When discussing S.L. Frank’s idea of the meaninglessness of life, it is easy to draw a parallel to Dostoevsky’s novels. As Dostoevsky routinely features a broken individual as a main character, one can look to Dmitri Karamazov in The Brothers Karamazov. Dmitri shares a character trait with Crime and Punishment’s Rodion Raskolnikov and the unnamed narrator in Notes from the Underground as a man left to cope on the fringes of society. But perhaps ‘cope’ would be an ill-advised phrase as Dmitri almost immediately begins plotting his revenge against the father who abandoned him in pursuit of his sordid interests.
In the Karamazov family, religion is a consistent point of contention, given Alyosha’s devout standing in the monastery even he grapples with the best way through which to spread the Word. Dmitri and Ivan nearly-completely reject the idea of anything beyond their mortal being and without a familial fabric to tie them together, Dmitri wanders aimlessly through his deranged existence. That deranged existence comes to a head – literally – as Grigory intervenes in his one-track plans. While Dmitri commits the fateful act against Grigory that sets in motion the events that lead to his downfall, it creates an odd paradox for Dmitri, one that Dostoevsky is quite keen on exploring. By showing an unwillingness or inability to control his anger, Dmitri exhibits his view of life as meaningless. Dmitri does not pause to consider any consequences of his actions – he simply acts and his mental faculties struggle to catch his body. However, the immediate attempt by Dmitri to hopelessly care for Grigory, a man whom five seconds prior he intended to murder – is telling. The pause in Dmitri’s sinister mind suggests a slight sense of remorse for his actions. In a sense, perhaps Dmitri considers only his own life to be meaningless and it would be difficult to fault him for that view.
Much in the same way that Raskolnikov attempts to destroy the evidence of his crime by stuffing his blood-soaked clothes out of sight, Dmitri attempts to do the same with the blood-soaked handkerchief he used in tending to Grigory. His eventual inability to hide his crimes leads to what amounts to a confession, “I accept my punishment, not because I killed him, but because I meant to kill him, and perhaps I really might have killed him.” (465) The uncertain response from a tired Dmitri shows his eroding mental state, another staple of Dostoevsky’s works. Dmitri had little regard for human life in committing murder and he shows little regard for his own life. Life for Dmitri has become fully meaningless.