finished_summaries/sparknotes/The Brothers Karamazov/section_12_part_7.txt
The Brothers Karamazov.book 10.chapter 7
book 10, chapter 7
{"name": "book 10, Chapter 7", "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20210305110438/https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/brothersk/section13/", "summary": "Ilyusha The doctor leaves, and Alyosha and Kolya both realize that Ilyusha will soon die. Ilyusha speaks softly to his father about his death, and Kolya, who has been choking back tears at the sight of his sick friend, at last begins to weep openly. He tells Alyosha that he will come to visit Ilyusha as often as he can, and Alyosha admonishes him to keep his word.", "analysis": "The stories of Alyosha's influence on Kolya, Ilyusha, and the other boys develop a motif of the novel: the idea that faith and virtue can be taught and handed down as a legacy from one faithful man to the next. This legacy begins with Zosima's brother, who teaches Zosima about loving God's creation and forgiving mankind. Zosima passes the lessons on to Alyosha, and Alyosha now actively passes them on to the young boys he has befriended since his initial encounter with Ilyusha, keeping the chain of faith alive. Dostoevsky dramatizes the receptivity of children to moral teachings throughout this section of the novel. If Alyosha's example is only partly successful in improving the lives of the adults to whom he is close, it is more successful among the children here in Book X. The boys look at Alyosha with unmitigated respect and adoration because he treats them with respect--as equals--as we see in his extended conversations with the wayward Kolya. The Brothers Karamazov ends on a note of optimism and encouragement, and a great deal of its positive tone seems to stem from the idea that Alyosha's role as a teacher of the young will improve the faith of the next generation. This part of the novel shows Alyosha's reaction to Ivan's indictment of God. In these chapters, Alyosha encounters the very injustice that makes Ivan reject God--the suffering of children--and shows his response to it. Rather than recoiling in intellectual horror, as Ivan does, Alyosha devotes himself to doing what he can to make the suffering child happier, bringing Ilyusha's schoolmates to see him every day, helping to heal the rift between Ilyusha and Kolya, and generally providing Ilyusha and his family with friendship and support. Just as Zosima's argument with Ivan in Book I stems from their opposite perspectives, with Zosima treating other people on an individual basis and Ivan looking at mankind as a whole, the contrast between Alyosha and Ivan in this situation stems from the same opposition. Ivan looks at the abstract idea of suffering children and is unable to reconcile the idea with his rational precepts about how God ought to be. His solution is to reject God. Alyosha, on the other hand, sees an actual suffering child and believes that it is God's will for him to try to alleviate the child's suffering to whatever degree he can. His solution is to help Ilyusha. Again, Dostoevsky shows how the psychology of skepticism walls itself off, in elaborate proofs and theorems, from having a positive effect on the world, while the psychology of faith, simplistic though it may be, concerns itself with doing good for others. This very subtle response to the indictment of God presented by Ivan in Book V brings the philosophical debate of the novel onto a plane of real human action, and shows the inadequacy of Ivan's philosophy--which Ivan himself would readily acknowledge--to do good in the real world"}
Chapter VII. Ilusha


The doctor came out of the room again, muffled in his fur coat and with
his cap on his head. His face looked almost angry and disgusted, as though
he were afraid of getting dirty. He cast a cursory glance round the
passage, looking sternly at Alyosha and Kolya as he did so. Alyosha waved
from the door to the coachman, and the carriage that had brought the
doctor drove up. The captain darted out after the doctor, and, bowing
apologetically, stopped him to get the last word. The poor fellow looked
utterly crushed; there was a scared look in his eyes.

"Your Excellency, your Excellency ... is it possible?" he began, but could
not go on and clasped his hands in despair. Yet he still gazed imploringly
at the doctor, as though a word from him might still change the poor boy's
fate.

"I can't help it, I am not God!" the doctor answered offhand, though with
the customary impressiveness.

"Doctor ... your Excellency ... and will it be soon, soon?"

"You must be prepared for anything," said the doctor in emphatic and
incisive tones, and dropping his eyes, he was about to step out to the
coach.

"Your Excellency, for Christ's sake!" the terror-stricken captain stopped
him again. "Your Excellency! but can nothing, absolutely nothing save him
now?"

"It's not in my hands now," said the doctor impatiently, "but h'm!..." he
stopped suddenly. "If you could, for instance ... send ... your patient
... at once, without delay" (the words "at once, without delay," the
doctor uttered with an almost wrathful sternness that made the captain
start) "to Syracuse, the change to the new be-ne-ficial climatic
conditions might possibly effect--"

"To Syracuse!" cried the captain, unable to grasp what was said.

