"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. Tragedy 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. Everything in The Idiot characters drawn into this crisis, everyone belongs to a dying world. “A positively wonderful man,” Prince Myshkin alone confronts “ 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 his 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 the most honest person 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 is “a large bundle of paper, tightly and tightly wrapped in Birzhevye Vedomosti and tied tightly on all sides and twice crosswise with twine, like those that are 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. Not a single detail of this family drama survived in the final edition. 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.
Description
A novel in which Dostoevsky’s creative principles are fully embodied, and his amazing mastery of plot reaches true flourishing. The bright and almost painfully talented story of the unfortunate Prince Myshkin, the frantic Parfen Rogozhin and the desperate Nastasya Filippovna, filmed and staged many times, still fascinates the reader...
According to the publication: “Idiot. A novel in four parts by Fyodor Dostoevsky. St. Petersburg. 1874”, with corrections according to the magazine “Russian Bulletin” of 1868, preserving the spelling of the publication. Edited by B. Tomashevsky and K. Halabaev.
26-year-old Prince Lev Nikolaevich Myshkin (an idiot) returns from a sanatorium in Switzerland, where he spent several years being treated for epilepsy. The prince has not completely 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 Parfyon 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 Afanasy Ivanovich 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 Alexandra, Adelaide and Aglaya, on whom he makes a favorable impression, remaining the object of their slightly mocking attention. Next, there is General Lizaveta Prokofyevna Epanchina, who is in constant agitation due to the fact that her husband is in some communication with Nastasya Filippovna, who has a reputation for being fallen. Then, this is Ganya Ivolgin, who suffers greatly because of his upcoming role as Nastasya Filippovna’s husband, although he is ready to do anything for money, 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 narration about the memories and feelings of his acquaintance, who was sentenced to death, but was pardoned at the last moment. General Epanchin offers the prince, for lack of a place to stay, to rent a room in Ivolgin’s house. There the prince meets Ganya’s family, and also meets Nastasya Filippovna for the first time, who unexpectedly arrives at this house. After an ugly scene with Ivolgin’s alcoholic father, retired general Ardalion Aleksandrovich, of whom his son 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 by the evening he will offer her one hundred thousand rubles in cash...
Fedor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky(1821–1881) - prose writer, critic, publicist.
About the book
Time of writing: 1867–1869
Content
A young man, Prince Lev Nikolaevich Myshkin, returns to St. Petersburg from Switzerland, where he was treated for a serious nervous illness.
After several years of almost reclusive life, he finds himself at the epicenter of St. Petersburg society. The prince feels sorry for these people, sees that they are dying, tries to save them, but despite all his efforts, he cannot change anything.
Ultimately, Myshkin is driven to the point of losing his mind by the very people he tried most to help.
History of creation
The novel “The Idiot” was written abroad, where Dostoevsky went to improve his health and write a novel to pay off his creditors.
Work on the novel was difficult, health did not improve, and in 1868 the Dostoevskys’ three-month-old daughter died in Geneva.
While in Germany and Switzerland, Dostoevsky comprehends the moral and socio-political changes in Russia in the 60s of the 19th century: circles of commoners, revolutionary ideas, nihilistic mentalities. All this will be reflected on the pages of the novel.
Boboli Garden in Florence, where the writer loved to walk during his stay in Italy
The idea of the work
Dostoevsky believed that there is only one positively beautiful person in the world - this is Christ. The writer tried to endow the main character of the novel - Prince Myshkin - with similar features.
According to Dostoevsky, Don Quixote is closest to the ideal of Christ in literature. The image of Prince Myshkin echoes the hero of the novel by Cervantes. Like Cervantes, Dostoevsky poses the question: what will happen to a person endowed with the qualities of a saint if he finds himself in modern society, how will his relationships with others develop and what influence will he have on them, and they on him?
Don Quixote. Drawing by D. A. Harker
Title
The historical meaning of the word “idiot” is a person living within himself, far from society.
The novel plays on various shades of the meaning of this word to emphasize the complexity of the hero's image. Myshkin is considered strange, he is either recognized as absurd and funny, or they believe that he can “read through” another person. He, honest and truthful, does not fit into generally accepted norms of behavior. Only at the very end of the novel is another meaning actualized - “mentally ill”, “clouded by reason”.
The childishness of Myshkin’s appearance and behavior, his naivety and defenselessness are emphasized. “A perfect child”, “child” - this is what those around him call him, and the prince agrees with this. Myshkin says: “What kind of children we are, Kolya! and... and... how good it is that we are children! The gospel call sounds quite clearly in this: "be like children"(Mt. 18 :3).
