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Part Two, Chapter Four
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
Myshkin then goes looking for Kolya, who has likely already left for Pavlovsk. Having failed to find his friend, Myshkin wanders around the city for a number of hours, until—at 6 p.m.—he ends up at the train station, buying a ticket to Pavlovsk. He begins thinking about an object he saw in a shop, which he imagined cost about 60 kopeks. Immersed in memories of his illness, he suddenly wonders if he actually walked past the shop and object at all, or if they are products of his imagination. Myshkin returns to the shop and finds the object. He then remembers that it was exactly in this spot that he first felt Rogozhin’s eyes on him when he arrived back in St. Petersburg.
Myshkin’s actions and experience of the world are taking on an increasingly strange, surreal quality, and this suggests that he might be about to have an epileptic fit. His experiences all seem to be charged with intense symbolic meaning, but it is also difficult to assess if they are really happening, or if they are more like hallucinations.
Themes
Myshkin hurries away from the shop and thinks about his illness. Just before having a fit, Myshkin would experience a momentary profound religious ecstasy. He was only able to truly comprehend these moments after they were over. In the midst of them, he would fully grasp that “time shall be no more.” It is about 7 p.m., and Myshkin now sits in the Summer Garden. He can feel an epileptic fit coming on, and as he walks through the city, he begins to act more and more strangely. He can’t stop thinking about Doktorenko. In the six months since Myshkin first arrived in Russia, he has come to “believe in the Russian soul.” His thoughts become more and more confused, mixing up everything he saw and discussed that day.
This passage emphasizes Myshkin’s profound sensitivity to the world. Quite ordinary things, like meeting different kinds of people, have a deep and sometimes troubling impact on him. This is arguably because he has so much empathy for others and is able to intuitively understand their suffering. At the same time, the experience of returning to Russia has clearly been overwhelming for Myshkin, particularly now when it is combined with a coming attack of epilepsy.
Themes
Myshkin turns back on himself, unable to decide in which direction to walk. His dark thoughts begin to give way to a kind of pure euphoria. He thinks about Nastasya, whom he loves, and blushes. He feels that loving Nastasya “passionately” would be cruel. In despair again, Myshkin thinks about Rogozhin’s lost faith and the Holbein painting in his house. Myshkin is at Nastasya’s house now, but the woman who answers the door tells him she is in Pavlovsk with Darya. Walking back to his hotel, Myshkin begins to shake, feeling that the same dark eyes are looking at him again. Convinced his and Rogozhin’s eyes have met, he begins talking to himself.
Now that he has lost control over his thoughts and actions, Myshkin allows himself to think about Nastasya where before he was largely repressing such thoughts. When he thinks it would be cruel to love Nastasya “passionately,” it is unclear whether he means in a sexual way, or in the intense, destructive, and possessive way in which Rogozhin loves her. Indeed, perhaps this latter form of love is somehow inherently mixed up with sexuality in Myshkin’s mind.
Themes
Back in his hotel, Myshkin keeps seeing dark flashes of a man who seems to be following him. He sees Rogozhin’s eyes and “furious smile,” and shouts out to him. He then experiences half a second in which “extraordinary inner light illuminated his soul,” and falls down into an epileptic fit, screaming as it happens. On seeing Myshkin’s fit, Rogozhin withdraws the knife that he had been holding, and runs out of the hotel. Convulsing, Myshkin falls down the stairs and injures his head. The hotel servants find him lying in a pool of blood, confused about how he got there and wondering if anyone is to blame.
Myshkin’s illness is often presented as a form of vulnerability, but ironically in this scene it is his only form of self-defense against Rogozhin, and actually ends up saving his life. This provides an important lesson about the nature of Myshkin’s illness, but also his other forms of weakness, such as his trusting, innocent nature. Although they may appear to make him vulnerable, they are also simultaneously sources of power and strength.
Themes
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Kolya, who had waiting for Myshkin at the hotel, comes over after hearing all the noise. He arranges for Myshkin to be taken to his room and calls a doctor, who announces that Myshkin’s fall has not caused any serious injuries. Once Myshkin is awake, Kolya arranges a carriage to take him to Lebedev, who takes receives him utmost kindness. Three days later they go to Pavlovsk.
At this point in the novel, Myshkin has gathered a particularly loyal selection of friends—not unlike disciples—who support and take care of him, further solidifying his characterization as a Christlike figure.
Themes
