Prince Myshkin (The Idiot)
Prince Myshkin (Lev Nikolaevich Myshkin) is the protagonist in The Idiot (1869) by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Myshkin is Dostoevsky’s philosophical experiment. He is a character that Dostoevsky created to test out his idea of what would happen if he placed a christ-like "perfectly beautiful man" into modern Russia. Dostoevsky was curious about this because he wanted to explore his philosophy and belief in the power of true Christian faith (goodness, love, and beauty) to redeem the deeply flawed world. Myshkin is an outsider to Russian society, and is considered an "idiot" because of his lingering illness and his seemingly naive nature. However, he is really the wisest and most moral character in the novel.
Appearance
Myshkin is an attractive young man (26 years old) with blonde hair, a short blonde beard, blue eyes, and pale skin. He is somewhat fragile looking, since he is still recovering from his illness.
Health
Myshkin is an epileptic. He has frequent seizures, which can be triggered by psychological distress. At the beginning of the novel, we meet Myshkin on a train returning from a sanatorium in Switzerland where he was seeking treatment for epilepsy. He has two epileptic fits in the novel. To observers, the seizures look terrifying and there is very little which can be done to help him. His fits are described as beginning with a feeling of his "soul suffused with inner light" followed by total oblivion. Myshkin tragically suffers an event of extreme mental anguish at the end of the novel, relapses into epileptic state, and is sent back to Switzerland where he is unlikely ever to be cured. Dostoevsky wrote about Myshkin's epilepsy from his own personal experience with the illness.
Personality
Myshkin is both serious and light-hearted. He is well-spoken, thoughtful, and is often mistaken for an “idiot” because he is out of touch with social norms and has an innocent disposition. He is kind, and holds charitable beliefs about the goodness in everyone (despite their apparent flaws). He is forgiving and non-judgemental. He takes the suffering of others upon himself and is very empathetic. Joseph Frank remarks,"...his behaviour is marked by a total absence of vanity or egoism."
Myshkin is very sensitive and is keenly aware of people's cruelty to themselves and others, and he becomes agitated when people are hostile, unfair, indirect, or dishonest. He is humble and charitable and kind. He often does not understand why the other characters act in the ways they do. He is child-like in many ways, and particularly in his sincere confusion at the social games his fellow Russians are set on playing. He struggles to understand the culture, complexity, motivations and sometimes outright wickedness of others. He is not impolite, but he does not stand on custom either. If he is ever rude, it is by accident. He speaks frankly and is not subtle. He is both unaware and unconcerned by the social expectations others have of him. He tries to impart his philosophy to others in the belief that it will help them, with varying results. Other characters in the novel frequently judge him to be an "idiot" for this reason, although his behaviour and Christian wisdom he embodies has a profound impact on nearly all of them.
Relationships
Parfyon Semyonovich Rogozhin:
Rogozhin acts as Myshkin’s foil and nemesis in The Idiot. Introduced opposite to Myshkin on the train to begin the novel, Rogozhin is dark haired and cruel. His eyes are haunting. Myshkin and Rogozhin have a strange friendship, and at one point in the novel they swear an oath of brotherhood to one another. Immediately after this, Rogozhin attempts to murder Myshkin which triggers an epileptic fit. Myshkin, who is incapable of holding a grudge, forgives Rogozhin. Myshkin believes he can change Rogozhin through the transformative powers of love and compassion. Believing that, although Rogozhin appears corrupted, he still has good in him. Rogozhin is Myshkin’s rival for the love of Nastasya Fillipovna, with whom he has an extremely toxic (violent, ultimately fatal) relationship.
Nastasya Fillipovna:
Myshkin falls in love with the beautiful but damaged Nastasya Fillipovna from the moment he sees a portrait of her very early on in the novel. When Myshkin meets her, Nastasya Fillipovna loves Myshkin but thinks that he is too good for her and thinks she does not deserve him. Myshkin believes that he can save her; that she can be redeemed. Nastasya Fillipovna believes that she is beyond saving, and that she could never make him happy. She wants Myshkin to be happy, and tries to arrange for him to be with Aglaia. Myshkin is briefly engaged to Nastasya Fillipovna but she leaves him at the alter to be with Rogozhin. Ultimately, Myshkin chooses Nastasya over Aglaia one final time, but she rejects him again and allows herself to be destroyed by Rogozhin which causes Myshkin, upon spending time with her corpse, to have a total mental breakdown.
Aglaia Ivanovna Epanchin:
The beautiful youngest Epanchin sister, Aglaia, is blonde and playful (in comparison to Nastasya who is dark haired and serious). To her, Myshkin represents a fairytale hero and "prince charming." He is different than any man she has met before and she is very attracted to him. Near the middle of the novel, she recites a Pushkin Poem which is meant to both tease and honour Myshkin. Myshkin loves Aglaia, but he humiliates and enrages her by also loving Nastasya Fillipovna at the same time (and ultimately he is unable not to choose Nastasya because of how badly she is suffering).
Lizaveta Prokofyevna Epanchin:
Mrs. Epanchin is Aglaia’s mother and a distant relative of Prince Myshkin. She shares some of Myshkin's characteristics, especially, a somewhat child-like demeanour and often speaks her mind without considering the social expectations or possible consequences.
Ippolit Terentyev:
Ippolit, a young nihilist dying of consumption, acts as an important foil for Myshkin's character and his mission towards bringing pure Christian love to Russia. Ippolit represent the problem of naturalism for religion. Ippolit's lack of faith and his belief in the "blind" unfeeling monstrosity of nature, as opposed to Myshkin's faith in salvation. Apollonio suggests that Ippolit is the most important character in The Idiot. She says, “the key to salvation in the novel is not the ostensible christ figure, distracted by his quest to save the lady, but in the dying man who, in spite of himself, comments spontaneous act of charity and lives just long enough to tell the tale.”
Sources:
Apollonio, Carol. "The Idiot’s ‘Vertical Sanctuary’: The Holbein Christ and Ippolit’s Confession." Northwestern University Press. 2009.
Dostoevsky, Fyodor. "The Idiot", 1869. Trans. Constance Garnett. Modern Library Paperback Edition. 2003.
Frank, Joseph. "Dostoevsky: A Writer In His Time." Princeton University Press. 2010.