Dostoevsky “The Idiot” – analysis. "The Idiot" by Dostoevsky: a detailed analysis of the novel Images of the main characters in the novel Idiot

"Crimes and Punishments"). Using the example of the crime of a person of the new generation, the author shows the crisis of Russian consciousness of the 19th century. Raskolnikov is a completely Russian person, “a type of the St. Petersburg period,” but what happens in his soul is not a personal or national phenomenon: it reflects the state of the whole world. The tragedy of modern humanity is revealed in full force in Russia, a country of the greatest extremes and contradictions. The Russian spirit, unfettered by tradition and infinitely free, experiences the world drama most intensely. That is why Dostoevsky's tragic novels, despite all their national originality, have worldwide significance. But in Crime and Punishment the crisis of consciousness is concentrated in one soul that has fallen out of the old world order. In The Idiot, all the characters are drawn into this crisis, everyone belongs to a dying world. "Positively wonderful person“, Prince Myshkin alone resists the “dark forces” and dies in the fight against them. In Crime and Punishment, only Raskolnikov and his double, Svidrigailov, are stricken with a terrible illness; the rest are apparently still healthy. In “The Idiot,” a pestilent plague has gripped everyone, all souls are ulcerated, all foundations are shaken, all sources of water are poisoned. The world of the novel “The Idiot” is more terrible and tragic than the world of “Crime and Punishment”: people rush about in a fever, speak in delirium, groan and grind their teeth. Two novels are two stages of the same disease: in the first the disease is in its infancy, in the second it is in full development. We know with what excitement Dostoevsky followed everything that was happening in Russia from abroad, how gloomily he looked at reality, how he tried to read the menacing signs of the approaching end in the criminal chronicles. Newspapers complained about the decline in morality, about the increasing frequency of crimes, robberies and murders. But at the same time, he never believed so much in the coming renewal of the dying world, in the salvation of humanity in the image of the Russian Christ. The contradiction between despair and hope, unbelief and faith is embodied in The Idiot. The novel is built on a stunning contrast of darkness and light, death and resurrection.

Dostoevsky. Idiot. 1st episode of the television series

In the sixties, the writer’s pessimism and optimism seemed painfully exaggerated, the novel was misunderstood and almost unnoticed; old world stood, apparently, firmly and unshakably; the process of destruction that Dostoevsky spoke of took place in the dark depths of consciousness. Only now, in our catastrophic era, are we beginning to understand his prophecies.

The novel “The Idiot” shows the fatal power of money over the human soul. All the heroes are obsessed with the passion of profit, all of them are either moneylenders (like Ptitsyn, Lebedev, captain Terentyeva), or thieves, or adventurers. Ghani's idea varies with his surroundings. Ptitsyn repays money at interest and knows his limit: to buy two or three apartment buildings; General Ivolgin asks everyone for a loan and ends up stealing; the tenant Ferdyshchenko, having met the prince, unexpectedly asks him: “Do you have money?” And, having received a twenty-five-ruble ticket from him, he examines it from all sides for a long time and finally returns it. “I came to warn you,” he declares, “firstly, “not to lend me money, because I will certainly ask.” This comic episode emphasizes the universal, terrible fascination with money. The theme of money is reinforced by the thoughts of the characters themselves. Ganya says to the prince: “There are terribly few honest people here; there is no one more honest than Ptitsyn.” His thirteen-year-old brother Kolya philosophizes about the same thing: having made friends with the prince, he shares his thoughts with him. His child's soul is already wounded by the indecency of his parents and the immorality of society. “There are terribly few honest people here,” he notes, “so there’s even no one to respect at all... And you noticed, prince, in our age everyone is an adventurer! And it is here in Russia, in our dear fatherland. And I don’t understand how it all worked out this way. It seems that it stood so firmly, but what now... The parents are the first to back down and are themselves ashamed of their former morality. Over there, in Moscow, a parent persuaded his son before anything not to retreat to get money: it is known in print... All usurers, all of them, right down to the last one.” Kolya remembers the murder of Danilov and connects greed for profit with crime. His words already reveal the main idea of ​​the novel.

The first part ends with a reception with Nastasya Filippovna. The motive of money is introduced by Ferdyshchenko’s story about the worst deed: he stole three rubles from friends; The maid was accused of theft and kicked out. He did not feel any particular remorse either then or later. And the narrator concludes: “It still seems to me that there are many more thieves in the world than non-thieves, and that there is not even such a honest man who would not steal something at least once in his life.” This basely clownish confession prepares the effect of a catastrophe. Rogozhin comes to buy Nastasya Filippovna: in his hands “ big pack paper, tightly and tightly wrapped in the “Stock Exchange Gazette” and tied tightly on all sides and twice crosswise with twine, like those used to tie sugar loaves.” He first offers 18 thousand, then increases it to forty and finally reaches a hundred. In a tragic auction, a bundle of one hundred thousand plays a major role.

Nastasya Filippovna returns the floor to Gana and shames him. The motive of greed is associated with the motive of crime. Serving mammon leads to murder. “No, now I believe,” she says, “that this guy will kill for money! After all, now they are all overcome with such a thirst, they are so distracted by money that they seem to have gone crazy. He’s a child himself, and he’s already getting involved with moneylenders. Otherwise he will wrap silk around the razor, fasten it and quietly from behind and slaughter his friend like a ram, as I read recently.” Nastasya Filippovna refers to the case of the merchant Mazurin, who killed the jeweler Kalmykov. The criminal chronicle again intrudes into the novel. The author builds his apocalyptic vision of the world on the facts of the “current moment.” The heroine throws a wad of hundred thousand into the fire and challenges Ghana: pull the money out of the fire, and it’s yours. The effect of this scene is the contrast between the hostess's selflessness and the greed of her guests. She summons not only Ganya, but the entire “damned” world that worships the golden calf. Confusion ensues: Lebedev “screams and crawls into the fireplace,” Ferdyshchenko suggests “snatching just one thousand with his teeth”; Ganya faints. The prince also enters into this orgy of gold: he offers his hand to the heroine, declaring that he has received an inheritance, that he is also a millionaire.

