Patterns in the Brothers Karamazov
I’m currently re-reading The Brothers Karamazov and I’ve been thinking about Smerdyakov. I read Brothers K first and then Crime and Punishment, but for those who did the opposite and read C&P first, did you manage to predict he was the killer on your first pass?
There are two moments that feel like huge red flags if you are familiar with Dostoevsky’s patterns.
First, that conversation with Ivan where Smerdyakov essentially admits he is going to fake an epileptic fit.
Second, the way his fit coincides perfectly with the timing of Fyodor’s death. It feels so similar to the way timing and physical states are used with Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment.
Did anyone else pick up on those parallels early on or was the reveal still a complete surprise?