Part 1.

Discussion topics:

Names and their meanings

Family matters: mothers, fathers, sons and daughters

Love and attraction

Apocalypse and its various metaphors

Death and capital punishment

Visual triggers: pictures and paintings

Faith and reason

Christ the Savior and imitators of Christ

The holy fool

Prince Myshkin and Parfen Ragozhin: brothers or rivals?

Nastasia Filippovna and her suitors

Discussion questions:

1. On the day of his arrival to Russia, Prince Myshkin meets all the major players of the game, all the main characters of the novel. All of them in one way or another express their impression of him. A number of them call him ‘idiot’ or comment on his inadequacy or weirdness. What are their reasons for such an opinion? (Discuss Rogozhin, Lebedev, Epanchins, Ivolgins, Nastasia Philippovna)

2. What are Prince Myshkin’s virtues? What flaws, if any, mar his moral beauty?

3. Why Switzerland? How does this country, and Europe in general, emerge in the discussions of Dostoevsky’s characters?

4. What do we know about Prince Myshkin’s family? What importance, if any, does his birth family have?

5. What makes Prince Myshkin welcome in Epanchins’ family? What makes Epanchins reconsider their initial opinion about him?

6. Why did Prince Myshkin become attracted to Nastasia Filippovna? What makes him stand out among her suitors? Who by the end of part I (and throughout the novel) are her main suitors?

7. What role does Nastasia Filippovna’s portrait play in the first part of the novel?

8. What other artistic representations are mentioned in the first part of the novel? What is their role?

9. In the first part of the novel Prince Myshkin raises the question of the value of life as seen through the eyes of the condemned. What is the significance of this theme in the novel?

10. Who are the lowly and insignificant, humiliated and marginalized characters in the first part of the novel? How do their stories contribute to the general pathos of the narrative?

11. Who are the sellers and buyers in the first chapters of part 1? What are they selling? What place does the theme of trade/bargain occupy in the narrative?

12. Who is General Ivolgin? What role does his ‘story about Prince Myshkin the Elder’ play in the novel? Why do you think he tells this story? Why does Dostoevsky include this story in the novel?

Discussion topics:

The narrator and narrative styles

Visual triggers: pictures and paintings

Faith and reason

Epilepsy, madness, idiocy

Christ the Savior and imitators of Christ

Prince Myshkin, Don Quixote and ‘poor knight’

Prince Myshkin and Parfen Ragozhin: brothers or rivals?

Nastasia Filippovna, her attractions and goals

Scandal and its function

Discussion questions:

1. How does the narrative tone change in the second part of the novel?

2. Is Prince Myshkin the same in the second part of the novel? How, if at all, is he different from the one we encountered in part one?

3. What brings Rogozhin, Myshkin and Nastas’ia Filippovna together? Are Rodozhin and Myshkin rivals or brothers? Whom does Nastas’ia Filippovna love?

4. Why does Prince Myshkin visit Rogozhin? What does the description of Rogozhin’s house add to our understanding of this character, the situation and of the course of the novel’s events in general?

5. What prompts Rogozhin and Myshkin to discuss the issues of faith?

6. How do you explain Myshkin’s unwillingness to admit that he expects Rogozhin’s assault?

7. Why does the narrative include a lengthy and detailed description of the effects of an epileptic fit? How does it add to our understanding of the main character?

8. In part one Prince Myshkin is compared to a holy fool. What other parallels are drawn in part two? What do they tell us about Prince Myshkin?

9. Is the scandalous matter of Burdovsky comparable to scandal scenes from part one? What role does scandal play in the narrative?

10. Who is Ippolit? Why is he introduced into the narrative? What is his role and place in the novel?

Part 3.

1. What attracts Aglaia to Prince Myshkin? What makes her believe that he can make a good husband?

2. How is the discourse about ‘practical’ people relevant to the novel’s events and discussions? Who are these so-called ‘practical’ people?

3. Is Hippolite an indispensable character? Is he important to the development of the plot? What is his role in the narrative? What (if any) important concepts does he contribute to the narrative?

4. What role does Lebedev play in the novel?

Discussion questions:

Part 4.

1. Do you agree with the narrator’s definition of ordinary people? What examples does he offer and why? How does this discussion contribute to the development of the main themes of the novel?

2. Who are then extraordinary people? What makes them such?

3. What is the significance of General Ivolgin’s theft?

4. What is the reason for the meeting between Aglaia and Nastasia Filippovna? What caused its outcome? Could it be different? What does this event reveal about these two women?

5. Do you agree with Evgenii Pavlovich’s explanation of the above episode? How does he explain Prince Myshkin’s failure to react adequately in this situation?

6. Why does Prince Myshkin insist that he needs to explain himself and that Aglaia will understand?

7. The meeting between Aglaia and Nastasia Filippovna is often considered the climax of the novel. What supports this claim? Do you agree with it?

8. How does Prince Myshkin comment on his decision to marry Nastasia Filippovna? It is clear that by this commitment he is deliberately ruining his life and his chance to be happy. Why is he doing it? In his conversation with Evgenii Pavlovich Prince Myshkin says that it (his marriage) “does not matter”? (R. 483) How do you understand these words?

9. In the novel, several characters are accused of insanity. Who are they? What are the reasons for those accusations? What is the role of insanity/madness in the novel?

10. As the novel progresses, there are more and more silent scenes, finally it ends in a silent scene. What is the role of silence in the novel?

11. Why does the novel end the way it does? Is this ending logical? Is it anticipated?