developed in this short story (Frank 756).
What drew Dostoevsky’s interest is the idea of “the humble suicide” (752) he read in a newspaper account. The Meek One originated from the idea of “the girl with the icon” (753) and the main tone is spoken by the husband, a character that strikes a very
“Dostoevskian note” (753) in his profession as a pawnbroker who seeks to empower himself through the accumulation of wealth. Dostoevsky deftly created the figure of a usurer to epitomize materialism and egoism resulting from wounded self-esteem. By featuring this self-exiled hero’s material pursuit and lust for power, the author hinted at the devastating consequences of immorality.
Obsessed with power and money, this former officer and later a solitary
money-lender, by way of running a pawnshop, avenged himself on society and fled from its domain. However, although governing his own shop, he still suffered from pride and negation disclosed in the rest of the story. Told from the husband’s
perspective, the confessional narrative reveals a sense of expiation. The pawnbroker revisited recollections of his relationship with a 16-year-old girl who later became his wife out of financial necessity. In the process of confessing, the pawnbroker revealed
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his troubled psyche and dishonest characteristics; by means of confession, Dostoevsky, as an author, once again vividly presented the complexity of a human mind.
What is also carefully handled by Dostoevsky is the portrayal of the wife through the husband’s eyes. The anti-social narrator is ostensibly scornful yet emotionally attached to a slender, mild, and desperately poor girl who frequented his shop to pledge her belongings. Regarding himself as a savior, the pawnbroker soon proposed to the heroine. In their dysfunctional marriage, he sought to break her will by
asserting his full dominance as a way to manifest his bruised ego. Although suffering from the husband’s hegemony, the wife’s true merits still light up the dismal narrative.
The combination of the meek wife’s dignity, wisdom and moral excellence disclosed in the self-regarding husband’s telling serves as a threatening force unraveling his revengeful plan and intimidating his amoral being. Committing suicide at the end of the story, the meek wife succumbed to her fate to liberate herself from a dysfunctional marriage and a desperate existence. Her suicidal intent contains the essence of the most sympathetic vision cast by Dostoevsky, endowing this Russian writer with the inspiration to penetrate a meek Russian soul with symbolic significance.
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Outline
In the introduction to this thesis, what is presented is an overview of Dostoevsky as a short fiction writer whose proto-modernist view is reflected in his symbolic writings.
First brought up is the influence he casted upon numerous philosophers, authors, and critics as an important literary precursors of modernism. Symbolism in Dostoevsky’s works comprises numerous indications sufficient and distinctive in meaning. Different aspects of the way symbol functions are first demonstrated in general and later
supported by the numerous symbolic representations in Dostoevsky’s fictional works.
Nelson Goodman’s concept “exemplification” serves as a cognitive and accessible approach to navigate in the Russian writer’s intricately symbolic world.
In Chapter One, symbolism in Dostoevsky’s very first post-Siberian work, The
House of the Dead, is exemplified by the prison as the chapter’s focus. Dostoevsky’s
years spent in a Siberian prison camp serve as a focal point of his philosophical and spiritual transformation; thus, the analysis in all chapter centers on his post-Siberian short fictions suffused with insightful penetration through varied symbols. The symbolic nature of the Siberian prison is first characterized by its historical, geological, and cultural significance. In the following paragraphs, the symbolicmeanings of this house of the dead are classified by its physical, psychological, social, and spiritual aspects in analysis.
In Chapter Two, what is examined is the symbolism in Notes from Underground, another Dostoevsky’s post-Siberian short fiction serving as the watershed in his writing career. Through his symbolic use of the underground, Dostoevsky keenly penetrates into man’s existence, morality, and psychology comprised of layers ingeniously reflecting the social-ideological ambivalence of his time. Expressed by
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the confessional notes from the underground are physical confinement, mental disorder, social estrangement, and spiritual disintegration. A wide range of references unified by the underground are divided into parts to expound on physical,
psychological, social, and spiritual levels.
In Chapter Three, The Meek One is targeted to be scrutinized with a focus on the predominant symbol in this short story, the icon of the Virgin Mary. By featuring the icon in the narrative, the author manifests his belief in the spectrum of possibilities gathered to be an interpretation of the spiritual truth symbolized by the icon. In The
Meek One, Dostoevsky illustrates a higher reality unveiled by the icon with symbolic
amplification that sustains the integrity of the work. Viewed from a religiousperspective, the Russian writer, as a prophet not only for his contemporaries but for later generations, embeds his religious focus in the icon as a symbol pointing to a higher reality.
Last, symbol, the basis of capture and communication of meanings, is concluded as the signifier that transcends logical ideologies in Dostoevsky’s three short fictions.
The symbols in three short fictions are fulfilled by actions; and the idea of togetherness shared by all elements corresponds to the communication of all the symbolic representations pointing to a higher reality.
