Alyosha is depicted as a positive character, kind, loving and sensitive. Predrag Cicovacki states that Alyosha, like Prince Myshkin, the protagonist in another Dostoyevsky novel, The Idiot, are almost Jesus-like characters, who are nevertheless unable to prevent the suffering of those around them. He suggests that as a witness or messenger, Alyosha is not a true moral agent, playing a passive role in the events of the novel.p373, Predrag Cicovacki, "Searching for the abandoned soul: dostoevsky on the suffering of humanity" in Analecta Husserliana, Volume LXXXV (edit. Anna Teresa Tymieniecka), Springer, 2005
