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Satire
Definition of Setting
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or it can be an imagined... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the... read full definition
Part 1: Book 3, Chapter 1: In the Servants’ Quarters
Explanation and Analysis:
The Brothers Karamazov is set in an unnamed rural district of Russia in the 1860s. This was a period of rapid social transformation in Russia, as depicted by Dostoevsky. Shortly before the beginning of the novel, legal reforms put an end to the centuries-old practice of serfdom, by which landowners held legal rights over peasant laborers who could be bought and sold along with the land upon which they lived and worked. These reforms profoundly altered social relations across the nation, though change came more slowly to many rural areas.
This historical context is reflected in Dostoevsky's characterization of the loyal Grigory and his wife, Marfa:
Generally speaking, he was honest and incorruptible. His wife, Marfa Ignatievna, despite the fact that she had submitted unquestioningly to her husband’s will all her life, pestered him terribly, just after the emancipation of the serfs, for example, to leave Fyodor Pavlovich and move to Moscow to open some sort of little shop there (they had some money); but Grigory then decided once and for all that the woman was talking nonsense, “for every woman is without honor,” and that they should not leave their former master, whatever sort he was, “for it was now their duty.”
Grigory and Marfa were, prior to the abolition of serfdom, serfs who worked upon Fyodor’s estate. They had very few legal rights and could not simply leave the property to seek opportunities elsewhere. Freed from serfdom, however, Grigory and Marfa have very different attitudes. While Marfa wants to take advantage of their new rights to move to a large city and open a business, Grigory, who is old-fashioned in his values and beliefs, insists that they continue to fulfill their duties by working for Fyodor. Through their disagreement, Dostoevsky reflects upon the shifting, transitional nature of Russia in the mid-19th century.
Related Themes:
