The Gaze of the other: emotion and relation in the Brothers Karamazov

摘要

AbstractIn this article, we want to show through an analysis of the journeys of certain characters from The Brothers Karamazov how Dostoyevsky helps to reveal what the Author calls the ‘moralism of shame,’ or an action dominated by the judgement of the other, and which leads to an action that is extraneous to our will and detatched from an authentic relationship with the other, and with reality: at the same time this offers the experience of a different existential possibility to the reader. The study starts from the observation of the emotion of shame as the primary emotion of the main characters of the novel to emphasize the root of this emotion in their relationships with others and the way in which certain relationships within the novel constitute a possible alternative to an existence guided by shame and honour.