The Brothers Karamazov
Book Eleven: Brother Ivan Fyodorovich

Book Eleven chronicles Ivan Fyodorovich's influence on those around him and his descent into madness. It is in this book that Ivan meets three times with Smerdyakov, desperately seeking to solve the riddle of the murder and whether Smerdyakov, and consequently he himself, had anything to do with it. In the final meeting Smerdyakov confesses that he had faked the fit, murdered Fyodor Pavlovich, and stolen the money, which he presents to Ivan. Smerdyakov expresses disbelief at Ivan's professed ignorance and surprise. Smerdyakov claims that Ivan was complicit in the murder by telling Smerdyakov when he would be leaving Fyodor Pavlovich's house, and more importantly by instilling in Smerdyakov the belief that, in a world without God, "everything is permitted." The book ends with Ivan having a hallucination in which he is visited by the devil, in the form of an idle and parasitic former gentleman, who torments him by personifying and caricaturing his thoughts and ideas. The nightmare is interrupted by a knocking at the window: it is Alyosha, who has come to inform him that Smerdyakov has hanged himself. Although the devil disappears, Ivan remains in a delirium and converses irrationally. Alyosha is shocked at his brother's condition and tries to pacify him, but Ivan's ravings become increasingly incoherent. Eventually he falls into a deep sleep.
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