Fyodor Dostoevsky Evil Vs Evil

The Idiot Many religious faiths believe in the doctrine of original sin. It is accepted that humanity is born evil - despite its efforts to achieve high moral standards. A child’s innocence becomes tainted by the sin of the world. God’s purest creations are stained by the sin and evil of human nature, yet salvation is promised to those who embrace and delight in it. Fyodor Dostoevsky alludes to the idea of the embracing of faith in the midst of the persistence of evil. In his book, “The Idiot”, Dostoevsky destroys innocence and reveals the stain past evils leave behind to depict the destructive power of evil. The impossibility of standing against this powerful force is shown through evils’ destruction of all characters as well as through
its permanence. This further adds to the theme and brings out a beautiful message to embrace faith despite the surrounding evil. ‘The Idiot’, Prince Myshkin, portrays pure innocence and Christ-like qualities, which are ultimately tainted and destroyed by evil. He is perceived differently by each character in the story - for his purity and goodness seem impossible to grasp in a world characterized by sin. Each character reflects part of his/her own personality into what they believed him to be. Myshkin’s purity and struggle to overcome evil are fruitless. His constant struggles to help others ultimately leads to his destruction. Prince Myshkin suffers from epilepsy, which parallels religious transformations. He preaches about Christian morals and standards and is disgusted by the corruption around him.” His mind and heart were lit up with an extraordinary light; all his agitation, all his doubt, all his worries were as if placated at once, resolved in a sort of sublime tranquility, filled with serene, harmonious joy, and hope, filled with reason and ultimate cause” (pg. 225). Through his fits, Myshkin experiences an absolute understanding and the beauty of life that other characters have trouble seeing. His ‘hope’ resides in his faith in life after death. His simplicity and naïve view of the world portrays such beauty and sets an example of God’s creation and salvation. “Look at a child, look at God’s sunrise, look at the grass growing, look into the eyes that are looking at you and love you…”(pg. 553). His path and eyes are clear, set in his faith in God and God’s beauty, while others are distracted by the evil that surrounds them as well as their impending death. They don’t focus on the beauty and salvation, but rather the darkness and inevitability of death. Through this, Myshkin is ultimately brought down by society’s darkness and failure to see the beauty in life. It’s somewhat paradoxical, that through the evil of his illness, he brings out new life and understanding. Through death and suffering, good and salvation prevail. Although, that is not conclusive, for Myshkin is destroyed by others impurity. He is tainted and consumed by others evil, alluding to the absence of God and salvation. For, how can one so pure and innocent be destroyed if salvation is guaranteed? Through this, Dostoevsky reveals the importance of faith and belief, even though there is no evidential proof of life after death. The destruction of such innocence exemplifies the dominance of evil over good, yet shows the importance of faith in ones life.
Dostoevsky creates a story in which evil persists, remains, and overcomes, similarly to life today. Its constant force presses on humanity, affecting its choices, lives, and actions. One succumbs to evil through the lack of faith, but others may end just as they begun. Rogozhin is a stagnant character, who’s personality is defined by sin and, yet, honesty. From the beginning, Rogozhin represents a dark, mysterious man, who maintains this essence throughout the story. He never once hides his dark motives, revealing and expressing his thoughts and ideas to others. His blatant honesty makes him seem more trustworthy, and the darkness he reveals about his character never distresses others directly. “I fell on her and beat her black and blue” (Pg. 210). Rogozhin was driven by his possessive love for Nastasya, leading him to this violence. Nastasya’s love for Myshkin tormented him. He embraced his evil nature, and gave in to what he always knew he would do. “I can only tell you this about the knife, Lev Nikolaevich. I took it out of the locked drawer this morning….the knife seemed to go in about three inches..or even three and a half. . . just under the left breast” (Pg. 609). Rogozhin was in full knowledge that we would one-day end Nastasya’s life, but even after her death he somehow ended back where he had begun. He seemed to have a self-satisfaction, like her death was his salvation. Through murdering Nastasya, Rogozhin was redeemed and seemed to have a weight lifted off of his shoulders. While Myshkin is symbolic of Christ, Rogozhin is symbolic of the Devil. He finds delight in his sin, and speaks of it honestly and blatantly. Nastasya had a choice between sin and salvation, between life and death. Humanity is faced with the same choice, to chose between sin and salvation. Sin may be a more concrete and evident choice, although it leads to an inescapable death. Through salvation, one must have faith in the life that death may bring, despite the lack of evidential proof. Sins potent force taints the lives of those around it.
