Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculo... by Fyodor Dostoevsky

He gathers that there is a funeral and that it is he who is being buried. He dies, but feels no pain from the shot and is still aware of his surroundings. In the dream, he shoots himself in the heart. He intently ponders this and other questions growing out of it, but he still has no doubt that the suicide will happen that night. He cannot understand how it can be affecting him so deeply when he has already definitively decided that nothing matters and that he will soon be shooting himself. He hesitates to shoot himself because of a nagging sense of pity and inner pain that has plagued him since he shunned the little girl. She tries to get him to follow her but he rebuffs her, and when she desperately persists, he stamps his foot and shouts at her.īack at his apartment, he sinks into a chair and places the gun on a table next to him. Although not able to understand her trembling voice, he gathers that something terrible has happened to the little girl's mother. He notices that, despite the cold, she is flimsily dressed and soaking wet. As he is gazing at the star, a little girl seizes him by the elbow, distressed and seeking his help. For some reason, seeing this star finally confirms his intention to kill himself and he resolves definitely to do it that night. He reveals that, some months before, he had bought a revolver with the intent of shooting himself in the head.ĭespite a dismal night, the narrator looks up to the sky and views a solitary star. It is this revelation that leads him to the idea of suicide. He is contemplating the ridiculousness of his own life, and his recent realization that nothing matters to him any more. The story opens with the narrator wandering the streets of St. The story first appeared in Dostoevsky's self-published monthly journal A Writer's Diary in 1877.Īccording to literary theorist and Dostoevsky scholar Mikhail Bakhtin, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man is a modern manifestation of the ancient literary genre Menippean satire, and touches on almost all the themes characteristic of Dostoevsky's large-scale works. However, after a chance encounter with a young girl, he begins an inner journey that re-instills a love for his fellow man. Slipping into nihilism with “terrible anguish”, he is determined to commit suicide.

It chronicles the experiences of a man who decides that there is nothing of any value in the world. ' The Dream of a Ridiculous Man' ( Russian: Сон смешного человека, Son smeshnovo cheloveka) is a short story by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculo... by Fyodor Dostoevsky