The Idiot (1868) was written by Fyodor Dostoevsky in 1867 while he was living in Switzerland with his wife, Anna. They were in deep financial trouble, as Dostoevsky struggled with gambling. To make money, Dostoevsky published The Idiot in The Russian Messenger in serialized form between 1868-1869. The Idiot follows the story of Prince Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin and revolves around the idea of an individual facing the consequences of existing in the center of conflict, desire, and ego. The point of The Idiot is to display all aspects of a human being in the search for the most perfect human being. He reveals in the novel that a perfect human being does not exist.
Fig. 1 - The Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote The Idiot.
A Brief Synopsis of The Idiot
The story begins with Prince Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin, who has just arrived in St. Petersburg, Russia after a four-year stay at a Swiss clinic where he was treated for epilepsy and "idiocy". Myshkin belongs to an old Russian line of nobility and is in his late twenties. When he arrives in St. Petersburg, he makes acquaintance with Lizaveta Prokofyevna Yepanchin, who is married to the wealthy General Yepanchin. They have three daughters, Alexandra, Adelaida, and Aglaya.
Fig. 2 - The majority of the novel takes place in St. Petersburg.
While visiting the Yepanchins, Myshkin meets Gavril Ardalionovich Ivolgin, also known as Ganya. Ganya is the assistant to the General and has rather large ambitions. He tells the naive Myshkin his scheme. Although Ganya is in love with Aglaya, he will attempt to marry Anastasia Filippovna Baraskov, the mistress of Totsky. Totsky, an aristocrat, has promised Ganya 75,000 rubles to marry her as her reputation is fallen and must be saved.
Myshkin decides to rent a room with Ganya, which is also occupied by his sister, his mother, father, brother, and a man named Ferdyschenko. Anastasia pays a visit and insults Ganya's family, who will not accept her as a wife for Ganya. Myshkin shames her, while at the same time a man named Parfyon Semyonovich Rogozhin, who is in love with Anastasia, promises to bring her 100,000 rubles to her birthday party later that evening.
Myshkin arrives at the party uninvited. Anastasia refuses Ganya's proposal, and Rogozhin offers her 100,000 rubles. Myshkin surprises everyone by offering to marry her, and that he has a large inheritance. However, Anastasia accepts Rogozhin's offer and they leave the party together.
Fig. 3 - Anastasia accepts Rogozhin's offer of 100,000 rubles.
For six months, Anastasia runs back and forth between Myshkin and Rogozhin. Myshkin learns his inheritance is rather small. After paying many fraudulent claims by relatives and creditors, Myshkin is left with little. When Myshkin returns to St. Petersburg, he visits Rogozhin in his dark home and they discuss religion.
Later that day, Rogozhin tries to stab Myshkin—but Myshkin has an epileptic fit, which saves him. He decides to leave for a summer residence in Pavlovsk along with the Yepanchins, Ganya's family, and Anastasia.
One day a man named Burdovsky claims himself to be the son of Pavlishchev, Myshkin's benefactor, and Burdovsky demands money. Burdovsky sees it as compensation for Pavlischev's support of Myshkin. Myshkin knows the claim is fraudulent but helps the young man anyways.
Myshkin spends a lot of time with the Yepanchins, and it becomes clear it is because he is in love with Aglaya, the most beautiful Yepanchin daughter. She loves him as well but refuses to admit her love. The Yepanchin like Myshkin, and they host a dinner party with many members of the Russian high society in attendance on his behalf.
However, things do not go as planned when Myshkin goes on an impassioned speech on religion and aristocracy and accidentally breaks a vase. He then has an epileptic fit and the Yepanchins see that perhaps he is not a good match for Aglaya.
Myshkin will not give up and even gets the help of Anastasia, who has been writing letters to Aglaya to change her mind and marry Myshkin. A meeting is arranged between Myshkin, Anastasia, and Aglaya in which he has to choose who to marry: Aglaya or Anastasia. Myshkin hesitates. This prompts Aglaya to leave and Anastasia left to marry him. However, at the last moment, she runs off with Rogozhin.
Fig. 4 - Rogozhin stabs Anastasia.
Myshkin follows Rogozhin and Anastasia back to St. Petersburg and soon learns Rogozhin has stabbed Anastasia. The story ends with a summary of everyone's fate. Rogozhin has been sentenced to 15 years in Siberia doing hard labor, Myshkin returns to the Swiss clinic after losing his mind, and Aglaya leaves Russia to be with a Polish count, who abandons her.
