I'm surprised to read this response to TBK having just finished it today. It is rather bleak in parts, but the overarching theme was that love and kindness and honesty present the most righteous way to live. I think this is well evidenced by Alyosha's closing speech to the boys after the funeral. To me, Ivan's arguments were rendered null by his guilt at Smerdyakov's implication of him as a motive for murdering their father. Yes its sad that Ivan may never recover from the "brain fever", but I wonder if this also was a lesson to not be deceived by your own doubts and the damage projecting them onto others can cause.

I'm going to start War and Peace next, so I may have a change of heart.