Dostoevsky's strengths and his one weakness

Finished "book 11" (of 12) in Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov (1880; Pevear-Volokhonsky, and it's great to see how well FD handles the central plot element: the murder of the brothers' father Fyodor. As noted in an earlier post, FD's narrator gives us an extraordinary amount of info about the interior lives of most of the major characters; he gives us much detail about the conflicts and torments the brothers endure regarding relations w/ the lecherous father (all by the "good" son, Alyosha), he chronicles the events leading up to the murder, from the POV of several characters - but as to the murder itself, he gives us two roses of ellipses. And now we see why! Up to this point in the novel, all the evidence points to the oldest son, Dimitri, imprisoned and on the eve of the first day of his trial for murder. Of course we accept the narrator's information, and we have no doubt that Dimitri is guilty - his behavior so odd and extreme, the evidence to obvious, his excuses so flimsy and contorted (e.g., he was found holding 3,000 rubles, the precise amount stolen from the dead father, though D claims he had been carrying this money around as a favor to one of his (many) woman friends. But - spoilers here for those who haven't read this novel! - in book 11 things turn around, as the epileptic Smerdgov (sp?), who supposedly had been suffering from an extreme fit at the time of the murder, S. admits to middle-brother Ivan that he (widely believed to be the father's out-of-wedlock son) that he'd committed the murder, that he was faking his two-day fit. The tables have turned - but who will come to Dimitri's defense at the trial? A great plot twist - but there's so much more to this plenteous novel that the murder trial. What strikes me in particular on this reading of the word is how effective FD is in creating scenes of pathos: Who can not nearly come to tears in reading the account of the death of the child Ilyusha, and in particular well yup to tears when we see how Alyosho befriends the young boys of the neighborhood and works w/ them to ensure that they behave w/ kindness toward the dying child - and that they continue doing so for the rest of their lives? FD is more widely known for this intellectual heft and for the highly dramatic scenes of fervid mental torment - but he can handle sentimental with greatness as well. Similarly, it's obvious that he had great sympathy for animals and a loathing toward anyone who behaves w/ cruelty toward any animal - though he can understand this cruelty in children and he tries to assuage it. A Dostoevsky weakness, however: Does he have any truly great female characters? She (wittily) contrasts his work w/ Tolstoy's, and part of this imagined rivalry, one would guess, may be jealous of Tolstoy's ability to write about women. The women in FD novels, however, are background players, symbols primarily, and never, as far as I can recall, rounded characters w/ complex emotions and well-founded beliefs - the vanish when compared w/ his dynamic and multifaceted male characters.