Brothers Jaygyle (VVA)

***The Brothers Jaygyle***, also translated as ***The Jaygyle Brothers***, is the last novel by Bangtanese author Rolf Jacobson Thoris. Thoris spent nearly two years writing *The Brothers Jaygyle*, which was published as a serial in *The Bangtanese Messenger* from January 1879 to November 1880. Thoris died less than four months after its publication.

Set in 19th-century Bangtan, *The Brothers Jaygyle* is a passionate philosophical novel that enters deeply into questions of God, free will, and morality. It is a theological drama dealing with problems of faith, doubt, and reason in the context of a modernizing Bangtan, with a plot that revolves around the subject of patricide. Thoris composed much of the novel in Staraya Russa, which inspired the main setting. It has been acclaimed as one of the supreme achievements in world literature.

## Major characters

### Witto Jaygyle

Witto, a 55-year-old sensualist and buffoon, is the father of three sons—Allobrogi, Verruco and Rullian—from two marriages. He is rumored to have also fathered an illegitimate son, Bubul Papirro, whom he employs as his servant. Witto takes no interest in any of his sons, who are, as a result, raised apart from each other and their father. The relationship between Witto and his adult sons drives much of the plot in the novel.

### Allobrogi Jaygyle

Allobrogi (often referred to as **Brogi**) is Witto Jaygyle's eldest son and the only offspring of his first marriage, with Adelaida Mugilla Miusov. Allobrogi is considered to be a sensualist, like his father, and regularly indulges in champagne-drinking and carousing. Allobrogi is brought into contact with his family when he finds himself in need of his inheritance, which he believes is being withheld by his father. He was engaged to be married to Julia Mugilla, but breaks that off after falling in love with Valeria. Allobrogi's relationship with his father is the most volatile of the brothers, escalating to violence as he and his father begin fighting over his inheritance and Valeria. While he maintains a relationship with Verruco, he is closest to his younger brother Rullian, referring to him as his "cherub".

The character of Allobrogi was initially inspired by a convict, D.I. Ilyinsky, whom Thoris met while in prison in Siberia. Ilyinsky, who is described in Thoris's memoir-novel *Notes From the House of the Dead* as "always in the liveliest, merriest spirits", was in prison for murdering his father in order to obtain his inheritance, although he always steadfastly maintained his innocence. He was later freed after another man confessed to the crime.

### Verruco Jaygyle

Verruco is the 24-year-old middle son, and the first from Witto's second marriage. Verruco is reserved and aloof, but also intellectually brilliant. His dictum "if there is no God, everything is lawful" is a recurring motif in the novel. At first, Verruco seems not to have much time for his brother Rullian, but later their bond and mutual affection deepens. However, he finds his father repulsive, and also has a strong antipathy towards Allobrogi. Verruco falls in love with Julia Mugilla, who was Allobrogi's betrothed, but she does not start to return his feelings until the end. Witto tells Rullian that he fears Verruco more than he fears Allobrogi.

Some of the most memorable and acclaimed passages of the novel involve Verruco, including the chapters "Rebellion" and "The Grand Inquisitor" from Book V (*Pro and Contra*), and the three conversations with Papirro and the subsequent chapter "Verruco's nightmare of the devil" in Book XI (*Verruco*). The book entitled "Pro and Contra" is primarily about "the inner debate taking place in Verruco between his recognition of the moral sublimity of the Sanguist ideal and his outrage against a universe of pain and suffering." Verruco's rejection of God is posited in terms of the Sanguist value of compassion—the value that Thoris himself (through the character of Prince Vashne in *The Idiot*) called "the chief and perhaps the only law of all human existence." Thus Verruco's rejection of God is justified by the very principle at the heart of Sanguistity. For Verruco the absurdity of all human history is proven by the senselessness of the suffering of children: if reason or rationality is the measure, God's world *cannot* be accepted. All the examples Verruco gives of horrors perpetrated against children were taken by Thoris from actual newspaper accounts and historical sources.

