Grand Inquisitor Scene: Difference between revisions

In stories set in a [[Dystopia|dystopiandystopia]]n society, there is usually the one scene in the story where a dissident of the society has a "meeting of the minds" with a high ranking official of the society. During the meeting, the official can perfectly understand where the dissident is coming from with his objections, but has a rebuttal for each one, and explains why his vision for the society, or how the world should be, simply doesn't work and why its flawed. In a [[Crapsack World]] setting, the official will state how they've stamped it out and such.

* [[Trope Namer]]: ''[[The Brothers Karamazov]]'', in a story-within-the-story. Note that the dissident is, in this case, Jesus Christ ''who had resurrected a little girl from death''. He gets arrested by the Holy Inquisition, and the Grand Inquisitor tells him he should have given in to all of the Devil's temptations in the wilderness, because then the Church would rule the world. As he won't, the Grand Inquisitor says he isn't wanted by them and should leave. Jesus does, after giving him a kiss.

** It's not quite that black and white. The Grand Inquisitor claims Christ sinned by not giving into the temptations because giving in would have meant giving man food, miracles to believe in, and an authority to rule them; here's [[wikipedia:Temptation of Christ|the other wiki's]] explanation. The Grand Inquisitor, and the author of the story, Ivan, believe that Christ should have traded free will and a choice in whether or not to worship God for a comfortable life. It's Ivan's struggle to reconcile an "uncaring" God<ref> “Listen: if everyone must suffer, in order to buy eternal harmony with their suffering, pray tell me what have children got to do with it? It’s quite incomprehensible why they should have to suffer, and why they should buy harmony with their suffering.”</ref> and the alternative atheism, which he believes would lead to a world where morals don't matter since heaven and hell don't matter, and don't act as a deterrent.<ref> "If God does not exist, then everything is permissible," so his father's behavior would have been allowed.</ref>. His solution is that the Church should rule the world; Christ did not allow this, ergo he sinned and the Grand Inquisitor yells at him for it.

{{quote| ''If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.''}}

* ''[[Brave New World (Literaturenovel)|Brave New World]]'': The scene where John and Mustapha Mond talk about the World State. John argues for a world in which meaningful art, passion, family, and God have a place again, but Mond shoots down everything John brings up. He agrees with him that the old world had more meaning to it, but that it had to be sacrificed for stability.

* The Patrician in ''[[Discworld]]'' gets one of these per novel that he shows up in.

* Shows up in the granddaddy of dystopias, ''[[We (Literature)|We]]''. Here, the Great Benefactor explains to D-503 the One State's inhuman actions.

* Roj Blake's dressing-down in the first episode of ''[[Blake's Seven7|Blakes Seven]]''.

** There's also Burgoyne in ''[[The DevilsDevil's Disciple]]'' and the Roman Emperor in ''[[Androcles Andand Thethe Lion]]''. The latter asserts that he is actually a Christian evangelist -- sinceevangelist—since Christian martyrs inspire converts, the more Christians he kills, the more Christians he creates.

* Played with in ''[[Sid MeiersMeier's Alpha Centauri]]'', almost to the point of a deconstruction. ''Every single faction'' gets several of these, but they also double as [[Author Tract|Author Tracts]]s simultaneously, even when factions have radically opposing viewpoints.