Sam McLucas

The Fourfold in Dostoevsky’s Characters

Zosima awoke on the day of his duel to a feeling of overwhelming guilt. Soon, however, that guilt gave way to a piercing light, and all around him, the birds, the trees, and even the sun seemed to rejoice. Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov emphasizes an individualistic view of spirituality and inward transformation, therefore relating to the writings of Alexander Dugin, who in his works contemplates the lonely “darkness” that accompanies spiritual enlightenment. Characters in The Brothers Karamazov, most notably Zosima but occurring again with others, reach moments of enlightenment and grace when they are at the same time met with a personal darkness. Alexander Dugin, in his writings about Heideggeran thought, recalls the idea of the “Fourfold”, a group of relationships constituted by the earth, sky, divinity and men, which shows itself to men when they enter the “Abyss”, a sort of spiritual loneliness or turmoil. The transformation that Zosima and other characters in the novel undergo and that Dugin describes is an important reminder that times of deep loneliness or self-loathing can instead act as a catalyst for personal transformation.

Zosima, blinded by rage and jealousy at his rival, struck his orderly across the face, with a beastly cruelty. Zosima, in this moment, was overcome with a meaningless fury, one that relates to the idea of the writings of Alexander Dugin and the darkness that proceeds enlightenment. Dugin explains that in order to experience the light of the Fourfold, there first must be something to entice that revelation, which he describes as distance from “beings”. (Dugin 196) He speaks of that distance in ambiguous terms, using words that allude to darkness, and a sense of separation. The best way to understand the “darkness” that proceeds the Fourfold is it being a separation from the elements that make up and are associated with the Fourfold, such as spirituality, an inner light, and a connection to and love of the specific constituent parts of the Fourfold. In Zosima’s case, the “separation” that he experiences is one from every one of those elements. By attempting to kill his rival out of jealousy, he has subjected himself to a removal from men, the God, the Sky, and the Earth. Being consumed by material desires, he completely loses his spiritual grounding. 

Waking up on the morning of his duel, Zosima, lost in his own web of envy and spite, suddenly looks into himself and finds he is having a spiritual awakening.  During Elder Zosima’s revelation, his experience relates to the writings of Alexander Dugin because he describes being faced with every element of the Fourfold. He describes a “sharp needle” piercing through his soul, which gives way to an overwhelming array of both emotion and understanding of the world. (316 Dostoevsky) In terms of the sky, Zosima recounts himself standing dazed, with the sun “shining” down on him. (316 Dostoevsky) In regard to the earth, he talks about the “leaves” being in a state of rejoicing. (Dostoevsky 316) In terms of the divine, Zosima describes the new spirituality the world seemed to have taken on, with him saying that even “the birds were praising God” (Dostoevsky 316). In his final, and most important revelation as it relates to the Fourfold, he suddenly finds himself awash with love for his fellow man, and profousing gentleness to the man he was set to duel, where he was previously beset with hatred for those around him. In his speech to his former rival, he summarizes the ways in which he has changed in one day. He tells them that the divine gifts around them should be appreciated; saying to them “clear sky, the fresh air, the tender grass, the birds, nature is beautiful and sinless… we need only wish to understand, and it will come all at once in all its beauty.” (317) This line from Zosima almost entirely encapsulates the idea of the Fourfold in its entirety, with every element being described, and even the sudden nature of its onset on an individual being included in the description. 

Zosima, became in the eyes of his fellow soldiers, someone to laugh at, but more than that, they found that they loved him. After his revelation, Zosima takes his place as an observer of the Fourfold and focuses his life on observing that which is unseeable, because he knows, as did Alexander Dugin, that illumination is only possible through constant attention. Dugin describes the Fourfold and its respective parts as the highest order of insight and understanding. He, speaking of the Fourfold and its constituent parts, says that it is “the synthesis of the most profound fundamental-ontological knowledge” that it is equal to something that resembles “illumination”, and that the Fourfold itself is the “fruit of that illumination”. (Dugin 217) What especially applies to Zosima in particular, is Dugin’s description of the “invitation” that the Fourfold presents to someone who focuses their “entire life’s thought-oriented attention”. (Dugin 218) When Zosima adopts his new spirituality, he becomes the person that Dugin speaks about, who focuses their life on every element of the Fourfold. He becomes loved by his regiment and his community, and while he is laughed at, he dedicates himself to his spirituality and its accompanying bliss. When he speaks to the mysterious visitor later in the chapter, the visitor tells him how he has changed. The visitor tells Zosima that in order to make the world “anew”, people must take a “different path psychically”, and that once someone has become the “brother of all, there will be no brotherhood”. (Dostoevsky 321) The visitor is explaining to Zosima the illumination that had taken place in his soul, and that he must focus his life’s attention to it, focusing his attention just as Dugin described. 