Nastasya, like Myshkin, suffered from others sin, which contributed to her destruction. As a young girl she was raped, and stained by these evils done to her. She believed herself to be unworthy of innocence and salvation, even though it was offered to her through Myshkins proposal. She was afraid of the love she had for him, and the stain her evils may leave on him. She didn’t want to ruin his purity, like others had ruined hers. By choosing Rogozhin, Nastasya let go of salvation, because of her failure to forgive her own impurity. “Ill marry you, Parfyon Semyonovich, and not because I’m afraid of you, but because I’ll perish all the same” (Pg. 212). Nastasya denied herself salvation, and chose sin, even though she knew it would lead to her death. Her beauty and intelligence had been corrupted by the sin of the world around her, and the sins committed on her. She also had knowledge, that in choosing death, she would be able to inflict the same pain her offender had inflicted on her. Sin had corrupted her and had manifested a belief of her unworthiness. In Christian beliefs, salvation is promised, but one must embrace Christ’s forgiveness and accept his destruction of sin in order to fully embrace life. Nastasya failed to forgive herself, and she chose an ending which she believed she deserved. One must overcome their own sin and forgive themselves before they can fully embrace Christ’s true forgiveness and
salvation. For Christ destroyed sin, but only if you have faith in that he truly did. Dostoevsky develops a relationship between the reader and the characters that draws the audience into the story, personifying the struggle between good and evil.
One can relate the story’s message of embracing faith, to their own life, integrating Dostoevsky’s contemplation of religion as their own. The painting of the Dead Christ illustrates a main theme throughout Dostoevsky’s story of the absence of salvation. What is there without faith? What is there without salvation? What would there be if Christ had not destroyed sin? The only way to find purpose in this life, to defeat evil, is to find the beauty in God’s creations and to have faith in everlasting life. Ippolit attacks this struggle directly. Through his failure, the dominance of evil is shown, but the reader is also able to connect his lack of faith to his destruction. Ippolit, being a raging atheist, failed to see the beauty in nature, and the other side to death. He equated this thought of death to being a dead end, that life ends with death, but one must see that through faith in God, life doesn’t end. The reader must take Ippolits message of embracing life while you have it, but also add the embracing of death. In Ippolits ‘Necessary Explanation’ he states, “And what do they want to do with their ridiculous ‘Pavlovsk trees’? Sweeten the last hours of my life? …What do I need your nature for, your Pavlolovsk park, your sunrises and sunsets, your blue sky, and your all-contented faces, when this whole
banquet, which has no end, began by counting me alone as superfluous? What do I care about all this beauty, when every minute, every second, I must and am forced to know that even this tiny fly that is now buzzing near me in a ray of sunlight, even as it participates in this banquet and chorus, knows its place, loves it, and is happy, while I alone am a castaway, and only in my pusillanimity did not want to understand it till now!” (Pg. 412). Ippolit has the answer to overcoming evil, death, and life but fails to understand the importance of embracing the beauty of nature, of God’s creations. The way to overcome death is to embrace it, not try to defeat it by denying nature. Ippolits failed suicide demonstrates how evil and death cannot be defeated, but once one begins to associate death with something beautiful, something that may lead to more than simply death, one is able to overcome it. Through the prevailing and destructive power of evil, Dostoevsky develops an overall message to embrace faith. One must choose to believe in the beauty of life and everlasting life, despite the evil that surrounds. The only way to truly defeat evil is through death and through the faith of life after death. “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.“ (Hebrews 11:1) In other words, faith is believing in something without evidential proof. Christians believe that through Christ sin was destroyed, and the promise of everlasting life and forgiveness was guaranteed. In life, one must look past the surrounding evil, and strive to find and follow the beauty that may not be apparent.