The Grand Inquisitor Analysis
Within Dostoyevsky’s The Grand Inquisitor and Herman Melville’s Bartleby the Scrivener are expressive figures facing problems of an existential nature. Consumed by an inability to find purpose in life, their actions and reactions become characterized by absurd and illogical streaks. The characters begin to align with the ideas surrounding existentialism, most notably with the “sense of disorientation and confusion in the face of an apparently meaningless or absurd world." As they attempt to understand their place in the world, the determination of these characters is as thrilling as it is tragic. With the underlying flight or fight approach to survival revealed, these characters give us a rare, yet familiar insight into the impact of disenchantment
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Ivan is describing his 16th-century poem, which occurs during the Spanish Inquisition in Seville, to his brother Alyosha. Characterized by strong religious undertones and a suffering inquisitor, Ivan's poem leaves Alyosha deeply troubled and confused by the questions of freedom, mortality, and true happiness. Ivan’s work, however, is how he makes himself heard; he voices his struggle with the unfairness of the world through the Grand Inquisitor. “Suppose… one of them, at least, is like my old inquisitor, who himself… raved, overcoming his flesh, in order to make himself free and perfect, but who still loved mankind all his life, and suddenly opened his eyes and saw that there is no great moral blessedness in achieving perfection of the will only to become convinced, at the same time, that millions of the rest of God’s creatures have been set up only for mockery.” This leads Ivan into contact with the existential concept of the Absurd. The absurd in existentialism is the idea that there is no meaning in the world beyond what we give it, and due to the absurdity of the world, anything could happen to anyone at any time. There is no protection found in one’s morality; “good” and “bad” people experience tragedy with no discrimination. Such “absurdity” contributes to Ivan’s distrust in the
Ivan is describing his 16th-century poem, which occurs during the Spanish Inquisition in Seville, to his brother Alyosha. Characterized by strong religious undertones and a suffering inquisitor, Ivan's poem leaves Alyosha deeply troubled and confused by the questions of freedom, mortality, and true happiness. Ivan’s work, however, is how he makes himself heard; he voices his struggle with the unfairness of the world through the Grand Inquisitor. “Suppose… one of them, at least, is like my old inquisitor, who himself… raved, overcoming his flesh, in order to make himself free and perfect, but who still loved mankind all his life, and suddenly opened his eyes and saw that there is no great moral blessedness in achieving perfection of the will only to become convinced, at the same time, that millions of the rest of God’s creatures have been set up only for mockery.” This leads Ivan into contact with the existential concept of the Absurd. The absurd in existentialism is the idea that there is no meaning in the world beyond what we give it, and due to the absurdity of the world, anything could happen to anyone at any time. There is no protection found in one’s morality; “good” and “bad” people experience tragedy with no discrimination. Such “absurdity” contributes to Ivan’s distrust in the