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
In early June, the Epanchins depart for their dacha in Pavlovsk. Only a day or so later, Myshkin arrives back in St. Petersburg. He has a different wardrobe now, one made up of well-made clothes that are in fact too fashionable, with comic results. Arriving back, he feels a pair of sinister eyes staring at him. He goes straight to Lebedev’s house from the train station. The house is surprisingly nice, and he finds Lebedev inside, talking to young people in mourning wear, along with a strange, dark-haired man of about 20, who is lying down. On seeing the prince, Lebedev greets him enthusiastically. Although it is the daytime, Lebedev is obviously drunk. One of the young people explains that their mother died five weeks ago.
Lebedev may be a comic character, but the recent death of his wife indicates that, like everyone, he must face serious issues and painful hardships. The combination of comedy and tragedy in Lebedev’s life is actually reflective of the novel as a whole. While The Idiot is lighter and funnier than some of Dostoevsky’s other work, it constantly reminds the reader that violence, death, cruelty, trauma, and illness are pervasive, inescapable parts of life.
Themes
Lebedev starts speaking somewhat nonsensically about a case that’s been in the papers of a family who were murdered. The dark-haired young man says that he recites the same speech every day. This young man, Lebedev’s nephew, observes that the visitor must be Myshkin, whom he’s heard about from Kolya. Kolya says Myshkin is the most intelligent person in the world. The nephew then tells Myshkin a story about how he gambled and lost 20 roubles to a lieutenant from Rogozhin’s old band. The nephew confessed the whole thing to Lebedev and tried to borrow money from him, promising to pay it back as soon as he starts his new job on the railways. However, Lebedev has refused.
Although the families represented in the novel are quite different from one another, they tend to be affected by the same set of issues, including alcoholism, debt, gambling, and other forms of vice. This raises these issues to the status of social problems, rather than individual afflictions. Indeed, the picture Dostoevsky paints is of a troubled, unhealthy society trapped in cycles of immoral behavior.
Themes
The nephew observes that Lebedev has become extremely paranoid about being robbed and calls him a “drunken mumbler” who has been praying for the countess du Barry. Lebedev interrupts to talk about how he cared for his nephew, who is the son of his widowed sister. He then explains that he’s just read a biography of du Barry, who rose from “a life of shame” to the French royal court. During the French Revolution, she was executed via guillotine in front of a crowd. Although she did not understand what was happening, du Barry begged for one more little minute” before she was killed. Lebedev says that when he read this, “it was as if my heart was in pincers.”
Even the foolish Lebedev elicits sympathy through the fact that he is grieving and through his sympathy (however misguided) for Madame du Barry. Lebedev’s retelling of Du Barry’s story suggests that sometimes political issues ought to be put aside in order to focus on the common humanity connecting everyone. Regardless of Du Barry’s position and complicity in a deeply corrupt society, she arguably did not deserve the torture of imprisonment and execution.
Themes
Myshkin asks for the nephew’s name, and he replies that it’s Timofei Lukyanovich (Doktorenko). Myshkin says he is trying to find Kolya, and Doktorenko replies that Kolya spent the night there, and has possibly been with “the general” (Ivolgin) who Myshkin helped free from prison. Now, Kolya might even be in Pavlovsk with the Epanchins. Lebedev and Myshkin then go out into Lebedev’s pretty garden alone, and Myshkin asks if it’s true that Nastasya has deserted Rogozhin for good this time. Lebedev that Nastasya indeed abandoned Rogozhin at the altar, and that she might still be in St. Petersburg now, or possibly in Pavlovsk at Darya’s dacha. Lebedev says that the last time he saw Nastasya, they discussed the apocalypse. Lebedev thinks they are living in the end times.
Nastasya’s ongoing indecision about who to marry seems to reflect a profound internal turmoil. On one hand, she was seduced by the idea of marrying Myshkin, which would mean being with someone who loved her and saw her as uncorrupted. Yet at the same time, Nastasya seems unable to escape the idea that Rogozhin is who she deserves. Even as she keeps coming back to this conviction, though, she cannot stick to it, and is thus trapped going around in circles thanks to her indecision.
Themes
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Lebedev continues to tell somewhat fantastical stories and Myshkin eventually gets up to leave, saying he doesn’t feel well after his journey. Lebedev says that he will soon be going to Pavlovsk, too, to stay in a small but lovely dacha owned by Ptitsyn. Myshkin asks if Lebedev will rent him the dacha, and Lebedev agrees. He then mischievously tells Myshkin that Aglaya will likely be visiting her friend Darya’s dacha often, “with a purpose.” Myshkin dismisses this, annoyed. He is suddenly so consumed by thought that he leaves without saying goodbye.
As was customary among this class of people in Russia at the time, the characters in the novel spend summer at a country house in Pavlovsk, a town 30 kilometers away from St. Petersburg, which was built around one of the main palaces owned by the Russian Imperial family. The characters’ relocation to this town heightens the sense that they occupy a claustrophobic social world where every person is subject to intense scrutiny.
Themes
