The Theme in the Work
In The Brothers Karamazov the legal question, who killed the old man, and the moral question, who is guilty, do not have the same answer, and the theme lives in the distance between them. The first is resolved in the plot: it was Smerdyakov, and Dmitri Fyodorovich Karamazov is convicted all the same. The second spreads. Elder Zosima formulates it as doctrine, that each of us is guilty before everyone and for everything, and lets it operate in small scenes: a dying young man asks forgiveness of the servants and the birds, an officer asks forgiveness of the orderly he struck and of the rival he challenged, a novice asks a boy who bit him how he offended him. The characters receive the doctrine in different ways. Mitya denies the deed and accepts punishment for having wanted the crime; Ivan Fyodorovich Karamazov accuses himself of having instigated what he never ordered; Katerina Ivanovna takes the cause of everything upon herself; Alexei Fyodorovich Karamazov is the one who practices the doctrine most. The novel does not choose between the guilt that refuses, the guilt that is assumed without having acted, and the guilt that spreads.
In ch. I of Book IV, at the farewell, with the cell full of monks, Zosima says what he calls the crowning of the path.
каждый единый из нас виновен за всех и за вся на земле несомненно, не только по общей мировой вине, а единолично каждый за всех людей и за всякого человека на сей земле, each of us is, without doubt, guilty before all and everything on earth, not only through the common guilt of the world, but each one alone, for all men and for every man on this earth.
In ch. III of Book IV, bitten to the bone by a boy he does not know, Alyosha does not strike back and asks the question the doctrine tells him to ask.
не может быть, чтоб я вам ничего не сделал, — не стали бы вы меня так мучить даром. Так что же я сделал и чем я виноват пред вами, скажите?, it can't be that I have done nothing to you; you would not torment me like this for nothing. So what did I do, and what am I guilty of before you? Tell me.
In ch. II of Book VI, Brother Markel, sick, tells his mother what he has discovered, and years later the officer Zinovy finds the same sentence on his own, on the morning of a duel.
воистину всякий пред всеми за всех и за всё виноват. Не знаю я, как истолковать тебе это, но чувствую, что это так до мучения., truly each one is guilty before all, for all and for everything. I do not know how to explain this to you, but I feel that it is so, to the point of torment.
воистину всякий пред всеми за всех виноват, не знают только этого люди, а если б узнали — сейчас был бы рай!, truly each one is guilty before all, for all, only men do not know it, and if they did know it, paradise would come at once!
In ch. III of Book VI, Zosima draws from mutual guilt a rule of justice.
Помни особенно, что не можешь ничьим судиею быти. Ибо не может быть на земле судья преступника, прежде чем сам сей судья не познает, что и он такой же точно преступник, как и стоящий пред ним, и что он-то за преступление стоящего пред ним, может, прежде всех и виноват., remember above all that you cannot be anyone's judge. For there can be no judge of a criminal on earth until the judge himself recognizes that he too is a criminal, exactly like the one standing before him, and that he may be, before all others, guilty of the crime of the one standing before him.
In ch. III of Book IX, at the interrogation, Mitya denies guilt for his father's blood, and Grushenka steps out from behind the curtain to take all the guilt upon herself.
Не повинен! В этой крови не повинен! В крови отца моего не повинен… Хотел убить, но не повинен! Не я!, I am not guilty! Of this blood I am not guilty! Of my father's blood I am not guilty... I wanted to kill, but I am not guilty! It was not I!
Это я, я, окаянная, я виновата!, It was I, I, the wretched one, I am the guilty one!
In ch. IX of Book IX, after the dream of the cold child, Mitya extends the guilt to everyone and takes the worst part for himself.
Господа, все мы жестоки, все мы изверги, все плакать заставляем людей, матерей и грудных детей, но из всех — пусть уж так будет решено теперь — из всех я самый подлый гад!, Gentlemen, we are all cruel, we are all monsters, we all make people weep, mothers and nursing infants, but of all of us, let it be decided so now, I am the vilest worm of them all!
He accepts the punishment, but for a reason other than the law's.
Принимаю казнь не за то, что убил его, а за то, что хотел убить и, может быть, в самом деле убил бы…, I accept the execution, not because I killed him, but because I wanted to kill him, and perhaps I really would have done it...
In ch. IV of Book XI, in prison, he tells Alyosha why he will go to Siberia without having killed.
