Christlike Prince Mysjkin of "The idiot" by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881)

Prince Mysjkin is an epileptic like Dostoyevsky himself. For a large part of his life he has been in the custody of doctors, since he was in a kind of coma and did not wake up until he had an electroshock. That means he goes out into the world as a fully grown newborn creature. For him there is only goodness and beauty. He simply is not capable of seeing evil and cruelty, so when he finds these characteristics in the rich and pampered people in the social circles that are open to him, he is not able to understand or assimilate them. For him, his cruelty and selfishness are unnatural and therefore not real, so he tries to fix the problems of young Natasha, first of all, that she is one of the so-called “fallen women.” However, he is also a proud soul and hates being degraded for her past both in society and in her own eyes.

Unfortunately, Prince Mysjkin fails to save this poor woman when she is killed by the brute Rogosjin who is obsessed with her. This particular part of the book is hard to swallow for modern women who don’t take the concept of fallen women and their so-called irreparable sins very seriously. However, it is crucial to the plot, as the Prince’s Christ characteristics are exhibited by his instinctive understanding of her sufferings. Like Jesus, he wants to heal, but not his body like he did. No, it is her wounded soul that he is trying to heal, only she is too proud to accept her offer and pay with her life.

It is obvious that the novel is mainly about the mystery of selflessness and kindness. Evil and selfishness are common in this old Russia and not very interesting, while goodness is mysterious and intriguing, because what triggers it and how does it survive in a world of evil? How does this boy-man, this “idiot”-prince know so much about people and what makes him become this luminous, larger-than-life figure? It is his mind and child’s eye that give him his wisdom, but it is understandable that his environment does not take it very kindly because in everything he is and does he is like a gigantic magnifying glass, revealing his weaknesses. too human. . When he finally realizes how the world works after Natasha’s death, he once again falls into a deep coma.