Mitya stood in his crumbling cell, with the walls peeling around him, speaking to Alyosha in a frenzied but resolute tone, suddenly beset by a new understanding of life and its joys. The speech that Mitya gives to Alyosha about his own transformation relates to the writings of Dugin because of how he describes his newfound love of men and life, which presents itself in how Dugin describes the elements of the Fourfold being adjacent to one another. Mitya, speaking of how his perspective on life has changed, describes how he now views his own spirituality as it now relates to others. He tells Alyosha that a man was “shut up inside me”, but he received in the loneliness of his cell a “thunderbolt”, which showed him how a person can save themselves by looking into themselves. (Dostoevsky 626) He now believes that even if he were to be sentenced to the mines, and he was standing next to a murderer, that it would be okay, because you could find a “human heart” in him, and eventually bring “up from the cave into the light a soul that is lofty now… you can revive an angel, resurrect a hero”. (Dostoevsky 626) The cave that Mitya speaks of alludes to the “darkness” that Dugin says comes before illumination by the Fourfold. At the start of his speech, Mitya focuses his attention to the “men” element of the Fourfold in particular, suddenly feeling a connection to the convicted people of Russia, who he now believes need to be saved. Mitya’s speech in the cell also harkens back to Dostoevsky’s lived experience as a prisoner in a labor camp. Describing his four years in the camp, Dostoevsky spoke about getting to know many of the convicts he was imprisoned with. Speaking of his fellow inmates, he wrote that there were “deep, strong, beautiful characters among them, and what a joy it was to discover the gold under the coarse, hard surface”. (Frank 190)

As Mitya continued his breathless speech, he grew even more frenzied, and tears poured from his eyes as he wrestled with his new perspective on life. The latter part of Mitya’s speech, which shifts its attention to Mitya’s view of his own spiritual grounding, relates to the writings of Dugin because of its focus on Mitya’s own “foundation” in spirituality, a theme that appears often in Dugin’s writing. Mitya, describing his own psychological vigor, tells Alyosha that “there is so much strength in me now that I can overcome everything, all sufferings”. (627) Further along in his speech, he also alludes to the sun as it relates to his revelation, telling Alyosh that even though he is “locked up in a tower” that he can still “see the sun”, and even if he can’t see the sun, he “still I know it is”. This section of the speech dives into the more unseeable elements of his transformation. According to Heidegger, the Fourfold, upon its revelation to an individual, expresses itself in the “totality of four”, and no one “element of this Fourfold ever acts alone”. (Dugin 195) When Mitya speaks of his connection that he feels to the Sun, that he can feel and knows is there even when he cannot see it, he is experiencing the “sky” branch of the Fourfold, which is acting on him simultaneously along with the other three constituent elements. The different connections that Mitya describes feeling, to men, the sun, and to his own spirituality, all stem from the branches of the Fourfold acting on him, with their interconnectedness being not just a feature but necessary, according to Dugin. 

As Alyosha walked away from Dmitri’s cell, he suddenly felt an otherworldly connection to his imprisoned brother, and his heart exploded with compassion. The emotion that Alyosha describes bears a sharp resemblance to Dugin’s writings on the Fourfold, because of Alyosha’s description of the “abyss” he feels. Alyosha describes the situation Mitya is in as opening up an “abyss of ineluctable grief and despair in the soul of his unfortunate brother”, with his “pierced heart” aching as he walked away from the prison. The language that Alyosha uses, “abyss”, appears in Dugin’s writings about how the Fourfold gifts itself to individuals. Dugin writes that the Fourfold is “given to us like an open window to the abyss… the greatest gift, and it is assumed that we will value it accordingly”. (Dugin 197) When Alyosha is shown the Abyss that Mitya is experiencing, his heart then fills with a “deep, infinite passion”. (Dostoevsky 633) Alyosha uses the darkness of the “abyss” to connect with his brother, and sees through the “window” created by the Fourfold to establish a spiritual link with his brother.

