The first concentric circle is the specific people and things in the novel. To put it "vulgarly", I wrote several sets of love triangles or pentagonal loves: 1. Prince Aglaya and Nastasia Filippovna love Myshkin (the "idiot" in the novel); 2. Myshkin and Rogozhin love Nastasia Filip Bovna; Three, Myshkin, Ganya, Hippolyte, and Yevgeny Pavlovich love Aglaya.This caused a series of joys and sorrows, joys and sorrows, conflicts, struggles, and even murders.As far as the story is concerned, it is tense enough, exciting enough, and fascinating enough. To put it more "elegantly", the novel is about a honest and kind young man who is penniless and alone, who returns from abroad and, by fate, suddenly falls into a group of not-so-honest and not-so-kind people. Surrounded by people, he was drawn into the vortex of life, and saw the strange and bizarre appearance of all beings in Russia.He wants to use himself as an example, to influence and even change the world with his loyalty, kindness, resignation and forgiveness, so that everyone can love each other.But the interpersonal relationship at that time was so complicated, because he couldn't stand the stimulation one after another, he went crazy and became a real idiot.

To put it "deeply", according to Dostoyevsky, the novel writes about two types of Russians—real Russians and Europeanized Russians. Russians are bold and unrestrained, while Europeans are narrow-minded.Russians value emotion over rationality and love to go to extremes.Europeans value reason over emotion, and don't like to go to extremes.You can use your reason to understand the words and deeds of Europeans; you can't understand Russians. In addition to reason, you must use your own heart. The real Russians are Myshkin and Rogozhin, Aglaya and Nastasya Filippovna.They all have the inherent characteristics of the Russians who are bold and unconstrained, emphasizing emotion and despising reason, and they will risk their lives to do everything, regardless of the consequences.

But Myshkin and Rogozhin are different from each other.They are both Russians, but they are emotional, understand all people and things with their own hearts, and have a pure and kind spiritual beauty. He is strict with himself and lenient with others, hoping to influence and change by taking himself as an example people around.Another concentrates Russian boldness in an irrepressible lust for women.He can kill for a woman.If he couldn't get this woman, he would rather commit suicide by jumping into the river, or just stab the woman to death without doing anything else. Aglaya, like Nastasya Filippovna, was both very beautiful, very intelligent, contemptuous of worldly prejudices and surroundings, very proud, loved with all her life, willing to do anything The one who loves sacrifices everything, suffers, even suffers.But they are different from each other.Aglaya is the apple of the eye of General Ye Panqin. She was spoiled and spoiled since she was a child, and she is very self-willed, but she is not bound by worldly prejudices. The more books she is not allowed to read, the more she wants to read, and the more she is not allowed to do, the more she wants to do. Indulge in romantic fantasies.As Varya puts it, she "could refuse the best marriage, but would willingly go to the attic to find a poor college student and starve with him—that was her ideal!" When she thought that Prince Myshkin was just an "idiot" and "fool" who didn't know much about the world, she resisted all opinions and said to him in front of everyone: "All the people here, all the people are worthless." I can't match your little finger, you can't be smarter than you, you can't be as good-hearted! You are more honest, noble, good, kind, and clever!" Later, because Prince Myshkin couldn't bear to abandon misfortune and despair Nastasia Filippovna, whose self-esteem was hurt, resolutely broke with the prince and married a Polish patriot in exile.

