⠀⠀Today, on the birthday of the great Russian writer, sometimes speaking about his work, we offer you to learn a little more about his five most significant works – or as they are called otherwise – about Dostoevsky’s Great Pentateuch.
⠀⠀Pentateuch F. Min. Dostoevsky is the five great books of the writer. Researchers include in the Pentateuch such novels: “Crime and Punishment”, “The Idiot”, “The Demons”, “The Teenager” and “The Brothers Karamazov”. Each of these books was created by Dostoevsky during decadence moods and experiences. It is not surprising that these works are considered the main ones in the writer’s work, because each of them depicts the imprint of the writer’s fate.
⠀⠀Why is the Pentateuch called the Great? Researchers draw an analogy with the Pentateuch of Moses. According to biblical data – the text was dictated to Moses by God himself, and Fyodor Mikhailovich’s creations are too visionary, and sometimes the thought creeps in – weren’t these novels dictated from above?
Novels of the Pentateuch in chronological order:
– Crime and punishment (1866);
– Idiot (1867 – 1869);
– Demons (1871-1872);
– Teenager (1875);
– Brothers Karamazov (1879-1880).
“Crime and Punishment”
⠀⠀”Crime and Punishment” is the first and main work in Dostoevsky’s Pentateuch. The plot of this novel crept into the writer’s head when he was serving his sentence in hard labour. The main idea was to show a strong personality who stumbled and to show how a person behaves after a crime – what he does, what he thinks. Rodion Raskolnikov, a student from St. Petersburg, became the embodiment of this personality. Stuck in a whirlpool of poverty and despair, Raskolnikov begins to divide people into 2 categories in thought: ordinary people (who will never cross the line of the illegal) and people extraordinary people (people who live without remorse, who are free to do what people of the first category will never agree to in life).
⠀⠀Soon, Rodion receives a letter from Matushka saying that Raskolnikov’s sister, Dunya, is ready to marry Luzhin, a man whom she does not tolerate at all and sacrifices herself to save the family. Then everything happens like in a fog – chaotic events, despair and thoughts in the student’s head get lost in a pile of thoughts of extraordinary people. Raskolnikov boldly considers himself a second type of people, and decides to kill.
Science says: Love yourself first of all, for everything in the world is based on personal interest.
“Idiot”
⠀⠀ “The Idiot” is a work in which Dostoevsky tried to fulfil his dream – to write a book about a good man. It took 2 years to create it. In 1868, when the work was half finished, Fyodor Mikhailovich sent a letter to A. H. Maykov, in which he detailed the main essence of the novel “I’ve been tormented by one thought for a long time, but I was afraid to make a novel out of it, because the thought is too difficult and I’m not prepared for it, although the thought is quite seductive and I love it. This idea is to portray a quite beautiful man. In my opinion, nothing can be harder than that, especially in our time.
There is nothing more offensive than a man of our time and tribe than to tell him that he is not original, weak in character, without special talents and an ordinary person.
“Demons”
⠀⠀Demons – in 1868 there was a case that served as the plot for writing the novel “The Demons”. A political murder was committed – a student Ivan Ivanov was killed by revolutionary Sergei Nechaev, later the “Nichayevtsy” movement was born. This was told to Dostoevsky by Snitkina’s brother, who came to him in Dresden. The plot of the novel is not much different from the situation at that time: Pyotr Verkhovensky (prototype of Nechaev) is the creator and further leader of the revolutionary circle. Under the guise of a man who seeks to bring free and new ideas to society, lies a hypocritical and beneficial intriguer. The constantly repetitive mottos of the revolutionary settle in people’s minds and to consolidate his “circle”, Verkhovensky intends to kill Ivan Shatov (Ivan Ivanov), a former revolutionary whose views did not coincide with the ideas of the “Nenchaevites”.
Happiness is unprofitable for me, because I immediately climb to forgive all my enemies…
“Teenager”
⠀⠀ “Teenager” is a novel whose views will remain modern for many years to come. In the centre of the plot, already quite an adult man, nineteen-year-old Arkady Dolgoruky. Despite the fact that the book is called “The Teenager”, Arkady himself fundamentally disagrees with the opinion of his creator. He always asks others: “Which teenager? Are they still growing after 19?”⠀⠀
⠀⠀Arkady is the illegitimate son of the landlord. And when, on the one hand, he dreams of wealth, status and carefree life, on the other hand, he is pressed by the stigma of “scarrior”. Between the fight against himself in the novel “Teenager”, Dostoevsky also raises the topic of relations between father and son.
I’ve now read what I’ve just written, and I see that I’m much smarter than what I’ve written. How does it happen that a smart person has much stupider than what remains in him?
“The Brothers Karamazov”
⠀⠀The last book in the Pentateuch – “The Brothers Karamazov” is a novel that focusses on family and internal relationships. The head of the family Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov was killed. As Dostoevsky himself describes him – a nasty, greedy and vile old man. Suddenly, an ordinary family novel intertwines philosophical thoughts and detective investigation. During the disclosure of events, it turns out that there was a conflict between still alive Fyodor and his son Dmitry over a woman. No one could have guessed, but seemingly minor events can lead to unexpected consequences, especially if they have hidden motives.
After all, it’s very nice to be offended sometimes, isn’t it? And after all, a person knows that no one offended him, and that he invented his own resentment and lied for beauty, exaggerated himself to create a picture, by the way, got attached and made a mountain out of peas, knows it himself, but still the very first is offended, offended to pleasure, to a feeling of great pleasure,
Editor: Varvara Kartushina