In the second part, a company of blackmailers appears. Burdovsky pretends to be the illegitimate son of Pavlishchev, the benefactor of Prince Myshkin, and starts a case against him in order to hit a decent jackpot. His friend Keller publishes an “accusatory” and vilely slanderous article about the prince in the newspaper. Lebedev says about these young people that they “have gone further than the nihilists.” The apocalyptic theme develops in the indignant monologue of Lizaveta Prokofyevna Epanchina: the kingdom of the golden calf is the threshold of the kingdom of death. “Really last times come,” she shouts. – Now everything is explained to me! Isn’t this tongue-tied guy going to kill you (she pointed at Burdovsky), but I bet he’ll kill you! He probably won’t take your ten thousand money, but at night he will come and stab you and take it out of the box. In all honesty, he'll take it out!.. Ugh, everything is topsy-turvy, everyone's gone upside down... Crazy! Vain ones! They don’t believe in God, they don’t believe in Christ! But you have been so consumed by vanity and pride that you will end up eating each other, I predict that. And this is not confusion, and this is not chaos, and this is not disgrace?”

The words of General Epanchina express the writer’s cherished idea: the moral crisis experienced by humanity in the 19th century is religious crisis . Faith in Christ fades, night falls on the world; he will die in the bloody chaos of the war of all against all. Elizaveta Prokofievna’s passionate prophecy is “scientifically” summarized by the reasoner Evgeniy Pavlovich. But his cold-blooded diagnosis of the disease of the century is, perhaps, even more terrible than the passionate indignation of the general’s wife. “Everything that I listened to,” he says, “reduces, in my opinion, to the theory of the triumph of law, first of all and bypassing everything and even to the exclusion of everything else, and even, perhaps, before research into what right consists of.” ? From this, the matter can directly jump to the right of force, that is, to the right of the individual fist and personal desire, as, indeed, it has very often ended in the world. Proudhon settled on the right of force. During the American War, many of the most advanced liberals declared themselves in favor of the planters, in the sense that Negroes are Negroes, lower than the white tribe, and, therefore, the right of might belongs to the whites... I just wanted to note that from the right of force to the right of tigers and crocodiles and even to Danilov and Gorsky not far " This prophecy was fulfilled literally: people of the twentieth century know from experience what the right of might and the right of tigers and crocodiles are...

This is the picture of the world revealed in The Idiot. The idea: disbelief inevitably leads to murder, is embodied in the action of the novel: all the heroes are murderers, either in reality or in possibility. Godless humanity stands under the sign of death.

What is Dostoevsky's Apocalypse based on? Is it not based on a morbid fantasy? He was passionately indignant when critics called his novel fantastic, and argued that he was more of a realist than they were. The menacing signs of the “time of troubles” approaching the world are already inscribed in the “current reality”; you just need to be able to read them. The writer peered into small facts, newspaper news, chronicles of incidents, reports of criminal trials and was proud that he was guessing the most elusive “trends of the moment.” When “Crime and Punishment” was published, newspaper articles appeared about the case of student Danilov. On January 14, 1866, Danilov killed and robbed the moneylender Popov and his maid. The poor student lived off his lessons, was smart and well-educated, and had a strong and calm character; he had “beautiful appearance, large black expressive eyes and long, thick, swept back hair.” During the trial, the prisoner Glazkov suddenly filed a statement that it was not Danilov who killed the moneylender, but he; but soon took it back, “admitting that Danilov had talked him into it.” Dostoevsky was amazed: reality imitated fiction with amazing accuracy. The Danilov case reproduced the plot of Crime and Punishment: even Glazkov’s false confession corresponded to Nikolka’s false self-accusation in the novel. “Realism” triumphed for him. “Ah, my friend,” he wrote to Maikov, “I have completely different concepts about reality and realism than our realists and critics. My idealism is more real than theirs. Their realism cannot explain a hundredth part of real, really happened facts. And we with our idealism even the facts were prophesied . It happened."

In Dostoevsky's art, the greatest flights of fantasy are combined with a painstaking study of facts. He always begins his ascent from the lowlands of everyday reality. His novels are full of chronicles of incidents.

The plot of “The Idiot” is closely related to the criminal trials of the 60s. The very idea of ​​the novel arose under the influence of the Umetsky case. In the final version, not a single detail of this family drama did not survive. Mignon’s “embarrassed proud woman” - Umetskaya - is only a distant prototype of Nastasya Filippovna. The Umetskikh process was a ferment that set in motion the author’s creative thought, but dissolved almost without a trace in the process of work. Two other criminal cases - Mazurin and Gorsky - determined the composition of the novel. Dostoevsky admitted to S. Ivanova that “ for decoupling the whole novel was almost written and conceived.” The denouement is the murder of Nastasya Filippovna by Rogozhin: this means that this is the meaning of the novel. The idea of ​​the “murder” of the fallen world is realized in the “killing” of the hero. The figure of the millionaire's killer appears under the impression of the trial of the merchant Mazurin.

When creating the images of “The Idiot,” Dostoevsky was influenced by the works of Cervantes, Hugo, and Dickens. The trace of Pushkin’s “Egyptian Nights”, which became the cultural and spiritual model of the novel, is especially noticeable; Pushkin’s poem “Once upon a time there lived a poor knight...” was also quoted in it. Some motifs of the work go back to Russian fairy tales and epics. The Idiot reinterprets the apocrypha, primarily the legend of Christ's brother. Drawing closer to the New Testament is also essential.