"Syracuse is in Sicily," Kolya jerked out suddenly in explanation. The
doctor looked at him.

"Sicily! your Excellency," faltered the captain, "but you've seen"--he
spread out his hands, indicating his surroundings--"mamma and my family?"

"N--no, Sicily is not the place for the family, the family should go to
Caucasus in the early spring ... your daughter must go to the Caucasus,
and your wife ... after a course of the waters in the Caucasus for her
rheumatism ... must be sent straight to Paris to the mental specialist
Lepelletier; I could give you a note to him, and then ... there might be a
change--"

"Doctor, doctor! But you see!" The captain flung wide his hands again
despairingly, indicating the bare wooden walls of the passage.

"Well, that's not my business," grinned the doctor. "I have only told you
the answer of medical science to your question as to possible treatment.
As for the rest, to my regret--"

"Don't be afraid, apothecary, my dog won't bite you," Kolya rapped out
loudly, noticing the doctor's rather uneasy glance at Perezvon, who was
standing in the doorway. There was a wrathful note in Kolya's voice. He
used the word apothecary instead of doctor on purpose, and, as he
explained afterwards, used it "to insult him."

"What's that?" The doctor flung up his head, staring with surprise at
Kolya. "Who's this?" he addressed Alyosha, as though asking him to
explain.

"It's Perezvon's master, don't worry about me," Kolya said incisively
again.

"Perezvon?"(7) repeated the doctor, perplexed.

"He hears the bell, but where it is he cannot tell. Good-by, we shall meet
in Syracuse."

"Who's this? Who's this?" The doctor flew into a terrible rage.

"He is a schoolboy, doctor, he is a mischievous boy; take no notice of
him," said Alyosha, frowning and speaking quickly. "Kolya, hold your
tongue!" he cried to Krassotkin. "Take no notice of him, doctor," he
repeated, rather impatiently.

"He wants a thrashing, a good thrashing!" The doctor stamped in a perfect
fury.

"And you know, apothecary, my Perezvon might bite!" said Kolya, turning
pale, with quivering voice and flashing eyes. "_Ici_, Perezvon!"

"Kolya, if you say another word, I'll have nothing more to do with you,"
Alyosha cried peremptorily.

"There is only one man in the world who can command Nikolay
Krassotkin--this is the man"; Kolya pointed to Alyosha. "I obey him, good-
by!"

He stepped forward, opened the door, and quickly went into the inner room.
Perezvon flew after him. The doctor stood still for five seconds in
amazement, looking at Alyosha; then, with a curse, he went out quickly to
the carriage, repeating aloud, "This is ... this is ... I don't know what
it is!" The captain darted forward to help him into the carriage. Alyosha
followed Kolya into the room. He was already by Ilusha's bedside. The sick
boy was holding his hand and calling for his father. A minute later the
captain, too, came back.

"Father, father, come ... we ..." Ilusha faltered in violent excitement,
but apparently unable to go on, he flung his wasted arms round his father
and Kolya, uniting them in one embrace, and hugging them as tightly as he
could. The captain suddenly began to shake with dumb sobs, and Kolya's
lips and chin twitched.

"Father, father! How sorry I am for you!" Ilusha moaned bitterly.

"Ilusha ... darling ... the doctor said ... you would be all right ... we
shall be happy ... the doctor ..." the captain began.

"Ah, father! I know what the new doctor said to you about me.... I saw!"
cried Ilusha, and again he hugged them both with all his strength, hiding
his face on his father's shoulder.

"Father, don't cry, and when I die get a good boy, another one ... choose
one of them all, a good one, call him Ilusha and love him instead of
me...."

"Hush, old man, you'll get well," Krassotkin cried suddenly, in a voice
that sounded angry.

"But don't ever forget me, father," Ilusha went on, "come to my grave ...
and, father, bury me by our big stone, where we used to go for our walk,
and come to me there with Krassotkin in the evening ... and Perezvon ... I
shall expect you.... Father, father!"

His voice broke. They were all three silent, still embracing. Nina was
crying quietly in her chair, and at last seeing them all crying, "mamma,"
too, burst into tears.

"Ilusha! Ilusha!" she exclaimed.

Krassotkin suddenly released himself from Ilusha's embrace.

