Anxiety
Throughout Dostoevsky's novels he develops many central themes and personalities to his characters. One idea that Dostoevsky develops is that of anxiety. Dostoevsky uses both the atmosphere of the novel as well as the actions of his characters to explore this idea in detail.
Anxiety in Characters
Dostoevsky develops the idea of anxiety by observing how his characters act after being given anxiety inducing stimuli.
The Double, 1866: The main character of the Double is Yakov Golyadkin. Within the first few pages of the book, Dostoevsky makes apparent Golyadkin's anxiety by giving the reader insight into his obsessive thoughts. The reader follows Golkyadkin through scenes where he experiences social anxiety, such as his attendance at a party where he is not invited, quickly fleeing the scene once he realizes the humiliation that just occurred. Soon after, he runs into his "double", a character exactly like him in name and likeness. Golyadkin's double marks key moments of his social anxiety, appearing in places and at moments in which Golyadkin is most uncomfortable. Golyadkin's main goal is being accepted and liked, but the double typically shows up to overshadow Golyadkin, prompting him to act more anxiously. Eventually, Golyadkin's anxiety prompts the other characters to send him away with Krestyan Rutenspitz, a doctor at an asylum. As Golyadkin is leaving, Dostoevsky outlines him having a panic attack, in which he believes that he sees his double "leaping up first on side on the carriage and then the other; at times he grabbed the window frame and hung from it" (The Double, 281)[4]. These actions performed by his double are humanely impossible, supporting the idea that his double is likely a manifestation of his anxiety, acting more devilishly as a reflection of how anxious Golyadkin is. Golyadkin then sees his double fade away before passing out.
Anxiety from the Environment
Dostoevsky creates anxiety in his novels by manipulating the environment his characters reside in. He does this through his narration style. Dostoevsky switches through various narration styles throughout his novels, but one that continues to appear is that of the gothic narrator. The gothic narrator pulls inspiration from dark and passionate themes, such as murder/suicide, intending to invoke feelings of anxiety or dread.[1] . By building the environment gothically, Dostoevsky heightens the sense of anxiety in the novel [2]. Dostoevsky uses gothic narration in many of novels, including...
Gothic Narration in the Double: (1) In Chapter V, "It was a dreadful November night--dank, misty, raining, snowing, a night fraught with colds, fevers, aches, quinsies and inflammations of every conceivable variety and description...The wind howled down the deserted streets, raising the black waters of the Fontanka above...the feeble lanterns along the embankment which echoed its howling with those shrill, ear-splitting squeaks that makes up the endless concert of jarring sounds so very familiar to every inhabitant of St. Petersburg" (The Double, 160). This narration style for the Double is especially appropriate as the gothic narrator takes Golyadkin and his thoughts seriously, adding further weight to the tone of the novel.
Gothic Narration in Crime and Punishment: (1) "...the mare tugged with all her might, but far from galloping, could scarcely move forward; she struggled with her legs, gasping and shrinking from the blows of the three whips which were showered upon her like hail. The laughter in the cart and in the crowd was redoubled, but Mikolka flew into a rage and furiously thrashed the mare, as though he supposed she really could gallop" (Crime and Punishment, P.1 Ch. V).
Works Cited
- Bowers, Katherine. “THE CITY THROUGH A GLASS, DARKLY: USE OF THE GOTHIC IN EARLY RUSSIAN REALISM.” The Modern Language Review, vol. 108, no. 4, 2013, pp. 1237–1253. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.5699/modelangrevi.108.4.1237.
- Bowers, Katherine. “Gothic Doubling and The Double, Gothically.” The Bloggers Karamazov, 7 July 2016, bloggerskaramazov.com/2015/11/09/gothic-doubling-and-the-double-gothically/.
- John Givens Dostoevsky's Idiot in Cultural Context, Russian Studies in Literature, 47:3, 3-6, DOI: 10.2753/RSL1061-1975470300. 2011.
- Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Trans Wilks, Ronald. Notes from Underground and The Double (Penguin Classics). Penguin, 2011.
- Dostoevksy, Fyodor. Trans Garnett, Constance. "Crime and Punishment".