За «дитё» и пойду. Потому что все за всех виноваты. За всех «дитё», потому что есть малые дети и большие дети. Все — «дитё». За всех и пойду, потому что надобно же кому-нибудь и за всех пойти. Я не убил отца, но мне надо пойти. Принимаю!, it is for the boy that I will go. Because all are guilty for all. For everyone, the boy, because there are small children and big children. All are "the boy." I will go for all, because someone must go for everyone. I did not kill my father, but I must go. I accept!
In ch. VII of Book XI, Ivan, after hearing Smerdyakov, concludes before Katerina that if the servant was the killer, he too is a murderer.
Если б убил не Дмитрий, а Смердяков, то, конечно, я тогда с ним солидарен, ибо я подбивал его. Подбивал ли я его — еще не знаю. Но если только он убил, а не Дмитрий, то, конечно, убийца и я., if it was not Dmitri who killed, but Smerdyakov, then of course I am in solidarity with him, because I incited him. Whether I incited him, I still do not know. But if he alone killed, and not Dmitri, then of course I too am the murderer.
In ch. XIV of Book XII, at the moment he is sentenced, Mitya forgives the woman who ruined him.
Катя, прощаю тебе! Братья, други, пощадите другую!, Katya, I forgive you! Brothers, friends, spare the other woman!
In ch. I of the Epilogue, Katerina tells Alyosha what she has told no one about the court.
О, всему, всему причиною мое бешенство! Это я, я и приготовила эту проклятую сцену в суде! [...] Я всему причиною, я одна виновата!, Oh, my fury is the cause of everything, of everything! It was I, I myself, who prepared that cursed scene in court! [...] I am the cause of everything, I alone am to blame!
Who Embodies It
Mitya is the guilt divided between the deed and the intention: he did not kill, he wanted to, and he accepts paying for the intention. Ivan is the guilt of the one who thought what the other carried out, and it is the guilt that makes him ill. Smerdyakov, who carries out the deed and kills himself without asking forgiveness of anyone, is guilt without an addressee. Katerina is the guilt that confesses aloud in order to be absolved, and Grushenka is the guilt that offers itself in place of another. Zosima and Alyosha are the guilt that is taken on for everyone, and the text shows them putting it into practice before preaching it.
Where It Appears
- Book IV, ch. I: Zosima tells the monks that each person is guilty before everyone and for everything.
- Book IV, ch. III: Alyosha, bitten by Ilyusha, asks the boy what he is guilty of before him.
- Book VI, ch. II: Markel and then Zinovy say that each person is guilty before all.
- Book VI, ch. III: Zosima says that no one can judge before recognizing that he is as criminal as the defendant.
- Book IX, ch. III: Mitya denies guilt for his father's blood, and Grushenka takes the guilt upon herself.
- Book IX, ch. IX: Mitya accepts the punishment not for having killed, but for having wanted to kill.
- Book XI, ch. IV: Mitya says he will go for the boy from the dream, because all are guilty for all.
- Book XI, ch. VII: Ivan tells Katerina that if Smerdyakov was the killer, he too is a murderer.
- Book XII, ch. XIV: The jury declares Mitya guilty on all counts, and he, arms outstretched, forgives Katerina and asks that Grushenka be spared.
- Epilogue, ch. I: Katerina tells Alyosha that the scene in court was the work of her fury.
Where the Readings Diverge
There are two ways to read the guilt of all for all. In one, it is the novel's answer to the question of who answers for evil: the parricide dissolves into a responsibility that no one has the right to refuse, and what the doctrine gives Mitya, Ivan, and Katerina is the possibility of assuming guilt without feeling that they pay for someone else. In the other, the same phrase serves as relief: saying that everyone is guilty is a way for no one to have to answer for their own act.
The two uses appear in neighboring scenes. In ch. IX of Book IX, Mitya says that everyone is a monster and, in the same breath, that he is the worst of them; the doctrine of common guilt and the superlative of personal guilt fit in the same speech. In ch. I of the Epilogue, Katerina uses Zosima's form, that she is guilty of everything, and what she wants from the phrase is for Alyosha to absolve her, and the text does not leave her free of the suspicion that the confession is another form of pride. What distinguishes Zosima's guilt from the others' is the gesture that comes with it: he asks forgiveness of those who do not demand it, kneels before Mitya, asks a boy how he offended him. The guilt of all, in the book, has value when it comes with an act and loses value when it comes as a phrase.