Characters in The Idiot
There are many characters in The Idiot, and it may seem overwhelming—but here is a chart to help you remember!
| Character | Description |
| Prince Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin | Myshkin is the protagonist of the novel and is descended from old Russian nobility. He is naive and innocent, making him both kind and impractical. |
| Lizaveta Prokofyevna Yepanchin | A distant relative of Myshkin who introduces him to her family. Her main concern in life is seeing her daughters married. |
| Gavril Ardalionovich Ivolgin, also known as Ganya | The ambitious and good-looking assistant to General Yepanchin. He loves Aglaya but will marry Anastasia for 75,000 rubles. |
| Anastasia Filippovna Barashkov | A beautiful, "fallen" woman who is considered mad. She feels she has dishonored herself by becoming Totsky's mistress. She marries Rogozhin because she does not feel she is good enough for Myshkin. |
| Parfyon Semyonovich Rogozhin | A wealthy young man who promises Anastasia 100,000 rubles and is madly in love with her. He later stabs her. |
| Aglaya Ivanovna Yepanchin | The beautiful, youngest daughter of the Yepanchins. She is stubborn and childlike and is unable to admit her love for Myshkin. Her inability to accept her feelings leads her down a tragic road. |
The characters in The Idiot were inspired by events in Dostoevsky's life. In 1862, Dostoevsky went abroad to Western Europe where he had a passionate love affair with a woman named Suslova. They had a love-hate relationship that ended in Dostoevsky feeling heartbroken. Their relationship serves as the basis for Myshkin's relationship with Anastasia and Aglaya.
Russian names can seem long and confusing. Russian names have three parts: a first name, a patronymic, and a family name. A patronymic name is a name derived from the father's name. Here is an example: Aglaya Ivanovna Yepanchin. Aglaya is the first name and what the character goes by. Ivanovna is a patronymic and is derived from the father's name, Ivan. Yepanchin is the family name.
The Genre of The Idiot
The Idiot belongs to the genre of literature known as Tragedy.
Tragedy is a genre of literature in which a heroic character must face obstacles, both externally and internally. Tragedy reveals the depth of human nature, bravery, and spirit in the face of challenges. Human suffering is often emphasized.
In the novel, Myshkin acts as a heroic character. He is innocent, naive, and wishes only to do good. However, he faces many characters that are flawed and fatalistic. Aglaya cannot accept her love and is stubborn, which results in her running off with a fraudulent Polish count. Anastasia feels unworthy of Myshkin and runs off with Rogozhin, who stabs her. Rogozhin cannot see the difference between love and hate. Each character has their tragic downfall and Myshkin must face each one.
Understanding the genre of a novel is important to understanding its central themes and message.
Analysis of The Idiot
Let's take a deeper look into The Idiot, focusing on tone, point of view, writing style, and themes.
Tone
To enhance the tragic aspect of the novel, Dostoevsky has a tense and emotionally heightened tone. Anytime a character experiences an emotion, it feels intense and sudden. It is as if Dostoevsky turned up the volume on each character's emotional world.
he would appear to listen—and heard nothing; and he would laugh of a sudden, evidently with no idea of what he was laughing about." (Part 1, Chapter 1)
Notice how the act of laughing seems sudden and originated from a place of insanity. This is how Dostoevsky creates a tense, emotional tone in the novel.
Point of View
The Idiot is told from a Third Person Omniscient point of view.
Third Person Omniscient point of view refers to a narrator who can know everything that occurs in the novel including the actions, feelings, and thoughts of every character.
By writing from the Third Person Omniscient point of view, Dostoevsky allows us to truly see the emotional world of each character and the relationships between the characters.
Why do you think Dostoevsky wrote in the third-person omniscient point of view rather than the first-person point of view?
She was, above all distressed by the idea that her daughters might grow up “eccentric,” like herself; she believed that no other society girls were like them." (Part 3, Chapter 1)
Here is an example of how the Third Person Omniscient point of view allows the reader to see every thought and feeling of the characters in the novel. Here we learn about a mother's worries for her daughters and the reader can feel her distress.
Writing Style
Dostoevsky was known for keeping his readers on the edge of their seats using emotion, a form of heightened realism, and sudden twists and turns. Dostoevsky carefully chose adjectives that would further emphasize the character's mood, emotional state, or temperament.
The fact is, he felt a longing to leave all this and go away—go anywhere, if only it were far enough, and at once, without bidding farewell to anyone." (Part 2, Chapter 11)
Notice the verbs used here: longing, go, bidding farewell. These all add a sense of desperation of needing to leave and be left alone that Myshkin is feeling.
Another writing technique implemented by Dostoevsky is starting conversations between characters in the middle as if the reader has suddenly walked into the conversation. This adds a sense of suspense for the reader who will continue to read to figure out exactly what is going on.
