Alexei Fyodorovich Karamazov (Russian: Алексей Карамазов), usually referred to simply as Alyosha, is the protagonist in the 1880 novel The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. He is the youngest of the Karamazov brothers, being nineteen years old at the start of the novel. The preface and the opening chapter proclaim him as the hero. Dostoevsky intended to write a sequel, which would detail the rest of Alyosha's life, but died shortly after the publication of The Brothers Karamazov.
At the outset of the story Alyosha is a novice in the local monastery. In this way Alyosha's beliefs act as a counterbalance to his brother Ivan's atheism. He is sent out into the world by his Elder and subsequently becomes embroiled in the sordid details of his family's life. He becomes acquainted with, and later engaged to, a young girl named Liza (or Lise) Khokhlakov, daughter to a confidante of Katerina Ivanovna's. Later on in the novel, Lise sinks into depression and self-hatred, spurning her lover and crushing her finger in a door. Alyosha is also involved in a side story in which he befriends a group of school boys whose fate adds a hopeful message to the conclusion of an otherwise tragic novel. Alyosha's place in the novel is usually that of a messenger or witness to the actions of his brothers and others. He is very close to Dmitri.
Alyosha is depicted as a positive character, kind, loving and sensitive. Predrag Cicovacki states that Alyosha, like Prince Myshkin, the protagonist in another Dostoyevsky novel, The Idiot, are almost Jesus-like characters, who are nevertheless unable to prevent the suffering of those around them. He suggests that as a witness or messenger, Alyosha is not a true moral agent, playing a passive role in the events of the novel.[1]
^p373, Predrag Cicovacki, "Searching for the abandoned soul: dostoevsky on the suffering of humanity" in Analecta Husserliana, Volume LXXXV (edit. Anna Teresa Tymieniecka), Springer, 2005
Fyodorovich Karamazov (Russian: Алексей Карамазов), usually referred to simply as Alyosha, is the protagonist in the 1880 novel The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor...
The Brothers Karamazov (Russian: Братья Карамазовы, Brat'ya Karamazovy, pronounced [ˈbratʲjə kərɐˈmazəvɨ]), also translated as The Karamazov Brothers, is...
the novice AlyoshaKaramazov, the non-believer Ivan Karamazov, and the soldier Dmitri Karamazov. The first books introduce the Karamazovs. The main plot...
("Nikita") stepped up as his principal replacement. Randy Nelson ("AlyoshaKaramazov") retired in 1988 to pursue a career in computer programming and education...
Death of Ivan Ilyich Ivan Karamazov, brother of protagonist AlyoshaKaramazov, in Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel, The Brothers Karamazov Ivan, in the 2006 film...
Demons (1871–1872) and in the characters of AlyoshaKaramazov and of the Elder Zosima in The Brothers Karamazov (1879–1880). Tikhon was born Timofey Kirillov...
Nikolaevna in The Possessed, and both Katerina and Grushenka in The Brothers Karamazov. Suslova has often been portrayed as a femme fatale. Fyodor Dostoyevsky...
1965) as Sergey Petrovich Chesnokov The Brothers Karamazov (Братья Карамазовы, 1969) as AlyoshaKaramazov Grandmaster (Гроссмейстер, 1972) as Sergey Aleksandrovich...
Crane scholars. Sydney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities AlyoshaKaramazov in The Brothers Karamazov Uncle Tom and Eva St. Clare in Uncle Tom's Cabin Jim...
Michael of Russia's son, Alexis of Russia. The common hypocoristic is Alyosha (Алёша) or simply Lyosha (Лёша). These may be further transformed into...
within Fyodor Dostoevsky's 1880 novel The Brothers Karamazov. It is recited by Ivan Fyodorovich Karamazov, during a conversation with his brother Alexei,...
edifice, would you agree to do it? Tell me and don’t lie!” 'No I would not,' Alyosha said softly." Dostoyevsky's original description of the dilemma refers...
fable is referenced in book three of Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov, when Mitya compares Alyosha's arrival to the fish's return and ability to grant wishes...