The Idiot: Part Four, Chapter Six Summary & Analysis

The Epanchins are hosting a gathering at their dacha, which Princess Belokonsky will attend. General and Mrs. Epanchin are hoping that if Belokonsky comes to approve of Myshkin, the rest of “society” will follow suit. The evening they have planned is thus a way for a select number of their high-ranking friends to meet Myshkin. Most of the guests are rather old, although Evgeny is also coming as Belokonsky’s escort. Through watching the Epanchins prepare for the event, Myshkin can tell that it—and particularly Belokonsky’s presence—is of utmost importance to them.

The day before the gathering, Aglaya speaks with Myshkin alone. She mocks Mrs. Epanchin’s obsession with high society and its “rules,” and especially her attachment to Belokonsky, whom Aglaya calls a “trashy little hag.” Myshkin suggests that perhaps Aglaya is worried that he will fail to impress at the party, but Aglaya scoffs at this idea. She sarcastically begs him to break the expensive Chinese vase in their drawing room, which was a gift to Mrs. Epanchin. She promises that her mother would “lose her mind and cry in front of everybody” if anything happened to it. She tells Myshkin to sit near the vase and break it by gesturing while he speaks. 

Distressed, Myshkin is worried that he’ll talk excessively from nerves and will indeed break the vase. However, he promises her that he will sit next to her and stay quiet the whole evening. Myshkin notices that he often sees flashes of darkness on Aglaya’s face. He admits that the presence of a certain person still haunts them, but Aglaya immediately shushes him with a look of intense alarm.

That night, Myshkin sleeps badly, gripped by fear that he will have an epileptic fit at the party. He wakes up with a headache and an inexplicable desire to see Rogozhin, and then Ippolit. That morning Lebedev comes to see him, looking ragged and dirty. Lebedev tearfully tells an “incoherent” story, which culminates in Mrs. Epanchin throwing a letter he gave her at him. Lebedev’s answer is highly unclear but seems to indicate that the letter was from Aglaya and addressed to Nastasya, or possibly Rogozhin. Myshkin is horrified. Lebedev eventually shows him the letter, which is actually the note Aglaya wrote to Ganya asking him and Varya to meet her in the park.

Myshkin scolds Lebedev for interfering in this business and showing the letter to Mrs. Epanchin, thereby violating Aglaya’s right to “correspond with whomever she likes.” Eventually Lebedev departs, and Myshkin is left feeling deeply concerned by Aglaya’s evident distress and jealousy. He also realizes that he doesn’t trust Ganya, although he still intends to give him the letter. On the way he runs into Kolya and gives him the letter to give to Ganya. Back at home, Myshkin tells Vera, to her horror, that Lebedev took the letter.

Two hours later Kolya runs to Myshkin with news of General Ivolgin’s stroke. Hoping to help in some way, Myshkin stays at Nina’s, where she and Varya remain constantly at Ivolgin’s bedside. Ganya, meanwhile, is in a state of profound distress but will not go to see his father. Later that day Lebedev arrives, weeping and blaming himself for Ivolgin’s stroke. Seeing how upset he is, Nina assures Lebedev that God will forgive him. During the day, Mrs. Epanchin sends two messengers to check on the general. When Myshkin arrives at the Epanchins’ party, the first thing Mrs. Epanchin does is ask him about Ivolgin’s health.

Looking around him, Myshkin cannot recognize the terrible scene that Aglaya warned him about. In fact, he is quite charmed by the event. In reality, all this charm hides the fact that the people in attendance are “empty.” Although they are all theoretically friends, some of the guests actually hate each other. Those present include a “little old dignitary” and his wife, a high-ranking general, a “baron or a count” with a German name, and an elderly, English-seeming man who is supposedly a distant relative of Mrs. Epanchin. This man is a “fancier of the female sex” and, strangely, Mrs. Epanchin harbors hope that he will propose to Alexandra.

The younger generation of guests includes Prince Shch., Evgeny, and a wealthy heartbreaker named Prince N., who is 45. There are also a few guests who, like the Epanchins, are only middle-ranking yet have some connection to high society. Everyone at the party is in a happy mood. The Epanchins have decided not to introduce Myshkin to the dignitary, who is their benefactor, even though he would not be happy to learn that Aglaya was engaged to someone to whom he had not been introduced. Meanwhile, Prince N. prepares to tell a story that he believes will charm everyone. The Epanchin women look particularly special that evening. Aglaya flirts with Evgeny, but keeps looking at Myshkin, who remains quiet for a while. However then, without necessarily meaning to, he begins to speak.