In 'The Brothers Karamazov', which brother is the youngest?

In Fyodor Dostoevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov,” the youngest brother is Alyosha Karamazov.

Alyosha is the familiar form of Alexei Fyodorovich Karamazov, who is twenty years old at the beginning of the novel. He is the second son of Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov and Sofya Ivanovna, making him the younger full brother of Ivan. Dmitri is his older half-brother, while Smerdyakov is generally treated as their possible illegitimate half-brother.

Unlike his volatile brothers, Alyosha begins the story as a novice at a monastery and a disciple of the elder Zosima. The narrator identifies him as the novel’s hero, and Alyosha often acts as a compassionate witness who moves between the family’s conflicting personalities.

His name also carries personal significance for Dostoevsky: the author named him after his own son, Alexei, who died in childhood. Alyosha’s religious faith does not isolate him from the world; Zosima sends him back into family and community life, where he becomes involved in the novel’s central moral and emotional crises.