Struck by the image of Holbein the Younger, who questioned the Transfiguration and, consequently, the Sonship of Christ, who affirmed death as the essence of earthly existence, Dostoevsky was inspired by the thought of art, which should serve the great purpose of confirming the Good and the redemptive gift of light to man, insight and salvation. The creative discovery of the writer is the person to whom all the meanings of the work are drawn, Prince Myshkin. The idea of ​​the sacrifice of the God-man, born to Dostoevsky on the eve of Easter, becomes the super-theme of the novel. The redemptive suffering of the Son of God, experienced as a modern event, is the rationale for the prototype of the “Idiot.” The drafts read: “Compassion is the whole of Christianity.” The Prince's recollection of Lyon and the scaffold is of crucial importance. Stories told by Myshkin about those sentenced to death penalty there is the apotheosis of life, pierced by miracle. The hero brings to the St. Petersburg world and announces to Epanchin a covenant about the price of cosmic and personal existence, the value of which becomes so obvious at the precipice of death. The prince, remembering the political criminal, also names the vector of human transformation: to see with one’s own eyes the light of truth on earth, to touch heavenly beauty, to merge with the energy of God in the unity of church burning. Current time combines two views: from the scaffold down and from the scaffold up. One is associated only with death and fall, with the other - new life.

The novel “The Idiot” by Dostoevsky is a work about death and the power to overcome it; about death, through which the chastity of existence is learned, about life, which is this chastity. “Idiot” is a project of general and individual salvation. Life appears when torment has become sacramental torment, when a prayerful gesture has been transformed into a real following of the Redeemer. Myshkin, through his own destiny, repeats the mission of Sonship of God. And if at the psychological, plot level he can be considered as a “fool”, “righteous man”, then the mystical level of the image of Prince Myshkin neutralizes such comparisons, highlighting his attitude towards Christ. Myshkin has the ability to know purity and innocence human soul, to see the primordial behind the layers of sin. For the novel as a whole, a spiritual visionary spirit is important, when the problem of the struggle for human destiny is visible through the artistic plot. The prince leaves on the very first day the covenant of the act: to find the beauty of the Redeemer and the Mother of God and follow it. One of the Epanchin sisters voices the ailment of the world: the inability to “look.”

The dogmatics of God's condescension towards people and the ascension of creation (“deification”) receives artistic embodiment in the images and ideas of the novel. Understanding the relationship between time and eternity, Dostoevsky strives to clarify the artistic calendar. The central day in the first part of The Idiot is Wednesday, November 27, associated with the celebration of the icon Mother of God"Sign". It is in the appearance of the strange prince that Lizaveta Prokofyevna Epanchina senses the extraordinary significance of the day. The image of the “Sign” suggests the further history of the world’s acceptance and rejection of the Child Christ. The apotheosis of the identification of Myshkin and the “baby”, “lamb” - in the episode of Nastasya Filippovna’s birthday. Then the prototype of the heroine is revealed: she is given the opportunity to become the Mother of God. The expected marriage of the prince and Nastasya Filippovna is the betrothal of Christ and the Church. But the heroine does not dare to choose between two radically different symbols: the holiness of Mary and the hellish convulsion of Cleopatra. She has not retained faith in the eternal source of life, she is characterized by spiritual homelessness, the world turns to hell for her.

The tragic beginning intensifies in the novel, since there is no approval of the Church. Dostoevsky creates plot situations so that the faces of the heroes appear in them, a new life is revealed. New City— “Novgorod”, “Naples” - a symbol of the author’s concept. However, the addition of earthly and heavenly Jerusalem does not occur. The writer does not seem to know the formidable Christ, the apocalyptic Judge. His God-man is always crucified, on the cross, always the Redeemer. In this regard, the interpretation of the image of Prince Myshkin turns out to be the most controversial. Along with the ideas expressed about his divine-human prototype, there is an idea about the “Christ-likeness” of the character and even his fundamental dissimilarity with Christ.

The idea of ​​mixing good and evil, the morbidity of the soul lies at the heart of Rogozhin’s image. And if Nastasya Filippovna - spiritual symbol confusion, then Parfen Rogozhin - darkness, irrational captivity in darkness. The discrepancy between the reality of behavior and the given scale of existence is emphasized by the lack of fulfillment of personal names: Parfen - “virgin”, Anastasia - “resurrection”. At the same time, the name of the prince “Lev” is an indication of the image of the Child Christ. The mystery of transformation is also connected with the light that illuminates Myshkin during an epileptic seizure. It clearly correlates with the iconographic assist declaring the divinity of the Messiah. The symbolism of the protagonist’s “transmundaneity” is also supported by analogies highlighted in the flashbacks of the second part of the novel: correspondence storyline Myshkin’s Christmas, Epiphany (the hero’s stay in Moscow) and Resurrection (note “on Passion” to Aglaya).

The last three parts of the novel are the outcome of the greatest Christian events, demonstrating their apocalyptic sharpness. The apocalyptic Entry of the Lord, the apocalyptic Holy Thursday and Friday, and finally, the Resurrection from the dead, expected by the writer, is a break in time that exceeds earthly history and grants eternity. This is the mystical foundation of the novel. This unique interpretation by Dostoevsky of the coming of Christ allows the writer to hope for the rebirth of man and humanity, for the achievement of a spiritual paradise by a purifying soul. Numerous parallels with the Gospel of John reveal the meta-meaning of the image of the protagonist. For example, Myshkin’s words about faith are close to the twelfth chapter of the Gospel - the prayers of Christ, as well as the inscriptions on the icon “Help of Sinners” and the image “It is Worthy to Eat.” The leitmotif repeats the idea of ​​the need to restore personality, to renew the union with the Creator on the basis of boundless love, thanks to Christ’s beauty, by which the world will be saved. This is heaven; its complete acquisition is possible when there is no more time.

