Characteristics of the dreamer from the story "White Nights" by Dostoevsky

"White Nights" is the story of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, which was first published in the journal Otechestvennye Zapiski in 1848. The writer devoted his work to A.N. Pleshcheyev, a friend of youth. Perhaps this person is the prototype of the main character, since it is known that at this time he was thinking about his own version of the story, the hero of which is hovering in the clouds. Characteristics of the dreamer from the story "White Nights" will be considered in our article.

All of us are dreamers

"White Nights", according to many researchers of the writer's work, is one of the most poetic and light of his works. Dostoevsky himself, in addition, wrote that we are all somewhat dreamers. That is, the story in a sense can be called autobiographical. After all, Fyodor Mikhailovich, like the protagonist of the work, often recalled his dreams. He wrote that in youthful fantasies he liked to present himself sometimes as Mari, then as Pericles, as a knight in a tournament, as a Christian during the reign of Nero, and so on. The atmosphere of this work is romantic, as are the images of its main characters - a young girl and a raznochintsy official. Both of them have a pure soul.

Meeting with Nastenka

The story consists of five parts. In this case, four of them describe the nights, and in the final - the morning. The young man, the main character, is a dreamer who lived for eight years in Petersburg, but could not find friends in this city. He left on one of the summer days for a walk. But suddenly it seemed to the hero that the entire city had left for the dacha. Being a lonely person, the dreamer felt his isolation from the others with great strength. He decided to take a walk outside the city. Returning from the walk, the main character noticed a young girl (Nastenka), sobbing at the channel railings.

They talked. These events begin the story "White Nights" Dostoevsky.

Character of the main character

Having chosen the form of the narrative from the first person, the author of the work gave him the features of confession, reflections having an autobiographical character. It is characteristic that Dostoevsky did not name his hero. This technique enhances the association with a close friend of the writer or the author himself. All his life the image of the dreamer excited Fyodor Mikhailovich. He even wanted to write a novel of the same name.

Characteristics of the dreamer from the story "White Nights" next. In the work the main character is a full-strength, educated young man. However, he calls himself a lonely and timid dreamer. This character lives a romantic dream, replacing it with reality. Everyday worries and deeds are uninteresting to him. He performs them only when necessary and feels himself in this world as a stranger. The poor dreamer hides in the dark corners of Petersburg, where the sun never peeps. This person is always embarrassed, he constantly feels guilty. The hero has ridiculous manners, stupid speech.

The external characteristic of the dreamer from the story "White Nights" is very scarce. The emphasis is made by the author on his inner world. So, we can not say what he does, where he serves. It depersonalizes him even more. The dreamer lives without friends, and never met with the girls. Because of this, the hero becomes an object of dislike and ridicule of others. He compares himself with a dirty, rumpled kitten, with enmity and resentment looking at the world.

All the time there is such a feeling that the main character is a small boy or a feared teenager's fever. The confused confessions and excessive emotions that he spills out chaotically seem to have absolutely nothing to do with the situation. He does not know the world at all, as the character of the dreamer from the story "White Nights" shows. If the girl decides to connect her life with this hero, she is waited with gentle sighs, but neither a guest nor a theater such a person will invite her - only a ban at home and make a hostage of sentimentality. Characteristics of the dreamer can make such a conclusion.

The sinfulness of a dreamer's life, his creative powers

Fyodor Mikhailovich believes that such a ghostly life is sinful, as it takes a person out of the world of reality. It turns into a "strange creature" of some kind "middle-class". Dreams of the main character at the same time have a creative value. After all, this man, as Dostoevsky notes, is an artist of his own life. He creates it at will every hour.

"Extra person"

The dreamer is the type of the so-called superfluous person. However, only inside himself is his criticism. He does not despise the society, like Pechorin or Onegin. This hero feels sincere sympathy for strangers. Dreamer-altruist is able to serve another person, come to his aid.

Reflecting moods in society in a work

Many of Dostoevsky's contemporaries were prone to dreams of something unusual and bright. In the society there was disappointment and despair, which were caused by the defeat of the Decembrists. After all, the upsurge of the liberation movement, which falls on the 1960s, has not matured yet. Fyodor Mikhailovich himself could refuse in favor of the ideals of democracy from empty dreams. However, the protagonist of "White Nights" never managed to escape from the captivity of dreams, although he understood all the perniciousness of his own worldview.

Nastenka

Opposing this hero-dreamer Nastenka is an active girl. Dostoevsky created an image of a romantic and refined beauty, which is the "soulmate" of the hero, although a bit naive and childish. The sincerity of the feelings of this girl, her desire to fight for her own happiness, is respected. However, Nastenka herself needs support.

The love that the dreamer experienced

Dostoevsky ("White Nights") in his work describes the pure, sincere feeling of the dreamer. The hero's selfish motives are unknown. He is ready to sacrifice everything for everyone else, so he tries to make the happiness of this girl, not hesitating for a moment that Nastenka's love is the only thing he has in this life. The feeling of a dreamer is trustful, unselfish. It is as pure as the white nights. Love saves the hero from his "sin" (that is, dreaminess), allows you to quench your thirst for the fullness of life. However, his fate is sad. He again is a lonely person. F. Dostoevsky ("White Nights"), however, does not leave in the end of the story a desperate tragedy. The dreamer again blesses his beloved.

This story is a kind of idyllic. This is an author's utopia about what people could be if they showed better feelings. The work "White Nights", a dreamer in which - a character generalized, typical, is rather a dream about a beautiful, different life than the reflection of Dostoevsky's reality.

Dreamers of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky

The views of the main character about happiness (the ideal of compassion and brotherhood) is interesting to look through the prism of Tolstoy's work "After the ball." Characteristics of the dreamer ("White Nights") in the light of this story becomes particularly bold. The endless isolation from life and the sentimentality of Dostoyevsky's hero contrast sharply with the profound experiences inherent in the young romantic from Tolstoy's work. He unlike the first takes vital, serious decisions. Completely immersed in his experiences the hero Fyodor Mikhailovich. For him, somewhere outside the world exists. Own dreams are the only motive for accomplishing this or that action, as the comparative characteristic of the dreamer ("White Nights") and his "double" from the story "After the Ball" shows. Any sentimentality is an indicator of a lack of understanding of vital needs, spiritual loneliness, a consequence of feelings of estrangement from the world that owns a person. F. Dostoevsky ("White Nights") nevertheless sympathizes with the hero and does not condemn him.