Ramblings on Dostoevsky’s The Idiot.

Reading Dostoevsky is always an experience. His insight into the human mind really is on another level. He does a particularly good job of bringing you into the chaos of the story. I wish I could read him in his original language.

I love the whole central theme of The Idiot. The characteristics that lead others to call the protagonist “an idiot” are true innocence and purity (I wish I had). The protagonist of Man Alive is also misunderstood by his peers and thought to be insane (though his innocence takes on a different form).

It’s a tragic ending (not unexpected) unlike Crime and Punishment. It is ironic that Nastasya, in her attempt to “do good by” the prince and let him be free, she essentially ruins his life. Dostoevsky’s portrayal of her vascillations between her view of herself as base and wretched and the sentiment that she has been the innocent victim are also profound.

The introduction of and pontificating around the painting The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb are also deeply fascinating. The painting itself is also fascinating. The prince notes that it might damage ones faith. I think it may also serve to strengthen’s ones faith provided they believe in the resurrection. That Jesus himself stooped to death, gruesome and real as portrayed here, can lead to a deeper trust in God, seeing He suffered so.