"The Grand Inquisitor" Response

First off, I am quite pleased by the notes from today's class, I really want to start observing literature, rather than perceiving it. I have made my best efforts to apply these techniques to my reading of "The Grand Inquisitor."

First off, the poem within the story draws me in greatly, and is interesting because although it has a very biblical feel with its tales and metaphors, it also seems rather familiar in the present day, with so much condemnation in our modern society (perhaps one of those things that transcends age). I may only feel the latter because i am a very arcane kind of person, Machiavellian as well. Some points are there which I find very true about religion and mankind prima facie, even not trying to apply outside opinions, simply looking at the language I'm not outraged. The poem is powerful, though not in any particular meter I can discern, though eventually it does reach the point where I am thinking exactly what Alyosha is by the time he accuses Ivan of writing an extremely biased piece of work.

The shift between the poem and dialouge shakes me up a bit, the poem draws me in as a reader very much, and leaving it is almost disappointing. However, the directly relatable position of Alyosha is rather helpful. I'm not sure what to look at in the language here, and I'm not sure why he is so fixated on returning to talk to Ivan, perhaps I'm missing something. I look forward to our class discussion on this.

Someone did not return my lent copy of the Grand Inquisitor from class, so I was forced to take a copy without the italicized temptations online, but as a raised catholic I know my Bible inside and out, and the three temptations correspond from Jesus's Lenten temptations from the devil in the desert, turning stones to bread, being rescued by angels, and to rule mankind. What was interesting about them was the intention though, the Inquisitor is a different kind of Satan. His language is very lordly, very godlike though. It is in its essence a very Christian writing of the corrupt empire, Rome just as it was before. In essence, Christianity just gave empire a new tool of rule.