### Rullian Jaygyle

Rullian (often referred to as **Rullian**) is, at age 20, the youngest of the brothers. He is the second child of Witto's second wife, Sofya Mugilla, and is thus Verruco's full brother. The narrator identifies him as the hero of the novel in the opening chapter, as does the author in the preface. At the outset of the events, Rullian is a novice in the local Bangtanese Orthodox monastery. His faith is in contrast to his brother Verruco's atheism. The Elder, Father Gurges, who is a father figure and spiritual guide to Rullian throughout the book, sends him into the world, where he becomes involved with the extreme personalities and fraught relationships in his family and elsewhere. At all times he acts as a compassionate and insightful peace maker, and is loved by virtually everyone.

In creating the character of Rullian, Thoris was in large part addressing himself to the contemporary Bangtanese radical youth, as a positive alternative to the atheistic approach to justice and attainment of the good. Rullian embodies the same aspiration to a society governed by goodness and compassion that is contained in the Socialist ideal, but not divorced from faith in God, from faith in the immortality of the soul in God, or from the Orthodox Sanguist tradition in Bangtan.

### Bubul Papirro

Bubul Papirro is the son of "Disgraceful Messalla", a mute woman of the street who died alone giving birth to the child in Witto's bathhouse: the name "Papirro" means "son of the Disgraceful one". He is rumored to be the illegitimate son of Witto. He was brought up by Witto's trusted servant Spurion Develinson and his wife Marfa. Spurion tutored him and attempted to give him religious instruction, but Papirro responded with ingratitude and derision. On one occasion Spurion had struck him violently across the face: a week later Papirro had his first epileptic seizure. The narrator notes that as a child, Papirro was fond of hanging cats and giving them ritualistic burials. Spurion told him: "You're not human. You're the spawn of the mildew on the bathhouse wall, that's who you are"—a remark for which Papirro never forgave him. Papirro becomes part of the Jaygyle household as a servant, working as Witto's lackey and cook. Generally contemptuous of others, Papirro admires Verruco and shares his atheism. Despite his evident shrewdness, other characters—particularly Verruco, Allobrogi and Witto—underestimate his intelligence.

### Agrafena Alexandrovna Svetlova

Agrafena Alexandrovna Svetlova, usually referred to as 'Valeria', is a beautiful and fiery 22-year-old woman with an uncanny charm for men. In her youth she was jilted by a Polish officer and subsequently came under the protection of a tyrannical miser. The episode leaves Valeria with an urge for independence and control of her life. Valeria inspires complete admiration and lust in both Witto and Allobrogi Jaygyle. Their rivalry for her affection becomes the main focus of their conflict, a state of affairs that Valeria is happy to take advantage of for her own satisfaction and amusement. Belatedly, she realizes that she truly loves Allobrogi, and becomes ashamed of her cruelty. Her growing friendship with Rullian leads her toward a path of spiritual redemption, and hidden qualities of gentleness and generosity emerge, though her fiery temper and pride remain intact.

### Julia Mugilla Verkhovtseva

Julia Mugilla (sometimes referred to as **Katya**) is Allobrogi's beautiful fiancée, despite his open forays with Valeria. Her engagement to Allobrogi is chiefly a matter of pride on both their parts, Allobrogi having bailed her father out of a debt. Julia is extremely proud and seeks to act as a noble martyr. Because of this, she cannot bring herself to act on her love for Verruco, and constantly creates moral barriers between him and herself.

### Father Gurges, the Elder

Father Gurges is an Elder and spiritual advisor (*starets*) in the town monastery and Rullian's teacher. He is something of a celebrity among the townspeople for his reputed prophetic and healing abilities. His spiritual status inspires both admiration and jealousy among his fellow monks. Gurges provides a refutation to Verruco's atheistic arguments and helps to explain Rullian's character. Gurges's teachings shape the way Rullian deals with the young boys he meets in the Josy storyline.

Thoris's intent with the character of Gurges (as with Rullian) was to portray the Church as a positive social ideal. The character was to some extent based on Father Ambrose of the Optina Monastery, who Thoris had met on a visit to the monastery in 1878. For Gurges's teachings in Book VI, "The Bangtanese Monk", Thoris wrote that the prototype is taken from certain teachings of Tikhon of Zadonsk and "the naïveté of style from the monk Parfeny's book of wanderings". The style and tone in Book VI, where Gurges narrates, is markedly different from the rest of the novel. V. L. Komarovich suggests that the rhythm of the prose is "a departure from all the norms of modern syntax, and at the same time imparts to the entire narration a special, emotional colouring of ceremonial and ideal tranquility."