Another shade of the meaning of the word “idiot” is holy fool. In the religious tradition, the blessed are conductors of Divine wisdom for ordinary people.
The meaning of the work
The novel also repeats the original gospel story, and the story of Don Quixote. The world again does not accept the “positively beautiful person.” Lev Myshkin is endowed with Christian love and goodness and brings their light to his neighbors. However, the main obstacles on this path are the lack of faith and lack of spirituality of modern society.
The people whom the prince is trying to help destroy themselves before his eyes. By rejecting it, society rejects the opportunity to be saved. From a plot point of view, the novel is extremely tragic.
Film adaptations and theatrical productions
Many film and theater directors and composers turned to the plot of the novel “The Idiot”. Dramatic performances began as early as 1887. One of the most significant theatrical productions of Dostoevsky's versions of the novel was the 1957 play staged by Georgy Tovstonogov at the Bolshoi Drama Theater in St. Petersburg. Innokenty Smoktunovsky played the role of Prince Myshkin.
"Idiot". Directed by Pyotr Cherdynin (1910)
The first film adaptation of the novel dates back to 1910, the period of silent films. The author of this short film was Peter Chardynin. An outstanding film version of the first part of the novel was Ivan Pyryev’s feature film “The Idiot” (1958), where the role of Myshkin was played by Yuri Yakovlev.
“Idiot”, dir. Akira Kurosawa (1951)
One of the best foreign adaptations of the novel is the Japanese black and white drama “The Idiot” (1951) directed by Akira Kurosawa.
Evgeny Mironov as Prince Myshkin in the film adaptation of the novel “The Idiot” (dir. Vladimir Bortko, Russia, 2003)
The most detailed and closest to the original film version of the novel is Vladimir Bortko’s serial film “The Idiot” (2002), the role of Myshkin was played by Yevgeny Mironov.
Interesting facts about the novel
1. The Idiot" is the second novel of the so-called "great pentateuch of Dostoevsky." It also includes the novels Crime and Punishment, The Gambler, The Possessed and The Brothers Karamazov.
Volumes of one of the first editions of the collected works of F. M. Dostoevsky
2. The idea of the novel was strongly influenced by Dostoevsky’s impression of Hans Holbein the Younger’s painting “Dead Christ in the Tomb.” The canvas depicts extremely naturalistically dead body The Savior after being taken down from the Cross. Nothing divine is visible in the image of such a Christ, and according to legend, Holbein actually painted this picture from a drowned man. Arriving in Switzerland, Dostoevsky wanted to see this picture. The writer was so horrified that he told his wife: “You can lose your faith from such a picture.” The tragic plot of the novel, where most of the characters live without faith, largely stems from reflections on this picture. It is no coincidence that it is in the gloomy house of Parfen Rogozhin, who will later commit the terrible sin of murder, that a copy of the painting “Dead Christ” hangs.
3. In the novel “The Idiot” you can find the well-known phrase “the world will be saved by beauty.” In the text, it is pronounced in a sad, ironic and almost mocking tone by two heroes - Aglaya Epanchin and the terminally ill Ippolit Terentyev. Dostoevsky himself never believed that the world would be saved by some abstract beauty. In his diaries, the formula for salvation sounds like this: “the world will become the beauty of Christ.” With his novel “The Idiot,” Dostoevsky proves that beauty has not only an inspiring, but also a destructive power. Tragic fate Nastasya Filippovna, a woman of extraordinary beauty, illustrates the idea that beauty can cause unbearable suffering and destroy.
4. Dostoevsky considered the terrible scene in the Rogozhin house in the final part of “The Idiot” to be the most important in the novel, as well as a scene “of such power that has not been repeated in literature.”
Quotes:
There is nothing more offensive to a person of our time and tribe than to tell him that he is not original, weak in character, without special talents and an ordinary person.
Compassion is the most important and, perhaps, the only law of existence for all humanity.
There is so much power, so much passion in the modern generation, and they don’t believe in anything!
The novel takes place in St. Petersburg and Pavlovsk at the end of 1867 - beginning of 1868.
Prince Lev Nikolaevich Myshkin arrives in St. Petersburg from Switzerland. He is twenty-six years old, the last of a noble noble family, he 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 - the eldest Alexandra, the middle Adelaide and the youngest, the 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 getting out into the world 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 infatuated with the heroine, to the jester Ferdyshenko. To Nastasya Filippovna’s sudden question whether she should marry Ganya, he answers negatively and thereby destroys the plans of Tonky, who is present here. 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 the prince finds himself in the center, 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. 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 it 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 has 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 Prokofyevna, 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 fair 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 did not 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 doesn’t exist, 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, Nastasya Filippovna lies dead.
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.
