Young men today find themselves in a difficult position. We hear frequently that young men are more likely than young women to be lonely, to commit suicide, to steal, to commit violent crime, to murder, or themselves to become a victim of murder. What with all these serious issues affecting young men, you might expect that society would be making strides to rectify them – to encourage healthy behaviour in men. However, often men are attacked for alleged toxicity and misogyny, pushed aside for the sake of equity, or misled by supposedly masculine figures into substance abuse, pornography, and general sexual depravity.
Sadly, there are very few male role models in today’s world who are willing to speak up on these issues and present men with a better way of life. Nevertheless, hope can be found. One of the greatest sources of such hope lies in the writings of Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
How are the works of a 19th century Russian author relevant or useful to men today? Well, to start with, Dostoyevsky was concerned with problems and questions which few today have the courage to confront. He had no fear of addressing the predominantly male urge to violence, suicide, or impulsive gratification, as well as the male tendency towards intellectual arrogance. Not only this, but his works acknowledge and examine the male sense of spirituality – a facet of man that has often been discouraged or even ridiculed. With a resurgence of faith being observed in Gen Z men, the works of Dostoyevsky are again of urgent importance.
Dostoyevsky’s timeless and most famous work, Crime and Punishment, is a perfect example of these themes of philosophy, impulse, and violence. The story chronicles the thoughts and actions of a dropout college student, Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, who, living in a state of squalor and depression, decides to murder an elderly pawnbroker in order to steal her money. By the mere description of his actions, most would find it impossible to sympathise with Raskolnikov. Nevertheless, over the course of the book, Dostoyevsky shows the reader just how similar his protagonist is to many people today. Raskolnikov embodies many male characteristics. Like many men, he is a soul turned inward, focusing entirely on himself and failing to see the experience of those around him. This leads to isolation, which in turn leads to envy. The whole world is conspiring against him! God has betrayed him! This sort of logic is what eventually leads him down the path to murder.
Raskolnikov is a highly intelligent man, and one who is philosophically disposed. These attributes – good in themselves – are turned to bad purposes, however, when he fixes on his motivating idea: that there is no God. Raskolnikov is an atheist, but not in the way most mean it today. Raskolnikov, seeing injustices done to him and to the world around him, concludes that there is no God. Having accepted this premise, he follows it to its natural conclusion: the complete abandonment of morality, and the justification of murder. When there is no God, there can be no morality, since the ideas of good and evil simply become subjective feelings, and the only thing that really matters is convenience. This idea is reinforced by his solely inward perspective, and is shattered only when he realises the abject horror of his terrible act. There is a point in the story when Raskolnikov, walking down a street, spots a man stalking a young girl. He calls a policeman to the scene, only to turn on his heels and insist that the officer let the predator take the girl. Why such a sudden and radical change of mind? Raskolnikov realises that his philosophy is inconsistent; if he can get away with murder because it is good for him, then why should this man not abuse the girl? This horrifying frame of mind is the result of his atheism, and thus Dostoyevsky – writing more than a decade before Nietzsche reflected on the moral implications of the “death of God” – manages to show the true nature of such a philosophy. This is crucial for modern man, in an age where atheism is reinforced as the “normal” thing, and anyone who actually holds to traditional religious beliefs is considered an outsider, or worse.
Crime and Punishment deftly examines some deeply religious questions. However, these and other questions are truly taken to a head in what is often considered Dostoyevsky’s masterpiece, The Brothers Karamazov. The book revolves around four brothers, all of whom have been given radically different portions in life, and all of whom suffer beneath their elderly father – a depraved and miserly hedonist. The first son, Mitya, is a veteran who fights with his father over their competing love for one woman. Ivan, the second son, constantly battles with his demons, wrestling with the question of whether or not there is a God. Alyosha, the third brother, is a monk in training and a deeply spiritual and righteous man, who must come to terms with the sins of his father and the world around him. Finally there is Smerdyakov, the illegitimate son of and attendant to his father, who lives a life of jealousy and envy directed towards his father and brothers.
Through these four characters – the sensualist, the scholar, the saint, and the servant – Dostoyevsky manages to deconstruct the entire human (and especially male) persona. Each is a perfect illustration of some part of man: Mitya represents the natural impulses of man and the danger of following them unreservedly; Ivan is the human rational mind which, being caught in a purely materialist world, cannot comprehend the ideas of God or morality; Alyosha is the human spirit – the only one who can find peace and repose through solace in God; Smerdyakov, finally, is the natural tendency to jealousy, violence, and sin. Together they form a picture of man: one simultaneously beautiful and horrifying, but completely human. The story likewise examines crucial questions concerning religion and God, and, by engaging the reader in the conversation, manages to offer some satisfactory answers.
The most famous chapter of the book is without a doubt “The Grand Inquisitor” – a story within the story, telling of a visit by Jesus to earth during the Spanish Inquisition. The story is told by one brother, Ivan, to his younger sibling, Alyosha, after listing off a series of terrible tragedies that happened to innocent people. In the story, when Jesus returns, he is arrested and brought before the Grand Inquisitor, who engages in a long monologue in which he tells Christ that His choice to give man free will was a choice to doom man to sin. Man, the Inquisitor argues, cannot shoulder the burden of free will, and so he and the other corrupt clergymen have chosen to remove it, and thus supposedly to grant their subjects peace and happiness through order. The chapter asks some crucial theological questions about the nature of free will and the justice of evil being done to good people.
Dostoyevsky presents the Inquisitor’s argument forcefully, in order to show its flaws. Though the Inquisitor rightly concludes that man is sinful by nature, what he overlooks is that free will, by definition, can be directed towards the good. There has never been found in practice a normal person who has not sinned, but the ability to choose good is what makes life worth living. If man had no ability to choose good in himself, there would be no happiness to be found for him. Regarding the question of evil, what Dostoyevsky shows throughout the story is that evil is not a punishment for the good, nor is it a random occurrence with no purpose; evil happening to the good is one of the facts of life, and one which was itself chosen (by Adam and Eve) through man’s free will. Evil was once again a choice – it may have been the wrong choice, but it was necessary for the happiness of man that he be given the choice.
Why are these ideas important for young men? The characteristically male issues of violence, anarchy, rebellion, and suicide are taken seriously in Dostoyevsky’s works, revealing their true natures. Crime and Punishment enters the mind of a killer and shows the nihilistic philosophy that motivates him for what it really is, and The Brothers Karamazov deftly examines religion, faith, and sin in a powerful story of failure and redemption. These ancient themes still resonate in the hearts of modern men, and must be confronted by the present generation, just as they were in the past. Men need Dostoyevsky now more than ever.
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Patrick Vincent writes from Dublin