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Chapter One
Symbolism in The House of the Dead
By featuring a narrator, Aleksandr Petrovitch Gorianchikov to tell the story in The
House of the Dead (1862), Dostoevsky created a distance to present a picture of the
Siberian dead house subjectively and objectively from various angles reflecting what he had seen in the Siberian prison camp. Aleksandr Petrovitch’s notes are the evidence of his moral restoration and spiritual transformation granting him freedom at the end of the journey. Yet the narrative of The House of the Dead serves as not merely an opportunity to peep inside the Siberian dead house but as a lens to peer into the“kernel” of the Russian peasant class. The work is a spiritual journey for Aleksandr Petrovitch and a psychological, philosophical, and ideological foundation for Dostoevsky in development of complex themes in later works.
The Symbolic Nature of Prison in The House of the Dead
In The House of the Dead, prison is an institution depriving a man of his freedom as a form of punishment; it is distinguished by the exercise of power controlled through regulations and laws legitimating the detention of individuals as culturally rightful, state authorized, and socially canonical. In this work, a symbolic
interpretation of prison as a space not only of physical torture but of mental suffering should first address the distinctive features of Siberia, a wild land generally seen as a region suggesting desolation due to its vastness and harsh climate. Siberia is
geographically estranged from populous cities and possesses a strong feeling opposed to the idea of home; yet owing to its severity and isolation in terms of living
conditions and geographical features, on the symbolic plane, prison possesses a
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cleansing, renewing, and purifying quality that allows the interpretation of a prisoner’s suffering as a redemptive process.
In the narrative, prison stands as a symbolic space in which plentiful ideas,
experiences, and perspectives converge. By symbolically characterizing the Siberian prison as a site of confluence, Dostoevsky seemed to suggest his belief that prison, the symbol, transcends equations and oppositions by including all. Moreover, with the depiction of various encounters and incidents which happened in prison, Dostoevsky presented a process not only of a convict’s moral restoration but of an individual’s spiritual transformation that exceeds prison experience but is inseparably connected with the community. By employing an upper-class narrator, Aleksandr Petrovitch, the Russian writer skillfully unveiled the process of the convict’s individual
transformation of spirit inseparably connected with the community, mainly his personal evolvement, disclosed by his depiction of individual convicts, various encounters, and monumental incidents taking place in the prison.
Siberia, a region of wilderness, is historically associated with nomads and exiles owing to its remoteness. The Siberian prison portrayed in The House of the Dead gives a sense of isolation, abandonment, and deportation as a foreground in view of its historical and geographical location in Russia. However, in “Prison Treatment in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s NOTES FROM THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD and CRIME AND PUNISHMENT”, Antony Johae (2012) argues that the “topographical
characteristic” of Siberia exactly mirrors the “hope-for freedom of the convict” (Johae 269). As a Russian writer once in prison and exile for ten years away from home, Dostoevsky “effected an inversion of the literal experience of imprisonment” (269) by transforming the torturing experiences, a purgatory process of four years in a Siberian
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labor camp, into a fundamental keynote running through his post-Siberian works－
man must suffer to gain redemption.
As a symbol, prison in The House of the Dead exemplifies by giving form to an undefined assortment in this writing that fits forms of novel, novella, and
autobiography among others. Seen in this light, prison fulfills its quality as an
indicative center, termed by Joseph Frank (2010) as “symbolic accentuation” (369) in his renowned biography. On a national scale, this attention serves a “destined
foundation” of Dostoevsky’s developing outlook of a Russian Utopia (383)
exemplified by a Siberian prison in which inmates endured physical torture, mental hardship and emotive pressure that transformed the suffering souls by eliciting their moral essence to devote selflessly and thus to form a united community that facilitates the realization of their spiritual revival. It is evident that, after his prison years,
Dostoevsky developed and secured his belief in the unity of mankind governed by Christian moral ideals and demonstrated by the Russian commune from which “a new and glorious phase of world history” (383) would begin.
Through symbolic penetration, the redemptive quality of prison clarifies the significance of the convict’s daily suffering through which one gains redemption by execution of moral ideals. As John D. Simons (1967) suggested in his essay, “The Nature of Suffering in Schiller and Dostoevsky”, Dostoevsky believed in a “universal guilt” and only “by recognizing the unity of all men” and by becoming aware of universal guilt can the individual comprehend the fundamental value and “supreme importance of suffering” (170) through a selfless, sacrificial, and altruistic love for mankind which enables man to obtain true freedom and spiritual redemption. In this unifying domain of the prison, the suffering of the individual is also the suffering of
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the community for he is an inseparable part of the whole.
With layers of meaning, four subordinate symbols stand out in a huge quantity supporting prison as the main symbol in The House of the Dead. Fetters, money, the theatricals, and eagle, with Dostoevsky’s excellent technique, play symbolic roles assisting prison as the main symbol on physical, psychological, social, and spiritual levels separately. By using the narrator, Aleksandr Petrovitch, to be his spokesperson recounting days spent in prison from the perspective of a “gentleman”, Dostoevsky skillfully created a critical distance not merely to report assorted happenings in prison but to value individual souls with artistic appreciation. This particular prospect enables the narrative to be profuse, revealing, and introspective with a spectrum of messages encoded in different symbols pointing to prison. The beauty Dostoevsky personally perceived in the prison community is transmitted through a range of reference exemplified by symbols rich in meanings divided into parts by categories in the following.