Alyosha gathered the group of boys around him, and they looked up to him with attentive, expectant eyes. Alyosha, in what he says to the boys, displays a mastery of confronting the “abyss”, because he knows that enlightenment and spirituality reveals itself in times of immense personal distress. After having experienced the death of Zosima, the trial of his brother, and numerous other challenges to his spirit, Alyosha knows that moments of despair can be catalysts to make spiritual connections. Alyosha tells the boys that they should “never forget how good we once felt here, all together, united by such good and kind feelings” (Dostoevsky 821) Despite the gloomy backdrop of Ilyusha’s death and funeral, Alyosha emphasizes that these moments are what allow people to transform themselves. Alyosha knows that the spirituality intrinsic to the Fourfold provides a “solid ground” to stop the descent into the terror of the “abyss”. (Dugin 196) The importance of having a connection to one another is repeatedly emphasized because it is necessary to confront “distance from other beings”, one of the elements of the “abyss”.

The boys, restraining themselves with nervous excitement, all focus their singular attention on Alyosha, hanging on his every word.  Later in his speech in his speech that he makes to the group of boys after Ilyusha’s funeral, Alyosha relays many of the ideas present in the theme of relational identity present in Christian eco-poetics, because of his emphasis on the connection that all of the boys, and himself, have developed. Alyosha speaks of the importance of all their shared memories with Ilyusha, and the value that taking his memory with them gives to each of them. In many ways, it seems as if he is alluding to the fact that all of them have taken a part of Ilyusha with them. He tells the boys that Ilyusha has “united us in this good, kind feeling” (Dostoevsky 822). 

The boys all cried out to Alyosha, expressing their love to him, eachother, and the departed Ilyusha. The final scene in the book, the boys surrounding Alyosha represent a profound sense of hope, which can be related to Alexander Dugin’s writings about the Fourfold as it relates to society, and “another beginning”. Alyosha, described as being in a state of ecstasy, tells the boys that they will all rise after death and see eachother again, and will “joyfully tell one another all that has been”. (Dostoevsky 823) The revelation that the boys go through, not only mirrors the “bliss” that accompanies the Fourfold, but also can be further extrapolated to understand Alexander Dugin’s thinking about societal ills. Society, as Dugin explains, needs to see the Fourfold as a goal to be reached. The chorus of blissful children, having faced the “abyss” and emerged spiritually victorious, stands in contrast to the “self-entertaining” and nihilistic masses that he believes are poisoning postmodern society. (Dugin 278) Dugin despises the alienating and godless forces corrupting society, with the Fourfold representing the end of those effects, and a “new beginning” for society. The chanting of the boys could be seen as representative of a victorious society, one that has faced the “abyss” and found the sanctuary of the Fourfold. 

The Fourfold, as it was understood by Heidegger, was a way for something to stretch beyond itself. Heidegger thought that once the Fourfold revealed itself to a person, or a society, it billows through every part of the Fourfold, and “each of these grants the thing a place within a particular cluster of relations and supportive connections”. (Mitchell 11) That aspect of the Fourfold is seen not just in the individual characters of Zosima, Alyosha, and Mitya, but on a larger scale, with all the children eventually being struck by the spirit of the Fourfold. The Fourfold lays a framework for the spiritual awakening of a society, and how that spirituality will manifest itself. In an increasingly interconnected, but at the same time isolated postmodern society, ideas about spirituality often go unheralded in discussions about solving social ills. With the increasingly online way of living, finding relations and connections becomes increasingly difficult. However, that isolation presents an opportunity, as hypothesized by Heidegger, that society could enter “another beginning”, one supported by faith, and held up by unseen connections to one another.

Mitchell, Andrew J. The Fourfold: Reading the Late Heidegger. Northwestern University Press, 2015. 

Frank, Joseph, and Mary Petrusewicz. Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time. Princeton Univ. Press, 2010.