The Idiot: Part One, Chapter Five Summary & Analysis

General Epanchin knows that Mrs. Epanchin will be shocked when she hears that her only living relative is basically a pauper relying on the charity of others. Yet the general also tells her that Myshkin is “a perfect child,” who is pitiful due to his illness and poverty. After some initial uncertainty, Lizaveta agrees to receive Myshkin for lunch, although she seems worried about how he will behave. The general assures her that Myshkin has wonderful manners even if he is “a bit too simple at times.” Having quickly introduced Myshkin to his family, telling them about the calligraphy he did, General Epanchin rushes off.

Mrs. Epanchin sits Myshkin opposite her and asks if he needs a napkin tied around his neck; he assures he just lays one in his lap. On Mrs. Epanchin’s request, Myshkin tells the women all about his life story. He knows the family history very well, but cannot figure out his relation to Lizaveta. She is thrilled by the conversation and encourages them all to go into the gathering room. She sits Myshkin by the fire and requests that he tell them something. The prince tells them about arriving in Switzerland and feeling terribly sad. He talks about seeing an ass and developing a fondness for the animal, and the sisters make jokes and giggle. Lizaveta apologizes, but Myshkin replies that they’ve done nothing wrong and laughs as well. 

They then discuss kindness, and Mrs. Epanchin admits that she sometimes her feels kindness is a flaw, because she is kind even when she feels angry. However, she also insists that she’s “not as stupid as I seem.” She asks to hear more about Switzerland, and Myshkin explains that he found the natural landscape very beautiful, but that he also always feels “uneasy” in front of nature. He says that his health improved while he was in Switzerland, and that he was happy for almost his whole time there, treasuring every day. He spent a lot of time thinking about how to live, and came to the conclusion that even in prison, one could have an “immense,” meaningful life. 

Aglaya comments that Myshkin is similar to Evlampia Nikolavna, an official’s wife who renounces material goods and lives as minimally as possible. Myshkin qualifies that life in prison can be horribly difficult, but that every life is valuable. He then tells a story of a man he met who was condemned to be executed and was even led to the scaffold before a firing squad. It took 20 minutes for the man’s sentence to be read aloud, during which time the man was absolutely convinced that he was going to die. As the man was dressed and led toward the exact position where he was to be killed, he knew he only had five minutes to live, but to him these five minutes felt eternally long and precious.

The man, who was only 27, said goodbye to his comrades, and then was faced with two minutes in solitude, forced to contemplate his impending death. These minutes were so torturous that he eventually came to hope that the firing squad would just hurry up and kill him already. Myshkin seems to conclude his story, leaving the Epanchin women confused. He then explains that although the man survived, he did not manage to keep living as if every minute was the most precious thing in the world. It is hard to sustain such a “reckoning.” Myshkin thinks that there might be a way to live more “intelligently” than most people, and Aglaya comments that Myshkin may have found it, considering he just said he was happy throughout his time in Switzerland.

Myshkin goes on to explain that he has personally witnessed an execution. He admits that he found it sickening, but that he also “couldn’t tear [his] eyes away.” He says that he already told the story earlier to the valet, and when Mrs. Epanchin comments that this is strange, Aglaya replies that Myshkin is a “democrat.” Myshkin is interested in the idea of portraying the face of a man who will imminently face the guillotine, reflecting that he saw a similar portrait recently in Basel. He says that when he witnessed the execution, he caught the eye of the condemned man and immediately “understood everything.” However, he can’t imagine how one would represent such an expression in a painting.

Thinking aloud, Myshkin imagines the exact details of the period leading up to an execution, including the final meal and drive to the scaffold. He imagines obsessing over how many minutes one has left to live and watching people who are allowed to keep living the rest of their lives. He imagines the man crying on the scaffold, being given the cross to kiss, and craving just a few final moments of peace. Then the sound of the guillotine, at which point the condemned man “knows everything.” Aglaya insists that Myshkin now tells them about when he was in love, but he explains that he wasn’t, just “happy in a different way.”