# The Brothers Karamazov — Character guide

> Key figures in The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

- [Alyosha Karamazov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/alysha_karamazov.md): Alyosha moves between the monastery, his father's house, and the drawing rooms of women half in love with him, carrying messages and absorbing other people's feverish secrets. His gift is a soft answer that disarms — he 
- [Dmitri Karamazov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/dmitri_karamazov.md): Dmitri grew up believing he had property and came of age to discover he had nothing but his father's IOUs and evasions. He is reckless with money, quick to a duel or a debt, and helplessly split between the proud Katerin
- [Ivan Karamazov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/ivan_karamazov.md): Ivan is the educated Karamazov, welcome in local society, who has 'denied and rejected much already' and never bothered to hide it. He is entangled with Katerina Ivanovna in a familiarity Alyosha didn't suspect, and he t
- [Fyodor Pavlovitch Karamazov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/fyodor_pavlovitch_karamazov.md): Fyodor Pavlovitch began as a poor dependent, married into money, and grew bolder with prosperity until only his malicious cynicism remained. He swindled Dmitri of his maternal inheritance and is now spending it on the sa
- [Grushenka](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/grushenka.md): Grushenka holds court in a private room with a Pole and a pipe-smoking companion when Dmitri bursts in with a bundle of notes and a vow to make it his last night. She watches him with 'intense curiosity and still some un
- [Smerdyakov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/smerdyakov.md): Smerdyakov lies in bed after a fit, speaking to Ivan with a patronizing calm that is more unsettling than any outburst. He insists he cannot foretell a seizure and yet had described the day, the hour, and the cellar stai
- [Katerina Ivanovna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/katerina_ivanovna.md): Katerina Ivanovna is the aristocratic beauty engaged to Dmitri, a match tangled in debt, gratitude, and humiliation. She lent him three thousand roubles and cannot forgive the hold it gives him over her, nor her own need
- [Father Zossima](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/zossima.md): Father Zossima is the revered monk to whom Alyosha binds himself, a man whose reputation for healing and insight draws pilgrims to the monastery. His long deathbed narrative—recounting his arrogant youth, his brother's c
- [Kolya Krassotkin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/kolya_krassotkin.md): Kolya Krassotkin is the self-appointed intellectual of the local schoolboys, a boy who quotes Rakitin, declares himself a Socialist, and keeps a dignified silence when impressed. He worships Alyosha but would never admit
- [Ilusha](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/ilusha.md): Ilusha is the son of the poor, half-mad Captain Snegiryov, and he has been tormented by the schoolboys since Dmitri dragged his father through the street by his beard. His illness draws the boys back to him in a reversal
- [Rakitin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/raikitin.md): Rakitin is Alyosha's sometime friend and the town's most fluent gossip, a man who moves between the monastery and the drawing rooms with equal ease. He feeds Kolya ideas about socialism and habit, and he carries messages
- [Lise Hohlakov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/lise_hohlakov.md): Lise Hohlakov is the young invalid daughter of the wealthy, meddlesome Madame Hohlakov, and she has fixed her affections on Alyosha with an intensity that is both childlike and unsettling. She writes him a letter, laughs
- [Madame Hohlakov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/madame_hohlakov.md): Madame Hohlakov moves through the town's drawing rooms as a woman of rank, estate business, and restless nerves, devoted to her fourteen-year-old daughter Lise, who cannot walk. She craves the elder's blessing, society's
- [Grigory](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/grigory.md): Grigory Vassilyevitch has served the Karamazov house for decades, a stern, honest man whose loyalty to Fyodor Pavlovitch survives every humiliation the old buffoon inflicts on him. He and his wife brought up Dmitri and t
- [Pyotr Ilyitch Perhotin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/pyotr_ilyitch_perhotin.md): Pyotr Ilyitch Perhotin is a minor provincial official who moves easily between the tavern, the police station, and the Karamazovs' tangled affairs, partly out of friendship and partly out of curiosity. He lends Dmitri sm
- [Nikolay Parfenovitch Nelyudov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/nikolay_parfenovitch.md): Nikolay Parfenovitch Nelyudov arrives at the Karamazov house with notebooks, procedure, and a young official's appetite for a case that will make his name. He questions servants, tracks money, and tries to pin Dmitri's c
- [Ippolit Kirillovitch](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/ippolit_kirillovitch.md): Ippolit Kirillovitch has spent his career unable to command a room, and the Karamazov case hands him the ear of all Russia. Nervous, consumptive, and hungry for vindication, he builds his speech around Fyodor Pavlovitch 
- [Fetyukovitch](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/fetyukovitch.md): Fetyukovitch is the famous advocate whose name alone changes the atmosphere of the courtroom, a man who has made a career of defending the seemingly indefensible. He listens to Dmitri's chaotic account with professional 
- [Captain Snegiryov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/snegiryov.md): Snegiryov scrapes by in poverty, mocked by neighbors and ground down by debts he cannot pay, yet he clings fiercely to a dignity no one else grants him. When Dmitri Karamazov drags him from a tavern by his beard, the hum
- [Fenya](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/fenya.md): Grushenka's young maid and confidante.
- [Maximov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/maximov.md): A garrulous old landowner and hanger-on at Mokroe.
- [Pyotr Alexandrovitch Miüsov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/pyotr_alexandrovitch_miusov.md): Fyodor's cousin and a liberal intellectual.
- [Pyotr Fomitch Kalganov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/kalganov.md): A young, wealthy relative of Miüsov, present at key scenes.
- [Kuzma Samsonov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/samsonov.md): A wealthy merchant and Grushenka's former protector.
- [Trifon Borissovitch](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/trifon_borissovitch.md): The innkeeper at Mokroe.
- [Marfa Ignatyevna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/marfa.md): Grigory's wife and a servant in the Karamazov household.
- [Lizaveta Smerdyastchaya](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/lizaveta.md): A mute holy fool and mother of Smerdyakov.
- [Father Païssy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/father_paissy.md): A stern and learned monk at the monastery.
- [Smurov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/smurov.md): A schoolboy and friend of Kolya Krassotkin.
- [Pan Vrublevsky](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/pan_vrublevsky.md): A Polish companion of the Pole at Mokroe.
- [Pan Mussyalovitch](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/mussyalovitch.md): A Polish officer and card player at Mokroe.
- [Doctor Herzenstube](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/dactor_herzenstube.md): A kind-hearted German doctor in the town.
- [Kartashov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/kartashov.md): A schoolboy friend of Kolya.
- [Nina](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/nina.md): Ilusha's sickly younger sister.
- [Perezvon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/perezvon.md): Kolya's dog, who plays a role in the schoolboys' story.
- [Yefim Petrovitch Polenov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/yefim_petrovitch_polenov.md): A landowner who was a guardian of the Karamazov boys.
- [Adelaïda Ivanovna Miüsov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/adelaida_ivanovna.md): Fyodor Pavlovitch's first wife and mother of Dmitri.
- [Markel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/markel.md): Father Zossima's elder brother who died young.
- [Father Iosif](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters/father_iosif.md): A gentle monk at the monastery.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_brothers_karamazov_se/characters