech by saying angrily, “…if anyone has ever deserved our fire, it is You, and I shall have you burned tomorrow. Dixi!”
He waits for his prisoner to say something. But suddenly, quietly, Jesus goes to the old man and “kisses him gently on his old, bloodless lips. And that is His only answer.”
The Grand Inquisitor, shocked, lets Jesus out and says he must never come back. Jesus leaves. When Alyosha asks, “What about the old man?” Ivan replies, “The kiss in his heart…But the old man sticks to his old idea.”
As Ivan finishes his story, he says, “…everything is permitted, but then, will you, too, turn your back on me?” But Alyosha goes to him and kisses him softly on his lips. Ivan is touched, and says Alyosha took that from his poem. Ivan leaves, and Alyosha goes back to Zosima, who is dying.
Alyosha hears Zosima’s last lesson of love and forgiveness for everyone, saying that humans should not judge each other but have trust in God. He says that Alyosha reminds him of his older brother, who died when he was young. When Elder Zosima was young, he had been a wild and impious man in the army. He had challenged another man to a duel because of a girl. Before the duel, however, his heart was changed, and after the other man shot at him, he did not shoot his gun at the other person. He left the army and joined the shortly after. He talks about how much he loves the Bible and how people should all love each other. When he has finished his speech, he suddenly goes down to the floor, opens his arms as if he is embracing (hugging) the world, “praying and kissing the ground—as he had taught others to do—quietly and joyfully he gave up his soul to God.” Zosima’s last lesson is very different from Ivan’s arguments, and the story about the guilty man who repented (was sorry), becomes free, and is forgiven is almost an opposite with the story of the Grand Inquisitor, where an innocent man is put in jail and judged. Zosima dies happy, and his final act is a symbol of everything he taught in his life.