Dear all,

Here are the discussion questions (reduced in number and a little edited) I got from Professor Meerson; these are notes for her first class. I believe the class (which covers most of Dostoyevsky's major works in one semester) spends about two weeks on the book. These notes cover about 2/3 of Part I.

You do not have to answer all (or any) of the questions in your posts, of course. They are only here to guide your thinking, maybe suggest some aspects of novel to consider as you read.

She also suggested that the first thing to discuss, **especially those who haven't read the novel yet** :

- What do you make of the title? What expectations does it form for the book?

~*~*~*~*~*~

And now, the questions themselves.

Is laughter good or bad? Depending on what? [Anya's note: this will probably be the theme I will trace throughout the work]

What do you make of the fact that ALL exposition [on the train] is given to us through the prism of Lebedev? 

What is love in this novel?  How is Rogozhin’s love for Nastasiya Filippovna [NF] described?

What role does money play in the novel, so far? The earrings: NF values them because Rogozhin suffered for them so much. Nota Bene [NB]: Myshkin loves the diamond earrings story!  NF’s attitude to money =? Every person in this episode is characterized by their attitude to money. And later, in Ch.3, for ex., on top of p. 28, also the General and Ganya are characterized by their attitude to what they construe as NF’s attitude, to money!  

Un/reliable Narrator: Is the narrator reliable here? Is he, concerning the description of Mme. Epanchina?

In the third long paragraph of Chapter 2, count up all the uses of words designating rumors, esp. with impersonal or passive constructions, as well as purely nominal subjects – e.g., “it was known,” “one knew,” “almost nobody had known for many years,” “it was mentioned,” “one said,” “one talked,” “everyone knew”. What is the point of this tone? Also, what other narrative genre, besides (or even instead) of a novelistic exposition does the description in this paragraph resemble? What is the meaning of Gen. Epanchin’s being “an experienced spouse and an agile father”?  

How is the history of Totsky and NF narrated to us? Totsky himself calls it “a complex and problematic ‘case’.”

All of Nastasya’s “unexpected” and “shocking,” “new” nature is described as shocking and unexpected to Totsky. Why is the narrator “siding” with him here?

P.1, Chapter 3: Prince Myshkin is interrupted, by Gen. Epanchin, for the first time. Later on, this will happen again. What is he trying to say? Why does no one listen to him? Why does it matter that they do not?

Who, and when/where, first calls Myshkin “an idiot”?

Myshkin is great at calligraphy.  Any symbolism to that?

NF’s portrait—the beginning of a whole series of significant pictures. We see her through Myshkin’s eyes.  What is Dost.’s view of beauty? 

Start tracing the role of portraits and paintings, as well as potential paintings (ekphrasis: paintings described or planned in words) in the novel.

~*~*~*~