"three prisoners were tied to stakes facing the firing squad: Dostoevsky was among the next in line. Just as the first shots were about to be fired, a message arrived from the Tsar commuting the sentences to hard labor in Siberia. The experience had a profound effect on Dostoevsky, and in Part 1 of ""The Idiot"" (written twenty years after the event) the character of Prince Myshkin repeatedly speaks in depth on the subject of capital punishment. On one occasion, conversing with the Epanchin women, he recounts an anecdote that exactly mirrors Dostoevsky's own experience. A man of 27, who"
"the novel, remarking that ""Only ""Crime and Punishment"" was read in 1866"" and that Dostoevsky had managed to portray a Russian person aptly and realistically. Otherwise, it received a mixed reception from critics, with most of the negative responses coming from nihilists. Grigory Eliseev of the radical magazine ""The Contemporary"" called the novel a ""fantasy according to which the entire student body is accused without exception of attempting murder and robbery"". The novel's protagonist, the 26-year-old Prince Myshkin, returns to Russia after several years at a Swiss sanatorium. Scorned by Saint Petersburg society for his trusting nature and naivety, he"
"deep uncertainty as to the direction he was taking with the novel. Detailed plot outlines and character sketches were made, but were quickly abandoned and replaced with new ones. In one early draft, the character who was to become Prince Myshkin is an evil man who commits a series of terrible crimes, including the rape of his adopted sister (Nastasya Filippovna), and who only arrives at goodness by way of his conversion through Christ. By the end of the year, however, a new premise had been firmly adopted. In a letter to Apollon Maykov Dostoevsky explained that his own desperate"
"least, not a political exile—and who, along with a Catholic priest, has turned her against her family. Prince Myshkin, the novel's central character, is a young man who has returned to Russia after a long period abroad where he was receiving treatment for epilepsy. The lingering effects of the illness, combined with his innocence and lack of social experience, sometimes create the superficial and completely false impression of mental or psychological deficiency. Most of the other characters at one time or another refer to him disparagingly as an 'idiot', but nearly all of them are deeply affected by him. In"
"Myshkin: their circumstances force them to address the same metaphysical questions, but their responses are diametrically opposed. ""(For further discussion of the major characters see the article Prince Myshkin.)"" A dialogue between the intimately related themes of Atheism and Christian faith (meaning, for Dostoevsky, Russian Orthodoxy) pervades the entire novel. Dostoevsky's personal image of Christian faith, formed prior to his philosophical engagement with Orthodoxy but never abandoned, was one that emphasized the human need for belief in the immortality of the soul, and identified Christ with ideals of ""beauty, truth, brotherhood and Russia"". The character of Prince Myshkin was originally"
"dramatic convergence of multiple independent voices and perspectives rather than simply being a monological recounting of the event by a narrator. Dostoevsky makes Prince Myshkin a character whose voice is capable of ""actively and confidently interfering in the interior dialogue of the other person."" He is thus significant not merely to the plot, but to the very consciousness of the individual characters. His insight, compassion, sincerity, candour, disinclination to judge and lack of normal social egoism awaken a responsive consciousness in most of the people with whom he engages, and serve to disrupt the habitual flow of their self-centred thoughts"
"a Polish 'Count'. In his notes Dostoevsky distinguishes the Prince from other characters of the virtuous type in fiction (such as Don Quixote and Pickwick) by emphasizing innocence rather than comicality. In one sense Myshkin's innocence is an instrument of satire since it brings in to sharp relief the corruption and egocentricity of those around him. But his innocence is serious rather than comical, and he has a deeper insight into the psychology of human beings in general by assuming its presence in everyone else, even as they laugh at him, or try to deceive and exploit him. Examples of"
"his friend and brother and, as with Nastasya Filippovna, is able to temporarily draw him out of his darkness and into a space of light and hope. But like Nastasya Filippovna, the negative voice of his obsession always reasserts itself in Myshkin's absence, and provokes him to violence. Aglaya Ivanovna's noble and passionate nature leads her to idealise the Prince, turning him into a Don Quixote-like figure, particularly in relation to his attempts to 'save' Nastasya Filippovna. Although the Prince is fascinated by Aglaya and falls in love with her, at no time is he influenced by this idealisation or"
