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Major characters

Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov

The father, Fyodor Pavlovich, is a 55-year-old "sponger" and buffoon who had sired three sons during the course of his two marriages. He is also rumored to have fathered an illegitimate son, Pavel Smerdyakov whom he employed as his servant. Fyodor took no interest in any of his sons. As a result, they were all raised apart from each other and their father. The murder of Fyodor and the ensuing implication of his oldest son provides much of the plot in the novel.

Dmitri Fyodorovich Karamazov

Dmitri (Mitya, Mitka, Mitenka, Mitri) is 28 years old, Fyodor's eldest son and the only offspring of his first marriage. Dmitri is a sensualist much like his father, and the two men's personalities often clash. Dmitri spends large amounts of money on debauchery-filled nights with plenty of champagne, women, and whatever entertainment and stimulation money can buy, soon exhausting any source of cash he comes across. This leads to further conflict with his father, who he believes is withholding his rightful inheritance, and his lack of money will cast suspicion upon him in the murder investigation. He finally comes to the brink of murdering his father when they begin fighting over the same woman, Grushenka. He is close to Alyosha, referring to him as his "cherub".

Ivan Fyodorovich Karamazov

Variously called Vanya, Vanka, and Vanechka, Ivan is the middle son and first by Fyodor's second marriage. He is a 24-year-old fervent rationalist, disturbed especially by the apparently senseless suffering in the world, depicted as intelligent to the point of giftedness. As he says to Alyosha in the chapter "Rebellion" (Bk. 5, Ch. 4), "It's not God that I don't accept, Alyosha, only I most respectfully return him the ticket."

From an early age, Ivan is sullen and isolated from everyone around him. He carries a hatred for his father that is not openly expressed but which leads to his own moral guilt over Fyodor's murder and contributes to his later mental illness. His father tells Alyosha that he feared Ivan more than Dmitri. Some of the most memorable and acclaimed passages of the novel involve Ivan, including the chapter "Rebellion," his "poem" "The Grand Inquisitor" immediately following, and his nightmare of the devil (Bk. 11, Ch. 9).

After the murder of Fyodor Pavlovich, Ivan becomes convinced, partly due to the influence of Smerdyakov, that he was responsible for his father's death. By the end of the book, Ivan has become mentally unstable. However, some passages in the book imply that he later recovers.

Aleksey Fyodorovich Karamazov

Variously referred to as Alyosha, Alyoshka, Alyoshenka, Alyoshechka, Alexeichik, Lyosha, and Lyoshenka, Aleksey is the youngest of the Karamazov brothers at 20 years of age. He is proclaimed as the hero of the novel by the narrator in the opening chapter (as well as the author in his preface) and is described as immensely likable and ungrudged.

At the outset of the events chronicled in the story Alyosha is a novice in the local monastery. In this way Alyosha's beliefs act as a counterbalance to his brother Ivan's atheism. He is sent out into the world by his Elder and subsequently becomes embroiled in the sordid details of his family's dysfunction. Alyosha is also involved in a secondary plotline in which he befriends a group of school boys whose fate adds a hopeful message to the conclusion of an otherwise tragic novel. Alyosha's place in the novel is usually that of a messenger or witness to the actions of his brothers and others. He is very close to Dmitri.

Pavel Fyodorovich Smerdyakov

Smerdyakov was born of "Stinking Lizaveta", a mute woman of the street, from which his name came—"Son of the 'reeking one'". He is widely rumored to be the illegitimate son of Fyodor Karamazov. When the novel begins, Smerdyakov is Fyodor's lackey and cook. He is morose and sullen, and, like Dostoevsky himself, epileptic. As a child he would collect stray cats so he could hang and later bury them. Smerdyakov is aloof with most people but holds a special admiration for Ivan and shares his atheistic ideology. He later confesses to Ivan that he, and not Dmitri, was the murderer of Fyodor and claims to have acted with Ivan's blessing. However, Dmitri's defense attorney pointed out that in speaking with Smerdyakov, he found him to be "falsely naive" and able to tell people what they want to hear in order to subtly foist ideas on them.

Agrafena Alexandrovna Svetlova

Variously called Grushenka, Grusha, and Grushka, Agrafena Alexandrovna, a 22-year-old, is the local Jezebel and has an uncanny charm among men. She was jilted by a Polish officer in her youth and came under the protection of a tyrannical miser. Grushenka inspires complete admiration and lust in both Fyodor and Dmitri Karamazov. Their rivalry for her affection is one of the most damaging circumstances that leads to Dmitri's conviction for his father's murder. She seeks to torment and then deride both Dmitri and Fyodor as a wicked amusement, a way to inflict upon others the pain she has felt at the hands of her ‘former and indisputable one’. As the book progresses, she becomes almost magnanimous.

Katerina Ivanovna Verkhovtseva

Called Katya, Katka, and Katenka, Katerina Ivanovna is Dmitri's fiancée, despite his very open forays with Grushenka. She became engaged to Dmitri after he bailed her father out of a debt. Katerina produces a further love triangle among the Karamazov brothers as Ivan falls in love with her, although she is characterized as exceedingly proud. Katya is arguably presented as a beacon of nobility, generosity, and magnanimity early in the book, and as a stark reminder of everyone’s guilt ‘before all and for all’ as her downfall progresses. By the end of the trial, it is evident that she is as base as any of the characters. Even in the epilogue, after she has confessed to Mitya and agreed to direct his escape, she cannot subdue her pride after Grushenka enters the hospital room.

Zosima, the elder

Father Zosìma is an Elder and more importantly starets in the town monastery and Alyosha's teacher. He is something of a celebrity among the townspeople for his reputed prophetic and healing abilities. His popularity inspires both admiration and jealousy amidst his fellow monks. Zosima provides a refutation to Ivan's atheistic arguments and helps to explain Alyosha’s character. Zosima’s teachings shape the way Alyosha deals with the young boys he meets in the Ilyusha storyline.

Ilyusha

Ilyusha, Ilyushechka, or simply Ilusha in some translations, is one of the local schoolboys, and the central figure of a crucial subplot in the novel. His father, Captain Snegiryov, is an impoverished officer who is insulted by Dmitri after Fyodor hires him to threaten the latter over his debts, and the Snegiryov family is brought to shame as a result. The reader is led to believe that it is partly because of this that Ilyusha falls ill, and eventually dies (his funeral is the concluding chapter of the novel), possibly to illustrate the theme that even minor actions can touch heavily on the lives of others, and that we are "all responsible for one another".