The Grand Inquisitor

“The Grand Inquisitor” is an embedded narrative, or a story within a story, contained in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s 1880 novel The Brothers Karamazov. In the novel, “The Grand Inquisitor” is a prose poem composed by the character Ivan Karamazov. Its fictional author, who writes this poem in an increasing state of despair, recites this work to his younger brother, the novice monk Alyosha. “The Grand Inquisitor” imagines Jesus Christ coming to Seville at the time of the Inquisition, where he is promptly arrested by the Grand Inquisitor, who challenges the relevance and utility of Christ’s teachings in a modern world. To the intellectual and analytical Ivan, the poem is an expression of skepticism about the existence of a benevolent God that pays attention to, and actively intervenes in, the lives of humans. Often considered the most famous part of The Brothers Karamazov, “The Grand Inquisitor” holds an important place in the canon of modern literature. It resonates with modern anxieties surrounding The Burden of Free Will, The Relationship Between Faith and Reason, and The Weakness of Human Nature.

This study guide refers to the 1991 Vintage Classics edition of the Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky translation of The Brothers Karamazov.

Poet Biography

Fyodor Dostoevsky was an influential author best known for his novels, though he was also a short story writer, essayist, and journalist. He has come to be regarded as one of the towering figures of world literature, renowned for his deep explorations of the human condition and for his treatment of ethical, religious, and existential themes.

Dostoevsky’s early life was filled with personal and financial struggles. Born in Moscow, Russia, on November 11, 1821, he studied engineering but began writing early, publishing his first novel, Poor Folk, in the mid-1840s. This work earned attention for its poignant portrayal of poverty and social injustice. In 1849, however, Dostoevsky was arrested for his participation in the Decembrists, a literary group that discussed banned books with liberal and socialist ideas. He was sentenced to death, but was granted a last-minute reprieve when already on the execution scaffold—a trauma that affected him for the rest of his life. After his death sentence was commuted, he was instead sent to a Siberian labor camp for several years. This experience deeply influenced his later writings, infusing them with themes of suffering, redemption, and the human capacity for good and evil. Dostoevsky’s special focus on spiritual issues also stemmed in part from a medical condition: He had ecstatic epilepsy, a rare form of epilepsy in which seizures are experienced as a feeling of sublime bliss, which Dostoevsky interpreted as connected to the divine.

Following his release from Siberia, Dostoevsky worked as a journalist. He traveled extensively and was in an unstable financial situation, worsened by his gambling addiction. However, Dostoevsky also wrote prolifically and was soon regarded as one of the most important living Russian authors. Among Dostoevsky’s most acclaimed works are his novels Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1869), and his end-of-life masterpiece, The Brothers Karamazov (1880). Dostoevsky’s works were read throughout Russia and soon became known across the world, influencing later generations of writers and thinkers including Anton Chekhov, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Sigmund Freud. Dostoevsky died on February 9, 1881, in Saint Petersburg, not long after his completion of The Brothers Karamazov.

Poem Text

Dostoevsky, Fyodor. “The Grand Inquisitor.” The Brothers Karamazov, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. 1991. Vintage Classics. pp. 246-264.

Summary

Ivan Karamazov recites his prose poem (which is not in verse, and not even written down) to his brother Alyosha, a novice monk, who occasionally interrupts to ask questions. The poem is in essence a parable that sets the second coming of Jesus Christ in Seville during the 15th century, at the height of the Spanish Inquisition (see: Background). Christ appears in a crowded square where nearly a hundred so-called heretics have just been burned before the population of Seville, including the royal court and the clergy. Christ performs no miracles yet is somehow recognized by the people immediately. He walks through the crowd “with a quiet smile of infinite compassion” (249) as crowds celebrate and worship him. Some ask to be blessed or healed. One mother even demands that Christ resurrect her dead child, and, at a word from Christ, the girl rises from her coffin.

The commotion draws the attention of the Cardinal Grand Inquisitor of Seville, a stately old man, who has Christ arrested in front of the cathedral. That evening, the Inquisitor visits Christ in his prison cell and announces that the next day he will have him burned at the stake as a heretic.

Most of the rest of Ivan’s poem is the Inquisitor’s monologue, during which Christ does not speak a word. The Inquisitor does not care whether the stranger is truly Christ or not: Either way, Christ’s return would in fact be detrimental to the goals of the Church. In the Inquisitor’s view, the Church and the Pope have completely supplanted the authority of Christ on earth. Christ, says the Inquisitor, failed humanity when he rejected the temptations of Satan in the wilderness: the temptation to use his powers to transmute rocks into bread, to call the angels to save him, or to establish himself as the autocratic ruler of the world. Christ chose to reject these temptations to affirm human freedom of will, but this choice, the Inquisitor argues, was based on a distorted view of human nature. The Inquisitor does not believe that most humans can make morally good choices if they are free, so by giving humans freedom Christ has effectively prevented humans from redemption.

Ivan’s Inquisitor is a nonbeliever who claims that he, like the rest of the Catholic Church, follows Satan rather than God. The Inquisitor argues that only the worldly institution of the Church can give appropriate guidance to humans and compel them to unite. This will be accomplished by making humans live their lives in ignorance about their God-given free will, but it is precisely because of their ignorance that humans will be able to be happy. The Inquisitor affirms that his choice is a moral one and will make him a martyr.

After the Inquisitor finishes speaking, he waits for a response from his prisoner. Christ says nothing—he only kisses the Inquisitor on the lips. The Inquisitor lets Christ go, but demands that he never return.

As Ivan draws near the end of his poem, Alyosha challenges his representation of the Church and of the Inquisitor. After finishing his poem, Ivan asks whether Alyosha renounces Ivan for his view of the Church, but, in reference to the end of the poem, Alyosha kisses Ivan softly on the lips. Elated at the possibility of Alyosha’s acceptance, Ivan jokes that Alyosha’s gesture is plagiarism, but thanks him anyway.