The Moral Responsibility Of Ivan In The Brothers Karamazov

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Ivan throughout the chapter as well as the book, “The Brothers Karamazov” denies the idea that he holds any moral responsibility for the actions of other within the book, two questions are posed by this statement; - How does this affect Ivan within Book XI? -Does this affect anyone else, if so, who? how? - And lastly, are people responsible for their actions or do others have responsibility for actions by humans? In the novel Ivan holds responsibility for other human’s actions, but this central idea has only recently been brought into conflict. Instead of accepting this idea Ivan consistently denies this claim and instead claims that “people are only responsible for their own actions.” His conversations that he recently had with Smerdyakov shows Ivan the role he specifically held to lead Smerdyakov to murder Fyodor. Ivan for the first time, is forced to accept the encumbrance of sin, and this acceptance of sin is what leads Ivan to his mental breakdown. With Ivan’s recent distrust in humanity, he begins to remove himself into his intellectual introverted awkwardness because he’s…show more content…
While sheading light onto the terrible penalties of Ivan’s invalid moral philosophy, Smerdyaov’s delinquency also breaks the theoretical walls that Ivan has built around himself, once this occurred the remaining humanity began to flood Ivan’s mind. Without the belief in a faith he couldn’t carry the weight of this guilt. When Ivan hallucinates the devil in his room, just like the when Smerdyakov reveals his guilt, showed Ivan the world without a God, but given that Ivan has lived a life with the rejection of God he is left totally defenseless. Ivan’s breakdown came from the pileup of the “psychology of doubt” and “the idea of moral responsibility”. Ivan could handle one but he didn’t have the ability to tolerate
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