Jealousy
Dmitri was that sort of jealous man who, in the absence of the beloved woman, at once invents all sorts of awful fancies of what may be happening to her and how she may be betraying him. But, when shaken, heartbroken, and convinced of her faithlessness, he runs back to her at the first glance at her face; at her gay, laughing, affectionate face, he revives at once, and lays aside all suspicion and with joyful shame abuses himself for his jealousy.
After leaving Grushenka at the gate Dmitri rushed home. He had much still to do! But a load had been lifted from his heart. “Now I must only make haste and find out from Smerdyakov whether anything happened last night,” he thought to himself, “whether, by any chance, she went to Fyodor Pavlovitch.” But before he had time to reach his lodging, jealousy had surged up again in his restless heart.
Jealousy! “Othello wasn’t jealous; he was trustful,” observed Pushkin. Othello’s soul was shattered, and his whole outlook clouded, because his ideal was destroyed. But Othello didn’t begin hiding or spying. On the contrary, he was trustful. He had to be led up, pushed on, and excited with great difficulty before he could entertain the idea of deceit. The truly jealous man isn’t like that. The shame and moral degradation to which the jealous man can descend without a qualm of conscience is unimaginable. And yet, it’s not as though the jealous are all vulgar and base souls. On the contrary, a man of lofty feelings, whose love is pure and full of self-sacrifice, may yet hide under tables, bribe the vilest people, and be familiar with the lowest ignominy of spying and eavesdropping.
Othello was incapable of making up his mind to faithlessness–not incapable of forgiving it, but of making up his mind to it–though his soul was as innocent and free from malice as a babe’s. It isn’t so with the really jealous man. Indeed, the jealous are the readiest of all to forgive, and all women know it. They can forgive extraordinarily quickly (though, of course, after a violent scene), and are able to forgive infidelity almost conclusively proved – the very kisses and embraces he has seen – if only he can somehow be convinced that it has all been “for the last time,” that his rival will vanish from that day forward, or that he himself will carry his beloved away to where the dreaded rival can’t get near her. Of course, the reconciliation is only for an hour. For, even if the rival did disappear, the next day, he would invent another one and would be jealous of him. One might wonder what there was in a love that had to be so watched over, what a love could be worth that needed such strenuous guarding. And yet, among the jealous, are men of noble hearts. It is remarkable that those very men of noble hearts can find themselves standing hidden in some cupboard, listening and spying, and never feel the stings of conscience – at that moment, anyway – even though they understand clearly enough with their “noble hearts” the shameful depths to which they have voluntarily sunk.
At the sight of Grushenka, Mitya’s jealousy vanished, and, for an instant he became trustful and generous, and positively despised himself for his evil feelings. But this only proved that, in his love for the woman, there was an element of something far higher than he himself imagined, that it was not only a sensual passion, not only the “curve of her body,” of which he had talked to Alyosha. But, as soon as Grushenka had gone, Mitya began to suspect her of all the low cunning of faithlessness, and he felt no sting of conscience at it.
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How does jealousy relate to the “active love” that Zossima urged?
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In what way is jealousy an example of “the human heart in conflict with itself?”
Considering Karamazov 
In the description of the characteristics of jealous men, it seems that their jealousy keeps them from practicing active love, yet in a way almost lets them as well. It seems contradictory, but compare the effects of jealousy:
On one hand, jealousy makes men (though it would probably be better to say ‘people’ I’ll use men since that is what the excerpt uses) suspicious of the women they love. They “find themselves standing hidden in some cupboard, listening and spying, and never feel the stings of conscience” while they are doing so. They become enraged with the fear that their women are gallivanting around with some other man, even when there is no other man, which could result in violent episodes. This can only be stopped when they are back in the arms of their beloved. By suspecting that there is another man, they begin to distrust the women they love, as well as others around them, even if they are friends. This is probably just a personal observation after dealing with jealous people, but from what I’ve seen jealousy affects everyone in similar ways.
Though it is a bit of a stretch, the jealous man feels a small bit of active love – but only for the women he is enraptured with. This could, of course, be the effect of obsession as well, which is more possible I suppose. I think that it could be stated as active love is because the men are so willing to forgive as if nothing had happened, and part of active love is to forgive those who wrong you. The problem is that this happens only when the men are around their women, and as soon as they leave they can only practice active jealousy.
A nice observation re. the inclination to forgive. One might suggest, then, that the jealous person might at least have something like a model for what the forgiveness inherent in actively loving would be – feel? – like. That wouldn’t imply engaging in forgiveness when not around the beloved – as you note – but perhaps it would be a start…
I think that jealousy is a good example of “the human heart in conflict with itself” because it shows how whenever Dmitri is away from Grushenka he starts imagining all the ways that she is betraying him. However, when Dmitri sees her, he realizes that he was wrong and feels bad for even being jealous. Unfortunately, as soon as Dmitri leaves her, he starts imagining all the bad things that she is doing. His heart is constantly in a battle with itself, deciding whether it should be jealous or not.
One might wonder id Dmitri is capable of a less “conflicted” love.
Jealousy is an example of the “human heart in conflict with itself”. The human heart faces many emotions one of which can be jealousy. Dmitri is jealous when Grushenka is not with him and then immediately it goes away as soon as he sees her and is with her. Then once he leaves, the feelings come back again. His heart is almost in a battle. The person he is fighting against, however, is himself. He cannot control the way he feels no matter how hard he tries. The jealous feelings will not go away. Dmitri follows his heart rather than follows his head. His head tell hims that he is wrong and that he should not be jealous, but his heart overpowers all of these things and he cannot help but be jealous. His heart controls all of his emotions, the good, the bad, and even the jealous. People cannot control their feelings. They cannot help how they feel. Often times, the way people feel is not by choice, rather, it just happens. Although Dmitri may not want to feel that way, he cannot help but feel jealousy over Grushenka.
We were discussing in class that Dmitri is a very emotionally driven character. This makes his jealousy even more evident, and therefore enforces even more the idea of the “human heart in conflict with itself.” Dmitri can scarcely control his emotions of Jealousy concerning Grushenka, but his love for her is even more fervent. At the sight of her all jealousy seems to vanish. This makes me think that the active love of which father Zossima spoke is much stronger than Jealousy could be. Especially in the case of Dmitri.
Interesting to consider that “romantic love” without jealousy may be more like “active love.”
Dmitri is a great example of the human heart in conflict with itself. His love is so great for Grushenka that he feels jealousy when she is away but total love when she is with him. And I like how he referenced Othello and explained how that wasn’t ‘true’ jealousy because other people planted the jealousy in Othello, while Dmitri’s jealousy is entirely random (a love that is too much to handle).
Dmitri’s jealousy is driven by his total enamorement of Grushenka. I think the extent of his jealousy, in the book, siginfies the depth of his love for her. And like it has been mentioned above the “active love” he demonstrates is his readiness to forgive her even when his conflicted heart believes she has wronged him by cheating. It shows “the human heart in conflict with itself” in the sense that even though he loves deeply, he still doubts.