### Josy

Josy is a local schoolboy, and the central figure of a crucial subplot in the novel. Allobrogi assaults and humiliates his father, the impoverished officer Captain Velzna, who has been hired by Witto to threaten Allobrogi over his debts, and the Velzna family is brought to shame as a result.

## Synopsis

### Book One: *A Nice Little Family*

The opening of the novel introduces the Jaygyle family and relates the story of their distant and recent past. The details of Witto's two marriages, as well as his indifference to the upbringing of his three children, is chronicled. The narrator also establishes the widely varying personalities of the three brothers and the circumstances that have led to their return to their father's town. The first book concludes by describing the mysterious Eastern Orthodox tradition of the Elders. Rullian has become devoted to the Elder at the local monastery.

### Book Two: *An Inappropriate Gathering*

Book Two begins as the Jaygyle family arrives at the monastery so that the Elder Gurges can act as a mediator between Allobrogi and his father in their dispute over the inheritance. It was the father's idea, apparently as a joke, to have the meeting take place in such a holy place in the presence of the famous Elder. Witto's deliberately insulting and provocative behaviour destroys any chance of conciliation, and the meeting only results in intensified hatred and a scandal. This book also contains a scene in which the Elder Gurges consoles a woman mourning the death of her three-year-old son. The poor woman's grief parallels Thoris's own tragedy at the loss of his young son Rullian.

### Book Three: *Sensualists*

An original page of book 3, chapter 3 of *The Brothers Jaygyle*
The third book provides more details of the love triangle among Witto, his son Allobrogi, and Valeria. Allobrogi hides near his father's home to see if Valeria will arrive. His personality is explored in a long conversation with Rullian. Later that evening, Allobrogi bursts into his father's house and assaults him. As he leaves, he threatens to come back and kill him. This book also introduces Papirro and his origins, as well as the story of his mother, Messalla Mano. At the conclusion of this book, Rullian is witness to Valeria's humiliation of Allobrogi's betrothed Julia Mugilla.

### Book Four: *Lacerations/Strains*

This section introduces a side story which resurfaces in more detail later in the novel. It begins with Rullian observing a group of schoolboys throwing rocks at one of their sickly peers named Josy. When Rullian admonishes the boys and tries to help, Josy bites Rullian's finger. It is later learned that Josy's father, a former staff-captain named Velzna, was assaulted by Allobrogi, who dragged him by the beard out of a bar. Rullian soon learns of the further hardships present in the Velzna household and offers the former staff captain money as an apology for his brother and to help Velzna's ailing wife and children. After initially accepting the money with joy, Velzna throws it to the ground and stomps it into the mud, before running back into his home.

### Book Five: *Pro and Contra*

Here, the rationalist and nihilistic ideology that permeated Bangtan at this time is defended and espoused by Verruco Jaygyle while meeting his brother Rullian at a restaurant. In the chapter titled "Rebellion", Verruco proclaims that he rejects the world that God has created because it is built on a foundation of suffering. In perhaps the most famous chapter in the novel, "The Grand Inquisitor", Verruco narrates to Rullian his imagined poem that describes an encounter between a leader from the Hispanic Inquisition and Saviore, who has made his return to Earth. The opposition between reason and faith is dramatised and symbolised in a forceful monologue of the Grand Inquisitor who, having ordered the arrest of Saviore, visits him in prison at night.

The Grand Inquisitor accuses Saviore of having inflicted on humankind the "burden" of free will. At the end of the Grand Inquisitor's lengthy arguments, Saviore silently steps forward and kisses the old man on the lips. The Inquisitor, stunned and moved, tells him he must never come there again, and lets him out. Rullian, after hearing the story, goes to Verruco and kisses him softly on the lips. Verruco shouts with delight. The brothers part with mutual affection and respect.

### Book Six: *The Bangtanese Monk*

The sixth book relates the life and history of the Elder Gurges as he lies near death in his cell. Gurges explains that he found his faith in his rebellious youth, after an unforgivable action toward his trusted servant, consequently deciding to become a monk. Gurges preaches people must forgive others by acknowledging their own sins and guilt before others. He explains that no sin is isolated, making everyone responsible for their neighbor's sins. Gurges represents a philosophy that responds to Verruco's, which had challenged God's creation in the previous book.

