Person
Fyodor Pavlovitch Karamazov
Also known as Fyodor Pavlovitch, old Karamazov, old Fyodor Pavlovitch, Æsop.
Fyodor Pavlovitch Karamazov is a local landowner notorious for being abject, vicious, shrewd with money, and senseless in conduct. He has been married twice and has three sons: Dmitri by Adelaida Ivanovna, and Ivan and Alexey by his second wife. He begins with little property but proves capable of looking after his worldly affairs. His household is already framed by scandal, appetite, and neglect.
I-II. He Gets Rid Of His Eldest Son
He forgets three-year-old Mitya after Adelaida leaves, leaving Grigory to care for the child while he turns the house into a place of drunken debauchery.
I-III. The Second Marriage And The Second Family
His second marriage repeats the pattern of neglect: after Sofya Ivanovna dies, Ivan and Alexey are also abandoned and removed from his care.
I-IV. The Third Son, Alyosha
Alyosha's arrival unexpectedly touches him. Fyodor's bloated body, rotting teeth, sentimental drunkenness, and need to be uncondemned are described in close detail.
II-VI. Why Is Such A Man Alive?
At Zossima's cell he turns a family meeting into a scandal, baiting Dmitri and exposing the quarrel over money and rivalry before the monks and guests.
III-IX. The Sensualists
Dmitri bursts into his rooms searching for Grushenka and beats him bloody. Even frightened and bruised, Fyodor thinks first of whether Grushenka has come to him.
IV-II. At His Father’s
Bruised and bandaged after the beating, Fyodor sits alone over his accounts and rages to Alyosha that he means to live another twenty years, hoard every farthing for his own pleasures, and leave his sons nothing. He is certain he can win Grushenka with money and vows to crush Dmitri like a beetle.
V-VII. “It’s Always Worth While Speaking To A Clever Man”
After pressing Ivan to break his journey at Tchermashnya, Fyodor is left almost alone in the locked house with only Smerdyakov, Grigory, and Marfa. He spends his nights wandering the rooms in feverish hope of the secret signal that would mean Grushenka has come.
VIII-IV. In The Dark
On the night of the catastrophe, Fyodor waits in his bedroom, dressed up in a striped silk dressing-gown and red bandage, watching for Grushenka's secret signal.
IX-II. The Alarm
Fyodor Pavlovitch is found dead on his bedroom floor with his skull battered in. The opened empty envelope for Grushenka becomes central evidence in the case against Dmitri.
XI-VIII. The Third And Last Interview With Smerdyakov
Smerdyakov tells Ivan that he lured Fyodor to the window with the agreed signal, killed him with the iron paper-weight, and staged the theft to point toward Dmitri.
XII-XIV. The Peasants Stand Firm
At trial, arguments over Fyodor's worth as a father become arguments over family, justice, and parricide itself, but the jury still convicts Dmitri of his murder.
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