The Brothers Karamazov

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1879

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Part 4, Book 10Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 4, Book 10 Summary: “Boys”

This section covers the following chapters: “Kolya Krasotkin,” “Kids,” “A Schoolboy,” “Zhuchka,” “At Ilyusha’s Bedside,” “Precocity,” and “Ilyusha.”

A 13-year-old boy named Kolya Krasotkin is watching his neighbor’s two small children. He leaves them to go with his friend, Smurov, to visit Ilyusha, Snegiryov’s son. Ilyusha has fallen gravely ill. On the day the boys were throwing rocks, Ilyusha stabbed Kolya in the thigh with a penknife. Smurov tells Kolya that he should pretend that his dog Perezvon is Zhuchka, Ilyusha’s dog that has gone missing, because the dogs resemble each other. Kolya says no.

Kolya is eager to speak with Alyosha. Kolya tells Alyosha that he and Ilyusha were very close friends until Ilyusha fed Zhuchka (Ilyusha’s dog) a piece of bread with a pin in it. After this, he stopped being friends with Ilyusha. Kolya explains to Alyosha that the other boys ganged up cruelly on Ilyusha following his father’s humiliation partially because he no longer had the protection of Kolya, who is the leader of the schoolboys. Kolya tells Alyosha that he planned a surprise involving Perezvon, his dog.

Ilyusha has been bedridden for two weeks, and the other schoolboys have been visiting him regularly. Ilyusha’s mother, a “half-witted” woman (540), initially dislikes the schoolboys’ visits but begins to enjoy their company. The narrator notes that Snegiryov took the 200 roubles from Katerina after his son fell ill. Katerina has also paid for a special doctor from Moscow to visit Ilyusha.

Kolya is surprised by how ill Ilyusha is. Kolya calls in Perezvon, and Ilyusha cries with “suffering and happiness” when he sees the dog and believes it is Zhuchka (544). Kolya tries to give Ilyusha a toy cannon he brought for him, but when Ilyusha’s mother begins crying “like a little girl” (547), Ilyusha gives her the toy cannon. The doctor from Moscow arrives and examines Ilyusha.

Kolya begins showing off to Alyosha, saying he doesn’t believe in God and that “if there was no God, he could have been invented” (553). Alyosha tells Kolya that he has “a lovely nature, though it’s been perverted” (557), and Kolya confesses to Alyosha that he is very “insecure” and that is why he acts out and torments others. Kolya is embarrassed about sharing something so personal, but Alyosha tells Kolya that it’s okay.

The doctor finishes the examination. Kolya fights with the doctor and calls him a “leech” (560). Kolya, Alyosha, and Snegiryov return to Ilyusha’s bedside. Snegiryov comforts his son, saying that he will get better, but Ilyusha says he knows that he is dying. They all begin crying. Alyosha and Kolya part and promise to return to see Ilyusha again.

Part 4, Book 10 Analysis

This section focuses on the friendships of a group of schoolboys, and how the death of one of the schoolboys affects the group, particularly the clever Kolya. The themes of childhood, faith, suffering, and reason are prominent in this subplot of the novel.

The character of the 13-year-old Kolya plays into the novel’s running suggestion that children aren’t the pure, innocent beings that adults sometimes romantically imagine they are. Kolya is smart but also “extremely vain” (516). He likes to play dangerous pranks, even lying on the railroad tracks as the train passes over him. He also treats his mother and friends “despotically” (516), bossing everyone around and speaking overconfidently on social and philosophical topics. However, his expertise is a pretense. As they walk through town toward Ilyusha’s house, Kolya teases peasants and tries to start arguments with them, and Smurov is anxious that he will get them both in trouble. Many of Kolya’s views on peasants come from secondhand sources, as he has little real experience with poverty and suffering. He is surprised when a clever peasant who outwits him.

However, he has a sense of decorum, and treats Ilyusha’s mother with respect and courtesy, which she appreciates. Though Kolya is a troublemaker, he is not cruel, and Alyosha even says that he has a good soul but has been influenced by “crude nonsense” (556). Moreover, just as Alyosha’s presence had a transformative effect on Grushenka, it changes Kolya. Kolya’s immaturity shows in his hubristic pretense in front of Alyosha, whom he secretly wants to impress by referencing literature that he hasn’t read. He calls himself a “an incorrigible socialist” (554) and says that Rakitin is teaching him, but Alyosha, unlike others, quickly sees Kolya’s insecurity. Kolya eventually admits that everything he is saying is only something he is repeating from elsewhere.

Before seeing Ilyusha, Kolya insists that he has not been dragged to visit Ilyusha the way that the other boys were. Kolya’s independent nature causes him to refuse to submit to others. The commanding way that he interacts with his mother, the servants, peasants, and his peers emphasizes this aspect of his character. However, he views Alyosha as his equal and even admits that he’s “come to learn from” Alyosha (538). Alyosha, as a humble character, responds that he wishes to learn from Kolya as well. By the end of their interaction, Kolya says that the only man that he obeys is Alyosha. The fact that Kolya has humbled himself before another human is a sign of a small change in him and the beginning of greater maturity.

There is a parallel between Ilyusha’s and Dmitri’s stories. Ilyusha is grieving because he fears he might have killed the dog Zhuchka. Dmitri similarly worried that he might have killed Grigory. Ilyusha is overjoyed when Kolya presents him with Perezvon/Zhuchka, because he no longer must worry about this hanging over his conscience while he is on his deathbed. The miraculous “resurrection” here symbolizes the fulfillment of another Christian sacrament.