Characteristic of Prince Myshkin. Where did Prince Myshkin find out about Nastasya Filippovna?

There is an opinion that absolutely positive hero is not interesting. Is it so? Yes and no. Indeed, the "Hero" with a capital letter is often somewhat artificial. His thoughts and actions, as if the whole spectrum of white shades - from snow-white to cream, completely clean and free from resentment, envy and vengeance. Not a single black speck: is this possible ?! And on the other hand - the image of Prince Myshkin in Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel The Idiot. It is impossible, or rather, impossible to recognize him - "positively beautiful", "Prince of Christ", as the author himself called it - uninteresting or even false and false. On the contrary, an amazing metamorphosis: the prince is not an imaginary hero, not a literary character, but a living person with a unique tragic destiny, too ideal for a world of unbridled passions and selfishness.

Main characters

The main character of the novel "The Idiot", Prince Myshkin (characterization of the image creeping down further), is rightfully considered one of the most significant images in the works of Dostoyevsky himself and in the world literature as a whole. In him the presence of Christ is constantly felt. Deprived of all egoism, pride, endowed with an amazing ability to penetrate the very depths of nature and the soul of man, the prince is, rather, not the ideal to be striven for, but the prism through which is a wobbly material world and people with all their virtues And shortcomings, and all those concepts and conventions that we used to follow in life, appear in a different light.

Another exception to the main character of the novel is Nastasya Filippovna Barashkova. Where did Prince Myshkin find out about Nastasya Filippovna? About this later ... He saw her for the first time on a photographic card. The prince's eyes then appeared a woman of extraordinary beauty: her eyes are dark, bottomless, forehead pensive, her face a passion and at the same time some kind of arrogance. Did she like him? Undoubtedly! But this amazing face, once again passing through the transparent prism of his soul, is refracted in the most unexpected way. "The fate of this woman," he says, "is not ordinary, because she suffered a lot of suffering, a cheerful face, but a terrible face". And as if foreseeing trouble, he adds: "Is it good, because if it is good, everything would be saved!"

Where did Prince Myshkin find out about Nastasya Filippovna

End of November. Thaw. The train "Petersburg-Warsaw" in all pairs approached the northern capital - St. Petersburg. In the third-class car, two passengers faced each other. The surprising external similarity of casual companions attracts attention: both people are young, twenty-six - twenty-eight years old, no more, both light-weight, dressed out of fashion and both with "rather remarkable faces."

However, here is also revealed the invisible contrast between them. The first was warmly dressed, almost black-haired, with small but fiery eyes and an arrogant, self-satisfied gaze. The second "was compelled to endure on his shuddered back all the dampness of the November Russian night." He was blond, his eyes huge, blue, intimate and quiet. The names are not yet pronounced aloud, and the suddenly found polarity between these two characters shrinks to the definitions of "black-haired" and "fair-haired", which reinforces and anticipates their further "brotherhood-feud" relationship.

The fateful community-contrast could not pass by, and after a long silence both passengers wished to enter into a conversation, during which their names are revealed - Parfyon Rogozhin and Prince Myshkin, as well as the name of the woman - Princess Barashkova, designed to play the role of a kind of catalyst, accelerator of the tragic denouement . And now in detail, from where Prince Myshkin learned about Nastasya Filippovna.

History of Parfyon Rogozhin

It turns out that five weeks ago Rogozhin, like the prince himself now, with only one knot from his father in Pskov, escaped to his aunt's aunt. There he immediately and lay down in fever, and his parent died in the meantime. He did not let go then, would now be on the place of the deceased. How did he get him so angry?

Everything happened through a noble lady, a princess of her kind, Nastasya Filippovna ... One day, running through Nevsky Prospect, he saw how she, Nastasya Filippovna, walked out of the store slowly, proudly, and sits down in the carriage. At this very moment, and "burned" it. He took ten thousand of his father's fraudulent ways, went anywhere without looking straight to the English store, and he took a pair of diamond pendants for everything. What then under his feet did he have that before him, that at his sides - he saw nothing and did not remember. Afterwards they went with a friend, Zalozhev, directly to her and, without introducing themselves, handed the box, asked to receive the deference from Mr. Rogozhin deferentially. She opened, looked up, smiled and accepted the gift. Further - more fog, after all, the deceased, Semyon Parfyonych, not only that in ten thousand, but for ten rubles with light, will not regret his own son. What to do? Here or go to drown, or give a dairy. Decided the last - took twenty rubles, and flee to Pskov, and there - on taverns, and in the insensibility to roll ... That's where Prince Myshkin learned about Nastasya Filippovna.

