The Grand Inquisitor Dostoevskys-the Hidden Meaning - Book Report/Review Example

of the of the Concerned Religion and Theology 29 November The Grand Inquisitor- The Hidden Meaning The Grand Inquisitor is a Chapter from Dostoevsky’s famous novel The Brothers Karamazof. The Brothers Karamazof happened to be the last novel that flowed out from the pen of such a greater thinker and story teller. In the extract under consideration, one of the three brothers in the story, Ivan, who happens to be an atheist and a materialist, tries to explain to his younger brother Alyosha, this particular conception which he intends to cast into a poem. The pivotal scene in this extract is set in the 15th century Spain, during the time of infamous and notorious Inquisition. The theme of this extract is woven around the idea of Christ revisiting earth during this time and at this particular place, when the Grand Inquisitor gets Him arrested on the charge of being a heretic. Many critics have tried to interpret this extract as a satire aimed at the modern theology in general and on the Roman Catholic Church in particular. However, a thorough and well meditated reading of the text, emphatically leads to the conclusion that The Grand Inquisitor is a narrative imbued with multiple meanings, a catechism for modern times, which unravels the deeper meaning of faith and grace, while to all intents and purposes, pretending to shatter the very ideals that constitute the core of the Christian faith. Perhaps the author has purposefully left the meaning of this parable to be ambiguous; thereby allowing faiths of all hews and shades to interpret it in consonance with their beliefs and values. One particular thing to be noted about this parable is that it is set in the times of Inquisition. In that context the Inquisition is not merely to be interpreted as a mere incident in the European history, but rather a slice of time when the religion had utterly ossified, deprived of all living force and verve, vehemently sustaining itself by lighting the piers of hundreds of so called heretics amidst all the courtly sophistication and urban fanfare. Dostoevsky paints the gory details of Inquisition at the very start of the parable. So, if one interprets the things in that perspective, one comes around a sense of faith that had ceased to be life giving and salvaging, cruelly nipping all curiosity and enquiry in the very bud, while believing it to be the custodian of the ultimate mysteries of life. Amidst this enervating ambience, Dostoevsky draws the advent of Christ as the influx of a gush of fresh air amidst the fires of hell. The coming of Christ is presented by the writer as an event that is promising of healing and life. Surprisingly, even after a gap of fifteen hundred years, the laity in the parable is able to recognize Christ. The author does not extend any logical explanation for this fact. Yet, the people are shown as flocking around Him, as a herd of wayward sheep gathers around its shepherd. Christ is presented as an antithesis to the realities of Inquisition, a timeless Icon oozing out grace and hope by His very presence. In the parable, the ninety year old Grand Inquisitor is a symbolic figure in the sense that his austerity commands fear and intimidation, though for all practical purposes he stands to be the representative of the Holy See. He is introduced to the readers as “an old man, almost ninety, tall and erect, with a withered face and sunken eyes (Dostoevsky: Online)”. The very age and coarse apparel of the Grand Inquisitor are symbolic of decay and demise, which is the common plight of a pool deprived of any life giving and gushing inlet of faith. In that context, the Grand Inquisitor emerges more as the custodian of a fiefdom, carved out in the name of God, and the very presence of the Savior poses a challenge to his status quo and all that he stands for at that place and in those times. Hence, the natural reaction of the Grand Inquisitor is that he gets the Savior arrested and confined to the dark cells of the prison. Eventually, it is the monologue that the Grand Inquisitor had with Christ that unravels the quintessential essence of this parable. It is the conversation that the Grand Inquisitor had with Christ, which though being disturbing, brings out the essence of the parable. At the very start of this conversation, the Grand Inquisitor locks in all the doors to salvation and grace by commanding Christ that He had “no right to add anything to what Thou hadst said of old (Dostoevsky: Online).” The cardinal presents Christ’s 33 years on earth in a distorted perspective. He portrays Christ as a misinformed prophet and a failure. He presents the free will that God granted to the progeny of Adam more as a burden rather than being a sacred responsibility. The very human provisions enunciated by Christ for humanity, as to the freedom to choose between good and evil, the freedom to define one’s belief as per one’s personal convictions and faith are pictured by the Grand Priest as the very shackles that have marred the humanity since the first advent of Christ. The Grand Priest denounces the miracles of Christ as the charms that mislead doubters into responding to life’s challenges with faith and hope. Pragmatically speaking, the Grand Priest supports a child like existence for the humanity, where the scope for evolution into maturity is barred by the human inability to resort to dangerous, painful and difficult choices in the matters of faith. The Grand Inquisitor argues that when the Savior denounced Lucifer’s three temptations to resort to miracles, he deprived humanity of the certainties of life like a God who resorted to facile miracles to make the humanity believe in Him, a rigid and predictable temporal authority, and abundant nutrition, in exchange for the free will. Thus, he presents free will as a double edged sword, in the sense that a majority of the faithful are too weak in flesh to opt for heavenly glory in exchange for earthly sustenance and certainty. Going by the twisted logic and combined with the iota of truth that the Grand Inquisitor resorts to, he immaculately comes out as the Satan incarnate. Yet the irony is that though at a verbal level, the Grand Inquisitor comes out awesomely, considering his emotional disturbance and insecurity that the writer has drawn in a very subtle manner, he appears to be a frustrated child prattling before the fountainhead of hope and grace. He presents himself as the custodian of three ultimate powers that are “miracle, mystery and authority (Dostoevsky: Online)”, yet his miracles are sans any unconditional love, his mystery is hollow and shallow at its core and his authority is brutal and deprived of grace and forgiveness. To put it simply, the Grand Inquisitor’s vision of humanity is decadent, senseless and mortal. Thus, though pretending to be the representative of faith, he emerges more of an infantile control freak. In that sense, Christ’s kissing of the Grand Inquisitor in the climax is imbued with eternal faith, love and hope. In the parable The Grand Inquisitor, the cardinal acts as an appropriate file for the Savior, placed against which, Christ stands out to be the paragon of love, faith and hope. Though the Grand Inquisitor leaves the prison doors open for the Christ to make Him leave, he certainly emerges as a spiritual pigmy that is not fit enough to even repose in the shadow of the Savior. Works Cited Dostoevsky, Fyodor Mikailovich. The Grand Inquisitor. 29 November 2011. . Read More