Dostoevsky also writes very long, detailed sentences that seem to go on forever. He includes many commas and semicolons creating a fast, hurried rhythm to the writing. This adds suspense and quickens the pulse of the plot, creating both interest and disorientation in the reader.
His words seemed tinged with a kind of sarcastic mockery, yet he was extremely agitated, casting suspicious glances around him, growing confused, and constantly losing the thread of his ideas." (Part 2, Chapter 10)
A good way to understand the pacing of the text is to read a passage out loud. Try to focus on the commas as breath marks and the periods as full rests.
Notice how long this sentence is. Try reading it out loud. The sentence is fast-paced and breathless, which enhances the emotional confusion felt by the character in this passage.
Themes
There are many themes in The Idiot. Let's take a look at two major themes contained within the text: Love and Good versus Evil.
Love
Love is a driving force throughout The Idiot. Love takes many forms in the novel including romantic, compassionate, pure, ambitious, and idealized. As characters form relationships with one another, different forms of love become present. Ganya is in romantic love with Aglaya, but his love for ambition prompts him to offer his love to Anastasia. Similarly, Anastasia feels romantic love for Myshkin, but due to her feeling unworthy, she chooses an opportunity for financial gain. Myshkin battles between his romantic love for Aglaya, and his compassionate love for Anastasia.
Fig. 5 - Love is a major theme in The Idiot.
Myshkin's intentions are always pure, specifically when it is rooted in compassion, but it ultimately feels dehumanizing to the object of his love. An example is Myshkin's purpose for pursuing Anastasia. Rather than wish to marry her for love, he wishes to marry her to save her. This emphasizes Myshkin's view that Anastasia is a creature to be saved, rather than a woman with agency and potential to love. The message behind Dostoevsky's perception of love in The Idiot is that love is part of human nature and many forms of love will form between two people.
Good versus Evil
Dostoevsky explored good versus evil by creating contrasts between two people. This contrast sheds light on the qualities, both good and bad, of all the characters. Characters in The Idiot often struggle with internal conflicts of good versus evil, revealing that human nature is essentially conflicting.
The most striking contrasting imagery of good versus evil written by Dostoevsky in The Idiot is the moment Rogozhin and Myshkin both stand over the dead body of Anastasia. Myshkin represents innocence, naivety, and the desire to be kind, while Rogozhin, who has just stabbed Anastasia, is seen as unable to handle the emotions of love and hate. They are contrasting characters, acting as foils for each other.
Another form of good versus evil is found between the characters of Anastasia and Aglaya. Anastasia is originally portrayed as a woman without morals. In her desperation for money and security, she must win the favor of men (such as Rogozhin) who lure her with the promise of money. Aglaya is the beautiful youngest daughter of the wealthy and prominent Yepanchin and is portrayed as young and innocent. In both cases, the characters act as foils for each other to further emphasize the idea of good versus bad.
Although it may seem that some characters are good and some are bad, Dostoevsky did not want The Idiot to be about morality. For this reason, each character displays characteristics that could be both, making the question of good versus evil more complex than a simple dichotomy.
Quotes from The Idiot
Here are some key quotes from The Idiot to keep in mind when studying the content and analysis of the novel.
Imagine what must have been going on in that man's mind at such a moment; what dreadful convulsions his whole spirit must have endured; it is an outrage on the soul that's what it is." (Part 1, Chapter 2)
In this quote, Dostoevsky's writing style is on full display. In this long sentence full of semi-colons, the narrator explores the emotional world of the character. Dostoevsky uses verbs and adjectives such as "dreadful convulsions" and "outrage on the soul" to emphasize the intense, consuming feelings of suffering the character is enduring.
Do you know, I cannot understand how anyone can pass by a green tree, and not feel happy only to look at it! How anyone can talk to a man and not feel happy in loving him! Oh, it is my own fault that I cannot express myself well enough!" (Part 4, Chapter 7)
This quote exemplifies Myshkin's innocence. He is unable to comprehend other viewpoints on the world due to his naive and sheltered nature. His childlike vision of the world and his impractical naivety make him act foolish at times. This is the reason some of the characters see him as an idiot, hence the name of the novel.
The Idiot - Key takeaways
- The Idiot was written by Fyodor Dostoevsky and published in 1968.
- It follows the story of the innocent and naive Prince Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin, who has just left a Swiss clinic for St. Petersburg.
- The novel belongs to the tragedy genre and is written in the third person omniscient point of view.
- The writing style of the novel emphasizes heightened senses of emotion and causes the reader to feel suspense.
- Two key themes of the novel are love and good versus evil.
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