The Brothers K.

I really like Hamlet. It's about someone who can't make up his mind; constantly debating whether his efforts will be worth the results. In the play, Hamlet is envious of his friend Horatio's level moods, while he progressively becomes more irrational from inner pain. Hamlet operates in extremes, wildly swinging from one feeling to the next. If The Brothers Karamazov is going to be likened to Hamlet, Dimitri is definitely him. The borderline insane, passionate and suicidal make great heroes since they are more interesting (and better) examples of humanity.

Alexey is definitely "your humble narrator," observing Dmitri, the flawed brother.

Some books are known to have the main character observe the actual hero, like in The Great Gatsby. I'll mention Fight Club as well, since the dynamic character is all in the narrator's head. Sometimes this perspective allows for a more fuller picture. There is actually a line in Fight Club about how Freud said our fathers are our models for God. Hamlet's father is murdered and he is immediately disillusioned. Although I am only on page 357 in the novel, we all know that Fyodor Karamazov will be murdered as well. When Dmitri repeats his brother Ivan's words "everything is lawful" referring to a world without god, he may have been contemplating to commit the murder himself. Freud loved this book, along with hamlet since they are similar stories; the death of the father creating indecisive, troubling times for the son.

I also finished the part where Ivan gets irrationally angry at Smerdykov and was somewhat fascinated by the whole exchange. After considering what could be troubling him, he regrets not expressing himself better to Alyosha and his views on the exsistance of god in the famous chapter "The Grand Inquisitor". But I think the source of anger that Ivan can't put his finger on, is that he sees a bit of himself in Smerdykov. What he desires is credence in his ideas, and certainly has the flaw of pretentiousness about him. He describes Smerdykov as having this "bruised vanity" that he found unbecoming. Both are angry young men, still smarting from not lovely childhoods.