In a moment of the highest languor, similar to the prayer of the Redeemer on the Mount of Olives, Myshkin is faced with the madness of Nastasya Filippovna, who constantly appears in the form of a pagan goddess, and with the demonic possession of Rogozhin, who rejects the brotherhood of the cross. Three parts of the novel pass under the sign of disaster for the world, deprived of salvation. The essence of the ascension of the cross is revealed at Myshkin’s birthday, built around the framework of Holy Thursday. The symbolism of the Last Supper contrasts with Lebedev’s dejection and the gestures of Rogozhin and Ippolit Terentyev. It is characteristic that it is in this part of “The Idiot” that the appearance of the God-Man is comprehended. The theological intensity of the question stems from the perception of the painting by Hans Holbein. In contrast to the image from which “another may lose faith,” Myshkin soulfully speaks about the undyingness of faith, even in the most criminal heart. The essence of Christianity is heard in the words of the “simple pullet” - about the spiritual joy of repentance, about the joy of being sons of God. The copy in Rogozhin’s house clearly replaces the cross, built on the site of the crucifixion. In the heights, instead of the light shown to Myshkin, there is the darkness of destruction, instead of the paradise offered by the prince, there is a grave. The silhouette of the Basel horror blesses the certainty that God is dead forever. His status in the St. Petersburg space is clearly iconoclastic. From the sight of this picture, both Rogozhin himself and Nastasya Filippovna, shaky in it, lose faith. Hippolytus, whose “Explanation” is a philosophical justification of personal unbelief, counts himself among the eyewitnesses of the undoubted defeat of the Anointed One, witnesses of the Divine failure. The Gnostic Hippolytus calls the earthly a corpse collection, an accumulation of decayed things. It seems to him that the brute and evil force of materiality is destroying the Savior. This actually leads the teenager dying of consumption to rational warfare against God, but at the same time his heart preserves the memory of the Messiah.

The idea of ​​Hippolytus was formed on the day of the Ascension of the Lord, being the antithesis of the meaning of the Christian holiday. By attempting suicide, he poses a daring challenge to the universe and the Creator. A failed shot is a sign of God’s providential participation in human destiny, the inscrutability of Providence, a guarantee of a different life. This refutes the hopelessness of the picture, giving the scope of being beyond time. The world has fallen into the trap of casuistry (including Catholic and socialist) and miraculousness, from which it is possible to get out after the final defeat of evil only in an apocalyptic transformation.

Myshkin sets an example of life; to be worthy of it is the task of humanity. The chance, common to everyone, is to acquire the “idiocy” inherent in the prince, i.e. wisdom of vision. The author's sophiological hope complements the ideological structure of the novel; it opposes positivist knowledge. Myshkin’s seizures reveal the ugliness of the earthly, living in the circumstances of the fall of nature, but in the spiritual center there is no pain, no horror, there is no ugliness and beauty rests. So in the “Dead Christ” the Son of God is still alive. The idea of ​​a new world, of the formation of society as a Church, is also connected with the image of Aglaya Epanchina. But she is also unable to accept the feat of the myrrh-bearing wife, which Myshkin calls for. Reading Pushkin’s ballad, Aglaya outlines her own ideal, which appears in the form of an idol, an idol, and she demands the same from the prince. The value of the "paladin's" life's succession is interpreted by her as a blind offering, the fury of pagan blindness, similar to the act of Cleopatra's slave. The one whose name is “brilliant” speaks of a dark passion. The episode of the meeting between Aglaya and Nastasya Filippovna reveals the impossibility of Christian love being realized in them, which dooms the prince to the loneliness of Golgotha. The final chapters of the novel are marked by the coincidence of the numerical symbolism of the resurrection and the eighth (apocalyptic) day. The arrival of Prince Myshkin at Rogozhin’s house, when Nastasya Filippovna had already been killed, restores the reproduction of the “Descent into Hell” icon, the Easter icon. The Second Coming and the Ascension saved lives. In response, humanity gathered around the sufferer: Kolya Ivolgin, Evgeny Pavlovich Radomsky, Vera Lebedeva, Lizaveta Prokofyevna, who knew the covenant of the Russian Christ. The epilogue narrows the scope of the work, serving the purpose of warning, revealing the novel's presentation into reality itself. Man must become an icon and a temple, this is what humanity must become. By presenting the prince as a “sphinx,” Dostoevsky frees the voices of the characters and the assessments of readers as much as possible from the dictates of his own position.

The end of the 1860s - the beginning of the 1870s - the manifestation and formation of a new aesthetic system Dostoevsky, which is based on the idea of ​​the correlation of the aesthetic ideal with the Incarnation, Transfiguration and Resurrection. Dostoevsky consistently followed the path of mystical realism, the symbolic abilities of which made it possible to bring the super-essential to the level of being, thereby eliminating as much as possible the moment of disintegration between literary creativity and Christian creation.

The first dramatization of the novel was carried out in 1899 in Maly and Alexandrinsky theaters. The most significant was the production of G. A. Tovstonogov in 1958 on the stage of the Bolshoi Drama Theater. M. Gorky. In the BDT performance, the role of Myshkin was played by I.M. Smoktunovsky, and Rogozhina - E.A. Lebedev. Another interpretation of the novel is in the triptych play by Moskovsky drama theater on Malaya Bronnaya, staged by S. Zhenovach.

End of 1867. Prince Lev Nikolaevich Myshkin arrives in St. Petersburg from Switzerland. He is twenty-six years old, the last of the noble noble family, was orphaned early, fell ill with a severe nervous illness in childhood and was placed by his guardian and benefactor Pavlishchev in a Swiss sanatorium. He lived there for four years and is now returning to Russia with vague but big plans to serve her. On the train, the prince meets Parfen Rogozhin, the son of a wealthy merchant, who inherited a huge fortune after his death. From him the prince first hears the name of Nastasya Filippovna Barashkova, the mistress of a certain rich aristocrat Totsky, with whom Rogozhin is passionately infatuated.

