Verbal image “delight” in the novel “The Brothers Karamazov”

Abstract

The article examines the polyphony of the word “delight” in the novel “The Brothers Karamazov”. It is proved that the author uses it actively and solves creative problems. The word “delight” has many meanings in the novel. This word forms semantic and associative fields. This word has its own special dramatic plot and composition. This fact proves that the author uses the word “delight”in the novel according to plan. Dostoevsky uses all the semantic possibilities of this word. These are the meanings that are recorded in the explanatory dictionaries of the Russian language. The author achieves that the word “delight” becomes dialogic. But at the same time, the word “delight” takes on new meanings in the novel. These new meanings were only possible in the context of the novel. They form the “image of the world” of the writer. The article describes and analyzes the various contexts of the word “delight”. This approach helps to highlight the specific functions of the word. The word “delight” has plot and compositional boundaries. This word is between “top” and “bottom”. The image of the elder Zosima in the novel performs the function of authority. In the context of the author and this character, the word “delight” has a high meaning. But this lofty meaning is under pressure from the marginal semantics of the word. Marginal semantics is gradually replacing those meanings of the word “delight” that were associated with the authority of the elder Zosima. At the end of the novel, the fate of the word “delight” is on the border with tragedy. This word loses its fullness and indicates only a partial manifestation of a feeling of delight. Such an ending of the plot of the word “delight” sums up the value of the world that the writer depicts.