The other day, I discussed about Notes From Underground from Dostoyevsky with another Redditor, and it reminded me at how unimpressed I was with Rodya. I am gonna be burned at stake for this, but a character that is painfully ordinary to read for me was Raskolnikov from Crime & Punishment. To start, C&P isn't even in my top 3 Dostoyevsky books, mine are The Brothers Karamazov (TBK) > The Idiot > Notes From Underground. Here’s why I picked Rodya.
I spent 2-3 weeks discussing, consulting and asking around for the best translation because I wanted the best reading experience. I dove into C&P fully aware of its popularity, all the raves about how this book is a testament to Dostoyevsky's genius. I was so ready to be blown away, to be wrecked and ruined by this book, to have sleepless nights full of contemplation from this book. I agree, it’s a deep, interesting, and eye-opening story ! But characterwise ? Rodya is quite underwhelming to me. I was rather disappointed at how ordinary he was. So, he committed "something" (no-spoilers!) then suffered from paranoia, had fits and sleepless nights. Which, by the way, fits perfectly into the story and I believe was intentionally included to introduce psychological consequences that humanize him, signs of his potential for redemption. So I thought there’d be some compelling redemption journey ? I expected a huge gap between how his delusional thoughts as being "higher", his actions + journey until his identity was uncovered, would contribute to his final character development. Nope ! He didn't regret a single thing. His character arc was deemed complete just like that. He didn't evolve to be better or worse, as if his character was prevented from developing. How frustratingly boring Rodya was.
(We’ll skip the fact that the original drafts were way too long that even the editor suggested Dostoyevsky divide it into three books: "Crime," "Punishment," and "Redemption". In the end, the final cut that was approved & published was Crime & Punishment, obviously, with no redemption in sight.)
Now, from the same author, let's compare Rodya with Prince Myskin from "The Idiot". Prince Myskin has so much more dimensionality to his character, he was FAR from ordinary, which makes his character so bizarre and interesting to follow. Or take the underground man from "Notes from Underground", who was also beautifully "defective". I do understand that Dostoyevsky’s stories aim to touch on basic human psychology, sometimes using regular characters experiencing trauma as a platform to tell the story, which is also beautiful in its own way. But Rodya was just, painfully "meh" to me.
So, which character in a book do you find to be painfully ordinary ? Do you also agree that Rodya was 'meh' ?
by pixie_laluna
2 Comments
Addie LaRue – so much wasted potential on a very bland character.
“Ordinary” might not be the best word in this case, but Mrs. Danvers from “Rebecca”. I believe I am in the minority here, but I just thought she was painfully one-dimensional as an antagonist, and nothing she did seemed that motivated outside of “I miss Rebecca!”