Hi, I've nearly finished Part Two. I agree with a lot of what you've said, but I often find it quite difficult to tell how much of the arguments we read are Dostoevsky's beliefs, and how much just things he wanted to bring to our attention and make us think about.

For example, what Ivan said at the monastery about how the state should be absorbed into the Church seems to be close to Dostoevsky's own view, but later it's revealed that Ivan probably didn't believe it himself and was just being a "seminarist careerist". Also it's interesting how, although I've read that Dostoevsky thought Russia should be ruled through the Orthodox Church, that he seems to disapprove of some Church practises and highlights its faults. The visiting monk and the monk who lived in the apiary fasting a lot (can't remember the names) definitely weren't portrayed in a positive light.

Alyosha is very idealised - he comforts everyone and gives them guidance. I wonder if he's how Dostoevsky would have liked his son to be (he is named after Dostoevsky's son who died as a child)

I just finished The Devils. I was really shocked by how many characters he killed - hardly any of the principle characters survived!

Stavrogin's suicide didn't make much sense to me ... Is it possible he just discovered Shatov's murder? In his letter to Dasha he asked her to come and live with him, but he did not mention Shatov. As Dasha was Shatov's sister, that seems very strange to me, particularly as he didn't want Shatov to be killed and would probably either have felt angry or guilty or both. If he had just found out about Shatov, maybe he realised that he couldn't then ask Dasha to come and live with him, having been partly responsible for her brother's death, and maybe that led to his suicide.

This is just the first possibility that occured to me so sorry if it doesn't make a lot of sense.

By the way, I'm new here and this is my first post, so hi everyone