Thoughts on plot and character in Brother Karamozov

Sorry for lag of several days, but I've been (re)reading Dostoyevsky's 1880 (and final) novel, The Brothers Karamozov (Pevear-Volokhonsk7 tr.); I won't say it's an easy read, but as you get deeper into the first section the characters become more clear and distinct - and the plot doesn't really pick up until book 2, about 100 pp in. Overall, despite some highly dramatic scenes, it's closer to a novel of character than to a novel of action - somewhat atypical for FD (C&P, for ex., gets the bone into the throat right away, w/ the murder of the pawnbroker). Obvious the central characters are the 3 brothers. We get in the first section a clear delineation of the character of the oldest brother, Dmitri - wild, impulsive, abusive, a man of extremes, the exact counterpart to his father, Fyodor (interesting choice of first name on FD's part); we also get a lot of info about the youngest brother (Dmitri is half-bro to the other 2), Alyosha, serious, sensitive, deeply religious, reliable - the opposite from Dmitri and Fy. We know less about the middle son, Ivan, who seems to be the most intellectual and seems on a course to leave the family and head for Moscow (that may change). The novel, at least from the outset, is about a complex series of rivalries among the brothers and the (widowed) father for the love of two woman - Katenka and Grushenka - w/ Dmitri in love with both and competing w/ father re G. and w/ Ivan re K - and with Alyosha lost in the middle, trying to make peace among all of them. There are many intimations of the violence that we know will erupt later in the novel. As far as I can tell, FD was weak on development of women characters; his female characters are for the most part symbols, often of innocence and penitence. The male characters are by far more vivid and perplexing - going all the way back to the Underground Man, the Idiot, and esp C&P; the Devils is really his novel of ideas and politics. Overall, the scene that in each reading has gotten to me the most is when Alyosha sees the young boy being threatened and bullied by his classmates - A intervenes to protect the young boy, but the boy fights off A as well. Later, A visits the household where the boy lives in abject poverty - a truly sad scene on every measure and indictment of a society w/ no social structures or significant aid for the poor and the ill.