"moral agent, playing a passive role in the events of the novel. Rufus W. Mathewson states that Alyosha Karamazov is a more robust positive hero than Prince Myshkin. He argues that Alyosha is closer than Myshkin to being an active spokesman for conservatism, citing Alyosha's most impressive success as helping Dmitri. He describes Alyosha as relying on forgiveness, kindness and natural justice, rather than attempting to change the social order. Alyosha is named after Dostoevsky's son of the same name, who was born in 1875 but died in 1878 of epilepsy. Because of this Dostoevsky imbued Alyosha with qualities and"
"the train to Petersburg in the opening scene of the book, Rogozhin labels him a ""yurodivy"" (holy fool). In the Eastern Orthodox tradition the ""yurodivy"" was usually a greatly respected figure. According to Frank, ""though the gentlemanly and educated Prince bears no external resemblance to these eccentric figures, he does possess their traditional gift of spiritual insight."" Rogozhin, sensing the Prince's unique qualities, immediately makes him his confidant and tells him the story of his obsession with Nastasya Filippovna. Later in the novel when, out of jealousy, Rogozhin has developed a hatred for him, Myshkin continues to treat Rogozhin as"
"all his anxieties were resolved into a kind of higher calm, full of a serene, harmonious joy and hope. Although for Myshkin these moments represented an intimation of the highest truth, he also knew that ""stupefaction, mental darkness, idiocy stood before him as the consequence of these 'highest moments'."" At the end of the novel, after Rogozhin has murdered Nastasya Filippovna, the Prince appears to descend completely into this darkness. Death, the consciousness of its inevitability and the effect that this consciousness has on the living soul, is a recurring theme in the novel. A number of characters are shaped,"
"and actions. —Nastásya Filíppovna Baráshkova (Настасья Филипповна Барашкова) It is in the character of Nastasya Filippovna that the capacity of the Prince to affect an other's interior dialogue is most marked. Viewed by both society and her self as a 'fallen woman' because of years of sexual exploitation by Totsky, Nastasya Filippovna often embraces the sharp-tongued, destructive persona of a cynical courtesan. Myshkin understands that this persona grows out of an internalisation of the abuse she suffered and the unjust moral condemnation consequent upon it, and from their first meeting lets her know that it is not who she really"
"appears several times in the novels of Dostoevsky. ""The Idiot"" explores the ramifications of placing a holy fool (the compassionate and insightful epileptic Prince Myshkin) in a secular world dominated by vanity and desire. According to Joseph Frank ""though the gentlemanly and well-educated prince bears no external resemblance to these eccentric figures, he does possess their traditional gift of spiritual insight, which operates instinctively, below any level of conscious awareness or doctrinal commitment."" In ""Demons"", the madwoman Marya Lebyadkina displays many of the attributes of the holy fool, as do the characters of Sofya Marmeladova and Lizaveta in ""Crime and"
"oldest Russian lines of nobility, is on a train to Saint Petersburg on a cold November morning. He is returning to Russia having spent the past four years in a Swiss clinic for treatment of a severe epileptic condition. On the journey, Myshkin meets a young man of the merchant class, Parfyon Semyonovich Rogozhin, and is struck by his passionate intensity, particularly in relation to a woman—the dazzling society beauty Nastasya Filippovna Barashkova—with whom he is obsessed. Rogozhin has just inherited a very large fortune from his dead father, and he intends to use it to pursue the object of"
"own works. It is worth noting that Dostoyevsky, who had just returned from exile in Siberia, was present at this speech, for eight years later he was to write ""The Idiot"", a novel whose tragic hero, Prince Myshkin, resembles Don Quixote in many respects. Turgenev, whose knowledge of Spanish, thanks to his contact with Pauline Viardot and her family, was good enough for him to have considered translating Cervantes's novel into Russian, played an important role in introducing this immortal figure of world literature into the Russian context. ""Fathers and Sons"" (""Отцы и дети""), Turgenev's most famous and enduring novel,"
"of school boys whose fate adds a hopeful message to the conclusion of an otherwise tragic novel. Alyosha's place in the novel is usually that of a messenger or witness to the actions of his brothers and others. He is very close to Dmitri. Alyosha is depicted as a positive character, kind, loving and sensitive. Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka states that Alyosha, like Prince Myshkin, the protagonist in another Dostoyevsky novel, ""The Idiot"", are almost Jesus-like characters, who are nevertheless unable to prevent the suffering of those around them. She suggests that as a witness or messenger, Alyosha is not a true"
"friends, with Rogozhin even making a gesture of concession. But the Prince remains troubled and for the next few hours he wanders the streets, immersed in intense contemplation. He suspects that Rogozhin is watching him and returns to his hotel where Rogozhin—who has been hiding in the stairway—attacks him with a knife. At the same moment, the Prince is struck down by a violent epileptic seizure, and Rogozhin flees in a panic. Recovering, Myshkin joins Lebedyev (from whom he is renting a dacha) in the Summer resort town Pavlovsk. He knows that Nastasya Filippovna is in Pavlovsk and that Lebedyev"
