Agrafena Alexandrovna Svetlov
October 25, 2009
(Grushenka, Grusha, Grushka)
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thinking about Brothers K
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Considering Karamazov 
Grushenka is somewhat of a Jezebel in their town. She is still upset over the lost love of her Polish officer and now is happy to inspire admiration in MANY men. A large conflict begins over her between Dmitri and his father Fyodor. This conflict causes a great deal of stress. Do you think that Grushenka did this on purpose? Were her intentions malicious or innocent? What is her true character?
Thoughts?
In light of her abruptly changing behavior with Katerina regarding her intentions with Dmitri, perhaps one needs to ask whether she HAS a “true character,” i.e., a set of regulasr inclinations which determine her actions. And whether, for Dostoevsky, people in general should be understood in that way. One can consider such a question if cone compares the variability of many of Dostoevsky’s chatracters with, say, the regularity/predictability of the characters in “Merchant of Venice.”
I think that is a very interesting perspective to have, thinking about whether or not the people in the Brothers Karamazov have a predictable character. I do believe that Grushenka does have a true character but that it is a very complex one and that most of her actions have specific and somewhat predictable intentions behind them. For example, we were talking in class about her ‘sad’ character and her search for a love. She is searching for this because she feels as though she needs someone to provide for her, both emotionally and monetarily. While the characters may not be as clear or as predictable as those in the Merchant of Venice, I do believe that they are true and somewhat predictable.
One way to think about “predictability” would be to consider ideas like “personality” or “character” which allow us to see others as at least “somewhat predictable.”
That is very true, perhaps the predictable aspect of her nature, is in her unpredictability. It can certainly be a character trait.
Grushenka is a major character in the novel and contributes much of the conflict. However, I believe that she is misunderstood. Many believe that Grushenka is a thoughtless character, one who carelessly seduces men just for the pleasure of it, but she is really just a troubled woman, trying to find love and afraid of being rejected. She was not raised in a normal fashion and never really had a strong marital relationship modeled for her. She fell head over heels in love as a teenager and thought she was going to marry this man. However, this man rejected her, leaving her with nothing. This rejection distorted her view of men. She did not want another man to humiliate her and hurt her so badly ever again, so she put her guard up. With this guard up she was able to stay emotionally detached from the men that were swooning over her. She built herself up to a higher social stature so she could stand on her own and be able to walk around with her head held high, which is admirable. With regards to Fyodor and Dmitri, both whom declared to “love” her, maybe she did not want to dangle them around, maybe her mistrust of men lead her to be scared and indecisive about men because she did not want to pick the wrong one. At the end of the novel we see how much she loves Dmitri; she has probably felt this way all along she just could never show it because of the wall that was kept up around her heart. She was conflicted because, although she knew she probably loved Dmitri, Fyodor might be a better choice. After all Fyodor does have money, and is willing to share his wealth with her so they will be financially secure. The town does not seem to like him much, but they do not really care for Mitya either. This is why she kept both of them, and all the others; she just simply could not choose because she did not want to get hurt and she did not want to make the wrong decision. Some might disagree with this because she deliberately tried to “ruin” Alyosha by trying to swoon him, but I think she only did that because she felt that rejection feeling whenever he was around, and she did not like that. She saw admirable traits in him and felt like he was looking down on her; she just wanted to change that, but the only way she knew how was to flirt. After all, it does work on just about everyone else. When she realizes that Alyosha does not look down on her she quits her game. Her demeanor changes at that moment; a little bit of her guard is let down. She is predictable in the way that she wants to get men to like her and she does not want to let go of the possibility of a romance. Many people think that what Grushenka did at Katerina’s was awful. But deep down she knew she loved Dmitri, and she did not want another woman to take him away from her. It is unclear if she even promised Katya that she would let go of him or not. Katya could have misconstrued her words and thought she did because that is what she wanted to happen. In the end, after Dmitri goes after her, she lets her guard down and finally lets him in. She realizes that a man that would do all of this for her would never leave her. But unfortunately, as we all know, he is sent away.