Passion, Violence, and Christianity Theme in The Idiot

The Idiot is a novel preoccupied with violence and death. It depicts a harsh world in which people behave brutally toward one another and where the presence of death haunts all the characters. Understanding the novel’s treatment of violence and death requires focusing on the extent to which Prince Myshkin is constructed as a Christ figure. Violence and death play very important roles in Christianity and in the story of Jesus’s life. In Christian traditions, Jesus’s crucifixion and the days leading up to it are known as the Passion, based on the Latin word passionem, which means suffering and enduring. In the novel, “passion” is connected to violence and death via both this original, Latinate sense and its contemporary meaning of intense, wild emotion. Unchecked passion is shown to be the major cause of violence, and thus the novel takes a cautionary position when it comes to such dangerous passion. At the same time, the novel also indicates that insofar as violence and death are inevitable parts of earthly existence, Christians must learn to endure them as Jesus did during the Passion, and as Myshkin does throughout the narrative.

In the novel, violence is often triggered by sexual passion. This is true of Totsky’s abuse of Nastasya, Rogozhin’s beating (and murder) of Nastasya, and Roghozin’s knife attack on Myshkin. In each case, male sexual obsession and jealousy leads to brutal violence which is often cyclical in nature. (The fact that Nastasya was abused by Totsky, one could argue, encourages her to embrace the similarly violent and cruel Rogozhin instead of marrying Myshkin—a decision that ultimately leads to her death.) As a result, the novel takes a rather suspicious position when it comes to sexual passion. The novel does suggest that all humans have an innate fascination with violence and death—often with disastrous results. In Ippolit’s “Necessary Explanation,” he explains that as a child he became fascinated by duels and highway robberies, and that this is when he acquired the pistol with which he then attempts to kill himself. Even Myshkin tells Aglaya that when he saw an execution, “I didn’t like it at all, and I was a bit ill afterwards, but I confess I watched as if I was riveted to it, I couldn’t tear my eyes away.” The prince’s words suggest that even the best people are inexplicably drawn to violence and death, even if this is to their own detriment.

One of the main motifs in the narrative is capital punishment, which the novel suggests is morally wrong. Intriguingly, this position is conveyed less by philosophical reasoning, and more by representing the absolute horror involved in executions. In particular, several characters become fixated on the moment at which a condemned person knows that they are going to die. Prince Myshkin conveys this sense of horror in discussing the execution he witnessed: “And imagine, to this day they still argue that, as the head is being cut off, it may know for a second that it has been cut off—quite a notion!” Myshkin’s words are echoed by Lebedev in a discussion of the death of Madame du Barry during the French Revolution. Madame du Barry was a noblewoman and the official mistress of King Louis XV. Lebedev explains that just before she was executed by guillotine, she begged to be afforded just one more moment of life; he comments: “When I read about this countess’s cry of one little moment, it was as if my heart was in pincers.” Myshkin and Lebedev’s discussion of the moment just before an execution suggests that some forms of violence and killing—including capital punishment—are too terrible to be imposed on any human being, no matter their crime. Indeed, many would argue that this is another manifestation of the novel’s Christian principle that violence should be avoided at all costs and that matters of life and death should be left in the hands of God.

Of course, capital punishment is a particularly significant issue in Christianity due to the fact that Jesus was killed this way. The crucifixion of Jesus represents the hubris of human authority and the terrible sin of human violence toward the weak and vulnerable. In the story of the Passion, Jesus is abused, assaulted, and tortured, but does not defend himself or fight back. Instead he endures this violence right up to the point of being nailed to the cross (hence the word passionem). In The Idiot, Myshkin behaves in a remarkably similar manner, enduring both literal and nonliteral violence at the hands of others without ever fighting back. For example, when Ganya slaps Myshkin while Myshkin is defending Nastasya, Myshkin does not retaliate. Similarly, he also does not fight back when Rogozhin attacks him with a knife, instead falling into an epileptic fit, which could symbolically be read as an act of self-harm that prevents Rogozhin’s violence from going any further.

Although the novel on one hand suggests that violence is a pervasive part of human existence, it also suggests that the right way to react to violence is through the Christian tradition of self-sacrifice known as turning the other cheek. Indeed, following Christian philosophy, it suggests that there might even be something redemptive or sanctifying about enduring violence without enacting violence oneself in return.

Passion, Violence, and Christianity ThemeTracker

The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Passion, Violence, and Christianity appears in each chapter of The Idiot. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.

How often theme appears:

chapter length:

Chapter

Passion, Violence, and Christianity Theme Analysis

Passion, Violence, and Christianity ThemeTracker

Passion, Violence, and Christianity Quotes in The Idiot