So what's the deal with Smerdyakov?
Is he an idiot? An absolute madman? A genius?
>>7720935
>Is he an idiot?
Yes, but he's less of an idiot than Ivan, who can only talk and never face the conscequences of his words. He may be intelligent, this same intelligence makes him unable to act on his thoughts, Smerdyakov is a product of Ivan.
Whatever he is, he's a dick. Bump
>>7721421
What do you expect when you get brought up the way he does
He's vile.
Being Fyodor's son doesn't excuse the way he is. Just look at the brothers.
He got fucked up on Ivan's atheism and went the "Nothing is true, everything is permitted" nihilist route, and then couldn't deal with his own actions.
Smedyakov is a distorted mirror reflection of Ivan. Remember that Ivan was told that he was the most sensual of the Karamazov clan, but he repressed it.
Smerdyakav was trapped by the circumstances of his birth, and notices it from an early age. Growing up with an already intense anger at society and its institutions, Smerdyakov drifted further and further away from humanity.
He was an absolute madman, but a genius one.