How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph). We used Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky's translation.
Quote #1
[Dmitri] was stunned, suspected a lie or a trick, was almost beside himself, and, as it were, lost all reason. This very circumstance led to the catastrophe. (1.2.2)
Dmitri is so offended and wounded by his father's betrayal that he almost loses his mind. This brings up the question of whether the murder of his father was justified, as his defense attorney will argue much later in the novel.
Quote #2
But Dmitri raised both hands and suddenly seized the old man by the two surviving wisps of hair on his temples, pulled, and smashed him against the floor. (3.9.18)
The complete lack of any family feelings is shown here as Dmitri violently lashes out against his own father.
Quote #3
"Viper will eat viper, and it would serve them both right!" (3.9.37)
Ivan here rejects any responsibility for the deteriorating relationship between Dmitri and his father, and by extension rejects any family obligation whatsoever.
Quote #4
If so, what sort of peace could there be? On the contrary, weren't there only new pretexts for hatred and enmity in their family? (4.5.1)
Alyosha here wonders how much worse his family situation can get. Words such as "enmity" highlight the complete absence of love in the family.
Quote #5
"We were sitting, holding each other, and sobbing. 'Papa,' he said, 'dear papa!' 'Ilyusha,' I said, 'dear Ilyusha!' [...] No, sir, I will not whip my boy for your satisfaction, sir!" (4.7.13)
In contrast to the Karamazovs, Captain Snegiryov and his son Ilyusha are fiercely loyal to each other.
Quote #6
"My brothers are destroying themselves," [Alyosha] went on, "my father, too. And they're destroying others with them. This is the 'earthy force of the Karamazovs,' as Father Paissy put it the other day – earthy and violent, raw. [...] Maybe I don't even believe in God." (5.1.76)
Even Alyosha doesn't feel exempt from the "Karamazov" force; he too thinks he may have inherited his father's malicious tendencies. On the other hand, he describes the Karamazov force as "earthy," which suggests that it grounds and humbles him, preventing him from taking on a moral high ground. It's interesting to note that Alyosha's other father figure, the elder Zosima, seems to be the polar opposite of Fyodor: he is moral, while Fyodor is corrupt; he advocates love, while Fyodor encourages enmity and disgust. But both Zosima and Fyodor die within hours of each other, and both exhort Alyosha to leave the monastery. Coincidence?
Quote #7
"Am I my brother Dmitri's keeper or something?" Ivan snapped irritably, but suddenly smiled, somehow bitterly. "Cain's answer to God about his murdered brother, eh?" (5.3.32)
Ivan here seems to be unaware that he is echoing Smerdyakov's own citation of the line from the Bible (5.2.34). The fact that both characters cite from this famous biblical scene, where one brother kills another over an inheritance, and the fact that Smerdyakov may or may not be a Karamazov brother, further emphasizes how brotherly ties have become virtually nonexistent.
Quote #8
"[Man] is weak and mean. What matters that he now rebels everywhere against our power, and takes pride in this rebellion? The pride of a child and a schoolboy! They are little children, who rebel in class and drive out the teacher. But there will also come an end to the children's delight." (5.5.11)
By comparing all humankind to children, Ivan's Grand Inquisitor suggests a parallel between the Karamazovs' conflict and the struggles of humanity at large.
Quote #9
Terrible, furious anger suddenly boiled up in Mitya's heart: "There he was, his rival, his tormentor, the tormentor of his life!" It was a surge of that same sudden, vengeful, and furious anger of which he had spoken, as if in anticipation [...] in response to Alyosha's question, "How can you say you will kill father?" (8.4.11)
Dmitri's anger pushes him to consider killing his own father. Interestingly, Dmitri attacks three "father figures" – Grigory, Fyodor, and Captain Snegiryov – but never kills them. Given all that anger, it makes you wonder what stopped him from going all the way.
Quote #10
"In the end, he sees nothing in life apart from sensual pleasure, and thus he teaches his children. Of the spiritual sort of fatherly duties – none at all. [...] Let us recall, however, that he is a father, and one of our modern-day fathers." (12.6.4)
The prosecutor Kirillovich suggests that Fyodor was such an appalling father that he brought on his own murder. But it seems here that he is also sounding an alarm to society at large when he suggests that Fyodor's horrible fathering is a modern epidemic.
Quote #11
"We [Russians] are of a broad Karamazovian nature – and this is what I'm driving at – capable of containing all possible opposites and of contemplating both abysses at once, the abyss above us, an abyss of lofty ideals, and the abyss beneath us, an abyss of the lowest and foulest degradation." (12.6.5)
The prosecutor seems to state the whole premise of the novel here – that the Karamazovs represent all Russians. This is odd because he clearly seems to believe Dmitri is guilty. Perhaps by having an antagonist voice the novel's premise, Dostoevsky is highlighting how irrefutably superior and total his own novelistic vision is?
Quote #12
"Love for a father that is not justified by the father is an absurdity, an impossibility. [...] I speak not only to fathers here, but to all fathers I cry out: 'Fathers, provoke not your children!' [...] Otherwise we are not fathers but enemies of our children, and they are not our children but our enemies, and we ourselves made them our enemies!" (12.13.1)
By generalizing the Karamazov conflict to the larger society, Fetyukovich seems to be suggesting that social conflicts begin in the home, with really awful parents (specifically fathers) who are unable to give their children the moral guidance that would shape them into mature and reasonable adults.