The Brothers Karamazov Chapter 1 Summary

Summary

Dmitri Fyodorovich Karamazov is in a feverish, agitated state: torn between hope that Grushenka will choose him and dread of her possibly marrying his father, Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov. He has sworn to restore Katerina Ivanovna’s three thousand roubles before taking Grushenka away, and without the money he feels he cannot honestly start a new life. Haunted by this moral demand and by his own pride, he concocts a desperate plan to raise the sum.

Believing that Kuzma Samsonov, an aged merchant and former protector of Agrafena Alexandrovna Svetlova (Grushenka), might help, Mitya goes to Samsonov’s house and begs him to buy or otherwise secure documents to put a valuable copse into Mitya’s hands so he can raise three thousand roubles at once. His plea is hot, confused, and theatrical. Samsonov listens coldly, refuses to undertake such business, but offhandedly suggests a peasant named Lyagavy at Ilyinskoe as someone who might be interested. Mitya leaves elated, misreading Samsonov’s suggestion as support; Samsonov, however, is inwardly mocking and later admits he made a fool of the “captain.”

Key events

1. Dmitri’s feverish state and inner turmoil about Grushenka and Fyodor Pavlovich.
2. Determination to repay Katerina Ivanovna’s three thousand roubles before running off with Grushenka.
3. Dmitri plans to solicit help from Kuzma Samsonov, believing the merchant might favor him.
4. Dmitri arrives at Samsonov’s gloomy house and makes a frantic plea.
5. Samsonov refuses to take on the business but suggests Lyagavy at Ilyinskoe.
6. Dmitri departs thinking he’s saved; Samsonov later confesses he mocked him.

Analysis

This chapter deepens our understanding of Dmitri’s character: impulsive, proud, morally conflicted and yet capable of desperate, romantic resolutions. His insistence on restoring Katerina Ivanovna’s money before taking Grushenka highlights a paradox—he is both reckless and strangely conscientious about honor. The visit to Kuzma Samsonov dramatizes social and moral distances: Mitya’s theatrical pleading collides with Samsonov’s cold commercial sobriety and latent spite. The large, empty merchant drawing-room and the old man’s swollen, immovable presence function symbolically, emphasizing Mitya’s smallness and the hollow, decorous world that judges him.

Narratively, the chapter propels the plot by showing Mitya actively seeking a means to resolve his crisis, while also creating dramatic irony: Mitya misreads Samsonov’s suggestion as help, but the reader learns Samsonov intends ridicule. The episode foreshadows the precariousness of Mitya’s schemes and the tragic potential of mistaken hopes. The chapter also contrasts different kinds of power—money, social standing, physical force (Samsonov’s son), and passionate rhetoric—setting up recurring themes of honor, shame, and the corrosive role of money in relationships.

Important quotes

“On most important business closely concerning Agrafena Alexandrovna,”

Narrator (written by Mitya and sent to Samsonov)Mitya writes this on a scrap of paper to persuade Samsonov to receive him; it opens the meeting that follows.

“Excuse me, we don’t undertake such business.”

Kuzma SamsonovSamsonov's curt refusal to Mitya's entreaty, which collapses Mitya's hopes and reveals Samsonov's coldness.

Characters in Chapter 1

• Dmitri Fyodorovich Karamazov
• Agrafena Alexandrovna Svetlova
• Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov
• Alexei Fyodorovich Karamazov
• Ivan Fyodorovich Karamazov
• Katerina Ivanovna
• Kuzma Samsonov
• Pavel Pavlovitch Korneplodov
• Lyagavy
• the priest at Ilyinskoe