Speaking perceptively of the criminal procedure in The Brothers Karamazov, Edward Wasiolek points out that the "legal process is an obstacle to the facts ... [It] brings forth only technique, ambition and triviality." Wolfgang Holdheim, writing on the same subject, observes that the legal error at the end of that novel is indicative of the ambiguities inherent in modern literature's approach to reality. These critics have shown a sensitivity to a topic otherwise rarely treated: the use of the legal theme within the modern novel not merely for dramatic effect, but also for thematic, structural and formal purposes not explicitly stated by the writer.
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