Evgeniy Pavlovich is an idiot. "The Idiot" by Dostoevsky: a detailed analysis of the novel

Dostoevsky's doubting heroes in the novel "The Idiot":

EugenePavlovichRadomsky

Doubting the heroes of Dostoevsky’s novel “The Idiot”:

Eugene P. Radomski

O. M. Salnikova

O . M . Salnikova

The article raises the question of the typification of the heroes of the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky’s “The Idiot” based on their attitude to the problem of faith in God and atheism. Criteria for classification are defined literary types, the reasons why the characters were separated are explained. A more detailed analysis of the image of Evgeniy Pavlovich Radomsky, an intelligent, secular, cynical man and at the same time insightful and understanding, is given. An answer is proposed to the question of what his role is in the novel, in the fate of the main characters.

The article raised the question of typing the characters of the novel FM Dostoevsky’s “The Idiot” on the basis of their relationship to the problem of faith in God and atheism. The criteria for the classification of types of literature, explained the reasons for the separation of characters produced. More detailed analyzes of the image Evgeny Pavlovich Radom, a clever man, secular, cynical and at the same time insightful and understanding. We propose an answer to the question, what is its role in the novel, the fate of the main characters.

Key words And phrases : faith in God, doubts, literary character, type of hero, search for the meaning of life.

Key words: faith in God, doubt, literary character, the type of hero, search for the meaning of life. .

The figure is "positive" wonderful person”, created in the novel “The Idiot”, was called upon to positively resist the immoralism and “chemical decomposition” of Russian society of the 60s and 70s. XIX c., the spiritual melancholy and moral vacillations of other characters in the novel. The appearance of a “different” person, according to Dostoevsky’s plan, becomes one of the ways to resurrect faith in the souls of the novel’s heroes, fill the heart with love for one’s neighbor, and remind of the existence of values ​​that are higher than transitory existence.Based on the criteria for the manifestation of the strength of religious feeling and the place of Christian values ​​in the lives of the heroes, we considered it possible to distinguish in the text of the novel 3 types of attitudes of Dostoevsky’s heroes towards faith and disbelief: believing heroes, non-believers and doubters.

Let’s clarify right away what character traits allow us to classify heroes as different types. The evaluation criterion is faith or disbelief in God. Consequently, the actions, thoughts, and feelings of the character under study either must confirm his position, no matter whether he has stated it openly or not, or come into conflict with it on a conscious or unconscious level.

Based on Christian postulates, including the ten Biblical Commandments and the seven deadly sins (pride, love of money, fornication, envy, gluttony, anger and laziness), we have identified the following criteria for the truth of faith, which we identified among Dostoevsky’s heroes:

- a believer strives to be guided in life by the Christian laws of love for one's neighbor;

- a believer is ashamed of his bad deeds, and moreover, of his bad thoughts;

- a believer is selflessly ready to help his neighbor in misfortune;

- a believer tries to ensure that his words and thoughts do not diverge from his deeds;

- a believer is capable of one way or another highest manifestation Christian virtue - to sacrifice oneself for the good of one's neighbor;

- Finally, and most importantly, the ideal, the measure of values ​​for a believer is the person of Jesus Christ.

These criteria are implemented through the appropriate behavior of the characters in the novel:

- the hero’s statements about faith and God or a retelling of the hero’s words in the third person;

- attitude to public morality, norms of behavior;

- in the hero’s thoughts and feelings about the current situation;

- through actions that correspond or do not correspond to the internal assessment of the event;

- the hero’s attitude towards his neighbor: sympathy for someone else’s misfortune or complete indifference, contempt; sacrifice or selfishness;

- the hero’s attitude towards children (children are the lambs of God).

As a result, we included in the first type, the type of non-believers heroes, those who are guided in their actions by personal “wants”, who never thought about their neighbor, and did not sympathize with the grief of others. At the same time, in this chapter we consider both those who openly call themselves a nihilist (Ippolit, Doktorenko, Keller), and those who do not deviate in words from the faith of their ancestors, but in their actions do not comply with Christian standards of behavior (Totsky, General Epanchin, Ardalion Alexandrovich, Ganya and Varvara Ivolgin).

Such a division is conditional, since Dostoevsky’s characterology has one feature - the author’s firm conviction in the complexity and versatility of the inner world of any person, of a person in general. Even when portraying obvious scoundrels, as well as atheists or socialists, Fyodor Mikhailovich leaves them the opportunity to improve. Therefore, within the first type of heroes, we can distinguish those who are completely satisfied with their way of life and are not able to repent of the atrocities they committed, since they simply do not see their guilt in it, and those who have not yet become hardened in soul are able to realize their mistake and help to one's neighbor.

The last heroes stand very close to the second group of novel characters - doubters, who are between faith and unbelief. Their difference is that heroes of the first type, even repenting, still become embittered at the world again and close themselves in a “shell” of loneliness, hiding their inner world from people and from God (which for Dostoevsky is interconnected), while representatives of the second type are looking for help for answers to their questions outside, in the eternal Christian norms of relationships between people and God (for example, Rogozhin, Nastasya Filippovna, the Epanchin sisters, Evgeniy Pavlovich Radomsky, Burdovsky and others). These heroes are looking for the meaning of life, light, hope. They are able to hear the call of Prince Myshkin and love him simply, with all their hearts. But even in them there is still a lot of the “underground” character of the lone hero, from which follows painful modesty and the desire to hide behind the imaginary and obvious ridicule of the cynical environment with a defiant act. Pride is still too strong, but it fights in the soul with repentance.

In this article we will dwell in more detail on the image of Evgeniy Pavlovich Radomsky. It is difficult to talk about this character in as much detail as about the other heroes of The Idiot, since Dostoevsky gave too little information about him in the text of the novel. Radomsky speaks out only three times in the novel, all three times being a guest of Prince Myshkin. The first - during the investigation of the “case of Pavlishchev’s son”, the second time he witnessed the suicide attempt of Ippolit Terentyev, the third time Radomsky came to the prince after the scandalous meeting of Aglaya and Nastasya Filippovna.

For the first time, only Radomsky met Prince Myshkin. Evgeny Pavlovich observed and assessed the man about whom he had already heard a lot, and who was his rival in the struggle for Aglaya’s favor. He allowed himself to mockingly (and mockery was characteristic of his way of communicating with people) to point out the perversity of Doktorenko’s logical premises, justifying his dishonest actions with the same words as Gorsky’s lawyer justified his client’s crime: “This reminds me,” Evgeniy Pavlovich laughed for a long time standing and watching - the recent famous defense of a lawyer who, offering as an excuse the poverty of his client, who killed six people at once in order to rob them, suddenly concluded in this way: “Naturally, he says that it was my client’s poverty that came into his head to commit this murder six people, and who in his place wouldn’t have thought of this?” Something like that, but very funny." .

That evening, Dostoevsky, in addition to Radomsky, brought Ippolit to the readers’ court for the first time, therefore further conversation on the veranda was supposed to partially reveal Terentyev’s character. Radomsky managed to say only a few lines, but they are very succinct and show him as an observant, caustic and intelligent person. He immediately understood Hippolytus, his unstable mental condition, and suggested in Prince Myshkin’s ear that, embarrassed by the universal and, moreover, benevolent attention, Ippolit “now, out of spite, will throw out such an eccentricity that Lizaveta Prokofyevna, perhaps, will not be able to sit still. The prince looked at him questioningly.

- Aren't you afraid of eccentricity? - added Evgeny Pavlovich. - After all, I do too, I even wish; All I really want is for our dear Lizaveta Prokofievna to be punished, and certainly today, right now; I don’t want to leave without it. You seem to have a fever." . Playing a joke, punishing for the inconvenience experienced - such behavior was common in a secular environment. Let us remember how Onegin behaved the same way, “when he wanted to destroy his rivals, how he sarcastically slandered what networks he was preparing for them,” or Pechorin. Radomsky appears to readers in this episode only as a secular dandy, both in his manner of behavior and in his appearance. And in Dostoevsky’s characterology such cold, aloof behavior is most often inherent negative character. But the author does not want to create a uniquely negative impression among readers about the new hero of his novel. And we see not only Radomsky’s mocking manner, but also his insight, attention to detail - he was the first to notice the painful condition of Prince Myshkin (however, he did nothing!).