Nastasya Filippovna's background and experience were completely different from Aglaya's.She is an orphan girl, her parents died, and she was adopted by a big landowner named Totsky since she was a child.When she grew up, she was taken in as a concubine by this beastly landlord.Later, Totsky got tired of playing with her and wanted to get rid of her and marry another well-known lady.But at this moment Nastasya Filippovna was no longer the ignorant little Nastya she had been in the past.She saw through Totsky's hypocrisy and shamelessness, and decided to peel off his painted skin in public on her birthday and expose him.She resolutely gave up the 75,000 rubles that Totsky gave her as compensation, and announced that she would move out of the luxurious apartment she lived in from the next day, and rely on her own labor for a living. Poor girls who have nothing" as wives.However, Prince Myshkin, who was also present at the time, out of sympathy and pity for this unfortunate woman, publicly stated that her past was not her fault, she was innocent and innocent, and he could marry her .This surprised and moved Nastasya Filippovna.She said that in Myshkin she "saw a real person for the first time!" But she also felt that she was a woman who had lost her footing, that marrying the prince would tarnish his reputation and ruin his future, and that she did not deserve his love. .Before that, Rogozhin, the son of a wealthy Russian businessman, offered a high price of 100,000 rubles to buy her.She promised to sell herself to Rogozhin, but not for money (money, she could take it!), but because she felt that she did not deserve a better fate.But later, she ran away several times when the wedding was about to take place, because she knew that marrying Rogozhin could only be ruin.All she wanted was the Duke's happiness, that he could marry Aglaya, and tried her best to make their marriage come true.However, in the end, she faced the challenge of her rival in love, Aglaya, and felt that she had sacrificed too much. How could she give up her beloved to another woman?She asked the Duke to choose between the two of them.But all the prince saw between them was Nastasya Filippovna's "desperate, mad face .He blurted out to Aglaya: "Is this possible! You know, she...is so unfortunate!" After hearing this, Aglaya rushed out of the room in a fit of anger.Her love for the Duke cannot be shared with others, "she cannot bear even a moment's wavering from him".The prince wanted to go after Aglaya, but Nastasya Filippovna threw her arms around the prince and fainted in his arms, and she could never lose this dream she had fantasized about since her girlhood. A real love for a real person.Knowing that a Russian woman loves a man desperately, the Duke was afraid that she would go mad and commit suicide, so he agreed to marry her to comfort her broken heart.But when they were getting ready to marry, she saw that the duke was very worried and unhappy all day long.She knew that the Duke's true love was Aglaya, and she loved her only out of pity.She fell into pain again: 1. The Duke didn’t really love her, but just pitied her. Marrying the Duke was sacrificing the Duke’s happiness and seizing the love of others; Ruined the Duke's future.On the day of the wedding, Nastasya Filippovna had finished dressing, put on her wedding dress, and was about to get into the carriage and go to the church for the wedding. ——At this moment, raising her head suddenly, she saw Rogozhin in the crowd. With a cry of surprise, she grabbed Rogozhin and asked Rogozhin to "save" her and take her away.She could not marry the duke unintentionally.In the end, he finally died, and died tragically under Rogozhin's knife.And death was exactly what she wanted.

Europeanized Russians or Westernized Russians, in our usual terms, are bourgeois Russians.Such people fall into two categories.The first type is greedy for profit, greedy, full of money, and can do anything outrageous.The second category is the ideological bourgeoisie, contaminated with the bourgeois liberalism, nihilism, anarchism, atheism and "socialism" that have been brought to Russia from Western Europe.Although this kind of person's status is not high and they don't have much money, they do everything they can, and they only think about the words "money" and "power".In order to achieve their goals, they do not hesitate to make trouble out of nothing, spread rumors and slander, extort money, and even kill people for money.

In the first category are the big landowners, big capitalists, big landowners Totsky and General Yepanchin, the usurer Ptitsyn, the mercenary and sycophant Ganya, the scheming, the betrayal of conscience, the flattery , Lebedev and others who can do anything wrong. However, they are different from each other. Although Ptitsyn made a living by lending usury, he had no ambitions and did not want to become a wealthy Rothschild.He only wants to profit from his capital, he is not too cruel, and he is not too bad. He is good to his wife, brother-in-law, and parents-in-law, and he does not engage in crooked ways.According to Dostoyevsky, this is the "German way" among Europeans - earning money above board.

On the surface, Ganya seems to be greedy for profit, unscrupulous, and dreams of getting ahead. "As long as it is profitable, if you want to be despicable, just be despicable to the end." But when things "need to go all out and take risks", he "looks forward and does not dare to make mistakes", "becomes a gentleman, unwilling to do things that are too despicable" Dirty things (then again, as for small, insignificant vile things, he's always ready to do them)".See Nastasya Filippovna throw into the fireplace the hundred thousand rubles that Rogozhin gave her, and let him take it out of the fire with his bare hands, and it will be his.However, he withstood this test and did not take the huge sum of money that could change his life without shame. Although he had a fierce ideological struggle, he finally turned his head and walked towards the door, even though he couldn't bear it. In this mental torture, he took two steps, staggered, and fell to the ground, unconscious.This shows that although he is bad, he is not bad to the extreme.He wanted to be Europeanized Russian, but stopped at the junction of this and that.He is greedy, but his sense of shame has not been completely wiped out; he is cruel, but not to the point of being ignorant and omnipotent.