"Good-by, old man, mother expects me back to dinner," he said quickly.
"What a pity I did not tell her! She will be dreadfully anxious.... But
after dinner I'll come back to you for the whole day, for the whole
evening, and I'll tell you all sorts of things, all sorts of things. And
I'll bring Perezvon, but now I will take him with me, because he will
begin to howl when I am away and bother you. Good-by!"

And he ran out into the passage. He didn't want to cry, but in the passage
he burst into tears. Alyosha found him crying.

"Kolya, you must be sure to keep your word and come, or he will be
terribly disappointed," Alyosha said emphatically.

"I will! Oh, how I curse myself for not having come before!" muttered
Kolya, crying, and no longer ashamed of it.

At that moment the captain flew out of the room, and at once closed the
door behind him. His face looked frenzied, his lips were trembling. He
stood before the two and flung up his arms.

"I don't want a good boy! I don't want another boy!" he muttered in a wild
whisper, clenching his teeth. "If I forget thee, Jerusalem, may my
tongue--" He broke off with a sob and sank on his knees before the wooden
bench. Pressing his fists against his head, he began sobbing with absurd
whimpering cries, doing his utmost that his cries should not be heard in
the room.

Kolya ran out into the street.

"Good-by, Karamazov? Will you come yourself?" he cried sharply and angrily
to Alyosha.

"I will certainly come in the evening."

"What was that he said about Jerusalem?... What did he mean by that?"

"It's from the Bible. 'If I forget thee, Jerusalem,' that is, if I forget
all that is most precious to me, if I let anything take its place, then
may--"

"I understand, that's enough! Mind you come! _Ici_, Perezvon!" he cried
with positive ferocity to the dog, and with rapid strides he went home.






book 10, Chapter 7
Ilyusha The doctor leaves, and Alyosha and Kolya both realize that Ilyusha will soon die. Ilyusha speaks softly to his father about his death, and Kolya, who has been choking back tears at the sight of his sick friend, at last begins to weep openly. He tells Alyosha that he will come to visit Ilyusha as often as he can, and Alyosha admonishes him to keep his word.
The stories of Alyosha's influence on Kolya, Ilyusha, and the other boys develop a motif of the novel: the idea that faith and virtue can be taught and handed down as a legacy from one faithful man to the next. This legacy begins with Zosima's brother, who teaches Zosima about loving God's creation and forgiving mankind. Zosima passes the lessons on to Alyosha, and Alyosha now actively passes them on to the young boys he has befriended since his initial encounter with Ilyusha, keeping the chain of faith alive. Dostoevsky dramatizes the receptivity of children to moral teachings throughout this section of the novel. If Alyosha's example is only partly successful in improving the lives of the adults to whom he is close, it is more successful among the children here in Book X. The boys look at Alyosha with unmitigated respect and adoration because he treats them with respect--as equals--as we see in his extended conversations with the wayward Kolya. The Brothers Karamazov ends on a note of optimism and encouragement, and a great deal of its positive tone seems to stem from the idea that Alyosha's role as a teacher of the young will improve the faith of the next generation. This part of the novel shows Alyosha's reaction to Ivan's indictment of God. In these chapters, Alyosha encounters the very injustice that makes Ivan reject God--the suffering of children--and shows his response to it. Rather than recoiling in intellectual horror, as Ivan does, Alyosha devotes himself to doing what he can to make the suffering child happier, bringing Ilyusha's schoolmates to see him every day, helping to heal the rift between Ilyusha and Kolya, and generally providing Ilyusha and his family with friendship and support. Just as Zosima's argument with Ivan in Book I stems from their opposite perspectives, with Zosima treating other people on an individual basis and Ivan looking at mankind as a whole, the contrast between Alyosha and Ivan in this situation stems from the same opposition. Ivan looks at the abstract idea of suffering children and is unable to reconcile the idea with his rational precepts about how God ought to be. His solution is to reject God. Alyosha, on the other hand, sees an actual suffering child and believes that it is God's will for him to try to alleviate the child's suffering to whatever degree he can. His solution is to help Ilyusha. Again, Dostoevsky shows how the psychology of skepticism walls itself off, in elaborate proofs and theorems, from having a positive effect on the world, while the psychology of faith, simplistic though it may be, concerns itself with doing good for others. This very subtle response to the indictment of God presented by Ivan in Book V brings the philosophical debate of the novel onto a plane of real human action, and shows the inadequacy of Ivan's philosophy--which Ivan himself would readily acknowledge--to do good in the real world