Final Paper

Seth Grossman

Professor Sexson

Lit 110 Paper

4/28/10

Taking responsibility implies being able to respond to change. It requires the ability to switch behavior when the opportunity arises. It is an important principle to practice in every-day life, whether it’s about responsibility towards our friends or responsibility towards scholarly pursuits. In stories, characters face the same tasks and those with the most burdens, those who act the most, are the heroes. In the song “Change” by Tracy Chapman, she sings about the hypothetical situations in which someone finally makes that change. In Hamlet's case he makes his change only after a series of very grim sufferings take place. In the Brothers Karamazov, Ivan never makes this change; he simply becomes paralyzed by indecision and goes insane.

In Chapman's song, her central thesis is, "if you knew that you would die today and saw the face of god and love, would you change?" In many ways, she's asking both Hamlet and every other character based off of him (including Ivan) what they would do in the waning moments of their lives. Would they change to the persons they try to portray? Would they finally fall into the archetype of the hero instead of bounce vaguely between several inferior ones? Ultimately that's the goal of both Hamlet and Ivan; they want to be the hero and only one succeeds. Chapman also attempts to uncover the tipping point for someone on the brink of change: “How bad, how good does it need to get? / How many losses? How much regret? / What chain reaction would cause an effect? / Makes you turn around, / Makes you try to explain, / Makes you forgive and forget, / Makes you change?” Hamlet’s tipping point is the death of his mother. For Ivan, Alyosha, and Dmitri, there seems to be no tipping point in which they will change their behavior. After years of hostility towards Fyodor, there resentment builds sharply, but they choose not to resolve the conflict. The role of the hero appears empty, but another brother faintly steps in.

Hamlet actually fulfills the role of the hero because he responds; he changes his behavior in the face of God. Hamlet laments over his problems, but by the end of the play he faces them and takes action. Ivan, however, is essentially only a fourth of Hamlet's entire character. The closest hero in the Brothers Karamazov is Smerdyakov because he's the character that responded the most! It would seem that only three brothers would be modeled after the character of Hamlet, but Smerdyakov is the actual action-based hero component of the character. The other brothers basically tip-toed around the situation and left it up to the "lesser known" Karamazov to act. In order for a character to fit the hero archetype, they must overcome the conflict, not assign it to their younger brother. If Hamlet had assigned the killing of his father to Guildenstern, then

Guildenstern would be the hero. A closer look at the details of Smerdyakov’s life reveals a mirror image of a hero’s story arc.

The first part of a typical hero’s life involves the death of one or more parents followed by departure from the home. Smerdyakov’s mother dies in childbirth and is shortly dispatched to culinary school away from the home. He returns as a servant, but nevertheless, he resolves the one of the major conflicts of the novel. Smerdyakov even commits suicide, a reflection of the demise of Hamlet. None of the other brothers commit suicide because they don’t feel nearly as guilty because they didn’t actually commit the crime. In a tragic sense of life contest, Smerdyakov wins because he is the servant of his despicable father and as a result he is given no distinct identity that each of his brothers seem to radiate. He is the “illegitimate brother” who hung cats as a child. He is the Cinderella of the family, but instead of marrying a prince, he kills his father. His brother’s lives don’t seem tragic at all in comparison. They each have mentors or people they share affection with. Smerdyakov is the true tragic hero because his life is brutally tragic and responds like a hero should.

The central plot of the Brothers Karamazov is the killing of Fyodor Karamazov. Several characters had an indirect role in the murder, but Smerdyakov had the most direct role, so technically he can only claim the title. Without his contribution, Fyodor would have lived and the central plot would have been far more disjointed. The three brothers would have been seen as more boring people because it would seem that they had done less. The same can be said if Hamlet never killed his father and the play simply stopped at Act V, scene i. Hamlet would be responsible for the deaths of a lot of other people, but not the one in which the reader truly wants dead. The plot of the play is centered on the atrocity that has taken place at the throne and Hamlet must respond and rectify the conflict to be seen as a true hero. Would he still be a hero if the play ended where he didn't kill King Claudius? I'm not convinced he would be and that is essentially Ivan's role in the Brothers Karamazov. He talks about how his father's death would make the world a better place and yet he doesn't actually murder him. Actions speak louder than words especially in the case of the hero archetype; one must act and not plan on becoming the tragic hero.

In both Hamlet and The Brothers Karamazov the pressure on the hero increases as more responsibility is shifted on his shoulders. Hamlet eventually takes this responsibility and turns it in to action, while Ivan, Alyosha, and Dmitri end up deflecting it on each other. The brothers grow and learn about responsibility throughout the story, but the looming responsibility of their father’s death does not transfer over as much as it does to Smerdyakov Karamazov. Only Smerdyakov is able to kill Fyodor Karamozov because he has the most resentment built up towards his father. Only he was able to turn off his brain and respond in a way his brothers could not. He followed Hamlet’s example of finally not thinking so much about a certain problem and instead acted upon his emotions to formulate an action.

Works Cited

Chapman, Tracy. "Tracy Chapman: Change Lyrics."MetroLyrics. MetroLyrics, 20 Feb 2004. Web. 28 Apr 2010.

tracy-chapman.html>.

Dostoevsky, Fyodor. The Brothers Karamazov. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2004.

Shakespeare, William. “Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.” Retellings: A Thematic Literature Analogy. Ed. M. B. Clarke and A. G. Clarke. New York, McGraw-Hill, 2004. 1215-1317.