"be resolved. Myshkin himself merely experiences an uncomplicated joy in her presence and is mortified when she appears to be angry with him. Lizaveta Prokofyevna feels it is time to introduce the Prince to their aristocratic circle and a dinner party is arranged for this purpose, to be attended by a number of eminent persons. Aglaya, who does not share her parents' respect for these people and is afraid that Myshkin's eccentricity will not meet with their approval, tries to tell him how to behave, but ends by sarcastically telling him to be as eccentric as he likes, and to"
"is aware of her movements and plans. The Epanchins, who are also in Pavlovsk, visit the Prince. They are joined by their friend Yevgeny Pavlovich Radomsky, a handsome and wealthy military officer with a particular interest in Aglaya. Aglaya, however, is more interested in the Prince, and to Myshkin's embarrassment and everyone else's amusement, she recites Pushkin's poem ""The Poor Knight"" in a reference to his noble efforts to save Nastasya Filippovna. The Epanchins' visit is rudely interrupted by the arrival of Burdovsky, a young man who claims to be the illegitimate son of Myshkin's late benefactor, Pavlishchev. The inarticulate"
"writing obituaries for a local newspaper. The source of the title is Viktor's pet penguin Misha, a king penguin obtained after the local zoo in Kiev gave away its animals to those who could afford to support them. Kurkov uses Misha as a sort of mirror of (and eventual source of salvation for) Viktor. Throughout the story, Misha is also lost, unhappy and generally out of his element, literally and figuratively. One of the striking themes of the novel is Viktor's tendency to go from justifiably paranoid appraisals of his increasingly dangerous position to a serene, almost childish, peace of"
"""Rebecca"" and William Wordsworth's ""The Idiot Boy"". Idiot characters in literature are often confused with or subsumed within mad or lunatic characters. The most common intersection between these two categories of mental impairment occurs in the polemic surrounding Edmund from William Shakespeare's ""King Lear"". In Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel ""The Idiot"" the title refers to the central character Prince Myshkin, a man whose innocence, kindness and humility, combined with his occasional epileptic symptoms, cause many in the corrupt, egoistic culture around him to mistakenly assume that he lacks intelligence. In ""The Antichrist"", Nietzsche applies the word 'idiot' to Jesus in a"
"truth he is highly intelligent, self-aware, intuitive and empathic. He is someone who has thought deeply about human nature, morality and spirituality, and is capable of expressing those thoughts with great clarity. Nastasya Filippovna, the main female protagonist, is darkly beautiful, intelligent, fierce and mocking, an intimidating figure to most of the other characters. Of noble birth but orphaned at age 7, she was manipulated into a position of sexual servitude by her guardian, the voluptuary Totsky. Her broken innocence and the social perception of disgrace produce an intensely emotional and destructive personality. The Prince is deeply moved by her"
"Nastasya Filippovna Nastasya Filippovna Barashkova (pre-reform and post-reform ) is the principal heroine of Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel ""The Idiot"". Though of aristocratic origin, beautiful and intelligent, Nastasya Filippovna is regarded by society as a 'fallen' woman, owing to her having spent four years as the concubine of the aristocrat Totsky, a position into which she was forced at the age of sixteen. Much of the drama of Nastasya Filippovna's character comes from the contradiction between her essential innocence, which is clearly recognized by the novel's central character Prince Myshkin, and the attitude of society that implies an irredeemable moral corruption,"
"Christ, Myshkin is a teacher, confessor and mysterious outsider. Passions such as greed and jealousy are alien to him. In contrast to those around him, he puts no value on money and power. He feels compassion and love, sincerely, without judgment. His relationship with the immoral Nastasya is obviously inspired by Christ's relationship with Mary Magdalene. He is called ""Idiot"" because of such differences. The story of ""Demons"" (sometimes also titled ""The Possessed"" or ""The Devils"") is based largely on the murder of Ivan Ivanov by ""People's Vengeance"" members in 1869. It was influenced by the Book of Revelation. The"
"was destroyed in the 1950s to make way for the ""Kremlin"" clinic. Owing to his notorious past and to his close acquaintance with many authors, Tolstoy became the prototype for some of the characters in their books, the most famous of whom was Aleksandr Pushkin. In his novel in verse ""Eugene Onegin"" (1823–1831) Tolstoy appears as the duellist Zaretsky, Lensky's second in his duel with the main character, Onegin. Pushkin depicts Zaretsky/Tolstoy in the following way: <poem> </poem> These lines show that Pushkin had made peace with Tolstoy: Pushkin refers to him as an ""honorable man"", who has transformed from"
