The Brothers Karamazov Literary Devices

Explanation and Analysis—Like a Devoted Slave:

In a scene in which the General’s widow, the former guardian of Fyodor’s second wife, Sofya, arrives at Fyodor’s home to assume responsibility for his two younger children, the narrator uses a simile that compares Grigory to a “devoted slave”:

Seeing at a glance that they were unwashed and in dirty shirts, she gave one more slap to Grigory himself and announced to him that she was taking both children home with her, then carried them outside just as they were [...], and took them to her own town. Grigory bore his slap like a devoted slave, without answering back, and while helping the old lady to her carriage, he bowed low and said imposingly that “God would reward her for the orphans.” “And you are a lout all the same!” the general’s widow shouted.

As was the case with his oldest son, Dmitri, Fyodor neglects his younger sons, Ivan and Alexei, leaving them in the care of his servant Grigory, who attempts to take care of them while also running the household. The widow, however, holds Grigory equally responsible for the boys’ neglect and slaps him when she sees their “dirty shirts.” Despite this rude behavior, Grigory “bore his slap like a devoted slave,” a simile that emphasizes the man’s dutiful and respectful nature, especially towards those whom he considers his social “superiors,” such as the wealthy older woman.

Explanation and Analysis—As Specks of Light:

Describing Alexei’s claims that he can recall his mother, Sofya Ivanovna, despite her death when he was only four years old, the narrator employs various similes to explain the incomplete nature of early memories:

Incidentally, I have already mentioned that although he lost his mother in his fourth year, he remembered her afterwards all his life, her face, her caresses, “as if she were standing alive before me.” Such memories can be remembered (everyone knows this) even from an earlier age, even from the age of two, but they only emerge throughout one’s life as specks of light, as it were, against the darkness, as a corner torn from a huge picture, which has all faded and disappeared except for that little corner.

Alexei, the narrator notes, can recall his mother as if she were directly in front of him, and he claims to have sharp memories of “her face, her caresses.” Though he was only very young when she passed away, the narrator adds that “everyone” has memories from even earlier ages, that can only be seen “ as specks of light [...] against the darkness,” or alternatively “as a corner torn from a huge picture” that has “all faded” except in a “little corner.” These two similes both conceive of a child’s early memories as incomplete fragments.

Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

Explanation and Analysis—Like a Mountain:

Dmitri, desperate to prevent Grushenka from accepting his father’s invitation, beats Grigory to gain access to Fyodor’s house and then beats his father before being pulled away by his brothers. After speaking with his father, who threatens Dmitri with legal action, and with Ivan, who responds ambivalently to his concerns, Alexei reflects anxiously upon the future of his family, using a simile and foreshadowing later events in the novel:

One main, fateful, and insoluble question towered over everything like a mountain: how would it end between his father and his brother Dmitri with this terrible woman? Now he himself had been a witness. He himself had been there and had seen them face each other. However, only his brother Dmitri could turn out to be unhappy, completely and terribly unhappy: disaster undoubtedly lay in wait for him.

In a simile, Alexei imagines the “insoluble question” of how this love-triangle will end as being “like a mountain” that “towered over everything.” This simile suggests that this question has overshadowed all of his other concerns. Further, he predicts that his family is heading toward “disaster,” foreshadowing the later murder of Fyodor and subsequent trial of Dmitri. At this point in the novel, Alexei can see that there will be no peaceful resolution to the tensions in his family but does not know how to mitigate the damage.

Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

Explanation and Analysis—Like a Martyr :

Alexei uses two contrasting similes to describe the contradictory nature of Lise, the 14-year-old daughter of Madame Khokhlakov. As the two discuss their engagement, which was agreed upon hastily without consulting their families, the narrator states:

“Ah, you don’t know it, but I, too, am a Karamazov! What matter if you laugh and joke, and at me, too? On the contrary, laugh—I’m so glad of it … But you laugh like a little girl, and inside you think like a martyr …”
“A martyr? How so?”
“Yes, Lise, your question just now: aren’t we contemptuous of that wretched man, dissecting his soul like that—that was a martyr’s question … you see, I can’t express it at all, but someone in whom such questions arise is capable of suffering. Sitting in your chair, you must already have thought a lot …”

Earlier, Lise and Alexei discussed Captain Snegiryov, both feeling confident that he will accept the money offered by Katerina the following day, despite having turned the money down out of an injured sense of pride. Alexei is amused when Lise asks whether it is “contemptuous” of them to analyze the man’s soul in this manner, describing her as being both “like a little girl" and “like a martyr.” These two similes capture the contradictions within Lise, who is both childish and precocious. Alexei feels that her question is “a martyr’s question,” as it reflects a capacity for “suffering” otherwise obscured by the girl’s young age and high spirits.

Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

Explanation and Analysis—Like a Pitiful Mirage:

In his serious and frank discussion with Alexei on the topics of God and faith, Ivan uses a number of similes to describe his “childlike conviction” in “eternal harmony”:

It’s not God that I do not accept, you understand, it is this world of God’s, created by God, that I do not accept and cannot agree to accept. With one reservation: I have a childlike conviction that the sufferings will be healed and smoothed over, that the whole offensive comedy of human contradictions will disappear like a pitiful mirage, a vile concoction of man’s Euclidean mind, feeble and puny as an atom, and that ultimately, at the world’s finale, in the moment of eternal harmony, there will occur and be revealed something so precious that it will suffice for all hearts [...]

Earlier in their conversation, Ivan disclaimed any belief in God. Nevertheless, he makes the surprising claim that he does believe that all of humanity will be reconciled at the end of the world, when “the whole offensive comedy of human contradictions will disappear like a pitiful mirage.” His simile characterizes earthly life, with all of its tensions and conflicts, as being nothing more than a mirage resulting from the erroneous senses of humans, whose minds perceive only physical reality.

Further, he describes the human mind as being “feeble and puny as an atom,” a simile that suggests that people's thoughts are too minor and limited to properly conceive of reality. His optimistic vision in which all humankind reaches a heaven-like state is at odds with his primarily materialist conception of the universe.

Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

Explanation and Analysis—Like a Dream:

After his arrest as a suspect in the murder of his father, Dmitri’s pride is further bruised as he is subjected to the undignified processes of the law, including a thorough strip-search. Reflecting upon his situation, which he considers to be beneath his station as a man of good class, Dmitri describes the proceedings, in a simile, as being “like a dream”:

He felt unbearably awkward: everyone else was dressed, and he was undressed, and—strangely—undressed, he himself seemed to feel guilty before them [...] “If everyone is undressed, it’s not shameful, but when only one is undressed and the others are all looking—it’s a disgrace!” flashed again and again through his mind. “It’s like a dream, I’ve dreamed of being disgraced like this.” But to take his socks off was even painful for him: they were not very clean, nor were his underclothes, and now everyone could see it.

Dmitri is shocked by the investigators’ request to undress, as he is a military officer unaccustomed to such indignities. Frustrated, he asks if he must even remove his shirt and underclothes, not realizing that he will in fact need to do so. Standing naked in front of men whom he considers to be his social inferiors, Dmitri is disoriented, describing his circumstances as being “like a dream” and noting that he has, in the past, “dreamed of being disgraced like this.” Dmitri’s simile suggests that the strip-search is, for him, both unpleasant and incomprehensible. He is deeply embarrassed, both because of his own feelings of class entitlement and the public display of his dirty underclothes. A proud and reckless man, Dmitri is prepared to die, but has not anticipated the more mundane indignities of a legal investigation.

Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

Explanation and Analysis—Like a Rose:

The narrator uses a simile that compares Mrs. Krasotkin, mother of Kolya, to a “rose” when describing Kolya’s change in attitude following a risky daredevil stunt:

After the incident on the railway, he changed his behavior in this respect as well: he allowed himself no more hints, not even the remotest, and began to speak more respectfully of Dardanelov in his mother’s presence, which the sensitive Anna Fyodorovna understood at once with boundless gratitude in her heart, but at the same time, the slightest, most inadvertent mention of Dardanelov, even from some unaccustomed guest, if it was in Kolya’s presence, would make her blush all over with embarrassment, like a rose.

Previously, when Kolya learned that his teacher, Dardanelov, was in love with his widowed mother, Kolya started to behave disrespectfully towards him, making rude comments in class. However, Kolya behaves far more politely after Dardanelov speaks up for Kolya when the boy gets in trouble with the authorities for a dangerous stunt in which he lay down on train tracks and allowed a train to pass over him. His mother is grateful for this change in attitude, but nevertheless blushes “like a rose” when Dardanelov is mentioned in Kolya’s presence, suggesting that she feels embarrassment that her young son knows about her own romantic life.

Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

The Brothers Karamazov

Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Brothers Karamazov: Similes 7 key examples