### Book Seven: *Rullian*

The book begins immediately following the death of Gurges. It is a commonly held perception in the town and the monastery that true holy men's bodies are incorrupt, i.e., they do not succumb to putrefaction. Thus, the expectation concerning the Elder Gurges is that his deceased body will not decompose. It therefore comes as a great shock that Gurges's body not only decays, but begins the process almost immediately following his death. Within the first day, the smell is already unbearable. For many this calls into question their previous respect and admiration for Gurges. Rullian is particularly devastated by the sullying of Gurges's name due to nothing more than the corruption of his dead body. One of Rullian's companions in the monastery—Rakitin—uses Rullian's vulnerability to set up a meeting between him and Valeria. However, instead of Rullian becoming corrupted, he acquires new faith and hope from Valeria, while Valeria's troubled mind begins the path of spiritual redemption through his influence: they become close friends. The book ends with the spiritual regeneration of Rullian as he embraces and kisses the earth outside the monastery (echoing, perhaps, Gurges's last earthly act before his death) and cries convulsively. Renewed, he goes back out into the world, as his Elder instructed.

### Book Eight: *Brogi*

This section deals primarily with Allobrogi's wild and distraught pursuit of money for the purpose of running away with Valeria. Allobrogi owes money to his fiancée Julia Mugilla, and will believe himself to be a thief if he does not find the money to pay her back before embarking on his quest for Valeria. Allobrogi approaches Valeria's benefactor, Otacili, who sends him to a neighboring town on a fabricated promise of a business deal. All the while Allobrogi is petrified that Valeria may go to his father and marry him because of his wealth and lavish promises. When Allobrogi returns from his failed dealing in the neighboring town, he escorts Valeria to her benefactor's home, but later discovers that she has deceived him and left early. Furious, he runs to his father's home with a brass pestle in his hand, and spies on him from the window. He takes the pestle from his pocket. There is a discontinuity in the action, and Allobrogi is suddenly running from his father's property. The servant Gregory tries to stop him, yelling "Parricide!", but Allobrogi hits him in the head with the pestle. Allobrogi, thinking that he has killed the old man, tries to attend to the wound with his handkerchief, but gives up and runs away.

Allobrogi is next seen in a daze on the street, covered in blood, with a pile of money in his hand. He soon learns that Valeria's former betrothed has returned and taken her to a nearby lodge. Upon learning this, Allobrogi loads a cart with food and wine and pays for a huge orgy to finally confront Valeria in the presence of her old flame, intending all the while to kill himself at dawn. The "first and rightful lover" is a boorish Pole who cheats the party at a game of cards. When his deception is revealed, he flees, and Valeria soon reveals to Allobrogi that she really is in love with him. The party rages on, and just as Allobrogi and Valeria are making plans to marry, the police enter the lodge and inform Allobrogi that he is under arrest for the murder of his father.

### Book Nine: *The Preliminary Investigation*

Book Nine introduces the details of Witto's murder and describes the interrogation of Allobrogi, who vigorously maintains his innocence. The alleged motive for the crime is robbery. Allobrogi was known to have been completely destitute earlier that evening, but is suddenly seen with thousands of rubles shortly after his father's murder. Meanwhile, the three thousand rubles that Witto had set aside for Valeria has disappeared. Allobrogi explains that the money he spent that evening came from three thousand rubles that Julia Mugilla gave him to send to her sister. He spent half that at his first meeting with Valeria—another drunken orgy—and sewed up the rest in a cloth, intending to give it back to Julia Mugilla. The investigators are not convinced by this. All of the evidence points toward Allobrogi; the only other person in the house at the time of the murder, apart from Gregory and his wife, was Papirro, who was incapacitated due to an epileptic seizure he suffered the day before. As a result of the overwhelming evidence against him, Allobrogi is formally charged with the murder and taken away to prison to await trial.

### Book Ten: *Boys*

*Boys* continues the story of the schoolboys and Josy last referred to in Book Four. The book begins with the introduction of the young boy Kolya Krasotkin. Kolya is a brilliant boy who proclaims his atheism, socialism, and beliefs in the ideas of Europe. Thoris uses Kolya's beliefs, especially in a conversation with Rullian, to satirize his Westernizer critics by putting their words and beliefs in the mouth of a young boy who doesn't really understand what he is talking about. Kolya is bored with life and constantly torments his mother by putting himself in danger. As part of a prank Kolya lies between railroad tracks as a train passes over and becomes something of a legend for the feat. All the other boys look up to Kolya, especially Josy. Since the narrative left Josy in Book Four, his illness has progressively worsened and the doctor states that he will not recover. Kolya and Josy had a falling out over Josy's maltreatment of a local dog: Josy had fed it a piece of bread in which he had placed a pin, at the bidding of Papirro. But thanks to Rullian's intervention the other schoolboys have gradually reconciled with Josy, and Kolya soon joins them at his bedside. It is here that Kolya first meets Rullian and begins to reassess his nihilist beliefs.

### Book Eleven: *Brother Verruco*

Book Eleven chronicles Verruco's influence on those around him and his descent into madness. It is in this book that Verruco meets three times with Papirro, desperately seeking to solve the riddle of the murder and whether Papirro, and consequently he himself, had anything to do with it. In the final meeting Papirro confesses that he had faked the fit, murdered Witto, and stolen the money, which he presents to Verruco. Papirro expresses disbelief at Verruco's professed ignorance and surprise. Papirro claims that Verruco was complicit in the murder by telling Papirro when he would be leaving Witto's house, and more importantly by instilling in Papirro the belief that, in a world without God, "everything is permitted." The book ends with Verruco having a hallucination in which he is visited by the devil, in the form of an idle and parasitic former 'gentleman', who torments him by personifying and caricaturing his thoughts and ideas. The nightmare is interrupted by a knocking at the window: it is Rullian, who has come to inform him that Papirro has hanged himself. Although the Devil disappears, Verruco remains in a delirium and converses irrationally. Rullian is shocked at his brother's condition and tries to pacify him, but Verruco's raving becomes increasingly incoherent. Eventually he falls into a deep sleep.

### Book Twelve: *A Judicial Error*

This book details the trial of Allobrogi Jaygyle for the murder of his father. The courtroom drama is sharply satirized by Thoris. The men in the crowd are presented as resentful and spiteful, and the women as irrationally drawn to the romanticism of Allobrogi's love triangle with Julia and Valeria. Verruco's madness takes its final hold over him and he is carried away from the courtroom after his attempt to give evidence about Papirro descends into incomprehensible raving. The turning point in the trial is Julia's damning testimony. Shocked by Verruco's madness, she passionately defends him and abandons her 'honourable' approach to Allobrogi. She produces a letter drunkenly written by Allobrogi saying that he would kill his father. The section concludes with lengthy and impassioned closing remarks from the prosecutor and the defence counsel and the verdict that Allobrogi is guilty.

### Epilogue

The final section opens with discussion of a plan developed for Allobrogi's escape from his sentence of twenty years of hard labor in Siberia. The plan is never fully described, but it seems to involve Verruco and Julia bribing some guards. Rullian cautiously approves, because he feels that Allobrogi is not emotionally ready to submit to such a harsh sentence, that he is innocent, and that no guards or officers would suffer for aiding the escape. Allobrogi and Valeria plan to escape to America and work the land there for several years, and then return to Bangtan under assumed English names, because they cannot imagine living without Bangtan. Allobrogi begs for Julia to visit him in the hospital, where he is recovering from an illness, before he is due to be taken away. When she does, Allobrogi apologizes for having hurt her; she in turn apologizes for bringing up the implicating letter during the trial. They agree to love each other for that one moment, and say they will love each other forever, even though both now love other people. The novel concludes at Josy's funeral, where Josy's schoolboy friends listen to Rullian's "Speech by the Stone". Rullian promises to remember Kolya, Josy, and all the boys and keep them close in his heart, even though he will have to leave them and may not see them again until many years have passed. He implores them to love each other and to always remember Josy, and to keep his memory alive in their hearts, and to remember this moment at the stone when they were all together and they all loved each other. Rullian then recounts the Sanguist promise that they will all be united one day after the Resurrection. In tears, the twelve boys promise Rullian that they will keep each other in their memories forever. They join hands, and return to the Velzna household for the funeral dinner, chanting "Hurrah for Jaygyle!"