A tribute to my favorite fictional character: Prince Myshkin
I have always had a special place in my heart for fictional characters, perhaps owing to my daydreaming nature and idealistic personality. Be it characters from my favorite novels or cinema or TV shows, I’m sure there is a bizarre community of those existing metaphorically in a dedicated corner of my heart. While it consists of various intriguing personalities ranging from Harry Potter to Bruce Wayne to Gregor Samsa, there is one specific fictional character that stands head and shoulders above everybody else: Prince Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin!
Prince Myshkin is the protagonist of the novel ‘The Idiot’ by the Russian literary giant, Fyodor Dostoyevsky. While I certainly do not claim to be an expert at decoding the literary skills of an author who is considered by some as the Russian version of Shakespeare, I can at least assess them as a fan of his work.
I’ve read a lot of addictive novels but most of them fall under the category of a modern thriller. The only novels I found unputdownable just due to the sheer emotional complexity and psychological depth of its plot and characters were that of Dostoyevsky’s alone. And, in that regard, ‘The Idiot’ entranced me even when I was reading the gigantic 700-page novel for the second time. Although the novel is structured in an unorthodox way that has been widely criticized by experts, it didn’t faze me one bit!
The literary classic is centered around Prince Myshkin, a young epileptic who returns to Russia following several years of treatment in Switzerland. Owing to his medical condition and his seemingly simple-minded and naïve personality, many of the characters he encounters consider him ‘an idiot’ and that he lacks intelligence and insight. Yet anyone who cares to look deeper can instantly identify the profound intelligence and compassion that the Prince possesses. In fact, these are the very qualities that make him act with extraordinary guilelessness and open-hearted purity, even to those who attempt to swindle him or cause him harm.
Now, the reasons why I adore the character of Prince Myshkin are three-fold.
First of all, the very premise of the idea of the character as envisioned by Dostoyevsky is something worth applauding. Many experts have regarded that Dostoyevsky, being a Christian at heart, attempted to create a modern version of Jesus Christ himself. His idea was to create a Christ-like hero and place him amidst the shallow-minded and materialistic men and women of 19th century Russia and thus, contrast his ideal against them. And if the 19th century Russian society could be considered shallow and materialistic, the premise sounds even more intriguing when it is looked at from a modern perspective, as the world we live in fits those two adjectives with a far higher intensity. Thus, the premise has a timeless quality to it, in my opinion.
The second reason I adore Prince Myshkin is due to the richness of his heart. The Prince doesn’t harbor any ill intention toward any of the characters he meets, irrespective of how much they ridicule him, disrespect him, or even cheat him. In sheer contrast to how he is perceived by many of the characters in the novel, the Prince is well aware of the intentions of those men and women and continues to demonstrate a purity of heart towards them, until the very end. The instances that portray his insanely good heart are littered throughout the novel.
He befriends an unfairly ostracized woman in Switzerland and convinces the children of the village to befriend her too, even when the adults are staunchly against it. When a group of self-righteous young men confront him with an unfair claim to an inheritance from a benefactor, the Prince addresses the claimant with compassion and even agrees to provide him a sum of money, much to the shock of other characters that take his side (and the readers too, I’m sure!).
More importantly, this heart of his is very evident in his interactions with Nastasya Filippovna and Rogozhin. The former is a haughty, self-destructive, and impulsive woman who is regarded by society as vile and impure, owing to her being a kept woman of an aristocrat. The latter is a recklessly passionate man who is obsessed with the former. The Prince falls in love with Nastasya and in spite of the fact that she abandons him time and again (once, even on the altar) due to her self-destructive tendencies, the Prince continues to care about her and love her with extraordinary purity. He also develops a close connection with Rogozhin and loves him as a brother, even when the latter resents him as a competitor for his love interest and goes to the lengths of attempting to murder the Prince. Talk about a Christian ideal!
The third reason why I love the character is due to the honesty of it. Despite creating a protagonist that fits his ideal, Dostoyevsky doesn’t shy away from reality one bit. While the Prince does demonstrate a Christ-like heart, none of the characters consider him a Messiah of any sort. No doubt many of them, even the wicked ones, are touched by Prince Myshkin’s simplicity and compassion but they continued to consider him an idiot. In fact, a well-respected family even hesitates to comply with the marriage of their daughter to the Prince, owing to his ineptitude, simple-mindedness, and naivety. This apprehension of theirs is confirmed at a dinner party when the Prince, due to his social inexperience, fails to perceive the superficiality of the guests and launches into a discourse about Christianity and Russia with intense passion. A passion that only results in him crashing an expensive vase and suffering an epileptic fit in front of many highly esteemed guests!
The novel, thus continues to paint a clear picture of the trials and tribulations that the young man faces due to his simplicity and compassion. All the way until the tragic end.
Hence, the purity of Prince Myshkin and the magnificent way in which Dostoyevsky handled the character and associated complexities make him my favorite fictional character. Although it certainly is unadvisable to strive for the ideal that this character sets, Prince Myshkin serves to be a strong reminder that there is more to human life than wealth, societal status as well as the many vices and passions that plague us all!
