Self-Loathing in The Idiot

[DanielBenoit]

I'm only 200 pages into it, but I've noticed the self-abuse and self-loating common among all of its characters except Myshkin.

Almost every character is overly self-conscious (just like the Underground Man) and are aware of their impurity and immorality, and have accepted it. They even take pride in it, but never cease to let go of a chance to criticize themselves.

*SPOILERS*
It seems that Nastya ran off with Rogizn simply out of spite of herself, believing that she deserves punishment and enjoys punishment. Nastya in particular is so self-conscious that she is able to laugh at herself just as easily as she can at others.

Myshkin, on the other hand, is like a little child (as he is called many times in the novel) and does not posess the hyper-consciousness of characters like the Underground Man or Hamlet, and thus is never self-loathing or self-abusive. He seems to live as if in an eternal state of meditation, of inner-calmness.

It seems that through Myshkin, Dostoyevsky sees the religious experience as blissful unknowingness. As the Underground Man admitted himself in Notes from the Underground, that knowledge is the "root of all suffering". Myshkin doesn't seem to suffer, for he lives in blissful ignorance and innocence. It seems that Dostoyevsky is pessimistic of the view that the whole world can once again become this innocent child like Myshkin, for nobody really takes Myshkin seriously.

[JCamilo]

There is another thread with a long discussion about Myshkin, so I suppose Gladys will pop up and provide the link.
Anyways, something you should not is believe Myshkin is simple. Dostoievisky may start from a simple concept, but the fact that he splits his criticism of russian society from Myshkin eyes, give it more colors. Myshkin must be always undertand from the point of view of conflict - between his self and the self he needs to be, which is often the undermined by the judgment of society. He is as much aware than Underground man, who is a close minded, he is more close to Hamlet in complexity, because his interactions with others shades lights on his character. His social awkwardness can be also seen as a high level of perception, a ultra-realism, where he shuns himself for not being able to cope with that. He is indeed a child, naive and romantic, but also a very kafkanesque character. Society is beyond his actions, yet he pursue it.

[Gladys]

Myshkin, on the other hand, is like a little child (as he is called many times in the novel) and does not possess the hyper-consciousness of characters like the Underground Man or Hamlet, and thus is never self-loathing or self-abusive. He seems to live as if in an eternal state of meditation, of inner-calmness ... Myshkin doesn't seem to suffer, for he lives in blissful ignorance and innocence. It seems that Dostoyevsky is pessimistic of the view that the whole world can once again become this innocent child like Myshkin, for nobody really takes Myshkin seriously.

I agree with everything but your suggestion that Myshkin 'does not possess the hyper-consciousness' and 'doesn't seem to suffer'. The prince, like Jesus Christ, suffers agony for all the needy with a peerless hyper-consciousness. And for that, the prince is labelled 'The Idiot', both in Switzerland and Russia. Excruciating irony!

[DanielBenoit]

^Oh no, I never said that he never suffered. .. . at least I hope I didn't!

When I said that he didn't have the sort of hyper-consciousness as the others, I meant that as the self-abusive kind of consciousness, like the Underground Man.

[JCamilo]

he is just not show that way, The underground man is basically an inner mologue, while The Idiot is a book about contrasts between chracters, their actions and motivations. The prince is not ignorant of what surrounds him, it is something different: he believes what all that is bad can be overcome by what is good, he is a idealist and not a pragmatist. True, he is a man that the world is way to manifest himself to the exterior, the anti-underground man who eat himself inside, dostoievisky like to use both kind of characters.