Her main complaint seems to be that she does not know how to safely share the inordinate amount of love she has for humanity. No doubt her suffering becomes at least partially real; she is weeping by the end of their discussion (Dostoevsky, II, 4). But the cause and focus of her suffering is her own selfishness, and though she receives some consolation and wisdom from Zossima, even his prognosis for her does not reflect much hope that her suffering will be relived, not until "you see with horror that in spite of all your efforts you are getting farther from your goal instead of nearer to it" (Dostoevsky, II, 4). Only through self-awareness, Zossima explicitly states, will her suffering be able to turn into something useful.

The three women identified in these two chapters are of no real importance to the plot of the Brothers Karamazov or to the...
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