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Ethos
Part 1: Book 2, Chapter 8: Scandal
Explanation and Analysis—Dinner at the Hermitage:
Occasionally, Dostoevsky uses flashbacks that interrupt the linear narrative of the story. After Alyosha and Rakitin observe Fyodor and Miusov angrily storming out of the apartment of Father Mikhail, superior of the local monastery, for example, the story then moves back in time, showing the circumstances that led to their argument:
They were already waiting in the Superior’s dining room when Pyotr Alexandrovich, Kalganov, and Ivan Fyodorovich entered. The landowner Maximov was also waiting to one side. The Father Superior stepped forward into the middle of the room to meet his guests. He was a tall, lean, but still vigorous old man, dark-haired with much gray, and with a long, pious, and solemn face. He bowed silently to his guests, and this time they came up to receive the blessing. Miusov even risked trying to kiss his hand, but the Superior somehow snatched it away just in time[.]
Though the reader knows that this scene will end in a big argument, it is not at first clear how or why the argument came about. Through flashback, Dostoevsky provides more context for their conflict, portraying Fyodor’s late entrance to the dinner and his deliberate provocation of the other guests, in particular Miusov and the Father Superior. This flashback scene then ends with Alyosha and Rakitin observing the conclusion to the fight, at which point Fyodor leaves with Ivan.
