19 pages • 38 minutes read
Fyodor DostoevskyThe Grand Inquisitor
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1880A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
“These Poor Villages” by F. I. Tyutchev (1855)
This poem, the last stanza of which Ivan quotes as he recites “The Grand Inquisitor” to his brother Alyosha, describes the suffering in the poor villages of Russia. The anguish of his fellow Russians had a great impact on Dostoevsky and fueled many of his most famous writings.
“The Second Coming” by W. B. Yeats (1919)
Yeats’s poem describes a world in chaos in which traditional systems of belief are faltering. Like Dostoevsky’s “The Grand Inquisitor,” this meditation on the gulf between Christian teachings and the modern world is set against the backdrop of the Second Coming of Christ.
“The Hollow Men” by T. S. Eliot (1925)
Eliot's poem explores the emptiness and moral bankruptcy of modern society, evoking a sense of spiritual desolation. As in Dostoevsky’s work, religious resonances are prominent throughout, and the Lord’s Prayer is reworked at the end of the poem, culminating in the famous concluding lines: “This is the way the world ends / Not with a band but a whimper” (Lines 97-98).
Further Literary Resources
Don Carlos by Friedrich von Schiller (1787)
A historical tragedy in five acts about Don Carlos, the son of the Spanish King Philip II, and his love for his stepmother Elisabeth of Valois. Scholars generally regard Schiller’s play as an important influence on Dostoevsky’s “The Grand Inquisitor.”
Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time by Joseph Frank (2012)
This authoritative academic biography of Dostoevsky, initially published in five volumes, discusses many of the key elements of Dostoevsky’s writing and ideology, including how events from his life influenced his works.
Dostoevsky’s Political Thought edited by Richard Avramenko and Lee Trepanier (2013)
This collection of essays examines Dostoevsky’s philosophical and political ideas throughout his oeuvre. Chapter 5 is dedicated specifically to an analysis of “The Grand Inquisitor.”
Listen to Poem
This reading of the Penguin translation of Dostoevsky’s “The Grand Inquisitor,” produced by Corner Film Productions in 2015 can also be accessed on Audible.
Related Titles
By Fyodor Dostoevsky
