염상섭의 『삼대』와 도스토예프스키의 『카라마조프가의 형제들』 - ‘돈’에 관한 문제의식을 중심으로 -

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to compare the problem consciousness of ‘money’ in Yeom Sang-seop’s "Three Generations" and Dostoevsky’s "The Brothers Karamazov”. “The Three Generations” and “The Brothers Karamazov” show how the idolization of ‘money’ destroys human life, saying how humans should have an attitude toward money. Although Cho Eui-kwan and Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov consider money absolutely possible, Fyodor believes that money’s ability only extends to the present world, while Cho Eui-kwan believes that it affects not only the present world but also the afterlife. In a world where money has become idolized, the moment money, which was a simple means, is passed on to the final purpose, it has the power of destruction, and eventually even human life is reduced to worthlessness. These works use the motif of killing a father to reveal how the wrong attitude toward money destroys life, leading the characters to restore the true purpose of money through time of hardship. In other words, the purpose of money is not a tool to satisfy one’s needs, but to save humans. However, these two works offer different perspectives on how to break up with the materialism of past generations. Deokgi of "The Three Generations" embraces his father Sanghoon, who eliminated half of his wealth through gambling debt, and takes a method of remodeling the life of a safe keeper left by the existing generation. And he goes out to restore the purpose of money ‘right now’. However, Dmitri of “The Brothers Karamazov” accepts the time to completely destroy and correct past heritage. And he plans to save his future baby with money and leaves for Siberia today. This can be seen as a different solution proposed by Yeom Sang-seop, who wanted to quickly escape the dark colonial era, and Dostoevsky, who predicted the arrival of the dark era due to the Russian socialist revolution. This is a different solution proposed by Yeom Sang-seop, who wanted to quickly escape the dark colonial era, and Dostoevsky, who predicted the arrival of the dark era due to the Russian socialist revolution.