I just finished reading this book, and I gotta say, it’s quite a different offering than what I’m usually used to from Dostoevsky.
I definitely subscribe to the theory that Golyadkin is mad, and his psychosis is causing him to perceive an exact double. I’m having trouble deciding whether or not this means that there is simply no one there and he perceives it from nothing, or whether his psychosis causes him to see another as being his identical twin. At times, it seems obvious that the Double is a part of him and his mental disease, but at other moments in the novel (at the parties, at work, etc) it seems clear that the double is a seperate person with whom others in the book interact. What was your take on this? I’m leaning towards it being both, depending on the situation.
While I am happy with my assessment of he nature of the double, there’s something else I can’t quite figure out satisfactorily. What is the explanation behind the letter he got from Klara Olsufyevna? I tried looking up tons of discussions about the book and no one ever seems to mention this part. To me, it seemed like a really important turning point in he story. What’s the deal with it? Is the letter a fabrication of Golydkins diseased mind? Is it real and forged? Is it a ploy by Fillipovich/Ivanovich/etc to get him to show up? I’m leaning towards the last one, as everyone seemed to be specifically waiting for Golyadkin at the end. But it could just as easily be attributed to madness and coincidence. What do you guys think?
Even though it was a departure from some of his stuff I’m more used to, I really enjoyed how Dostoevsky intentionally confuses the reader. I felt pretty disoriented reading parts of this book, particularly the dialogue, and thought the effect was well translated to text. Interested what you guys think.
by infburz
1 Comment
I just finished it as well. The letter disappears and Golyadkin senior attributes it to the grin that junior gave him when he returned his coat. It seems to be written so that multiple ‘solutions’ are possible, which is what makes it so disorienting for the hero and the reader. Another possible ‘answer’ is that his other self wrote it, but many details point to it having been bait, since it comes at a time when he hasn’t been going to work at the correct hours, and his servant ‘knowingly’ helps him pack up sheets and other things that will be needed in the mad house.
Specifically from the comments that his servant makes, we can see that others are aware of him having some sort of ‘dissassociative identity disorder’ (edit: or borderline squizophrenia), which would point to why he was already not allowed to enter the gala at the beginning of the story. This could imply that they are just ‘amusing him’ when they seem to affirm that his other self also has another, separate body. This type of disorder seems to imply that, since the novel is about the ‘original’ personality, the hero sees part of his actions as outside themselves, for example when he thinks he ate one pie but they charge him for eleven. These seem to be indications that, while perhaps all of the ‘honorous’ things he imagines about his double aren’t physical, the dishonorous ones are?
It’s also interesting to note that at the very beginning of the novel, when he has already ‘changed’, he looks in the mirror and is happy/surprised that nothing in his countenence has changed; at the end he says the ‘presentiment of this’ had haunted him for a long time.
Whatever the origin of the letter, I also agree that it’s ‘key’, since his former benefactor and his daughter Klara are the ones crying at his ‘intervention’, so maybe something happened where his social position made him unsuitable for her, or perhaps his being replaced as a clerk dashed his idealistic dreams.
I know it’s been a long time but I saw that you’ve made semi-recent comments on this account. Cheers.