Why didn’t Prince Myshkin become Christ?translated

“Heaven on earth is not easy to come by; but you are still somewhat counting on heaven; heaven is a difficult thing, prince, much more difficult than it seems to your beautiful heart.” These are the words of Prince Shch., the groom of one of the Epanchin sisters, addressed to Prince Myshkin. I am sure that they are perhaps the most important in the novel. Here, perhaps, the central idea is expressed. Or rather, the conclusion. After all, the idea was to “portray a positively beautiful person,” that is, an ideal in the flesh. This is exactly the task Dostoevsky set for himself when starting to work on the novel.

But Dostoevsky is not only an artist obsessed with completing a task. He is also a researcher. And every conscientious researcher knows: the task set should not predetermine the result. This is contrary to intellectual honesty. So the task of finding and showing the ideal of a person led the writer to a result that refuted his original plan: if a person with a “beautiful heart” and a desire for heaven were to appear in Dostoevsky’s contemporary world, then at best he would be branded an idiot. And in the worst case... And who he will turn out to be in the worst case, we will try to figure it out during the course of this text.

Nikita SYUNDYUKOV

Specialist in Russian philosophy. Participant…