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Part One, Chapter Three
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Idiot, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Innocence v. Foolishness
Money, Greed, and Corruption
Social Hierarchy, Authority, and Rebellion
Absurdity and Nihilism
Passion, Violence, and Christianity
Summary
Analysis
The Epanchin sisters are strong and healthy, with big appetites. Their mother, Mrs. Lizaveta Prokofyevna Epanchin, also likes to eat a lot. This morning, when General Epanchin comes to kiss his wife and daughters good morning, he notices that there is something “peculiar” about their faces. The general is a sensitive and tactful father, and has avoided rushing his daughter’s marriages. Every year the Epanchin family becomes wealthier and more respected, and thus it is advantageous that the daughters have thus far been waiting to get married.
Again, this passage emphasizes that the role of marriage has far less to do with love than it has to do with pragmatic economic and social arrangements. It also contains a useful reminder that the fortunes of an individual or family can rise and fall rather quickly. This illustrates an increase in social mobility during the novel’s contemporary time period.
Themes
Totsky, a remarkably wealthy and high-ranking 55-year-old who is friends with General Epanchin, wants to marry the eldest Epanchin sister, Alexandra, who is 25. Aglaya is acknowledged to be the most beautiful of her sisters, and Alexandra and Adelaida have agreed to ensure that she has the best match possible, even if this means making sacrifices themselves. The marriage between Totsky and Alexandra makes perfect sense, but it is nonetheless coming about quite slowly. This is because there is a problem stopping the union from taking place.
Alexandra and Adelaida’s decision to possibly make sacrifices if it means ensuring a better match for Aglaya is not an of pure selflessness. A highly advantageous marriage for Aglaya would benefit all the Epanchins, not just Aglaya specifically. Indeed, it would raise the profile of the Epanchins and could provide them with a more luxurious, elite lifestyle.
Themes
The problem began 18 years ago, with a very high-ranking but very impoverished nobleman named Filipp Alexandrovich Barashkov. Barashkov suffered a series of misfortunes that culminated in his estate burning down and his wife dying in the fire; he went crazy with grief and died one month later. Barashkov’s two very young daughters were placed in the care of Totsky but one soon died of whooping cough, which left only one, Nastasya. At first Nastasya was raised along with the children of Totsky’s steward, but at 12 years old Totsky realized how remarkably beautiful, charming, and intelligent she was, and he arranged for a much higher quality of education and upbringing for her.
There is a distinct similarity between Nastasya and Myshkin’s childhoods. Both were orphaned at a young age, and were forced to rely on the generosity of someone who was not a family member. At first Totsky appears to be just as altruistic and noble as Pavlishchev. However, as will soon become clear, his motivations for providing a special education for Nastasya were in fact more sinister.
Themes
When Nastasya was 16, Totsky moved her into a wooden house in a little village called “Delight” along with a housekeeper and a maid. Totsky himself would come to visit her there, staying for months at a time. Four years later, Nastasya heard that Totsky was about to marry a society beauty, and suddenly went to St. Petersburg by herself to confront him. She told Totsky that she was going to obstruct his marriage because she wanted to spite him and to laugh at him. Totsky is the kind of man obsessed with preserving his own interests and comforts, and he was alarmed by Nastasya’s determination to destroy him.
Because of the social norms of the time, what Totsky did to Nastasya is not spelled out explicitly. However, it can be inferred that he sexually abused her from the way he deliberately isolated her and visited her for months, with no logical reason for being there. This could be framed as Totsky making Nastasya his mistress or concubine of sorts. Yet considering the inherent power imbalance between the two, given that she is only 16 and he is her guardian, it would also make sense to call it rape.
Themes
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Nastasya did not have the power to take Totsky down by legal means, or even cause too serious of a scandal. However, she was also totally reckless because she doesn’t value anything, “least of all herself.” This makes her far braver than Totsky. In recent years, she has become even more bewitchingly beautiful; there is a sort of magic in her dark eyes. Totsky eventually decided to set Nastasya up in St. Petersburg in “luxurious comfort” and to arrange an excellent marriage for her. This was five years ago. Totsky remains afraid of Nastasya, who during this time has “gained the upper hand terribly much.” She lives modestly and has few friends. Her social circle includes several minor and ridiculous people, including the “salacious buffoon” named Ferdyshchenko.
Nastasya’s relationship with Totsky provides an example of how a person with no structural power can nonetheless manage to control others around her. Part of what allows Nastasya to successfully gain a degree of control over Totsky is the fact that she is fearless—not just of Totsky, but of social norms in general. This is revealed to be true through her continued scandalous behavior and the odd mix of people with whom she surrounds herself.
Themes
Nonetheless, Nastasya and her extraordinary beauty have become quite famous. Totsky admits that he will not know peace until Nastasya is married, and tells General Epanchin that he has found the perfect suitor: Ganya, who has apparently been passionately in love with Nastasya for years. Speaking with Nastasya and General Epanchin, Totsky offers to provide Nastasya with a dowry of 75,000 roubles. With a surprising warmth, Nastasya remarks that she is surprised Totsky is still frightened by her. She then turns to the general and tells him she has heard many great things about his daughters, that she has “a profound and sincere respect for them,” and that she is thrilled that she might help them in some way.
Again, Nastasya could be described as having no real power because she is a woman (and, worse, a woman who has likely had sex before marriage), an orphan, and someone with no money of her own. However, she acts as if she has power, including when she tells General Epanchin that she hopes she might be able to help him and his family. In a sense, by behaving as if she is powerful, Nastasya actually becomes so.
Themes
Nastasya comments that there is much to admire about Ganya, and that she might come to love him. However, she refuses to be “rushed” in her decision. She accepts the dowry, which she maintains is not “payment for her maidenly dishonor,” but rather reparations for her misfortune. However, Totsky is deeply troubled by his belief that Nastasya knows that Ganya is actually only marrying her for money. The rumor is that Ganya hates her and plans to seek revenge against her after they marry. Meanwhile, another rumor is circulating that General Epanchin is passionately in love with Nastasya. Everyone knows that he bought her an enormously expensive pearl necklace for her birthday. Knowing his wife's suspicions on the matter, he is desperate to avoid going to Nastasya’s party, and has decided Myshkin is the perfect excuse.
The scheming, scandal, and corruption that surround Nastasya are considered improper and abhorrent within the highly restrictive, formal world of Russian high society. Indeed, Nastasya’s fearless embrace of scandal is another way in which she gains power in the world. Whereas the much more powerful men around her skitter about trying to avoid any hint of disgrace, like General Epanchin, she insists on doing things her own way, rebelling against the male-dominated hierarchy attempting to marry her off and control her fate.
Themes