Upon arrival, the prince with his modest bundle goes to the house of General Epanchin, whose wife, Elizaveta Prokofievna, is a distant relative. The Epanchin family has three daughters - Sr. Alexandra, middle Adelaide and youngest, common favorite and beauty Aglaya. The prince amazes everyone with his spontaneity, trustfulness, frankness and naivety, so extraordinary that at first he is received very warily, but with increasing curiosity and sympathy. It turns out that the prince, who seemed like a simpleton, and to some even a cunning one, is very intelligent, and in some things he is truly profound, for example, when he talks about the death penalty he saw abroad. Here the prince also meets the extremely proud secretary of the general, Ganya Ivolgin, from whom he sees a portrait of Nastasya Filippovna. Her face of dazzling beauty, proud, full of contempt and hidden suffering, strikes him to the core.

The prince also learns some details: Nastasya Filippovna’s seducer Totsky, trying to free himself from her and hatching plans to marry one of the Epanchins’ daughters, wooed her to Ganya Ivolgin, giving her seventy-five thousand as a dowry. Ganya is attracted by money. With their help, he dreams of becoming one of the people and significantly increasing his capital in the future, but at the same time he is haunted by the humiliation of the situation. He would prefer a marriage with Aglaya Epanchina, with whom he may even be a little in love (although here, too, the possibility of enrichment awaits him). He expects the decisive word from her, making his further actions dependent on this. The prince becomes an involuntary mediator between Aglaya, who unexpectedly makes him her confidant, and Ganya, causing irritation and anger in him.

Meanwhile, the prince is offered to settle not just anywhere, but in the Ivolgins’ apartment. Before the prince has time to occupy the room provided to him and become acquainted with all the inhabitants of the apartment, starting with Ganya’s relatives and ending with his sister’s fiancé, the young moneylender Ptitsyn and the master of incomprehensible occupations Ferdyshchenko, two unexpected events occur. None other than Nastasya Filippovna suddenly appears in the house, having come to invite Ganya and his loved ones to her place for the evening. She amuses herself by listening to the fantasies of General Ivolgin, which only heat up the atmosphere. Soon a noisy company appears with Rogozhin at the head, who lays out eighteen thousand in front of Nastasya Filippovna. Something like a bargaining takes place, as if with her mockingly contemptuous participation: is it her, Nastasya Filippovna, for eighteen thousand? Rogozhin is not going to retreat: no, not eighteen - forty. No, not forty - one hundred thousand!..

For Ganya’s sister and mother, what is happening is unbearably offensive: Nastasya Filippovna is a corrupt woman who should not be allowed into a decent home. For Ganya, she is a hope for enrichment. A scandal breaks out: Ganya’s indignant sister Varvara Ardalionovna spits in his face, he is about to hit her, but the prince unexpectedly stands up for her and receives a slap in the face from the enraged Ganya. “Oh, how ashamed you will be of your action!” - this phrase contains all of Prince Myshkin, all of his incomparable meekness. Even at this moment he has compassion for another, even for the offender. His next word, addressed to Nastasya Filippovna: “Are you as you now appear to be,” will become the key to the soul of a proud woman, deeply suffering from her shame and who fell in love with the prince for recognizing her purity.

Captivated by Nastasya Filippovna's beauty, the prince comes to her in the evening. A motley crowd gathered here, starting with General Epanchin, also captivated by the heroine, to the jester Ferdyshchenko. To Nastasya Filippovna’s sudden question whether she should marry Ganya, he answers negatively and thereby destroys the plans of Totsky, who is also present. At half past eleven the bell rings and the old company appears, led by Rogozhin, who lays out one hundred thousand wrapped in newspaper in front of his chosen one.

And again, in the center is the prince, who is painfully wounded by what is happening, he confesses his love for Nastasya Filippovna and expresses his readiness to take her, “honest” and not “Rogozhin’s,” as his wife. Then it suddenly turns out that the prince received a rather substantial inheritance from his deceased aunt. However, the decision has been made - Nastasya Filippovna goes with Rogozhin, and throws the fatal bundle with a hundred thousand into the burning fireplace and invites Gana to get them from there. Ganya is holding back with all his strength so as not to rush after the flashing money; he wants to leave, but falls unconscious. Nastasya Filippovna herself snatches the packet with fireplace tongs and leaves the money to Gana as a reward for his torment (later it will be proudly returned to them).

Six months pass. The prince, having traveled around Russia, in particular on inheritance matters, and simply out of interest in the country, comes from Moscow to St. Petersburg. During this time, according to rumors, Nastasya Filippovna ran away several times, almost from under the aisle, from Rogozhin to the prince, remained with him for some time, but then fled from the prince.

At the station, the prince feels someone’s fiery gaze on him, which torments him with a vague premonition. The prince pays a visit to Rogozhin in his dirty green, gloomy, prison-like house on Gorokhovaya Street. During their conversation, the prince is haunted by a garden knife lying on the table; he picks it up every now and then until Rogozhin finally takes it away in irritation. he has it (later Nastasya Filippovna will be killed with this knife). In Rogozhin’s house, the prince sees on the wall a copy of a painting by Hans Holbein, which depicts the Savior, just taken down from the cross. Rogozhin says that he loves to look at her, the prince screams in amazement that “... from this picture someone else’s faith may disappear,” and Rogozhin unexpectedly confirms this. They exchange crosses, Parfen leads the prince to his mother for a blessing, since they are now like siblings.

Returning to his hotel, the prince suddenly notices a familiar figure at the gate and rushes after her to the dark narrow staircase. Here he sees the same sparkling eyes of Rogozhin as at the station, and a raised knife. At the same moment, the prince suffers an epileptic fit. Rogozhin runs away.

Three days after the seizure, the prince moves to Lebedev’s dacha in Pavlovsk, where the Epanchin family and, according to rumors, Nastasya Filippovna are also located. That same evening, a large company of acquaintances gathers with him, including the Epanchins, who decided to visit the sick prince. Kolya Ivolgin, Ganya’s brother, teases Aglaya as a “poor knight,” clearly hinting at her sympathy for the prince and arousing the painful interest of Aglaya’s mother Elizaveta Prokofievna, so that the daughter is forced to explain that the poems depict a person who is capable of having an ideal and, having believed in it, to give his life for this ideal, and then with inspiration he reads Pushkin’s poem itself.