Lebedev was a more complicated man.This is a smart and shameless man.As long as you can reap the benefits, you can do anything wrong.He is willing to be a clown in front of the rich, as a "strip piece".He dresses poorly, pretends to be poor in front of others, but in private lends usury.In addition, he has a property with a garden, which is very tastefully furnished.He also rented a dacha in Pavlovsk, but he lived in a wing and sublet the main house as a second landlord.For a mere fifty rubles (or even five) he could defend a Jewish loan shark in court.He could provide material for the slander written by Keller, slandering the duke.He could play tricks, try to declare the duke a madman, and put him in custody.But he was very smart, good at philosophical thinking, and could criticize the liberalism, nihilism, and anarchism that were popular at the time.He is erudite and talented, and his family has a rich collection of books, even the rare "Pushkin Collected Works".And he loves his children very much and is a loving father.He did bad things, he was able to blame himself, and he had the courage to repent, but then he did bad things again and repented again.This is a complex enigmatic figure.As he explained himself to the duke: "Well, tell the truth to you, to you alone, because you see people through: words and deeds, lies and truths - I have both , and all sincere. The truth is as it appears, in my sincere confession, believe it or not, but I can swear, empty words and lies are in my hellish (and forever inherent) mind how to catch a man, how to deceive with tears of remorse! indeed, it is! I would not say such things to other people--only to be ridiculed or reviled; but the duke , you regard me as a human being, and you will judge my words and deeds fairly." As the Duke said, "he is a hodgepodge."Philosopher, clown, villain, all in one.

The second category of people, according to Dostoevsky, is the Russians who have been ideologically poisoned by Europe.For example, the group of young people mentioned in the book: Doktorenko, Burdovsky, Keller and Hippolyte.And Hippolyte was their theoretician.They were influenced by Western European liberalism and nihilism.However, they do not publish articles in newspapers or periodicals, and do not write books. They are nihilists in action.Nihilism is a negative attitude towards recognized historical traditions, cultural heritage, moral norms, human ideals and living standards.Lebedev once described this group of young people in this way: "They are not exactly nihilists, they are another kind of people with unique characteristics. My nephew said that they are even more nihilists than nihilists. ... After all, nihilists have There were still some people with expertise in learning, even scholars, but these people are far behind. Because they are first of all people who do practical things and seek practical profits. In fact, this is a certain consequence of nihilism, but it is not a mantle. and they don't write articles in magazines, make public appearances, but act directly; they... they just think they have a right, if they want something badly, to They have the right to do whatever they can, and nothing can stop them, even if it requires killing eight people..." At that time, a series of murders in Russia, including the murders described in the book, were the products of this kind of thinking .With the acquiescence of others, the slanderous article "The Poor and the Noble..." written by Keller for the purpose of blackmailing the Duke, and the fact that the four of them broke into the house at night and aggressively questioned the Duke's army, are A typical expression of young people in Russia at the time who were influenced by nihilistic ideas.For example, Burdowski keeps saying that he "has the right"; Hippolyte also screams: "...he has the right to do so: because it is everyone's legal right to make his views known, and therefore Bourgeois Dovsky's legal rights." Whether the article was defamatory is another matter.As long as they do what is good for the society (?), it doesn't matter if they tell lies or do bad things, because they have the right to do so by whatever means.As Keller stated frankly: "As for saying that there are some things that are not true, that is, so-called exaggeration, then you have to admit that motivation is the most important thing, and the most important thing is purpose and intention." Their slogan is " Negative", the reason is "I am poor", and the means is "do whatever you want".Lizaveta Prokofievna pointed to Burdovsky and said: "I bet he will kill! Your money, that ten thousand rubles, he probably won't take it. He won't take it." , maybe because of a guilty conscience, but at night, he would enter the house and kill someone, and take the money from the money box. Take it with a clear conscience! What he did was not stealing, murdering and stealing! This is called "taking risks out of noble desperation" ’, that’s called ‘Negation’, or God knows what it’s called... Pooh! Everything’s upside down, everyone’s walking on their feet.”