Dostoyevsky's idiot

Born on November 11, 1866, Fyodor Dostoyevsky is one of the best known Russian writers in the history of literature. His work explore the depths of human psychology with sharpness and insight, the complexity of his characters, each possessing a rich inner world, is the key to his stories. In a PROFESSOR we have prepared a summary of Dostoyevsky's idiot, since it is one of his best known works and through which we intend to investigate a little more in his spectacular mind in addition to knowing why this book was so relevant.

Virtually everyone who begins to read Dostoevsky feels something special, an almost magic that brings you closer to thinking that you have never met a writer like this before, different from and almost superior to the rest. This magic, which no one can fully describe, is likely to be born from the incredible ability to gut the human spirit which shows to have, is unique. In addition, among its themes, many are the times that it explores the idea of ​​human freedom in the face of the commission of a crime wanted or not, repentance, learning, vices that can lead us to make us feel guilty. Ambiguity is also represented in the characters, good and evil.

Index

1. The plot of Dostoyevsky's The Idiot
2. Dostoyevsky's Idiot: Summary of Part One
3. The outcome of Dostoyevsky's The Idiot: short summary

Before we begin with the more complete summary of Dostoyevsky's The Idiot, it is important that we know the plot of the play. Published in the year 1869, "The idiot" it is one of Dostoyevsky's most famous works. With her, Fyodor sought to reflect and incarnate in the main character, the Christian ideal of goodness. Prince Myshkin is in charge of representing "The idiot", and for this, characteristics such as lack of cunning, being psychologically ill, naivety and innocence or rather, "simplicity". He is a character who also shows a lot of transparency in his actions, he does not have any kind of double intention and always appears described with features reminiscent of luminosity or angels, even in physical appearance. Blond, blue eyes, thick hair, delicate, nice ...

Located in the Russia of the mid-19th century, the main protagonist shares a characteristic with the same writer, Dostoyevsky: he suffers epilepsy. For this reason, the story begins to unfold when, as a child, the prince is sent to Switzerland to be treated by a doctor who will end up taking care of him financially. The prince has no family, he has only a distant aunt who lives in St. Petersburg and to which he decides to write a letter to go visit her. Once there, he will meet various characters with whom he will discuss various topics such as the death penalty, in addition to falling in love and getting to know the layers of the bourgeois society of the moment. As a curiosity, Dostoyevsky was sentenced to the death penalty at the guillotine for conspiring against Tsar Nicholas I, and it was a fact that marked him a lot despite being finally pardoned at the foot of the gallows.

The naivety that Myshkin shows throughout the work is dismissed by others as stupidity, hence the title that gives the book its name. His goodness becomes exaggerated even extravagant, even excusing bad behavior that he really does not have an excuse or to apologize for things that he has not done and in fact they have even done to him he. The prince, in a way, does not see the real world, he does not know human intentions.

It also appears a lot political content in the book, on the Russian bureaucratic system, criticism of ideas of creating jobs unnecessarily. It is a novel with a lot of both ethical and religious dimension. The main character has ended up being the best known moral archetype of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novels.

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We have already begun to know the summary of Dostoyevsky's The Idiot and we focus on the first part of the work. The novel takes place between November 27 until the end of July. The first part takes place in its entirety from the morning of the 27th until the following night. The prince and main character is on the train to St. Petersburg, on the way, we clearly know the definitions of three characters: Myschkin, 27, who returns from the clinic in Switzerland where he had been treating epilepsy since he was a child, when after the death of his father he decided to go there. Lukián, official a little drunk and Parfén Semenovich who will have a fairly important role in the novel and will act as a moral counterpoint to the prince. It is about a 27-year-old man, rich, ostentatious, full of jealousy because Myschkin loves the same woman that he also loves, Anastasya.

Getting off the train, the prince goes to the general's house Ivan Fiodórovich and his wife and family member, Lizaveta Prokofievna. Both live with three daughters and the prince, although at first he does not go with any intention, with the kind and strange aspect of him at the same time, captivates and baffles the members of the family.

As soon as he entered the house, the prince made his goodness clear with a plea against the death penalty, which tells the servant through a story about the guillotine and an execution that he had witnessed recently in Lyon. For Myschkin the worst thing about the death penalty is knowing that the soul will leave the body, being aware that you are going to die moments later. "Killing whoever he killed is an incomparably greater punishment than the crime itself"says the prince.

The general visits him in his office and when he asks if he wants to work and what he could do, the prince tells him that he knows calligraphy, so he will start working as a notary public. The secretary of the general, Ganyashe, she meets them in the office. In his first meeting with Ganya, the prince sees a photograph of Anastasya, Ganya's fiancée, with whom it has not yet been decided whether or not he will marry and is completely in love with her. After retiring to the living room, the prince begins to talk to the daughters, who are making fun of him a bit, and recounts his stay in Switzerland as well as a more elaborate opinion on the death penalty. It is in those conversations that he also begins to fall in love with Aglaya, the youngest daughter and a woman completely different from Anastasya.

Since he needs a place to live, the prince rents Ganya a room. Shortly after, Anastasya throws a party at her house to which the prince attends uninvited. At the party, Ganya proposes to Anastasya but she rejects him and appears Rogoyÿn -another of the numerous characters- a little drunk, who offers her a hundred rubles to marry him. Myschkin cannot bear to have a woman humiliated in this way and he also proposes marriage to her. In this way, and after various disputes between Aglaya and Anastasya, the prince she ends up opting for Anastasya.

The wedding of the two ends up being celebrated, but at the end of the ceremony she flees with Rogochin, to a secluded house. That night the final tragedy is unleashed, in an act of passion and madness Rogochin stabs Anastasya to death, who dies transfigured by the weapon. Mischkin arrives at the scene of the terrible episode to rescue his beloved, but it is too late.

Aglaya ends up marrying a Polish count and converting to Catholicism, Rogochin is sentenced to prison for the murder and the prince ends up forgiving the murderer and watching all night next to the inert body of his wife. From this episode he will leave again deranged, heading to Switzerland, where he tries to find the reason to accompany him on his way again.

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If you want to read more articles similar to Summary of Dostoyevsky's Idiot, we recommend that you enter our category of Reading.

• Boué, P. TO. (2014). Dostoevsky's figure of the idiot and his literary and cinematographic rewritings. 1616: Yearbook of Comparative Literature, 4, 129-151.
• Castaños, E. (2013). Prince Mischkin of The idiot as a moral archetype. [Post on a blog]. Enrique Castaños Blog. Recovered from: http://www.enriquecastanos.com/dostoyevski_idiota.htm
• Pareyson, L. (2011). Dostoevsky: Philosophy, Novel and Religious Experience (Vol. 328). Meeting.