White Nights: Part 1: The First Night Summary & Analysis

This story begins on one of those magical kinds of nights that are so beautiful they make a person wonder how human cruelty could even exist. The Dreamer knows that it’s naïve to imagine a perfect world, but he thinks life might be nicer if more people dared to.

Prior to that first, pivotal night, the Dreamer spent three miserable days feeling upset. Despite living in St. Petersburg for eight years, he has no actual friends. Instead, he derives a sense of companionship from watching strangers live their lives. There are quite a few he’s been watching for so long that he feels he knows them, even though they’ve never exchanged a word. Some of the St. Petersburg houses are his friends, too. He often imagines them greeting him with their news as he passes by. But it’s early summer, and it seems like everybody is boarding up his or her house and leaving for their country homes (dachas).

The Dreamer lives in dingy rented rooms in a distant corner of the city. His landlady, Matryona, is a poor housekeeper so his rooms are covered in dust and spiderwebs. When he started feeling out of sorts, he wondered if she’d rearranged things, but careful inspection showed that all the pieces of furniture were exactly where he liked them. It was only on the morning of the third day that he realized he was feeling lonely as the city emptied out and no one invited him to join them. Indeed, no one seems to realize he exists.

But on the third morning, the dejected Dreamer finds himself at the city gates after wandering in a fugue state of misery. He passes through and goes on a day-long ramble in the countryside. It is so pleasant, he doesn’t even get tired. He returns to the city as night falls.

Walking along the canal toward his apartment, the Dreamer notices a young woman weeping and staring down into the water. The Dreamer wants to comfort her, but his natural shyness impedes him. Speaking to a stranger feels too dramatic, but he follows when she sets off down the street. And when a drunken man stumbles onto the sidewalk and begins to chase her down, the Dreamer rushes to her aid. He scares the drunken man away with his walking stick, then offers to escort the young woman home.

Up close, the young woman is just as beautiful as the Dreamer imagined, and she receives his aid with friendliness and gratitude. He admits that this is the first time he’s talked to a woman, even though he’s 26 years old and he’s been in love many times. Been in love with whom? the young woman asks. Ideals, he answers, women he sees in dreams. Aristocratic women whom he sees from a distance and feels compelled to declare undying love for, although he has never yet been brave enough to do it.

If that’s the case, the young woman asks, what made the Dreamer approach her? He isn’t quite sure, except that he was overwhelmed with compassion when he saw how sad she was. By this point in the conversation, they’ve reached the young woman’s street. The Dreamer asks if he will see her again. He promises to revisit the spot where they met every evening. If that’s the case, she says, they will likely see each other again, because she goes to the canal every night at ten o’clock for reasons of her own. She can’t stop the Dreamer from going there. She even welcomes the idea of his companionship and hints that she might confide her secrets in him. But she warns him not to fall in love with her, because she cannot return the feeling. The Dreamer goes home happy.