A little later, a company of young people appears, led by a certain young man Burdovsky, allegedly “the son of Pavlishchev.” They seem to be nihilists, but only, according to Lebedev, “they moved on, sir, because they are business people first of all.” A libel from a newspaper about the prince is read, and then they demand from him that he, as a noble and honest man rewarded the son of his benefactor. However, Ganya Ivolgin, whom the prince instructed to take care of this matter, proves that Burdovsky is not Pavlishchev’s son at all. The company retreats in embarrassment, only one of them remains in the spotlight - the consumptive Ippolit Terentyev, who, asserting himself, begins to “orate.” He wants to be pitied and praised, but he is also ashamed of his openness; his enthusiasm gives way to rage, especially against the prince. Myshkin listens to everyone attentively, feels sorry for everyone and feels guilty before everyone.

A few more days later, the prince visits the Epanchins, then the entire Epanchin family, together with Prince Evgeny Pavlovich Radomsky, who is caring for Aglaya, and Prince Shch., Adelaide’s fiancé, go for a walk. At the station not far from them another company appears, among which is Nastasya Filippovna. She familiarly addresses Radomsky, informing him of the suicide of his uncle, who squandered a large government sum. Everyone is outraged by the provocation. The officer, a friend of Radomsky, indignantly remarks that “here you just need a whip, otherwise you won’t get anything with this creature!” In response to his insult, Nastasya Filippovna cuts his face with a cane snatched from someone’s hands until it bleeds. The officer is about to hit Nastasya Filippovna, but Prince Myshkin holds him back.

At the celebration of the prince’s birthday, Ippolit Terentyev reads “My Necessary Explanation” written by him - an amazingly profound confession of someone who almost didn’t live, but who changed his mind a lot young man, doomed by illness to premature death. After reading, he attempts suicide, but there is no primer in the pistol. The prince protects Hippolytus, who is painfully afraid of appearing funny, from attacks and ridicule.

In the morning, on a date in the park, Aglaya invites the prince to become her friend. The prince feels that he truly loves her. A little later, in the same park, a meeting takes place between the prince and Nastasya Filippovna, who kneels before him and asks him if he is happy with Aglaya, and then disappears with Rogozhin. It is known that she writes letters to Aglaya, where she persuades her to marry the prince.

A week later, the prince was formally announced as Aglaya's fiancé. High-ranking guests are invited to the Epanchins for a kind of “bride” for the prince. Although Aglaya believes that the prince is incomparably higher than all of them, the hero, precisely because of her partiality and intolerance, is afraid to make the wrong gesture, remains silent, but then becomes painfully inspired, talks a lot about Catholicism as anti-Christianity, declares his love to everyone, breaks a precious Chinese vase and falls in another fit, making a painful and awkward impression on those present.

Aglaya makes an appointment with Nastasya Filippovna in Pavlovsk, to which she comes together with the prince. Besides them, only Rogozhin is present. The “proud young lady” sternly and hostilely asks what right Nastasya Filippovna has to write letters to her and generally interfere in her and the prince’s personal life. Offended by the tone and attitude of her rival, Nastasya Filippovna, in a fit of vengeance, calls on the prince to stay with her and drives Rogozhin away. The prince is torn between two women. He loves Aglaya, but he also loves Nastasya Filippovna - with love and pity. He calls her crazy, but is unable to leave her. The prince's condition is getting worse, he is plunging more and more into mental turmoil.

The wedding of the prince and Nastasya Filippovna is planned. This event is surrounded by all sorts of rumors, but Nastasya Filippovna seems to be joyfully preparing for it, writing out outfits and being either inspired or in causeless sadness. On the wedding day, on the way to the church, she suddenly rushes to Rogozhin standing in the crowd, who picks her up in his arms, gets into the carriage and takes her away.

The next morning after her escape, the prince arrives in St. Petersburg and immediately goes to Rogozhin. He is not at home, but the prince imagines that Rogozhin seems to be looking at him from behind the curtain. The prince goes around to Nastasya Filippovna’s acquaintances, trying to find out something about her, returns to Rogozhin’s house several times, but to no avail: he is gone, no one knows anything. All day the prince wanders around the sultry city, believing that Parfen will certainly appear. And so it happens: Rogozhin meets him on the street and asks him in a whisper to follow him. In the house, he leads the prince to a room where in an alcove on a bed under a white sheet, furnished with bottles of Zhdanov’s liquid, so that the smell of decay is not felt, the dead Nastasya Filippovna lies.

The prince and Rogozhin spend a sleepless night together over the corpse, and when the next day they open the door in the presence of the police, they find Rogozhin rushing about in delirium and the prince calming him, who no longer understands anything and recognizes no one. Events completely destroy Myshkin's psyche and finally turn him into an idiot.

Retold

Plot

This novel is an attempt to draw an ideal person, unspoiled by civilization.

Part one

The plot centers on the story of a young man, Prince Myshkin, a representative of an impoverished noble family. After a long stay in Switzerland, where he is being treated by Dr. Schneider, he returns to Russia. The prince recovered from mental illness, but appears before the reader as a sincere and innocent person, although decently versed in relationships between people. He goes to Russia to visit his only remaining relatives - the Epanchin family. On the train, he meets the young merchant Rogozhin and the retired official Lebedev, to whom he ingenuously tells his story. In response, he learns the details of the life of Rogozhin, who is in love with the former kept woman of the wealthy nobleman Totsky, Nastasya Filippovna. In the Epanchins’ house it turns out that Nastasya Filippovna is also known in this house. There is a plan to marry her off to General Epanchin’s protégé, Gavrila Ardalionovich Ivolgin, an ambitious but mediocre man.