At the end of the evening, Evgeny Pavlovich made a very correct argument about what constitutes “law”, which Burdovsky’s company, led by Doktorenko and Terentyev, so insisted on. It is his words that are usually cited by researchers of the novel, confirming the perversity of the concepts underlying the theory of “law”: its essence “reduces, in my opinion,” said Evgeniy Pavlovich, “to the theory of the triumph of law, first of all and bypassing everything, and even with the exception everything else, and even, perhaps, before research into what law consists of.<…>...from this the matter can directly jump to the right of force, that is, to the right of a single fist and personal desire, as, indeed, it has very often ended in the world.<…>... from the right of force to the right of tigers and crocodiles, and even to Danilov and Gorsky it’s not far.” Dostoevsky himself agrees with every word of Radomsky, but he, as the author, shows the reader how inappropriate this essentially correct speech by Evgeniy Pavlovich was. Radomsky flashed his intelligence and eloquence, but Ippolit, to whom he was addressing, no longer heard him. Lizaveta Prokofyevna could hardly contain her impatience and at the end abruptly interrupted the continuation of the conversation. It is possible that his speech was intended for Prince Myshkin, but he had no time for serious arguments, since all the prince’s attention was focused on the sick Hippolyte.

When parting, all the participants in the meeting were excited or sad, only Radomsky was cheerful, even at parting he let go of the “hairpin” to Myshkin, sympathizing with the “poor” prince. But the writer did not allow him to leave as a winner: Nastasya Filippovna, who unexpectedly appeared, compromised Radomsky in the eyes of the Epanchin family, advertising their supposedly close acquaintance and financial debts to Evgeniy Pavlovich. Radomsky suspected Prince Myshkin of intrigue, which the prince immediately understood and was forced even the next day to repeat to Prince Shch. and Adelaide that he did not participate in this matter.

Radomsky’s entire behavior speaks of him as an intelligent, educated person who knows how to conduct a conversation and not give away his real emotions. Regarding Prince Myshkin, he initially held the same opinion as Aglaya on the day he met the prince - a cunning deceiver. And all the words and actions of Evgeny Pavlovich were aimed at bringing him to clean water.

For the same purpose, Radomsky came to Myshkin for the second time. We will not dwell in detail on all the vicissitudes of this meeting. Let us remember that they had to witness Hippolytus’s attempt to die. Before this, Myshkin received a note from Aglaya with an invitation to meet her on the green bench, so he was happy, almost making peace with Rogozhin after his assassination attempt. And to the words of Radomsky, who decided not to hide from the prince that perhaps the real purpose of his coming was the desire to deceive Myshkin, the prince replied that this could well be, but he is not afraid of Yevgeny Pavlovich. Such an answer surprised and delighted Radomsky, but would most likely have angered Ganya Ivolgin.

Radomsky's portrayal of Dostoevsky is not at all simple. After Ippolit read “The Necessary Explanation,” he was the only one of the guests to suggest the possibility of suicide and warned the prince that the young man could indeed shoot himself, and he saw the same fears in Myshkin. After all the commotion caused by Terentyev, Radomsky left extremely thoughtful and full of new thoughts about Prince Myshkin.

After this memorable evening they became almost friendly. Moreover, when Aglaya refused Radomsky her hand, this did not become a reason for Yevgeny Pavlovich to quarrel with his lucky rival. The prince, for his part, was glad when he learned about Radomsky’s presence among the guests at the Epanchins’ dinner party, which aroused the anger of Aglaya, who did not understand how Myshkin could rejoice at the presence of a man who, in her opinion, could wish the prince failure. Radomsky managed to convince the officer offended by the prince to cancel the challenge to a duel. He turned out to be the only one of all Prince Myshkin’s former acquaintances who came to visit him after the meeting of two rivals and the official announcement of the wedding of Myshkin and Nastasya Filippovna.

And finally, it was Radomsky who took upon himself the care of the sick Myshkin, placing him in the hospital with Schneider, visiting him and sending reports on the state of his health to Kolya Ivolgin and Vera Lebedeva. Kolya immediately turned to Radomsky for help in the fate of Prince Myshkin, since he had long ago distinguished “among all the persons whom he recognized in Lately, Evgeniy Pavlovich Radomsky; He was the first to go to him and conveyed to him all the details of the event that he knew, and about the present position of the prince. He was not mistaken: Evgeny Pavlovich took the most ardent part in the fate of the unfortunate “idiot,” and as a result of his efforts and care, the prince ended up abroad again in Schneider’s Swiss establishment. Evgeniy Pavlovich himself, who went abroad, intends to live in Europe for a very long time and openly calls himself “absolutely extra person in Russia,” quite often, at least once every few months, visits his sick friend at Schneider’s; but Schneider frowns more and more and shakes his head; he hints at complete damage to the mental organs; he does not yet speak affirmatively about incurability, but allows himself the saddest hints. Evgeny Pavlovich takes this very to heart, and he has a heart...”[ 1: 1973; 508 ] .

Dostoevsky noted that his letters to Vera Lukyanovna, who had earned his attention and favor, were becoming more and more friendly and an emerging feeling began to appear in them.

Researchers usually characterize Radomsky very harshly. V.Ya. Kirpotin, for example, believed that “the Pharisee and scribe Radomsky, who once in history washed his hands and who once in history made edifying speeches,” taught the impractical Myshkin. A.E. Kunilsky puts Radomsky on the same plane with Ippolit, calling them both ideologists who are intellectually inferior to Prince Myshkin, “ and not so much quantitatively as qualitatively (“the main” and “non-main” mind, according to Aglaya’s definition, - 8; 356)» . The researcher sees the ugliness of the hero in the fact that Radomsky is a rationalist, accustomed to putting everything into categories, evaluating actions from a position of rationality, and therefore calls Evgeniy Pavlovich an opponent of Prince Myshkin.

We agree that Radomsky is indeed quite logical. His arguments, explaining to the prince why he was wrong when he stayed with Nastasya Filippovna and did not run after Aglaya, are psychologically correct, and the prince agrees with them and begins to feel guilty, “not knowing what.” And throughout Radomsky’s entire passionate speech, Myshkin, even agreeing with him, always says “but”: Yes, you are right, but this is not what it’s all about. According to Myshkin, this is not what the heated women were talking about, which is why it all turned out that way for them. The prince simply cannot understand why he is not allowed to see Aglaya Ivanovna. There is no charm in the prince's behavior " women's issue“, which Radomsky insists on, but only fear for the life of the unfortunate Nastasya Filippovna, who has gone crazy. “A sick child,” how can you not love her, that is, according to Myshkin, don’t feel sorry for her. Myshkin was sure that Aglaya would understand him, if only he told her everything, “certainly everything.” Let us remember how Prince Myshkin previously assessed his conversation with one very educated atheist, who, just like Radomsky now, harmoniously and consistently proved to Myshkin that there is no God, and the prince understood with surprise: the interlocutor is talking about something wrong, does not understand what he is talking about. than he says. This is not what Radomsky is talking about.

In other words, in Radomsky we see a lot of knowledge of human psychology, an analytical mind, the ability to compare facts and draw our own conclusions. But there is also compassion, pity, and a desire to understand the other. The latter is very important quality character of the hero, since it allows him to develop in the direction of a Christian attitude towards people. Radomsky constantly reflects on the meaning of life and the meaning of the actions of other characters. Kolya Ivolgin doesn’t even have to ask him for help; it was enough to report the misfortune for Evgeny Pavlovich to undertake to arrange treatment for the prince, which, in our opinion, showed his best qualities. The author calls him a friend of Prince Myshkin.

In sincere participation and compassion we see the manifestation of the living soul of Evgeniy Pavlovich, and this speaks of his ability to seriously think about the future and the One who can fill his life with meaning, so as not to feel like an “extra person” in his country anymore. Closer communication with the bright heroine of the novel, Vera Lebedeva, can speed up the process of returning to faith. Ate. Mestrghazi even calls Radomsky “one of the few positive characters in the novel."

Literature

1. Dostoevsky F.M. Complete works in 30 volumes. T. 8. – L., 1973.

2. Kirpotin V.Ya. The world of Dostoevsky. – M., 1983. P. 58.

3. Kunilsky A.E. Experience of interpretation literary hero: (novel by F.M. Dostoevsky “The Idiot”): Textbook. allowance. – Petrozavodsk, 2003.

4. Mesterhazy El . Vera and Prince Myshkin. The experience of a “naive” reading of the novel “The Idiot”. // Roman F.M. Dostoevsky's "Idiot": current state studying. – M., 2001. P. 291-318.

Salnikova Oksana Mikhailovna — candidate philological sciences, Associate Professor, Faculty of Philology, North-Eastern Federal University named after M.K. Ammosova, Yakutsk

A mocking smile wandered on the lips of the new guest during the entire reading of poetry, as if he had already heard something about the “poor knight.”

“Perhaps he made it up himself,” the prince thought to himself.<>“I found out that you were here too,” interrupted Evgeny Pavlovich, “and since I had long ago decided to seek not only your acquaintance, but also your friendship, I didn’t want to waste time.” Are you unwell? I just found out...

“I’m completely healthy and very glad to know you, I’ve heard a lot and even talked about you with Prince Shch,” answered Lev Nikolaevich, offering his hand.

Mutual politenesses were exchanged, both shook hands and looked intently into each other's eyes. In an instant the conversation became general. (1, vol. VIII, 201-202)

Radomsky is smart, educated, well-mannered, accepted in high society, his speech behavior can be considered exemplary for an aristocrat... A suitable match for a general’s daughter. Evgeny Pavlovich initially senses a rival in the prince and tries to humiliate him in the eyes of Aglaya. If only he knew what these attempts would lead to! By the time they met, Myshkin had already resumed epilepsy attacks, it was more difficult for him to express his thoughts... Nevertheless, the prince’s answers (talking about the “distortion of ideas” in society) amaze and make everyone think. Radomsky is already looking at him with different eyes... But it’s too late! His ridicule provoked Aglaya's hysterics - trying to protect the prince, she suddenly becomes an angry tigress. Evgeniy Pavlovich has probably never been in a more stupid position. But is it possible to hate Myshkin? The relationship between these two characters develops very uneasy, and only Radomsky remains with the prince until the end... Unfortunately, the heart-to-heart conversation takes place after many sad events, and Evgeny Pavlovich, in fact, makes an accusatory speech.

Yes, even if she is innocent now - I won’t insist, because I don’t want to - but can all her adventures justify such an unbearable, demonic pride of hers, such an impudent, such greedy egoism? Forgive me, Prince, I'm getting carried away, but...

Yes, all this can happen; maybe you’re right... - he muttered again

prince; - she’s really very annoyed, and you’re right, of course, but...

Is it worthy of compassion? Is this what you want to say, my good prince? But

for the sake of compassion and for the sake of her pleasure, was it possible to disgrace another, tall and pure girl, to humiliate her in those arrogant, in those hateful eyes? How far will compassion go after that? This is an incredible exaggeration!<>

Yes, yes, you're right, ah, I feel like I'm to blame! - said the prince in

unspeakable sadness.

Is this enough? - Yevgeny Pavlovich cried indignantly... (1, vol. VIII, 537)

Compassion, -I, cf. Pity, sympathy caused by someone. misfortune, grief. S. to orphans. Do something. out of compassion.(15)

Indignation. -I, Wed Indignation, extreme dissatisfaction. Come to n. Reject with indignation. (15)

Lev Nikolaevich is already very ill and any emotional stress can lead to irreversible consequences. His speech is intermittent, his thoughts jump from one thing to another... The prince turns pale, then blushes, begins to whisper, mutter... Evgeny Pavlovich notices signs of incipient madness.

That’s why, brother,” Rogozhin suddenly began, laying the prince on the left best pillow and stretching himself out on the right side, without undressing and throwing both arms behind his head, “but it’s not hot, and you know, spirit... I’m afraid to open the windows; and the mother has pots of flowers, a lot of flowers, and such a beautiful spirit from them; I thought about rescheduling, but Pafnutyevna would guess, that’s why she’s curious.

She’s curious... - the prince assented.

Should I buy... - cover everything with bouquets and flowers? Yes, I think it will be a pity, boy, in flowers!

Listen... - the prince asked, as if getting confused, as if searching for exactly what to ask and as if immediately forgetting; - listen, tell me: what do you do with her? With a knife? Thereby?

Thereby…

Stop still! I, Parfen, still want to ask you... I will ask you a lot, about everything... but you better tell me first, from the very beginning, so that I know: did you want to kill her before the wedding, in front of the crown, on the porch, with a knife? Did you want to or not?

I don’t know whether I wanted to or not... - Rogozhin answered dryly, as if somewhat surprised at the question and not understanding it.

Have you ever brought a knife with you to Pavlovsk?

Never brought it. “I can only tell you this about this knife, Lev Nikolaevich,” he added after a pause: “I took it out of a locked drawer this morning, because the whole thing happened in the morning, at four o’clock.” I had it all laid out in the book... And... and... and here’s another thing that’s strange to me: the knife went like an inch and a half... or even two inches... under the very left breast... and there was only about half a tablespoon of blood on shirt leaked; there was no more...

This, this, this,” the prince suddenly stood up in terrible excitement, “this, I know this, I read this... this internal outpouring is called... It happens that not even a drop. This is a stab right in the heart...

Wait, do you hear? - Rogozhin suddenly interrupted quickly and sat down on the mat in fear: - Do you hear?

No! - the prince said just as quickly and fearfully, looking at Rogozhin.

Walking! Do you hear? In the hall…

Both began to listen.

“I hear,” the prince whispered firmly.

Should I close the door or not?

Close...

The doors were closed, and both lay down again. They were silent for a long time.

Oh yes! - the prince suddenly whispered in the same excited and hurried whisper, as if he had caught the thought again and was terribly afraid of losing it again, even jumping up in bed: - yes... I wanted... these cards! cards... They say you played cards with her?

“I was playing,” Rogozhin said after some silence.

Where... are the cards?

Here are the cards... - Rogozhin said, after an even longer silence; - Here…

He took the played deck, wrapped in paper, out of his pocket and held it out to the prince. He took it, but as if with bewilderment. A new, sad and joyless feeling squeezed his heart; he suddenly realized that at that moment, and for a long time now, he was not talking about what he should be talking about, and was doing everything he should not do; and that these cards, which he holds in his hands, and which he was so happy about, will not help anything, nothing now. He stood up and clasped his hands. Rogozhin lay motionless and seemed not to hear or see his movement; but his eyes shone brightly through the darkness and were completely open and motionless. The prince sat down on a chair and began to look at him with fear. About half an hour passed; suddenly Rogozhin shouted loudly and abruptly and laughed, as if forgetting that he had to speak in a whisper:

An officer, an officer... do you remember how she whipped that officer while playing music, remember, ha, ha, ha! Another cadet... cadet... cadet jumped up...

The prince jumped up from his chair in new fear. When Rogozhin calmed down (and he suddenly fell silent), the prince quietly bent down to him, sat down next to him and, with a strongly beating heart, breathing heavily, began to examine him. Rogozhin did not turn his head towards him and seemed to have even forgotten about him. The prince watched and waited; Time passed, it began to get light. Rogozhin occasionally and suddenly began to mutter, loudly, harshly and incoherently; began to scream and laugh; The prince then stretched out his trembling hand to him and quietly touched his head, his hair, stroked it and stroked his cheeks... he could do nothing more! He himself began to tremble again, and again, as if suddenly, his legs were paralyzed. Some completely new sensation tormented his heart with endless melancholy. Meanwhile, it was completely dawn; finally he lay down on the pillow, as if completely helpless and in despair, and pressed his face to Rogozhin’s pale and motionless face; tears flowed from his eyes onto Rogozhin’s cheeks, but perhaps he did not even hear his own tears then and no longer knew anything about them...

At least, when, after many hours, the door opened and people entered, they found the killer completely unconscious and in a fever. The prince sat motionless on the mat next to him and quietly, every time there was an outburst of screams or delirium of the patient, he hurried to run his trembling hand over his hair and cheeks, as if caressing and calming him. But he no longer understood anything of what they were asking him about, and did not recognize the people who entered and surrounded him. And if Schneider himself now came from Switzerland to look at his former student and patient, then he, remembering the state in which the prince was sometimes in the first year of his treatment in Switzerland, would now wave his hand and say, as then: “ Idiot!"

The teacher, having galloped to Pavlovsk, came straight to Daria Alekseevna, who had been upset since yesterday, and, telling her everything she knew, completely frightened her. Both ladies immediately decided to enter into relations with Lebedev, who was also in excitement, as a friend of their tenant and as the owner of the apartment. Vera Lebedeva reported everything she knew. On Lebedev’s advice, all three of us decided to go to St. Petersburg for early warning of “what could very well happen.” Thus it turned out that the next morning, around eleven o’clock, Rogozhin’s apartment was unlocked in front of the police, in front of Lebedev, in front of the ladies, and in front of Rogozhin’s brother, Semyon Semyonovich Rogozhin, who lived in the outbuilding. The success of the case was facilitated most of all by the testimony of the janitor that yesterday evening he saw Parfen Semyonovich with a guest entering from the porch and as if on the sly. After this, the testimony no longer hesitated to break down the doors that did not open when the bell rang.

Rogozhin endured two months of inflammation in the brain, and when he recovered, there was an investigation and trial. He gave direct, accurate and completely satisfactory testimony in everything, as a result of which the prince, from the very beginning, was removed from the trial. Rogozhin remained silent during his trial. He did not contradict his clever and eloquent lawyer, who clearly and logically proved that the crime committed was the result of inflammation of the brain, which began long before the crime, as a result of the defendant’s grief. But he did not add anything of his own to confirm this opinion and, as before, clearly and accurately, confirmed and recalled all the slightest circumstances of the event. He was sentenced, with the allowance of mitigating circumstances, to Siberia, to hard labor, for fifteen years, and listened to his sentence sternly, silently and “thoughtfully.” His entire enormous fortune, except for a certain, comparatively speaking, very small share spent in the initial revelry, passed to his brother, Semyon Semyonovich, to great pleasure this last one. The old woman Rogozhina continues to live in the world and sometimes seems to remember her beloved son Parfen, but it is unclear: God saved her mind and heart from the consciousness of the horror that visited her sad house.

Lebedev, Keller, Ganya, Ptitsyn and many other persons in our story live as before, have changed little, and we have almost nothing to convey about them. Ippolit died in terrible excitement and somewhat earlier than expected, two weeks after the death of Nastasya Filippovna. Kolya was deeply amazed by what happened; he finally became close to his mother. Nina Alexandrovna is afraid for him, that he is thoughtful beyond his years; Perhaps he will become a business man. By the way, partly through his efforts, I got settled and further fate the prince: he had long ago distinguished, among all the faces he had recently recognized, Evgeniy Pavlovich Radomsky; He was the first to go to him and conveyed to him all the details of the event that he knew, and about the present position of the prince. He was not mistaken: Evgeny Pavlovich took the most ardent part in the fate of the unfortunate “idiot,” and, as a result of his efforts and care, the prince again ended up abroad in Schneider’s Swiss establishment. Evgeniy Pavlovich himself, who has gone abroad, intends to live in Europe for a very long time and openly calls himself “a completely superfluous person in Russia ...”, quite often, at least every few months, visits his sick friend at Schneider’s; but Schneider frowns more and more and shakes his head; he hints at complete damage to the mental organs; he does not yet speak affirmatively about incurability, but allows himself the saddest hints. Evgeny Pavlovich takes this very to heart, and he has a heart, which he has proven by the fact that he receives letters from Kolya and sometimes even answers these letters. But in addition, another strange feature of his character became known; and since this trait is good, we will hasten to outline it: after each visit to Schneider’s establishment, Evgeny Pavlovich, in addition to Kolya, sends another letter to one person in St. Petersburg, with the most detailed and sympathetic statement of the state of the prince’s illness in currently . In addition to the most respectful expression of devotion, in these letters sometimes begin to appear (and more and more often) some frank statements of views, concepts, feelings - in a word, something similar to feelings of friendship and closeness begins to appear. This person, who is in correspondence (albeit still quite rare) with Evgeniy Pavlovich and who has earned his attention and respect, is Vera Lebedeva. We had no way of knowing exactly how such a relationship could begin; they began, of course, over the same story with the prince, when Vera Lebedeva was struck by grief to the point that she even fell ill; but in what details the acquaintance and friendship took place, we do not know. We mentioned these letters primarily for the purpose that some of them contained information about the Epanchin family and, most importantly, about Aglaya Ivanovna Epanchina. Evgeniy Pavlovich informed about her in one rather awkward letter from Paris that she, after a short and extraordinary attachment to an emigrant, a Polish count, suddenly married him, against the wishes of her parents, if they finally gave consent, it was because the matter threatened some extraordinary scandal. Then, after almost six months of silence. Evgeniy Pavlovich notified his correspondent, again in a long and detailed letter, that during his last visit to Professor Schneider in Switzerland, he met with all the Epanchins (except, of course, Ivan Fedorovich, who, on business, remains in St. Petersburg) and Prince Shch. The meeting was strange; They all greeted Evgeniy Pavlovich with some kind of delight; For some reason, Adelaide and Alexandra even considered themselves grateful to him for his “angelic care for the unfortunate prince.” Lizaveta Prokofyevna, seeing the prince in his sick and humiliated state, cried with all her heart. Apparently, everything has already been forgiven him. Prince Shch. said several happy and intelligent truths. It seemed to Evgeny Pavlovich that he and Adelaide had not yet completely agreed with each other; but in the future, it seemed inevitable that the ardent Adelaide would completely voluntarily and heartily submit to the mind and experience of Prince Shch. Moreover, the lessons learned by the family had a terrible effect on him, and, most importantly, the last incident with Aglaya and the emigrant count. Everything that the family was in awe of, giving in to this Count Aglai, had already come true in six months, with the addition of such surprises that they had never even thought about. It turned out that this count was not even a count, and if he really was an emigrant, then with some kind of dark and ambiguous history. He captivated Aglaya with the extraordinary nobility of his soul, tormented by the suffering of her homeland, and so captivated that she, even before her marriage, became a member of some foreign committee for the restoration of Poland and, moreover, ended up in the Catholic confessional of some famous priest who took possession of her mind to the point of frenzy. The Count's colossal fortune, about which he presented Lizaveta Prokofyevna and Prince Shch. with almost irrefutable information, turned out to be completely unprecedented. Moreover, in just six months after the marriage, the count and his friend, the famous confessor, managed to completely quarrel between Aglaya and the family, so that they did not see her for several months... In a word, there would be a lot to tell, but Lizaveta Prokofyevna, her the daughters and even Prince Shch. were already so amazed by all this “terror” that they were even afraid to mention other things in a conversation with Yevgeny Pavlovich, although they knew that even without them he knew well the history of Aglaya Ivanovna’s latest hobbies. Poor Lizaveta Prokofyevna would like to go to Russia and, according to Evgeniy Pavlovich, she bitterly and biasedly criticized everything abroad: “they don’t know how to bake bread anywhere, they freeze in winter, like mice in a basement,” she said, “at least here “here, over this poor man, I could at least cry in Russian,” she added, pointing in excitement at the prince, who did not recognize her at all. “It’s enough to get carried away, it’s time to serve reason. And all this, and all this abroad, and all this Europe of yours, all this is one fantasy, and all of us abroad are one fantasy... mark my words, you will see for yourself!” she concluded almost angrily, parting with Yevgeny Pavlovich.

Chapter VI. The prince tells more touching story about the poor and sick Swiss girl Marie. Seduced by a passing salesman, she was rejected by all her fellow countrymen for this sin, but under the influence of the prince, the village children began to take care of the unfortunate woman, and she died surrounded by kindness and care.

The prince produces strong impression at the general's wife and her daughters, they all really like it.

Dostoevsky. Idiot. Episode 2 of the television series

Chapter VII. Seeing that the prince has gained the confidence of the Epanchin ladies, Ganya Ivolgin secretly passes through him a note to the youngest of three sisters, Aglaya. The shame of marriage with the dishonored Nastasya Filippovna still torments Ganya, and he tries to find himself another rich bride. One day Aglaya showed compassionate concern for him, and Ganya now writes to her in a note that he is ready to break with Nastasya Filippovna for the mere hope of mutual love. Aglaya immediately notes with contempt that Ganya does not want to part with 75 thousand without receiving guarantees of such hope. She shows the note to the prince, and Gana gives an arrogant answer: “I don’t enter into auctions.”

Frustrated, Ganya becomes imbued with hostility towards the prince, who has learned many of his secrets. Meanwhile, the prince, on the recommendation of the general, goes to rent a room, which Ganya rents out in his apartment.

Chapter VIII. At Ganya’s apartment, the prince sees his relatives. Ganya’s energetic sister, Varya, having learned that today the issue of her brother’s marriage to the “camellia” will be finally resolved, throws a stormy scene for Ganya. The prince at this time hears the sound of the door bell. He opens it and with amazement sees Nastasya Filippovna in front of him. Hiding obvious excitement under a mask of feigned arrogance, she goes to “meet the family” of her fiancé.

Chapter IX. The unexpected appearance of Nastasya Filippovna stuns everyone in the house. Ghani's relatives are lost. Ganya’s drunken father, the famous liar and dreamer General Ivolgin, tells Nastasya Filippovna a fictitious story about how he allegedly once threw a lap dog that belonged to two ladies out the window in a train carriage. Nastasya Filippovna, laughing, accuses the general of lying: this incident took place abroad, it was published in the Indépendance Belge newspaper. Ghani’s relatives are outraged that “camellia” is openly laughing at their father. A dramatic scene is brewing, but it is interrupted by another strong sound of the bell.

Chapter X A drunken company led by Parfen Rogozhin bursts into the door: having learned that they want to marry Nastasya Filippovna to Gana, he came to offer this “scoundrel and cheater” to leave her for three thousand.

An irritated Ganya tries to drive Rogozhin away, but he then offers not three thousand, but 18. Nastasya Filippovna, laughing, shouts: “Not enough!” Rogozhin raises the price to 40 thousand, then to 100.

Indignant at this humiliating bargaining, Varya asks someone to get “this shameless one” out of here. Ganya rushes at her sister. The prince grabs him by the hands, and Ganya, in a frenzy, slaps him in the face. The meek prince only says in great excitement that Ganya will be ashamed of her action, and then turns to Nastasya Filippovna: “Aren’t you ashamed? Are you who you now appear to be?”

Shocked by the insight of the prince who unraveled her, she suddenly stops laughing. The arrogant mask falls off her. Having kissed Ganya’s mother’s hand, Nastasya Filippovna hastily leaves. Rogozhin also leads his company away, discussing along the way where he can quickly get 100 thousand in cash at any interest.

Chapter XI. Ganya comes to the prince’s room to apologize for the slap in the face. The prince hugs him, but convinces him to abandon the thought of marrying Nastasya Filippovna: This not worth 75 thousand. But Ganya insists: I will definitely get married! He dreams of not just getting rich, but turning these 75 thousand into a huge fortune, becoming the “King of the Jews.”

After Ghani left younger brother Kolya brings the prince a note from General Ivolgin inviting him to a nearby cafe.

Dostoevsky. Idiot. Episode 3 of the television series

Chapter XII. Drunk Ivolgin in a cafe asks the prince for a loan. Myshkin gives him his last money, but asks the general to help him get to Nastasya Filippovna this evening. Ivolgin undertakes to take the prince to her, but brings him to the apartment of his mistress, captain Terentyeva, where he collapses on the sofa and falls asleep.

Fortunately, kind Kolya turns up right there, coming to see his friend, Terentyeva’s sick son Ippolit. Kolya knows Nastasya Filippovna's address and takes the prince to her house.

Chapter XIII. The prince himself does not really understand why he is going to Nastasya Filippovna. Totsky, General Epanchin, the gloomy Ganya and several other guests are already sitting at her birthday party. Although the prince is uninvited, Nastasya Filippovna, who became very interested in him at Ganya’s apartment, happily comes out to meet him.

One of the guests, the impudent Ferdyshchenko, suggests a “game”: “let each of us tell out loud what he himself considers to be the worst thing he has done in his life.”

Chapter XIV. Some of those present agree to this. First, Ferdyshchenko himself describes how once, without knowing why, he stole three rubles at a dacha from an acquaintance. Behind him, General Epanchin recalls the incident when, as a young warrant officer, he scolded a poor, lonely old widow because of a missing bowl, who in response only silently looked at him - and, as it later turned out, was dying at that moment. Then Totsky tells how in his youth, by accident, he broke the love of one of his friends, and because of this he left to seek death in the war.

When Totsky finishes, Nastasya Filippovna suddenly turns to the prince with a question: should she marry Gavrila Ardalionovich? “No... don’t go out!” - the prince answers quietly. “This will be my answer to you, Ganya,” Nastasya Filippovna announces. “I believed in the prince as the first truly devoted person in my entire life, because he believed in me at one glance.”

Nastasya Filippovna says that she will not take 75 thousand from Totsky and tomorrow she will move out of the apartment he rented. Her words are interrupted by the ringing sound of the door bell.

Chapter XV. The Rozhin company bursts into the apartment. He himself walks ahead with a hundred thousand, wrapped in a dirty newspaper. The low sycophant Lebedev also sneaks behind Rogozhin.

“Here you are, gentlemen,” says Nastasya Filippovna. “Rogozhin bought me for a hundred thousand, and you, Ganya, even though this trade took place in your house, with your mother and sister, still came after that to make a match!” Rather than live with you or Totsky, it’s better to go outside, with Rogozhin! I’ll give Totsky all the money, but without money, Ganya won’t take me!”

“The prince will take it!” – inserts the malicious Ferdyshchenko. "Is it true?" - Nastasya Filippovna turns to the prince. “True,” he confirms. “And I’m not taking you low, but honest, Nastasya Filippovna.” I am nothing, and you suffered... You are throwing seventy-five thousand back to Totsky... No one here will do this. But you and I, perhaps, will not be poor, but rich: I received a letter from Moscow in Switzerland that I should receive a large inheritance from a deceased relative, a rich merchant.”

Chapter XVI. The guests freeze in surprise. “Aren’t you ashamed, prince, then it will happen that your bride lived with Totsky as a kept woman?” – asks Nastasya Filippovna. “You are proud, Nastasya Filippovna,” Myshkin replies, “and that makes you feel guilty in vain. And when I saw your portrait just now, it immediately seemed to me that it was as if you were already calling me...”

“I, Prince, have long dreamed of someone like you! - she exclaims. - But can I ruin you? We're going with you, Rogozhin! You, prince, need Aglaya Epanchina, and not someone as dishonest as me!”

“Ganka! - Nastasya Filippovna shouts, snatching the pack from Rogozhin. “I took these hundred thousand overnight and now I’ll throw them into the fireplace!” If you pull a pack out of the fire with your bare hands, it’s all yours!”

She throws the pack into the fire. Ganya, looking at her with a crazy smile, faints. Nastasya Filippovna snatches the pack from the fire with tongs: “The whole pack is Gana! I didn’t go, but I held out! This means there is more self-love than thirst for money.”

She leaves in a troika with Rogozhin. The prince rushes after them in another cab.

Dostoevsky “The Idiot”, part 2 – summary

Chapter I. Six months have passed since Nastasya Filippovna’s memorable birthday. The Epanchin family learned that after an orgy with Rogozhin that night at the Ekateringofsky station, she immediately disappeared. It soon became clear: she was in Moscow, and Rogozhin and the prince immediately went there, one after another; however, the prince also had a matter of inheritance in Moscow. The morning after that orgy, Ganya brought a wad of 100 thousand to the prince who returned to his apartment. He quit his secretarial service with General Epanchin.

Rogozhin found Nastasya Filippovna in Moscow, but there she ran away from him twice more, and in last time Prince Myshkin also disappeared from the city along with her. The inheritance he received was not as large as expected, and he also distributed a considerable part of it to various dubious claimants.

General Lizaveta Prokofyevna and her daughters are very interested in the fate of the prince. The project of Totsky’s marriage with the eldest of the three Epanchin sisters, Alexandra, is meanwhile being upset. But things are heading towards Adelaide’s imminent wedding with a young handsome and rich man, Prince Shch. Shch’s friend, Yevgeny Pavlovich Radomsky, a social wit and heartthrob, begins to court Aglaya.

Varya Ivolgina, after her brother lost his job, married the moneylender Ptitsyn and moved in with him with all her relatives. Varya and her younger brother Kolya become close to the Epanchin family.

Before Easter, Kolya unexpectedly gives Aglaya a strange letter from Prince Myshkin: “I need you, I really need you. I wish you happiness with all my heart and I want to ask if you are happy?” Aglaya is very happy about this letter.

Chapter II. Exactly six months after Nastasya Filippovna’s birthday, Prince Myshkin comes to St. Petersburg again, having previously received a letter from Lebedev. He reports in it that Nastasya Filippovna returned to St. Petersburg, and here Rogozhin found her again. Having gotten off the train, the prince suddenly feels the hot and unpleasant gaze of two someone's eyes on him in the station crowd.

The prince visits Lebedev, who says that Rogozhin is again persuading Nastasya Filippovna to marry him. Already knowing Parfyon’s gloomy, jealous character, she is horrified by such a prospect, but Rogozhin is very persistent. “And from you, prince,” adds Lebedev, “she wants to hide even more, and here is wisdom!”

Chapter III. From Lebedev the prince goes to the gloomy, dirty green house of Rogozhin. Parfyon greets him without much joy. The prince accidentally notices: Rogozhin has the same look that he caught on himself at the station.

The prince assures Rogozhin: “I will not interfere with your marriage to Nastasya Filippovna, although I feel that you will certainly destroy her, and you too. But I myself love her not with love, but with pity.” The sight and voice of Prince Parfyon softens a little. He tells how Nastasya Filippovna tried to break up with him in Moscow, how he beat her, and then, asking for forgiveness, “didn’t sleep for a day and a half, didn’t eat, didn’t drink, got on his knees in front of her.” She either scolded him or wanted to kill him, and when she went to bed, she didn’t lock the room behind her: “I’m not afraid of you!” But, seeing his despair, she still promised to get married: “I’ll marry you, Parfen Semyonovich: I’ll die anyway.” However, then she ran away again, and being found here in St. Petersburg does not promise anything about the wedding. “You have, he says, Parfen Semenych, strong passions and there is a great mind. Without love for me, you would have sat down, like your father, to save money and, perhaps, you would have accumulated not two million, but ten, and you would have died of hunger on your bags, because you have passion in everything, you bring everything to passion.”

The prince is shocked: “Why is she going under the knife herself, marrying you?” - “Yes, that’s why he’s coming for me, because the knife is waiting for me!” She doesn’t love me, but she loves you, understand! She just thinks that it is impossible for her to marry you, because by doing so she will disgrace you and ruin you. “I am, he says, known to be what I am.” That’s why she ran away from you then...”

The prince, listening in excitement, absentmindedly takes a knife lying by the book on the table. Rogozhin immediately nervously snatches it from Myshkin’s hands...

Chapter IV. Rogozhin sees off the departing prince. In the corridor they pass by a painting - a copy of Holbein's "Dead Christ", where the Savior is depicted in the tomb, beaten and blackened, like an ordinary mortal man. Stopping, Rogozhin asks the prince if he believes in God: “I like to look at this picture.” “Yes, faith can disappear from this picture!” - Myshkin exclaims. “Even that disappears,” confirms Parfyon.

Dead Christ. Artist Holbein the Younger

The prince tells him how, having recently stayed at a hotel, he learned that the night before one peasant with the prayer “Lord, forgive me!” stabbed another to death for a silver watch. Then the prince heard from a simple woman he accidentally met a comparison God's joy about a repentant sinner with the joy of a mother who noticed the first smile on her baby. Myshkin marveled at the depth of this thought, which “expressed at once the whole essence of Christianity.”

Parfyon suddenly invites the prince to exchange crosses - to fraternize. He is drawn to the other half of the house, to his mother, who is weak-minded due to old age. She baptizes Myshkin. But when parting, the prince sees that Rogozhin can hardly force himself to hug him. “So take her, if it’s fate! Yours! I give in!.. Remember Rogozhin!” - he says to Myshkin in a trembling voice and quickly leaves.

Chapter V The prince is about to go to his dachas in Pavlovsk, but, having already boarded the carriage, he suddenly gets out. Before boarding at the station, he again imagined Rogozhin’s eyes in the crowd. Perhaps he is watching: will the prince go to Nastasya Filippovna? For what? What does he want to do in this case?.. In the window of a station shop, the prince suddenly sees the same knife as on Rogozhin’s table...

It's stuffy outside. The mental burden that gripped the prince resembles the approach of an epileptic seizure, which happened to him before. Myshkin drives away the thought that Rogozhin is capable of encroaching on his life. But his feet themselves carry him to the house where Nastasya Filippovna settled. The prince knows this address from Lebedev and has a painful desire to check whether Rogozhin will follow him. Having reached the house and turning from the door, he sees Parfyon standing across the intersection.

None of them fit together. The prince goes to his hotel. At the gate he notices a man flashing ahead, and when he goes up the stairs, Rogozhin rushes at him from a dark corner with a knife. The prince is saved from a blow only by a sudden seizure: from it he suddenly falls with a terrible cry, and Rogozhin, confused, runs away.

The prince is found by Kolya Ivolgin, who was waiting for him at the hotel, and transported to Lebedev’s dacha in Pavlovsk: Myshkin had agreed to rent it even earlier.

Chapter VI. The prince quickly recovers from his seizure at the dacha. Friends and acquaintances come here to see him, and soon the Epanchin family also visits. In a humorous conversation, Adelaide and Kolya accidentally mention the “poor knight,” who is better than whom there is no one in the world. The beautiful Aglaya is at first embarrassed by these words, and then explains to her mother: she and her sisters recently remembered Pushkin’s poem about this knight. Having set himself the “image of pure beauty” as his ideal, the knight believed him and gave him his whole life. Having announced: “I love the poor knight and respect his exploits!”, Aglaya goes out to the middle of the terrace and stands right in front of the prince to read this poem.

Chapter VII. She recites it with great feeling, but replaces the letters of the inscription on the knight's shield A. M. D. (Hail the Mother of God!) with N.F.B.(Nastasya Filippovna Barashkova) . The prince wonders what Aglaya wants to express: mockery of him or a true feeling of delight. Evgeny Pavlovich Radomsky, who just entered with a sarcastic look, seems to be leaning towards the first explanation.

Lebedev's daughter, Vera, informs the prince that four young men are rushing to him. One of them calls himself “the son of Pavlishchev,” the deceased guardian of the prince, who treated him in Switzerland at his own expense. Myshkin had already heard about this murky affair that was tarnishing his reputation. The Epanchins also heard about him. Aglaya, with burning eyes, advises the prince to immediately and resolutely explain himself to those who came. Lebedev explains: these are extreme nihilists.

The prince asks to let them in. Enter the “son of Pavlishchev” (Antip Burdovsky), nephew of Lebedev (Doktorenko), retired lieutenant boxer Keller from the former drunken Rogozhin company and the son of captain Terentyeva Ippolit, a young man in the last stage of consumption.

Chapter VIII. Nihilists try to behave cheekily and brazenly. Lebedev brings a “progressive” newspaper with an article about the prince that they published. Kolya reads the article aloud.

The prince is ridiculed there as an idiot who, by a trick of fate, received a large inheritance. Then it is said that the “voluptuous serf owner” Pavlishchev allegedly seduced in his youth a peasant girl - Burdovsky’s mother, and now the prince “not by law, but by justice” should have given Burdovsky (“Pavlishchev’s son”) “tens of thousands” that Pavlishchev spent on his treatment in Switzerland. The article ends with a vile, illiterate poem-epigram about the prince.

The prince's friends are stunned by the disgusting tone of the article: “As if fifty lackeys wrote it together.” But Myshkin himself announces that he has decided to give Burdovsky 10 thousand rubles. He explains: the whole case, apparently, was started by the fraudulent lawyer Chebarov, and Burdovsky, most likely, is sincerely convinced that he is “Pavlishchev’s son.” The prince asks that Ganya Ivolgin, who is present here, who has already dealt with it at his request, talk in more detail about the matter.

Chapter IX. Ganya says: Pavlishchev once fed pure feeling to the sister of Burdovsky’s mother, a peasant girl. When she died young, he set aside a large dowry for her sister, and helped her a lot even after her marriage and the birth of her son. This is where the rumors about his relationship with this sister really arose, but it is easy to prove that they are lies. Burdovsky's mother is now in great need, and the prince recently supported her with money.

Having heard all this, Burdovsky shouts that he renounces his claims. Lizaveta Prokofyevna Epanchina scolds the nihilists in indignation. “Crazy! Yes, out of vanity and pride and then you will overeat each other.” She is also indignant at the prince: “Are you still asking them for forgiveness?” However, the general’s wife softens when Ippolit Terentyev begins to cough violently, with blood, and explains that he only has two weeks to live.

ChapterX. The prince and Lizaveta Prokofievna treat Ippolit to tea. Evgeny Pavlovich looks at this scene with mockery. “But from your theories it’s easy to jump straight to the right of force and even murder,” he remarks to Hippolyta. "So what?" - he casually throws out. “It’s just that, according to my observations, our liberal is never able to allow someone to have his own special conviction and not immediately respond to his opponent with a curse or something worse,” answers Evgeniy Pavlovich.

Hippolyte says goodbye, saying that he is going home to die: “Nature is very mocking... She creates the best creatures in order to then laugh at them.” He begins to sob, however, immediately embarrassed by his weakness, he attacks the prince: “I hate you, Jesuit, treacly little soul, idiot, millionaire benefactor!”

The nihilists are leaving. Dissatisfied with the excessive kindness of Prince Epanchina, they leave the terrace - and then suddenly a shiny carriage with two ladies appears.

One of them turns out to be Nastasya Filippovna. She shouts to Evgeny Pavlovich about some of his debts and bills, which, at her request, Rogozhin bought and will now wait to collect. Radomsky is shocked by the publicity of information that is unpleasant for him. The stroller is leaving. Prince Myshkin, having heard the voice of the woman fatal to him, is close to fainting.

ChapterXI. The prince and the Epanchins are puzzling over the purpose of Nastasya Filippovna’s mysterious act. Ganya confirms the rumor that Radomsky has large debts. It gradually becomes clear that Nastasya Filippovna apparently tried to upset Radomsky’s engagement to Aglaya by exposing him in unseemly deeds.

After Nastasya Filippovna appears, the prince is overcome by a heavy feeling: fate is irresistibly drawing him into something terrible.

ChapterXII. Three days after a quarrel with the prince over Ippolit, Lizaveta Prokofyevna runs up to him and demands a frank explanation: does he love Aglaya and is he married to Nastasya Filippovna, as rumors have it?

The prince replies that he is not married to Nastasya Filippovna, and only shows Lizaveta Prokofyevna the note he received from Aglaya, where she, in a daring tone, forbids him to visit their family. Lizaveta Prokofyevna grabs the prince by the hand and drags him to her dacha. “Innocent simpleton! She's the one with the fever. It was annoying that you weren’t going, but I didn’t realize that you couldn’t write to an idiot like that, because he’d take you literally…”

Dostoevsky “The Idiot”, part 3 – summary

Chapter I. The prince at the Epanchins' dacha listens to Yevgeny Pavlovich's speech: Russian liberals until now have only come from two strata: the landowners and the seminarians. But both of these classes separated from the rest of the nation long ago. That’s why our liberals have completely non-national views, they attack not the order of things, but Russia itself, being, without noticing it, stupid conservatives.

The prince agrees with this. He also agrees that the current theories of nihilists that a poor person has naturally You may have the idea of ​​resorting to even murder to improve your situation - a very dangerous phenomenon. “How come you didn’t notice exactly the same distortion of ideas in the Burdovsky case?” – asks Radomsky. Lizaveta Prokofyevna in response says that the prince received a letter from Burdovsky with repentance - “but we did not receive such a letter, and it is not for us to turn up our noses in front of him.” Hippolyte also repented before the prince.

Lizaveta Prokofyevna invites the whole family to the music at the station.

Chapter II. Out of the kindness of his soul, the prince not only does not hold a grudge against Radomsky, who ridiculed him, but also apologizes to him. Aglaya, hearing this, exclaims: “You are more honest, noble, kinder and smarter than everyone else! Why do you place yourself below them? Then he screams in hysterics: “Everyone is teasing me that I will marry you!” This too frank scene of Aglaya expressing her feelings for the prince can be smoothed over only by general laughter.

Everyone goes to the music. Along the way, Aglaya quietly points the prince to a green bench in the park: “I like to sit here in the morning.” At the orchestra, the prince sits next to Aglaya, absentmindedly. Suddenly Nastasya Filippovna appears, accompanied by a company of dubious-looking people. Passing by the Epanchins, she suddenly speaks loudly to Radomsky, reporting the suicide of his uncle, who turned out to be a major embezzler. “And you retired well in advance, you cunning fellow!”

Lizaveta Prokofyevna immediately leads her family away from the scandal. “This thing needs a whip!” - Meanwhile, one officer, a friend of Yevgeny Pavlovich, exclaims about Nastasya Filippovna. She, hearing these words, whips him in the face with a thin cane. The officer rushes at her, but the prince holds him by the arms. Nastasya Filippovna is taken away from nowhere by Rogozhin.

Chapter III. The prince follows the Epanchins and, thoughtfully, sits alone on the terrace of their dacha. As if by chance, Aglaya comes out to him. She first starts an extraneous conversation with him, and then puts a note in his hands.

The prince leaves the dacha with General Epanchin. On the way, he says: Aglaya has just told everyone: Nastasya Filippovna “has taken it into her head to marry me off to the prince at all costs, and for that, Evgeniy Pavlych will survive from us.”

Having parted with the general, the prince unfolds Aglaya’s note and reads in it an invitation to a meeting in the morning at the green bench. His head is spinning with happiness. Suddenly Rogozhin appears. He tells the prince that Nastasya Filippovna really wants to marry him to Aglaya and even writes letters to her. She promised Rogozhin to marry him immediately after the wedding of Aglaya and Myshkin.

The prince is happy with Rogozhin. He doesn’t blame him at all for the attempted murder: “I know that you were in such a position that you only thought about her.” Although Rogozhin does not repent too much of his action, the prince takes him to Lebedev’s dacha to celebrate his birthday.

Chapter IV. There are already quite a lot of people there. Drunk Lebedev makes a thoughtful speech about how all scientific and practical direction last centuries damned. Its advocates hope to ensure universal prosperity through material growth, but “carts that bring bread to humanity, without a moral basis, can coolly exclude a significant part of humanity from enjoying what they bring, which has already happened. A friend of humanity with shaky moral foundations is a cannibal of humanity.” In the impoverished Middle Ages, people were united by a strong moral and religious thought, but now - where is it? Everyone relies on humanity’s desire for self-preservation, but people are no less characterized by the desire for self-destruction.

Chapter V Ippolit, sitting right there, excited, suddenly announces that he will now read the article he wrote. He begins with the fact that he will soon die of consumption. The article then tells how he had a nightmare: a disgusting reptile, like a scorpion, tried to bite him in the room, but, fortunately, was chewed up by the family dog.

Hippolyte announces that he has decided: since there are only a few weeks left to live, then it is not worth living. But he admits that when he passionately argued on the prince’s terrace, insisting on Burdovsky’s right, he secretly dreamed “how they would all suddenly spread their arms, and take me into their arms, and ask me for forgiveness for something, and I would ask them for forgiveness.” "

Chapter VI. The nervous Ippolit further talks about his contradictory emotional impulses: before, he either began to deliberately torment those around him, or succumbed to attacks of generosity and once managed to help one poor provincial doctor who had lost his job.

Being familiar with Rogozhin, Ippolit once visited his house and saw that very picture of Holbein’s Christ. She shocked him too. At the sight of the disfigured body of Christ, Hippolytus had the idea that Nature was simply a huge, insensitive machine, a dark, arrogant and senseless force that had captured and crushed a priceless being, for whose sake the world was created.

In Hippolytus's new dreams, someone shows him Nature in the form of a disgusting tarantula. “I can’t stay in a life that takes such forms that offend me,” he decides.

Chapter VII.“I decided to shoot myself in Pavlovsk, at sunrise,” announces Ippolit. “What is all the beauty of the world to me if I’m an outcast in it?” Having finished reading the article, he expects his listeners to be greatly impressed by it, but he sees only disappointment around him. Then he grabs a pistol from his pocket and shoots himself in the temple - but it misfires! Immediately, amid general laughter, it turns out that there was no primer in the pistol.

Crying from shame, Hippolytus is put to bed, and the prince goes for a walk in the park. He is sad: Hippolytus’ confession reminded him of his own thoughts during his illness in Switzerland. The prince falls asleep on a green bench - and in the morning Aglaya wakes him up there.

Chapter VIII. At first, Aglaya childishly invites the prince to flee abroad with her and do useful work there. But he immediately begins to wonder if he loves Nastasya Filippovna. “No,” the prince answers, “she brought me too much grief. But she herself is deeply unhappy. This unfortunate woman is convinced that she is the most fallen, most vicious creature and torments herself with the consciousness of her shame! In the constant consciousness of shame there lies for her some kind of terrible, unnatural pleasure.”

Aglaya says that Nastasya Filippovna writes letters to her. In them she convinces that only Aglaya can make the prince happy. “This is madness,” says the prince. “No, it's jealousy! - exclaims Aglaya. “She won’t marry Rogozhin and will kill herself the next day, as soon as we get married!” The prince is amazed by such insight and understands: Aglaya, who just looked so childish, is in fact far from a child.

Chapter IX. Lebedev loses 400 rubles. The evidence points to General Ivolgin. He stole so that he could again go to his beloved captain Terentyeva, who did not want to accept him without money.

Chapter X The prince reads with anguish the letters from Nastasya Filippovna, full of self-flagellation, given to him by Aglaya. N.F. glorifies Aglaya in them as innocent perfection, and calls himself a fallen and finished woman. “I hardly live anymore. Next to me are two terrible eyes of Rogozhin. I'm sure he has a razor hidden in his drawer. He loves me so much that he could no longer help but hate me. And he will kill me before our wedding.”

In the evening, the prince wanders around the park in melancholy. He accidentally wanders into the Epanchins' dacha, but realizing that it is very late, he leaves from there. In the park, Nastasya Filippovna suddenly comes out from behind the trees to meet him: “Have you been to see her? Are you happy?" She throws herself on her knees in front of him.

Nastasya Filippovna is taken away by Rogozhin who approaches. Then he returns and explains: he and she came to the park specially in the evening. Nastasya Filippovna wanted to see the prince leaving Aglaya. “Have you read the letters? - asks Rogozhin. “Do you remember about the razor?” The prince is shocked that Nastasya Filippovna let Parfyon read such words about him. “So, are you happy?” – Rogozhin asks with a grin. "No no no!" - exclaims the prince.

Dostoevsky “The Idiot”, part 4 – summary

Chapter I. Ganya Ivolgin leaves no plans for Aglaya. In his favor, the Epanchins have been intrigued by his sister, Varya, for a long time. However, now she tells Gana: all hopes have collapsed, Aglaya is going to marry the prince. Tomorrow the Epanchins are hosting important guests, apparently to announce their engagement.

Ganya is also annoyed by the news about his father’s theft of 400 rubles. Hippolyte already knows about the theft from his mother, gloating about it.

Chapter II. A quarrel between General Ivolgin and Ippolit, who mockingly ridicules the new fairy tales of the general (a big fan of lying). Annoyed that his relatives do not want to support him against Ippolit, Ivolgin leaves home.

Skirmish between Hippolytus and Ganya. Hippolyte ridicules Ganya, who tried in vain to make him his instrument in the fight against the prince for Aglaya’s hand. Ganya responds by mocking Hippolytus’s failed “suicide.”

Chapter III. Even before all these events, Lebedev tells the prince: after one of his joint drinking sessions with General Ivolgin, the missing wallet with money was suddenly found under a chair, where it had not been placed before. Lebedev, however, pretended not to notice the wallet. Then, after a new visit from General Ivolgin, he found himself in the field of his coat, where he fell through someone neatly cut pocket. General in last days Out of annoyance, he began to treat Lebedev rudely, and in retaliation he exposed the ruffled hem of his coat in front of him, still as if not noticing the wallet lying there.

Chapter IV. General Ivolgin comes to the prince and complains about Lebedev. He does not want to believe that Ivolgin in 1812, as a child, was Napoleon’s page in Moscow. In mockery of the general, Lebedev composed his own story: supposedly French soldiers shot off his leg as a child, and he buried it in the cemetery, and then his wife did not notice throughout the marriage that her husband had an artificial leg.

Soon after his visit to the prince, the general leaves home (see Chapter 2), but on the street he falls into the arms of his son Kolya, struck by a blow.

Chapter V With these several comic chapters, Dostoevsky only highlights the deep tragedy of the novel’s approaching denouement.

The Epanchins have not yet firmly decided whether to give Aglaya in marriage to the prince. Ippolit warns Myshkin that Ganya is “undermining” him. Then he again reminds him that he will soon die, and asks the prince’s opinion: how to do this in the most worthy way. “Pass us and forgive us our happiness!” - the prince answers.

Chapter VI. Before the dinner party, which should finally decide the issue of the wedding, Aglaya asks the prince not to talk about serious topics during it, and to beware of breaking an expensive Chinese vase in the living room with some careless movement.

In the evening the prince comes for dinner. Very high-ranking officials gather at the Epanchins', but the tone of their conversation seems friendly and benevolent to the prince. An enthusiastic mood grows in his soul.

Chapter VII. The prince eagerly gets involved in the general conversation, which touches on the topic of Catholicism. Myshkin insists: this is a non-Christian faith and even worse than atheism. Catholicism preaches not just zero, but a slandered, opposite Christ, for it is based on the Western Church’s craving for state power, “for the sword.” It was out of disgust for the spiritual impotence of Catholicism that atheism and socialism emerged. And Russian emigrants tend to passionately indulge in European teachings, since our educated stratum has long been torn away from its native soil and also has no spiritual homeland. We must return to national origins - and the whole world, perhaps, will be saved by the Russian Christ.

Hotly waving his hands during his speech, the prince breaks that same Chinese vase. He's shocked fulfilled prophecy. Inspired even more, he begins to praise Russian high society, which he now sees in front of him. It turned out to be better than the rumors about him, and he needs to support his primacy in society with selfless service to the people. “Let’s become servants so that we can be elders,” the prince enthusiastically calls, and, overwhelmed with feelings, falls in a fit.

Chapter VIII. The next day after the seizure, the Epanchins visit the prince - friendly, but making it clear that due to the severity of his illness, the idea of ​​marriage with Aglaya has been abandoned. However, Aglaya takes the opportunity to secretly tell the prince: let him wait for her to come to him this evening. Ippolit, who arrived soon, reveals amazing news to the prince: at Aglaya’s request, he helped arrange a date for her with Nastasya Filippovna, and it is scheduled for this evening.

The prince is horrified. Aglaya, who arrived in the evening, takes him with her to a dacha, where Nastasya Filippovna and Rogozhin are already waiting for them.

Aglaya begins to tell her rival about her love for the prince, accusing that Nastasya Filippovna herself tortured and abandoned him out of selfishness. “You can only love your shame and the constant thought that you have been insulted. You make faces. Why didn't you just leave here instead of writing me letters? If you wanted to be an honest woman, then why didn’t you then leave your seducer, Totsky, simply... without theatrical performances, and didn’t go to the laundress?”

Nastasya Filippovna enragedly declares that Aglaya is unable to understand her and that she came to her out of cowardice: to personally make sure “whether he loves me more than you, or not, because you are terribly jealous.” In hysterics, she shouts to Aglaya: “Do you want me to tell him now, and he will immediately leave you and stay with me forever? If he doesn’t come to me now and doesn’t leave you, then take him, I give in!..”

Both women look at the prince. Pointing pleadingly at Nastasya Filippovna, he says to Aglaya: “Is this possible! She’s so unhappy!” Aglaya runs out of the house, covering her face. The prince rushes after her, but Nastasya Filippovna frantically grabs him from behind: “After her? For her?". She kicks Rogozhin out and then laughs and cries for a long time in the chair, and the prince sits next to her and strokes her head.

Chapter IX. All of Pavlovsk learns that the prince’s wedding with Nastasya Filippovna has been scheduled. After the fatal date, Aglaya, ashamed to go home, rushes to the Ptitsins, where Ganya, taking advantage of her condition, tries to make her love confession, but she rejects him. An hour later, the prince comes to the Epanchins’ dacha. However, they, having learned from Myshkin about what happened, immediately refuse him the house. The prince then goes to the Epanchins every day, asking to see Aglaya. Every day they show him the door, but the next day, as if not remembering it, he comes again, although he does not part with Nastasya Filippovna.

Chapter X In the last days before the wedding, Nastasya Filippovna was very excited. She tries to look cheerful, but at times she gets desperate. Once she imagines that Rogozhin is hiding at their house with a knife.

On the wedding day, Nastasya Filippovna proudly goes out to go to church in front of a huge crowd of hostile onlookers. But suddenly seeing Rogozhin in the crowd, she rushes to him: “Save me! Take me away! He quickly takes her in a carriage to the train.

The prince, having learned about this, only quietly says: “In her condition, this is completely in the order of things.” In the evening, Vera Lebedeva finds him in terrible despair. He asks her to wake him up for the first morning train tomorrow.

Chapter XI. In the morning the prince arrives in St. Petersburg. At Rogozhin’s house they tell him that Parfyon is not there. The prince looks for him and Nastasya Filippovna in other places, then thoughtfully walks down the street.

From behind, Rogozhin tugs on his sleeve: “Come to me, she I have". They walk in silence, without speaking. Parfyon is in some kind of half-oblivion.

He secretly takes the prince into his house, into the very room where they had already sat together once before. In the twilight, the motionless body of Nastasya Filippovna, stabbed to death by Parfyon, can be seen on the bed. Rogozhin offers to spend the night together on the floor next to her until the police come.

The prince is initially stunned, but then suddenly clearly understands the irreparability of what happened. Rogozhin, who is nearby, seems to forget about his presence and mutters something to himself, remembering her. The prince, crying bitterly, begins to hug and calm him down.

This is how the people who enter find them. The prince, in complete madness, does not recognize anyone.

Chapter XII. Rogozhin was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. At the trial, he does not try to mitigate his guilt.

Through the efforts of Evgeniy Pavlovich Radomsky and Kolya Ivolgin, the prince is transported to the former Swiss clinic of Schneider, who announces that now this patient is unlikely to be cured. Radomsky, who remained abroad, visits the mad prince. One day he meets at the clinic with the Epanchin family, who have come to take pity on the unfortunate man. Aglaya, however, is not among them: in Europe, this girl, prone to idealism, is passionately carried away by one rogue who pretended to be a Polish patriotic count, a fighter for the liberation of his homeland...