The Brothers Karamazov · Chapter
II: Children explained
Kolya Krassotkin is left in charge of the house and two young lodgers, Nastya and Kostya, while his mother and the doctor's wife attend to a servant's unexpected childbirth.
What happens
Kolya Krassotkin is left in charge of the house and two young lodgers, Nastya and Kostya, while his mother and the doctor's wife attend to a servant's unexpected childbirth. He prepares to leave on urgent business, making the children promise to behave, and rewards them with a glimpse of a toy cannon.
Themes in this chapter
Innocence and Corruption
The children's naive debate about childbirth contrasts with the adult reality of Katerina's unexpected pregnancy, highlighting the tension between innocence and worldly knowledge.
Characters to notice
- Kolya Krassotkin
Left in charge of the house and the two young lodgers; prepares to go out on urgent business.
- Nastya
Elder daughter of the doctor's wife, aged eight, can read, argues with Kostya about how babies come.
- Kostya
Younger son of the doctor's wife, aged seven, listens to Nastya and defers to Kolya's judgment.
- Perezvon
Kolya's dog, excited and obedient, kept under the bench until released.
- Agafya Ivanovna
The Krassotkins' servant, absent at the market, returns to watch the children.
Key passages
“I shall never, never believe that the old women find babies among the cabbages in the kitchen-garden. It's winter now and there are no cabbages, and so the old woman couldn't have taken Katerina a daughter.”
Nastya rejects the cabbage-patch myth about babies because it's winter and there are no cabbages.
Shows the children's literal-minded reasoning about childbirth.
“How can Katerina have a baby when she isn't married?”
Kostya questions how an unmarried woman can have a baby.
Reflects the children's limited understanding of adult relationships.