Prince Myshkin meets all the main characters of the story in the first part of the novel. These are the Epanchins' daughters, Alexander, Adelaide and Aglaya, on whom he makes a favorable impression, remaining the object of their slightly mocking attention. Next, this is General Epanchina, who is in constant excitement due to the fact that her husband is in some communication with Nastasya Filippovna, who has the reputation of a fallen woman. Then, this is Ganya Ivolgin, who suffers greatly because of his upcoming role as Nastasya Filippovna’s husband, and cannot decide to develop his still very weak relationship with Aglaya. Prince Myshkin quite simply tells the general’s wife and the Epanchin sisters about what he learned about Nastasya Filippovna from Rogozhin, and also amazes the audience with his story about the death penalty he observed abroad. General Epanchin offers the prince, for lack of a place to stay, to rent a room in Ivolgin’s house. There the prince meets Nastasya Filippovna, who unexpectedly arrives at this house. After an ugly scene with Ivolgin’s alcoholic father, of whom he is endlessly ashamed, Nastasya Filippovna and Rogozhin come to the Ivolgins’ house for Nastasya Filippovna. He arrives with a noisy company that has gathered around him completely by chance, as around any person who knows how to waste money. As a result of the scandalous explanation, Rogozhin swears to Nastasya Filippovna that in the evening he will offer her one hundred thousand rubles in cash.

This evening, Myshkin, sensing something bad, really wants to get to Nastasya Filippovna’s house, and at first hopes for the elder Ivolgin, who promises to take Myshkin to this house, but, in fact, does not know at all where she lives. The desperate prince does not know what to do, but he is unexpectedly helped by Ganya Ivolgin's younger teenage brother, Kolya, who shows him the way to Nastasya Filippovna's house. That evening is her name day, there are few invited guests. Allegedly, today everything should be decided and Nastasya Filippovna should agree to marry Ganya Ivolgin. The prince's unexpected appearance leaves everyone in amazement. One of the guests, Ferdyshchenko, a positively type of petty scoundrel, offers to play a strange game for entertainment - everyone talks about their lowest deed. The following are the stories of Ferdyshchenko and Totsky himself. In the form of such a story, Nastasya Filippovna refuses to marry Gana. Rogozhin suddenly bursts into the room with a company that brought the promised hundred thousand. He trades Nastasya Filippovna, offering her money in exchange for agreeing to become “his.”

The prince gives cause for amazement by seriously inviting Nastasya Filippovna to marry him, while she, in despair, plays with this proposal and almost agrees. Nastasya Filippovna invites Gana Ivolgin to take one hundred thousand, and throws them into the fireplace fire, so that he can snatch them completely intact. Lebedev, Ferdyshchenko and the like are confused, and beg Nastasya Filippovna to let them snatch this wad of money from the fire, but she is adamant, and offers to do it to Ivolgin. Ivolgin restrains himself and does not rush for the money. Nastasya Filippovna takes out almost all the money with tongs, gives it to Ivolgin, and leaves with Rogozhin. This ends the first part of the novel.

Part two

In the second part, the prince appears before us after six months, and now he does not seem at all like a completely naive person, while maintaining all his simplicity in communication. All these six months he has been living in Moscow. During this time, he managed to receive some inheritance, which is rumored to be almost colossal. It is also rumored that in Moscow the prince enters into close communication with Nastasya Filippovna, but she soon leaves him. At this time, Kolya Ivolgin, who has become on friendly terms with the Epanchin sisters, and even with the general’s wife herself, gives Aglaya a note from the prince, in which he asks her in confused terms to remember him.

Meanwhile, summer is already coming, and the Epanchins go to their dacha in Pavlovsk. Soon after this, Myshkin arrives in St. Petersburg and pays a visit to Lebedev, from whom he, by the way, learns about Pavlovsk and rents his dacha in the same place. Next, the prince goes to visit Rogozhin, with whom he has a difficult conversation, ending in fraternization and the exchange of crosses. At the same time, it becomes obvious that Rogozhin is on the verge when he is ready to kill the prince or Nastasya Filippovna, and even bought a knife thinking about this. Also in Rogozhin’s house, Myshkin notices a copy of Holbein’s painting “The Dead Christ,” which becomes one of the most important artistic images in the novel, often remembered later.

Returning from Rogozhin and being in a darkened consciousness, and seemingly anticipating the time of an epileptic seizure, the prince notices that “eyes” are watching him - and this, apparently, is Rogozhin. The image of Rogozhin’s watching “eyes” becomes one of the leitmotifs of the narrative. Myshkin, having reached the hotel where he was staying, runs into Rogozhin, who seems to be raising a knife over him, but at that second the prince has an epileptic seizure, and this stops the crime.

Myshkin moves to Pavlovsk, where General Epanchina, having heard that he is unwell, immediately pays him a visit along with her daughters and Prince Shch., Adelaide’s fiancé. Also present in the house and participating in the subsequent important scene are the Lebedevs and the Ivolgins. Later they are joined by General Epanchin and Evgeny Pavlovich Radomsky, Aglaya's intended fiancé, who came up later. At this time, Kolya reminds of a certain joke about the “poor knight,” and the misunderstanding Lizaveta Prokofyevna forces Aglaya to read Pushkin’s famous poem, which she does with great feeling, replacing, by the way, the initials written by the knight in the poem with Nastasya Filippovna’s initials.

At the end of the scene, all attention is drawn to the consumptive Hippolyte, whose speech addressed to all those present is full of unexpected moral paradoxes. And later, when everyone is already leaving the prince, a carriage suddenly appears at the gates of Myshkin’s dacha, from which Nastasya Filippovna’s voice shouts something about bills, addressing Yevgeny Pavlovich, which greatly compromises him.

On the third day, General Epanchina pays an unexpected visit to the prince, although she was angry with him all this time. During their conversation, it turns out that Aglaya somehow entered into communication with Nastasya Filippovna, through the mediation of Ganya Ivolgin and his sister, who is close to the Epanchins. The prince also lets slip that he received a note from Aglaya, in which she asks him not to show himself to her in the future. The surprised Lizaveta Prokofyevna, realizing that the feelings that Aglaya has for the prince play a role here, immediately orders him and her to visit them “intentionally.” This ends the second part of the novel.