What abilities did Prince Myshkin possess?

Already in the first chapters, the character traits of the protagonists are revealed, and the main idea of the author is summed up: Prince Myshkin and Parfen Rogozhin are the personification of two opposite facets of one feeling - love. The first is Christian love, first of all, spiritual, all-pervasive, forgiving, without the expectation of reciprocity. The second is an unrestrained passion, the same all-pervasive, but nothing forgiving.

Gospel motives

Hence the image of the prince - "Prince Christ". What abilities did Prince Myshkin possess? It embodied the idea of F.M. Dostoevsky about an ideal person capable of pushing his personal "I" in the material world and loving his neighbor according to the command of Christ as himself, giving his "I" to others without a remnant with pure thoughts only for the sake of their salvation. However, such an ideal is possible only as a gift of God and can not be acquired by a conscious ability. Yes, in every person Christ is built from birth, but he is not all-embracing. He manifests himself due to various circumstances, but with him lives a different one, with all his forces, opposing the commandments of God. This is confirmed by scenes when Prince Myshkin enters into conversations with these or other characters.

The first thing he always called out was pity and alertness. "Idiot!" They said. But the prince was not a fool in the strict sense of the word. Yes, he saw and understood everything, but there was no humiliation or resentment in him. Yes, a person is great, but he does not have power over his essence, over his destiny, over all the complex and contradictory things that God has put into him. And it contains both Christ and Antichrist. The latter is a truly dark, impudent, cynical and at the same time eternal power, which is rampant, exposed, and revels in its sinfulness: "See everything as I am!" Christ is silent, does not enter into a dispute, does not cry and does not prove his superiority. He waits, when the demons have plenty of fun. "Are you the way you were now? May it be! "Exclaims Prince Nastasya Filippovna. And she really is not what she is - a vengeful, cruel and dissolute, but like all the others. And here comes the amazing thing: faith, true faith in man, in his divine principle, faith without a shadow of pride and condemnation, with one glance, in one word stops all excesses, and the dark turns to light. Forever or not? No, only for a moment. But, Lord, what an instant!

The prince was neither a fool, nor an "idiot" malacholnym. He "understood within him a born and yet secret Word that is hidden in his soul" and "very soon and trustingly encouraged" and expressed sincerely, generously, selflessly and passionately. And they also quickly and sincerely extended to him, they loved him in a minute or two, they invariably wanted to talk with him, they already put their hopes on him, they already trusted him with secrets, kissed his hand and confessed. The proud girls of Epanchina, the general, the scoundrel Lebedev, Hippolyte, the infamous fraudster Doctorenko, the involuntary impostor Burdovsky, who lost "every sign of morality" Keller, etc. - all the same thanks to the prince and only in his presence reveal the Christ in himself. But, unfortunately, "all of them are pre-humble before the comedy," because outside the gospel, without the prince, they once again found themselves the same: pride, fear, ambition, prejudice and greed still prevailed.

The reverse effect

It is also impossible to deny the reverse influence of the "secular world" on the life of the prince. Yes, he wants to be - and no doubt is! - the pivot, the equilibrium, capable of revealing, ordering, reconciling and ennobling, but at the same time, a full and full of events captures life. He longs for her and for a while, albeit very short, becomes her active participant. So, touching, warm and full of lyricism the relationship between Prince and Aglaya grow into something more - "little by little he became terribly happy", leaving behind his previous fears and doubts, and for a moment it seems - this is the long-awaited salvation! But the betrothal was not destined to happen ...

And it's not the prince's epileptic illness, not Nastasya Filippovna, not Rogozhin, and not in the immeasurable desire to save him all and all, or rather, in them, but they are just the tip of the iceberg. Under the dark stratum of water, there is another - the impossibility to betray one's essence, and therefore change one's destiny. How could Prince Leo Nikolayevich (to the question of Prince Myshkin's name) change the world around, so the world could not change it. Did the prince realize this? Yes. Having found himself in the very center of intricate intricacies and fatal passions, he realizes that the death of all those with whom his destiny bound him, and his own is inevitable. All he can do is bow to their suffering, resign himself to destiny - God's plan as truly right, and selflessly share their fate with them - perhaps this will alleviate torture a little. Unbearable ordeals, spiritual torment and death, on the one hand, create a condensed atmosphere of despair, and on the other - are necessary, for only they lead to the knowledge of God, Resurrection and immortality. And here it feels like an inexpressible joy, tenderness and enthusiasm - here it is an incomprehensible truth! - and a deep and, it is possible to say, exalted flour. The Antichrist fights against God, and the eternal battlefield is the souls of men ...