Can't reply to the comment , so I am posting a new entry :) -- For Yelena

Yelena, your analysis took my suggestions a step further and now it all makes more sense. In addition to Myshkin's last name, his first name is Lev. I completely overlooked this at first. What an oxymoron being called a Lion Little-Mouse. Isn't there a famous fable about a lion and a mouse? Maybe Dostoevsky was making us aware of the depth of the contradiction within Myshkin? His personality strikes me as bi-polar: he is either too happy or too sad. At least in his dialogues with others. Thoughts on that?