Reading 1001 discussion

4.. In Book VI, Chapter 3, Zosima defines hell as "The suffering of being no longer able to love." How is this idea illustrated in the novel?

If a person does not love there is no connection to fellow man. Love takes on the other's sins and shows love and compassion for that person.

Hell for Dmitri and his father is being in love with a woman who may not love them and who torments them, I would argue they are not actually in love but obsessed.

It is illustrated in many different ways. Alyosha loves and cares for others and is happy. Fyodor Karamazov cared for no one but himself and was unhappy. Dmitri tied himself in knots because he was consumed by love, but for Grushenka, at the expense of everyone else. Smerdyakov had never been loved and was incapable of loving and was in his own private hell. Father Zosima loved everyone and lived a fulfilled life.