What It Is
The ground as a place of prayer and forgiveness: the gesture of falling to the earth, kissing it and watering it with tears, with the promise that it will bear fruit. Elder Zosima teaches it in Book VI as a rule for whoever is left alone, performs it at his death, and Alexei Fyodorovich Karamazov repeats it, without knowing he repeats it, on the night after the elder's death. It is a symbol of the body, not of an idea: no one explains it, everyone does it. Around it the novel places other relations with the earth: that of Ivan Fyodorovich Karamazov, who wants to kiss the stones of a European cemetery, and that of Dmitri Fyodorovich Karamazov, who one night wanted to stop weighing upon it.
Where It Appears
In chapter XI of Book III, waiting for Alyosha at the roadside, Mitya tells how he thought of ending it all at the willow, and heard his steps.
да чего же больше маяться, чего ждать? Вот ракита, платок есть, рубашка есть, веревку сейчас можно свить, помочи в придачу и — не бременить уж более землю, не бесчестить низким своим присутствием!, why suffer any longer, why wait? Here is the willow, I have a handkerchief, I have a shirt, I can twist a rope right now, and the suspenders as a bonus, and that's it: no more burdening the earth, no more dishonoring it with my low presence!
In chapter III of Book V, at the tavern, Ivan tells Alyosha that he wants to go to Europe, to a cemetery, the most expensive of them all, to fall to the ground, kiss the stones of the dead and weep over them, convinced that all of it is dead. What sustains him, he says, is an affection without logic for what sprouts.
дороги мне клейкие, распускающиеся весной листочки, дорого голубое небо, дорог иной человек, которого иной раз, поверишь ли, не знаешь за что и любишь, dear to me are the sticky little leaves that unfold in spring, dear the blue sky, dear is a certain man whom, believe me, one sometimes loves without knowing why.
In chapter II of Book VI, Brother Markel, dying, asks forgiveness of the little birds and of the garden, and says that only he lived in shame.
была такая божия слава кругом меня: птички, деревья, луга, небеса, один я жил в позоре, один всё обесчестил, а красы и славы не приметил вовсе, there was such a glory of God all around me: the little birds, the trees, the meadows, the skies, and only I lived in shame, only I dishonored everything, and noticed no beauty or glory at all.
In chapter III of Book VI, among the rules of constancy, Zosima says what to do when everyone abandons you and drives you out.
Если же все оставят тебя и уже изгонят тебя силой, то, оставшись один, пади на землю и целуй ее, омочи ее слезами твоими, и даст плод от слез твоих земля, хотя бы и не видал и не слыхал тебя никто в уединении твоем., if everyone abandons you and even drives you out by force, then, remaining alone, fall to the earth and kiss it, water it with your tears, and the earth will bear fruit from your tears, even if no one has seen or heard you in your solitude.
Further on, in the same chapter, he repeats the command in a tone of ecstasy: that one should love to lie face down on the earth and kiss it, that one should water the earth with tears of joy and love those tears, without shame at the rapture, a gift of the few. At the end of the same chapter, his own death fulfills the rule.
тихо опустился с кресел на пол и стал на колени, затем склонился лицом ниц к земле, распростер свои руки и, как бы в радостном восторге, целуя землю и молясь (как сам учил), тихо и радостно отдал душу богу, he quietly lowered himself from the armchair to the floor and knelt, then bowed with his face to the earth, stretched out his arms and, as if in joyful rapture, kissing the earth and praying (as he himself had taught), quietly and joyfully gave his soul to God, in peace and joy.
In chapter IV of Book VII, Alyosha leaves the cell after the dream, with the night still and the sky full of stars, and falls to the ground as if mown down.
Простить хотелось ему всех и за всё и просить прощения, о! не себе, а за всех, за всё и за вся, а «за меня и другие просят», He wanted to forgive everyone and for everything, and to ask forgiveness, oh! not for himself, but for everyone, for everything and for all things, for "others also pray for me".
While he kisses the earth, weeping, and swears to love it forever, the phrase the master taught him sounds in his soul, the one about watering the earth with tears of joy and loving those tears. The narrator then marks the change.
Пал он на землю слабым юношей, а встал твердым на всю жизнь бойцом, He fell to the earth a weak youth, and rose up a fighter, firm for his whole life.
In chapter VI of Book VIII, the narrator recalls that Mitya's troika ran to Mokroye the same night, and perhaps at the same hour in which Alyosha, fallen to the ground, swore to love it.
What It Means
The earth receives what no argument receives: a person alone, with no proof to show, who nonetheless makes a gesture. Zosima proposes it to whoever has been expelled, and promises fruit even if no one has seen or heard. For Alyosha it comes after a day of scandal and a dream, and it is in it that the change takes place, without the text giving him any cause. What is seen is the body, the ground, the night, the stars, and what is said afterwards is that someone visited his soul at that hour.
Two readings. In one, the continuity is complete: Alyosha fulfills, without knowing it, the rule the master gave and that he himself observed at his death, and the earth watered with tears yields the promised fruit, which is the firm fighter who rises and, three days later, leaves the monastery. In the other, the circumstance is inverted: Zosima speaks to someone alone and expelled, and Alyosha weeps on a night of inner festivity, surrounded by signs, so that the gesture is the same and the motive is the opposite, joy and not abandonment. The novel asks that both be read beside the earth of Ivan, who also weeps on the ground, but over what he considers dead, and beside that of Mitya in chapter XI of Book III, who only wanted to stop weighing upon it. The novel does not say which earth is the true one, and leaves them side by side.
Relationships
- Default themes: Faith, Suffering.
- Themes of the work: Faith, Suffering.
- Characters: Elder Zosima, Alexei Fyodorovich Karamazov, Ivan Fyodorovich Karamazov, Dmitri Fyodorovich Karamazov.
- Neighboring symbols: the grain of wheat, the figure by which the earth bears fruit, and the troika, Mitya's run on the same night.