"Pierre Bezukhov Count (Graf) Pyotr ""Pierre"" Kirillovich Bezukhov (, or ""Pierre Bezuhov"" according to Rosemary Edmonds' translation) is a central fictional character in Leo Tolstoy's novel ""War and Peace"". He is the favourite of several illegitimate sons of the wealthy nobleman Count Kirill Vladimirovich Bezukhov, one of the richest people in the Russian Empire. Pierre is best friends with Andrei Bolkonsky. Tolstoy based Pierre on himself more than any other ""War and Peace"" character. Described as: The large-bodied, ungainly, and socially awkward illegitimate son of an old Russian grandee. Pierre, educated abroad, returns to Russia as a misfit. His unexpected"
"very dear to me,"" he told Batyushkov, again in a letter. Kuprin was aware that the novel's ""purity"" distinguished Zheltkov with his all-consuming passion from the majority of his stories' characters. ""I'll say one thing, I've never written anything more chaste,"" he told Batyushkov. Zheltkov, a ""little man"", is possessed by a consuming love for Princess Vera Sheina, a rich society lady hardly aware of his existence. After his wife receives for her birthday a particularly expensive gift, Prince Vasily Shein visits Zheltkov, accompanied by Nikolai Nikolayevich, Vera’s brother, and tells him to stop pestering the Princess. Being aware that"
"of nobility, and states that only Tartars believe that all men are equal, and questions whether Russia shall become ""tartarized"". A quarrel ensues, [""each making insulting remarks about the other's military campaigns"",] but Dosifey enters and draws their attention away from their argument by criticising both of them: Golitsin for his modern views, and Prince Ivan for letting the Streltsy get drunk and run around making trouble all the time. [""In the discussion with Dosifey it turns out that he was once Prince Myshetsky who renounced all worldly matters, to which Prince Ivan Khovansky says that a Prince must die"
"of resolution. According to Joseph Frank: ""Facing the insurmountable contradiction of inner purity and her outward disgrace, Nastassya Filippovna as a character is irremediably doomed, and she will function to bring down 'her saviour', the Prince, in her own tragic end."" Early in Part 2 of the novel we learn that the relationship between Nastasya Filippovna and Rogozhin has broken down, and that Rogozhin thinks this has happened because Nastasya Filippovna is really in love with the Prince. Although Rogozhin continues his tortured pursuit of Nastasya Filippovna and maintains an ambivalent friendship with Myshkin, he shows himself to be capable"
"that the Prince stay with her. Overcome, not for the first time, with the pain and despair in Nastasya Filippovna's face, Myshkin turns to Aglaya and reproaches her for the attack. Distraught and now full of hatred for him, Aglaya runs off. Myshkin tries to go after her but Nastasya Filippovna stops him. Following this, the relationship between Myshkin and Aglaya effectively ends, and in the book's concluding chapters the narrative focus returns to the first triangle. Nastasya Filippovna and Myshkin become engaged, at her insistence, but on the day of the wedding she again flees to Rogozhin. In so"
"illness plays an important part in the characterization of Prince Myshkin, partly because the severity of the condition and its after-effects (disorientation, amnesia, aphasia, among others) contributes significantly to the myth of the character's 'idiocy'. Although Myshkin himself is completely aware that he is not an 'idiot' in any pejorative sense, he sometimes concedes the aptness of the word in relation to his mental state during particularly severe attacks. He occasionally makes reference to the pre-narrative period prior to his confinement in a Swiss sanatorium, when the symptoms were chronic and he really was ""almost an idiot"". Paradoxically, it is"
"chapter of ""Demons"" when, in the midst of confessing to a terrible crime, he formulates the guiding idea of his life: ""that I neither know nor feel good and evil and that I have not only lost any sense of it, but that there is neither good nor evil (which pleased me), and that it is just a prejudice."" It is speculated that Dostoevsky also refers to Speshnev on one occasion in ""The Idiot"". The central character, Prince Myshkin, recounts a long conversation with ""a certain S—"", an erudite and well-bred man, on the subject of atheism. Nikolay Speshnev Nikolay"
"Mr. Prokharchin ""Mr. Prokharchin"" (, ""Gospodin Prokharchin""), also translated as ""Mr. Prohartchin"", is a short story written in 1846 by Fyodor Dostoyevsky and first published in the ""Annals of the Fatherland"". Inspired by a true story, the story depicts the miserly life of the protagonist, Mr. Prokharchin, a patronym derived from the Russian word for 'grub' or 'vittles', ""kharchi"". He lives an extremely poor life, eating frugal meals and sleeping on a mattress directly on the floor. His landlady and the other tenants feel sorry for him. On his death, they eventually discover that the man was in fact wealthy"