Brothers Karamazov

Patrick and Auden descend down the ninth circle of Inferno into the first ring known as Caina, the realm of traitors. The sinners in Caina are frozen in the river Cocytus because they betrayed kin. Patrick has become confident since his past encounters and no longer cries for the sins of the wicked. The dynamic duo of bullies approach a pair of traitors who are frozen in a position where one is gnawing at the others head. Auden giggles like an infant boy as Patrick kicks one of the sinners until they let go of each other and answer him. The pair is Smeardyakov and Fyodor Pavlovich from Fydor Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov.

Canto III

(Patrick speaking)

Inside the eighth circle, I met a man,

Who cries and shudders at the sound of voice.

"Who kicks me? Who dares kick a crippled man?"

Says Smeardyakov with fear and great joy.

Letting go of his fine dinner, he turns.

Auden, in the background, giggles with voice.

"I meet you who freeze, before, those with burns."

Replies Patrick with little sympathy,

"For you men, neither I nor my guide churns,

But I am alive and I have empathy,

to share your story to the world of living."

The pair tells their story without levity.

~Patrick writes his story.~

Story

Once recalling how Fyodor would capture Patrick and make him his slave, Dmitri stated many times that he will kill his father. Fyodor slapped his thigh in mockery of Patrick's beauty and Dmitri never forgave him. Meanwhile, Smeardyakov lay in the background, sitting and waiting for his moment to shine.

"He is just a tease. I can easily buy him with my three thousand Krabby Patties. Patrick is nothing but a fat whore for food," said Fyodor as he proceeded to laugh and slap his thigh.

Fyodor took one of the Krabby Patties and ate it in front of Patrick. Patrick curses Fyodor and ran away crying. Little did Fyodor know that this would be the last time that he would ever see Patrick again.

Seeing the injustice, Dmitri gets upset and promised to kill Fyodor.

"I will make you eat your words, you sensual old man. You are a dead man!" replied Dmitri as he chased after Patrick.

Fyodor proceeded to laugh and slap his thigh once more.

After a few months of waiting, Patrick never returned. Neither Dmitri nor Fyodor seem to know where he has run off too. Fyodor, realzing his mistake, has been growing sick with delusion that Patrick might one day come back to him. Fyodor shares with Smeardyakov the secret knock and three thousand Krabby Patties that he has been saving when Patrick comes back and decides to be his friend again. Smeardyakov, shortly after hearing the news about the secret knock, shares the secret with Dmitri.

"I just learned from your brother Ivan that 'all is permitted.' Fyodor has shared with me a secret knock that only Patrick knows. If you knock twice slowly, and three times quickly, that is a sure sign that he is here."

"Why do you tell me this, Smeardyakov? What plot do you have against my father that would lead you to betray him so?" questioned Dmitri.

"I have no agenda, but if 'all is permitted,' then there is no reason to keep secrets." replied Smeardyakov as he smiled like the Grinch who stole Christmas.

"Thank you, Smeardyakov. Now get out of my face, you scoundrel! I never want to see your face around me ever again!" yelled Dmitri as Smeardyakov limped away.

Dmitri runs up to his father's house and does the secret knock, intending to beat him. However, at the last minute, Dmitri decides instead to hide behind a bush and observe his father's actions. Fyodor rushes out to greet Patrick, only to find that Patrick is not there. As he runs around looking for him, Smeardyakov shows up and trips him with a brass pestle. As Fyodor falls to the ground, in horror, Smeardyakov proceeds to pounc Fyodor on the thigh.

"ALL IS PERMITTED! ALL IS PERMITTED!" yelled Smeardyakov as he beat Fyodor's thigh to a pulp.

Astonished and with fear and trembling, Dmitri runs up to the bloody spatter.

“What are you DOING?” cried Dmitri as he sees his father’s blood streaming on the snow.

"You cannot just murder a man!"

“All is permitted,” replied Smeardyakov.

Shortly afterward, Smeardyakov breaks out into a non-stop seizure and dies.

Dmitri takes the Krabby Patties and runs to find Patrick.

Authors Notes:

This week we finished reading Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. I really like how in the book, Smeardyakov beats his father, Fydor, to a pulp and thought that it would tie in really well with the Mahabharata. I took the scene where Duryodhana slapped his thigh with joy when when Draupadi was won over as a slave. Bhima promised to come back and beat the very thigh that Duryodhana slapped. I found Fyodor to be an equally sensual and unlikable character as Duryodhana, so I had him get beat on the thigh to death just as Smeardykov beat him in the novel.

The theme that "all is permitted" is something that Ivan Karamazov, one of the Karamazov brothers, shared with Smeardyakov. Smeardyakov is a sickly and illegitimate child of Fyodor and he used Ivan's ideas for his justification for killing. A similar idea of "all is permitted" seems depicted in the Indian Epic as Yudhisthira allowed Bhima to fight Duryodhana to the death. This philosophy is also known as "Dharma Crisis" in Indian Epics. Also, they both fought with maces, which are blunt objects, just as Smeardyakov beat Fyodor with a blunt object.

In the novel, Fyodor set aside three thousand roubles for Grushenka, a mistress. I replaced Grushenka with Patrick and turned the three thousand roubles that Fyodor had to three thousand Krabby Patties. Krabby Patties are a sandwich from the hit Nickelodean show Spongebob Squarepants. I thought this would apply a great shock effect to the readers and would be funny to use crabby patties as currency for Patrick.

For the Canto, I got the idea from Canto XXXII of Inferno and used the story of the third pair, Count Ugolino and Archbishop Ruggieri, who betrayed one another. In the actual poem, Ugolino is gnawing on Ruggieri's head which is a contrapasso, meaning the punishment fits the crime by either resembling or contrasting the sin itself, for the sins that they committed. The tale is that Ruggieri punished Ugolino for personal reasons and locked him up in a tower with Ugolino's two sons. The family were starving and Ugolino was so hungry that he started gnawing at this own hand. Ugolino's children were astonished by this, and offer their own bodies to be eaten by their dad since he raised them since they were born. Thus the punishment of 'gnawing' on flesh fits the crime. The scene where Bhima drinks blood from one of the guys he killed is equally spooky.

I decided to replace Ugolino with Smeardyakov and Ruggieri with Fyodor in order to give a similar reference to kin-betrayal. Furthermore, Bhima and Duryodhana are also kin as they are cousins. Smeardyakov is supposedly the illegitimate and sickly son of Fyodor Pavolich. Although Fyodor never acknowledges Smeardyakov as kin, he nonetheless takes the child in and allowed him to be taken care of. Smeardyakov in the end betrays Fyodor and kills him. I thought that the contrapasso of Smeardyakov gnawing on Fydor's head is fitting because Fyodor raised and fed Smeardyakov when he was young, only to have been betrayed by him. In the end, the punishment is both equally chilling and hurtful for both of them.

Also, this is the first time I did a terza rima iambic pentameter rhyme scheme. Terza Rima is the actual rhyme scheme that Dante used in inferno and consists of a pattern where the second rhyme repeats in the next paragraph, like: aba bcb cdc, etc.

I think it's pretty cool and I hope you all enjoy reading it.

love,

~pat