The Brothers Karamazov

The Brothers Karamazov

by

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Ippolit Kirillovich Character Analysis

The deputy prosecutor, usually referred to simply as “the prosecutor.” He has no surname and is married to “a rather fat and childless lady. When he arrives to arrest Dmitri Fyodorovich, he is described as “the trim, ‘consumptive’ fop” in “well-polished boots.” He participates in Dmitri’s interrogation, along with Nikolai Parfenovich. He is only thirty-five, but he lacks good health due to susceptibility to “consumption,” or tuberculosis. He is described as intelligent and has “a kind soul,” though he is also “proud and irritable.” He has a lofty opinion of himself that doesn’t match his true virtues. This high personal opinion, particularly regarding his understanding of the human character, leads him to think that he’s underappreciated in his profession, and that he has enemies. He’s eager to take on the Karamazov case because he thinks that it could become known all over Russia, thereby helping with his reputation. He dies of “acute consumption” nine months after the Karamazov trial.

Ippolit Kirillovich Quotes in The Brothers Karamazov

The The Brothers Karamazov quotes below are all either spoken by Ippolit Kirillovich or refer to Ippolit Kirillovich. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Faith vs. Reason Theme Icon
).
Part 4: Book 12, Chapter 6 Quotes

“Gentlemen of the jury,” the prosecutor began, “the present case has resounded throughout Russia. But what, one might think, is so surprising, what is so especially horrifying about it? For us, for us especially? We’re so used to all that! And here is the real horror, that such dark affairs have almost ceased to horrify us! It is this, and not the isolated crime of one individual or another, that should horrify us: that we are so used to it. Where lie the reasons for our indifference, our lukewarm attitude towards such affairs, such signs of the times, which prophesy for us an unenviable future? In our cynicism, in an early exhaustion of mind and imagination in our society, so young and yet so prematurely decrepit? In our moral principles, shattered to their foundations, or, finally, in the fact that we, perhaps, are not even possessed of such moral principles at all?”

Related Characters: Ippolit Kirillovich (speaker), Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov, Lieutenant Dmitri “Mitya” Fyodorovich Karamazov
Page Number: 693
Explanation and Analysis:

“For now we are either horrified or pretend that we are horrified, while, on the contrary, relishing the spectacle, like lovers of strong, eccentric sensations that stir our cynical and lazy idleness, or, finally, like little children waving the frightening ghosts away, and hiding our heads under the pillow until the frightening vision is gone, so as to forget it immediately afterwards in games and merriment. But should not we, too, some day begin to live soberly and thoughtfully; should not we, too, take a look at ourselves as a society; should not we, too, understand at least something of our social duty, or at least begin to understand? A great writer of the previous epoch, in the finale of the greatest of his works, personifying all of Russia as a bold Russian troika galloping towards an unknown goal, exclaims: ‘Ah, troika, bird-troika, who invented you!—and in proud rapture adds that all nations respectfully stand aside for this troika galloping by at breakneck speed.”

Related Characters: Ippolit Kirillovich (speaker), Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov, Lieutenant Dmitri “Mitya” Fyodorovich Karamazov
Page Number: 695
Explanation and Analysis:
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Ippolit Kirillovich Quotes in The Brothers Karamazov

The The Brothers Karamazov quotes below are all either spoken by Ippolit Kirillovich or refer to Ippolit Kirillovich. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Faith vs. Reason Theme Icon
).
Part 4: Book 12, Chapter 6 Quotes

“Gentlemen of the jury,” the prosecutor began, “the present case has resounded throughout Russia. But what, one might think, is so surprising, what is so especially horrifying about it? For us, for us especially? We’re so used to all that! And here is the real horror, that such dark affairs have almost ceased to horrify us! It is this, and not the isolated crime of one individual or another, that should horrify us: that we are so used to it. Where lie the reasons for our indifference, our lukewarm attitude towards such affairs, such signs of the times, which prophesy for us an unenviable future? In our cynicism, in an early exhaustion of mind and imagination in our society, so young and yet so prematurely decrepit? In our moral principles, shattered to their foundations, or, finally, in the fact that we, perhaps, are not even possessed of such moral principles at all?”

Related Characters: Ippolit Kirillovich (speaker), Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov, Lieutenant Dmitri “Mitya” Fyodorovich Karamazov
Page Number: 693
Explanation and Analysis:

“For now we are either horrified or pretend that we are horrified, while, on the contrary, relishing the spectacle, like lovers of strong, eccentric sensations that stir our cynical and lazy idleness, or, finally, like little children waving the frightening ghosts away, and hiding our heads under the pillow until the frightening vision is gone, so as to forget it immediately afterwards in games and merriment. But should not we, too, some day begin to live soberly and thoughtfully; should not we, too, take a look at ourselves as a society; should not we, too, understand at least something of our social duty, or at least begin to understand? A great writer of the previous epoch, in the finale of the greatest of his works, personifying all of Russia as a bold Russian troika galloping towards an unknown goal, exclaims: ‘Ah, troika, bird-troika, who invented you!—and in proud rapture adds that all nations respectfully stand aside for this troika galloping by at breakneck speed.”

Related Characters: Ippolit Kirillovich (speaker), Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov, Lieutenant Dmitri “Mitya” Fyodorovich Karamazov
Page Number: 695
Explanation and Analysis: