The Idiot (novel)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

**The Idiot**

Pevear and Volokhonsky translation of The Idiot
Author	Fyodor Dostoevsky
Original title (if not in English)	Идиот^[1]
Country	Russia
Language	Russian language
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher
Released	1869
Media Type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN	NA

The Idiot is a novel written by the Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky in 1869. The original Russian title is Идиот^[1], "Idiot", but definite articles are not used in Russian.

Dostoevsky considered the title "Prince Myshkin" before deciding upon the current one.

1 Plot summary
2 Major themes
3 Film, TV or theatrical adaptations and references
4 Translations to English
5 Notes
6 External links

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Prince Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin returns to Russia after a long absence. Myshkin suffers from epilepsy--just like Fyodor Dostoevsky himself--and is prone to blackouts and periods of apparent insanity. This has been treated with some success in Switzerland, but much of what Russian society views as idiocy is simply honesty and trustfulness, in spite of social conventions. The Myshkin family line is said to end with him and his cousin.

On the train to Saint Petersburg, Myshkin meets and befriends the dark and impassioned Rogozhin. The latter tells the prince about his passion for Nastasya Filipovna, a beautiful woman with a bad reputation. Myshkin arrives at the house of General Yepantchin, who is married to the only other living member of the Myshkin line. Myshkin learns that Ganya, a young go-getter and secretary of the General, wants to marry Nastasya for her dowry. The prince feels an irresistible desire to meet her after hearing about her and even more so when he views a picture of her in the General's office.

At Nastasya's name-day party, Myshkin sees Rogozhin arrive drunk and offer the young woman a large amount of money to follow him. The prince perceives the despair of Nastasya and proposes to her in order to save her from her situation. She, believing the prince's offer stems only from pity, flees with Rogozhin. The two men, formerly bound by friendship, become rivals. Rogozhin even tries to kill his friend with a knife, but is hindered when, due to the stress of the situation, Myshkin falls into an epileptic fit.

Over the course of the novel, Myshkin grows closer to the General's daughter, Aglaya, but he eventually gives her up to save Nastasya, culminating in a final meeting at Rogozhin's home where the young girl confronts the woman. Myshkin moves to leave with Aglaya, but stops when Nastasya questions the fact that he would leave with her and faints into his arms. He decides to marry Nastasya for fear she will return to Rogozhin and never live a healthy life. On the day of the marriage, however, Nastasya again flees with Rogozhin, who then kills her.

The novel ends with Myshkin and Rogozhin lying together by the body of Nastasya: Myshkin sinks into total insanity; Rogozhin is sentenced to labor in Siberia; and Aglaya rushes into an unhappy marriage.

By making Myshkin a paragon of kindness and humility, Dostoyevsky shows what can happen when such a man is confronted by society. Myshkin frequently confronts society's norms with his "idiocy", which is merely his apparently naive approach to life. However, it is merely a search for truth in human relationships, he is not naive about what others say to him and about him, he merely assumes they're true because human beings should have no need for falsehood. The prince frequently faces various social turmoils throughout the novel, petty arguments and ridiculous assumptions. Unfortunately, the "idiot" cannot save himself from society and fails in the end.

[edit] Major themes

The novel was written in Florence, Italy.

Dostoevsky's motives for writing The Idiot stem from his desire to depict the "positively good man". This man is naturally likened to Christ in many ways. Dostoevsky uses Myshkin's introduction to the Petersburg society as a way to contrast the nature of Russian society at the time and the isolation and innocence of this good man. This is highlighted by his conflicts and relationship with Rogozhin. Indeed, Myshkin and Rogozhin are contrasted from the outset. Myshkin is associated with light, Rogozhin with dark. For example, in their initial descriptions on the train, Myshkin is described as having light hair and blue eyes, while Rogozhin has "dark features". Rogozhin's house is submerged in darkness, with iron bars on the windows. He is not only an embodiment of darkness, but surrounded by it. The two charcters are clearly antithetical. If Myshkin be seen as Christ, Rogozhin could easily be seen as the devil. Indeed, 'rog', in Russian, means horn, adding credence to such an assertion, although the primary association of his name is with rogozha ("bast"), possibly hinting at his humble origins. Despite their difference, they are both after Nastasya Fillipovna - good and bad (and mediocre, in the image of Ganya) strive for the same thing. Love itself is shown in various manifestations, spurned by various motives. While vain Ganya wishes to marry Nastasya in order that he might, through acquisition of a large dowry, spark some of the individuality which he senses he lacks, Rogozhin loves Nastasya with a deep passion - a passion which eventually drives him to kill her. Myshkin, however, loves her out of pity, out of Christian love. Thiis love for her supersedes even the romantic love he has for Aglaya. There is a parallel between Rogozhin and the Russian upper-class society. The materialistic society which praises the values Myshkin represents and professes itself to be "good", cannot accomodate Prince Myshkin; Rogozhin, though he truly loves Nastasya, commits murder in the end. Nastasya herself has been corrupted by a depraved society. Her beauty and initial innocence has led Totsky (perhaps the most repugnant of characters in the novel) to keep her as a concubine and she falls into a quasi-madness.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations and references

Several filmmakers have produced adaptations of the novel, among them Akira Kurosawa with Hakuchi (The Idiot), filmed in 1951.

In 2003 Russian State Television produced a 10-hour TV-series of the work, which earned very high ratings.

In the 2004 film The Machinist, directed by Brad Anderson and starring a disturbingly thin Christian Bale, Bale's insomniac character Trevor Reznik attempts to read The Idiot, in between delusions, blackouts and paranoic "revelations". The film is not an adaptation of The Idiot, but does explore many of the same themes of light, dark, madness and free-will that appear in the specific novel as well as many of the overriding themes that appear in all of the works of Dostoevsky.

Russian comedy Down House (2001) features a parody of the novel's plot.

In an episode of the 2001 anime series, "Noir", Mireille Bouquet discusses "The Idiot" with her partner, Kirika Yuumura. Mireille compares the man whom they'd been hired to kill with Prince Myshkin. The man has a cat named after the character in the novel.

The Kollywood director who directed the movie "Chithiram Paesudhadi" adopted the name of Myshkin in reference to the prime character in the novel.

[edit] Translations to English

Since The Idiot was first published in Russian, there have been a number of translations to English over the years, including those by:

Frederick Whishaw (1887)
Constance Garnett (1913)
- revised by Anna Brailovsky (2003)
Eva Martin (1915)
David Magarshack (1955)
Henry and Olga Carlisle (1980)
David McDuff (1991)
Alan Myers (1998)
Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (2002)

The Constance Garnett translation has for many years been accepted as the definitive English translation, but more recently it has come under criticism for being dated. The Garnett translation, however, still remains widely available because it is now in the public domain. Some writers, such as Anna Brailovsky have based their translations on Garnett's. Since the 1990s new English translations have appeared that have make the novel more accessible to English readers. The David McDuff and the Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky translations in particular have been well received.