Characters

Prince Lev Nikolaevich Myshkin- A Russian nobleman who lived in Switzerland for 4 years and returns to St. Petersburg at the beginning of Part I. Blonde-haired with blue eyes, Prince Myshkin behaves in an extremely naive, benevolent and impractical manner. These traits lead others to call him an "idiot"

Nastasya Fillipovna Barashkova- Amazing beautiful girl from a noble family. She plays a central role in the novel as the heroine and object of love of both Prince Myshkin and Parfyon Semyonovich Rogozhin.

Parfen Semyonovich Rogozhin- A dark-eyed, dark-haired twenty-seven-year-old man from a family of merchants. Having fallen passionately in love with Nastasya Fillipovna and having received a large inheritance, he tries to attract her with 100 thousand rubles.

Aglaya Ivanovna Epanchina- The youngest and most beautiful of the Epanchin girls. Prince Myshkin falls in love with her.

Gavrila Ardalionovich Ivolgin- Ambitious middle class official. He is in love with Aglaya Ivanovna, but is still ready to marry Nastasya Filippovna for the promised dowry of 75,000 rubles.

Lizaveta Prokofyevna Epanchina- A distant relative of Prince Myshkin, to whom the prince first of all turns for help. Mother of three beautiful Epanchins.

Ivan Fedorovich Epanchin- Rich and respected in St. Petersburg society, General Epanchin gives Nastasia Filippovna a pearl necklace at the beginning of the novel

Film adaptations

Links

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• Idiospermum australis
• Idiot (TV series 2003)

See what “Idiot (Dostoevsky)” is in other dictionaries:

Idiot (novel)- This term has other meanings, see Idiot. Idiot Genre: Romance

Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich- Dostoevsky, Fyodor Mikhailovich, famous writer. Born on October 30, 1821 in Moscow in the building of the Mariinsky Hospital, where his father served as a staff physician. He grew up in a rather harsh environment, over which hovered the gloomy spirit of the father of a nervous man,... ... Biographical Dictionary

DOSTOEVSKY- Fedor Mikhailovich, Russian. writer, thinker, publicist. Starting in the 40s. lit. path in line " natural school"As a successor to Gogol and an admirer of Belinsky, D. at the same time absorbed in... ... Philosophical Encyclopedia

Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich- Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich, Russian writer. Born into the family of a doctor at the Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor. Having graduated from the St. Petersburg Military Engineering School in 1843, he was enlisted in... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

The entire novel is filled with deep symbolic content. In every plot, in the image of every hero, Dostoevsky strives to put one or another hidden meaning. Nastasya Filippovna symbolizes beauty, and Myshkin symbolizes Christian grace and the ability to forgive and humility. The main idea is the opposition ideal image the righteous Myshkin and the cruel surrounding world of Russian reality, human baseness and meanness. It is precisely because of the deep disbelief of people, their lack of moral and spiritual values, that we see tragic ending with which Dostoevsky ends his novel.

Analysis of the work

History of creation

The novel was first published in 1868 in the pages of the Russian Messenger magazine. The idea for the work was born to Dostoevsky after the publication of “Crime and Punishment” during a trip to Germany and Switzerland. There, on September 14, 1867, he made the first entry regarding the future novel. Next, he went to Italy, and in Florence the novel was completed completely. Dostoevsky said that after working on the image of Raskolnikov, he wanted to bring to life another, completely ideal image.

Features of the plot and composition

The main feature of the novel's composition is the overly drawn-out climax, which receives a denouement only in the penultimate chapter. The novel itself is divided into four parts, each of which smoothly flows into the other according to the chronology of events.

The principles of plot and composition are based on the centralization of the image of Prince Myshkin; all events and parallel lines of the novel unfold around him.

Images of the main characters

Main character- Prince Myshkin is an example of the embodiment of universal goodness and mercy, he is a blessed person, completely devoid of any kind of shortcomings, such as envy or malice. He has an unattractive appearance, is awkward and constantly causes ridicule from others. In his image, Dostoevsky puts the great idea that it is absolutely unimportant what a person’s appearance is, only the purity of his thoughts and the righteousness of his actions are important. Myshkin loves all the people around him infinitely, is extremely unselfish and open-hearted. This is precisely why he is called an “Idiot”, because people who are accustomed to being in a world of constant lies, the power of money and debauchery absolutely do not understand his behavior, consider him sick and insane. The prince, meanwhile, is trying to help everyone, trying to heal other people’s spiritual wounds with his kindness and sincerity. Dostoevsky idealizes his image, even equating him to Jesus. By “killing” the hero at the end, he makes it clear to the reader that, like Christ, Myshkin has forgiven all his offenders.

Nastasya Filippovna - another one symbolic image. Exclusively beautiful woman, which is capable of striking any man to the very heart, with insane tragic fate. Being an innocent girl, she was molested by her guardian and this darkened her whole life. later life. Since then, she has despised everything, both people and life itself. Her entire existence is aimed at deep self-destruction and self-destruction. Men trade her like a thing, she only watches this with contempt, supporting this game. Dostoevsky himself does not give clear understanding inner world this woman, we learn about her from the lips of other people. Her soul remains closed to everyone, including the reader. She is a symbol of the ever-elusive beauty, which in the end no one got.

Conclusion

Dostoevsky admitted more than once that “The Idiot” is one of his favorite and most successful works. Indeed, there are few other books in his work that were able to so accurately and completely express his moral position and philosophical point vision. The novel has gone through many film adaptations, has been staged several times in the form of plays and operas, and has received well-deserved recognition from domestic and foreign literary scholars.

In his novel, the author makes us think about the fact that his “idiot” is the most happy man in the world, because he is able to sincerely love, rejoices in every day and perceives everything that happens to him as an exceptional blessing. This is his great superiority over the other heroes of the novel.