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Nikolai Ardalionovich Ivolgin (Kolya)
Totsky is an extraordinarily rich and high-ranking middle-aged man who was previously the guardian of Nastasya after she was orphaned as a young girl. Beginning when she was 16, it is implied that Totsky sexually abused Nastasya over a number of years. When she vows to seek revenge on him he becomes afraid of her, and (unsuccessfully) attempts to buy her off by providing her with a luxurious apartment and offering a huge dowry for her marriage.
Afanasy Ivanovich Totsky Quotes in The Idiot
The The Idiot quotes below are all either spoken by Afanasy Ivanovich Totsky or refer to Afanasy Ivanovich Totsky. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part One, Chapter Four
Quotes
But another rumor he involuntarily believed and feared to the point of nightmare: he had heard for certain that Nastasya Filippovna was supposedly aware in the highest degree that Ganya was marrying only for money, that Ganya’s soul was dark, greedy, impatient, envious, and boundlessly vain, out of all proportion to anything; that, although Ganya had indeed tried passionately to win Nastasya Filippovna over before, now that the two friends had decided to exploit that passion, which had begun to be mutual, for their own advantage, and to buy Ganya by selling him Nastasya Filippovna as a lawful wife, he had begun to hate her like his own nightmare. It was as if passion and hatred strangely came together in his soul, and though, after painful hesitations, he finally consented to marry “the nasty woman,” in his soul he swore to take bitter revenge on her for it and to “give it to her” later, as he supposedly put it.
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Explanation and Analysis:
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Afanasy Ivanovich Totsky Quotes in The Idiot
The The Idiot quotes below are all either spoken by Afanasy Ivanovich Totsky or refer to Afanasy Ivanovich Totsky. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part One, Chapter Four
Quotes
But another rumor he involuntarily believed and feared to the point of nightmare: he had heard for certain that Nastasya Filippovna was supposedly aware in the highest degree that Ganya was marrying only for money, that Ganya’s soul was dark, greedy, impatient, envious, and boundlessly vain, out of all proportion to anything; that, although Ganya had indeed tried passionately to win Nastasya Filippovna over before, now that the two friends had decided to exploit that passion, which had begun to be mutual, for their own advantage, and to buy Ganya by selling him Nastasya Filippovna as a lawful wife, he had begun to hate her like his own nightmare. It was as if passion and hatred strangely came together in his soul, and though, after painful hesitations, he finally consented to marry “the nasty woman,” in his soul he swore to take bitter revenge on her for it and to “give it to her” later, as he supposedly put it.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
