Writing The Idiot coincided with Dostoyevsky’s financial hardships which forced him and his wife Anna to move temporarily to Europe. Being in Europe and experiencing the constant lack of means, Dostoyevsky continuously maintained correspondence with his brother Mikhail, his close friend Maikov and his niece Sonia to whom he often confessed about his futile attempts to write a great novel and about the disappointing mediocrity he was receiving instead (Frank 245). In fact, Dostoyevsky dedicated The Idiot to Sonia, whom he supported and pursued to live independently from the social expectation and gender prejudices (Knapp 11). Finding and reading Russian newspapers was significant for Dostoyevsky not only because he could feel attachment to
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Specifically, the story of Olga Umetskaya, a young girl tormented by her family, impressed and exasperated the writer to a great extent. Her image would be put into the character of Minion which later would be transformed into the tragic figure of Nastasya Filippovna. Minion was one of the initial characters that Dostoyevsky was working on in his first drafts of the novel. These drafts, especially the first ones, demonstrate Dostoyevsky’s constant struggle with the ideas and the instability of the plot line.
From the first note on The Idiot dated September 14, 1867, the final plot line and the characters can be barely recognized. In particular, the figure of the Idiot is quite distant from Prince Myshkin’s personality. Idiot was planned to be arrogant, dangerous, insincere, violent and does not evoke any sense of sympathy and empathy. The main …show more content…
Miller mentions that in early drafts of the novel dated October 22, 1867, Dostoyevsky already was planning for Idiot to be iurodivyi, though with a negative connotation of being aggressive, anti-social and mad (Miller 65). Though in the novel Myshkin possesses more positive traits, he satisfies the prophetic and passionate nature of a holy fool who follows a sacred mission - along with his occasional prophetic declarations, Myshkin would passionately try to accomplish his mission of bringing people back to Christian ideals of high moral life, but as a result, only sows discord and anger (Miller 66). In a way, Myshkin’s iurodstvo corresponds to his marginalized position in the society that would also cause people to laugh at him in a mocking disrespectful manner. According to Miller, Dostoyevsky develops a figure of the narrator-chronicler in The Idiot, the one who is a part of the society and is able to observe the events, but also who provides own interpretations, in this sense influencing on the reader’s perceptions and manipulating it. Narrator is the one who forms the attitude of the reader towards the characters through the style of his narration and shows own
Specifically, the story of Olga Umetskaya, a young girl tormented by her family, impressed and exasperated the writer to a great extent. Her image would be put into the character of Minion which later would be transformed into the tragic figure of Nastasya Filippovna. Minion was one of the initial characters that Dostoyevsky was working on in his first drafts of the novel. These drafts, especially the first ones, demonstrate Dostoyevsky’s constant struggle with the ideas and the instability of the plot line.
From the first note on The Idiot dated September 14, 1867, the final plot line and the characters can be barely recognized. In particular, the figure of the Idiot is quite distant from Prince Myshkin’s personality. Idiot was planned to be arrogant, dangerous, insincere, violent and does not evoke any sense of sympathy and empathy. The main …show more content…
Miller mentions that in early drafts of the novel dated October 22, 1867, Dostoyevsky already was planning for Idiot to be iurodivyi, though with a negative connotation of being aggressive, anti-social and mad (Miller 65). Though in the novel Myshkin possesses more positive traits, he satisfies the prophetic and passionate nature of a holy fool who follows a sacred mission - along with his occasional prophetic declarations, Myshkin would passionately try to accomplish his mission of bringing people back to Christian ideals of high moral life, but as a result, only sows discord and anger (Miller 66). In a way, Myshkin’s iurodstvo corresponds to his marginalized position in the society that would also cause people to laugh at him in a mocking disrespectful manner. According to Miller, Dostoyevsky develops a figure of the narrator-chronicler in The Idiot, the one who is a part of the society and is able to observe the events, but also who provides own interpretations, in this sense influencing on the reader’s perceptions and manipulating it. Narrator is the one who forms the attitude of the reader towards the characters through the style of his narration and shows own