The Physical Aspect of Prison: Fetters
Fetters symbolize the enforced confinement as an apparent and inalterable fact faced by convicts in prison, a space depriving the convict of physical freedom as a form of punishment. Inmates were brought in prison by forces structured higher above themselves like the law or administrative power; they were forced to perform in compliance with rules, discipline, and customs. Fetters serve as a symbol disclosing a strong sense of confinement as one of the tortures among other hardships undergone in prison. As the narrator states on page 146, it is an “established fact” for convicts to wear fetters at all times in prison even when he is severely ill or dying. Convicts were
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fully aware of and accustomed to being bound by the chains disfiguring them throughout their prison lives; the physical weight carried by the convicts denotes the psychological burden heavily shouldered by the captive souls as an unaltered fact.
Another scene manifests confinement imposed by the fetters was taken place in the bathhouse by which the narrator further reveals this brutal fact of confinement as a form of impediment. The scene discloses, the narrator, Aleksandr Petrovitch, was experiencing a hard time to move in a small, steamy, chaotic, and hellish bathhouse with fetters worn. The weight on his ankles did not make him fall but entirely interfered with his flexibility of movement in the bathhouse. Symbolized by the fetters, confinement did not demolish the convicts but wasted individual’s condition and consumed his soul progressively in the process of suffering in this dead house.
The chains yielded the restricted souls not only physical burden but mental torment.
Moreover, fetters worn by convicts also serve as a symbol indicating the compelling uniformity of their lives in prison, a “compulsory life in common”
(Dostoevsky 1862: 18) unbearable for the souls craving for freedom in expressing individuality. The prison mass was composed of convicts from diverse regions, backgrounds, and upbringings of assorted characteristics, habits, and inclinations. In this hellish space of suffering, however, all prisoners were forced to undergo a detaining, monotonous, and smothering daily life of torment alike. The chains on an inmate’s ankles could not be removed in any case as a physical form of identical confinement regardless of the individual’s condition even if he was seriously ill or dying.
Aleksandr Petrovitch, from a moral perspective, questioned the validity of such a system devoid of human sympathy. As he observed, “the retention of fetters” (146)
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was merely for the sake of punishment as “a form of degradation, a disgrace, and a physical and moral burden” just like a rigid prison custom without any tolerance for exception. Yet hidden in this humanistic criticism of an “established fact” agreed by all inmates in the dead house is a revelation of a unity in multiplicity bound by incarceration. Lives in the Siberian dead house might be identical in terms of punishment and restraint without exception; however, through his individualizing portraits, the souls the narrator encountered trapped by fetters restrained in prison exemplify their very own distinct characters, particular temperament and various human qualities with moral potentials that unify them as a community in hope of pure freedom, a redemptive life, and “resurrection from the dead” (247) resulting from the process of suffering.
With symbolic rendering, prison in The House of the Dead is inevitably perceived as an “otherworld”, a microcosm which holds its own values, manners, and beliefs that transcend social distinction and class stratification. Despite a convict’s high or low social status, everyone was chained by the fetters and underwent the same reality of deprivation of freedom as punishment. Instead of being categorized in accordance with their class, rank, or other distinction ruling the world outside the fence, all convicts were divided “according to the degree of their criminality” (6). In this otherworld, only man’s morality serves as a factor in classification. Enduring the extremely confining experience as “an established fact that could not be altered” (146), everyone distinctive in race, culture, and class was granted an identical chance to liberate himself from moral degradation and to strive for ethical ideals.
At the outset, viewed by Aleksandr Petrovitch, the Siberian prison is a gloomy and somber space causing misery and pain; however, suffering in this domain bears a
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renewing quality as a purifying process followed by redemption. The fetters bind all prisoners without any lenience regarding to their physical, mental, social, cultural, or religious disparity, suggesting the equality for all to resume, to revive, and to
regenerate in the same domain. In this Siberian jailhouse, they all are the dead chained by fetters with their “grim, branded faces” (6) waiting to be set free. The weight of
“eight to twelve pounds” (146) on the convict’s ankles is pressure on the mind but also a reminder of the forthcoming resurrection.
The Psychological Aspect of Prison: Money
Money serves as a critically symbolic item helping convicts gain a sense of detachment from the current misery undergone in prison. Possession of money was prohibited in prison; nevertheless, convicts risked the chance to be searched or
punished to get hold of it. For convicts, money acquired was not just of material value but of mental comfort. As Aleksandr Petrovitch, the narrator, points out on page 14, money “jingling in his pocket” brought a great sense of comfort to the convict. Here, money serves as a tool helping the convict obtain the intangible sense of freedom even if its function as a medium for the exchange of goods is yet to be achieved. The importance of money, symbolically, does not lie in the amount; instead, possession of even the most insignificant amount is viewed by the inmates as a psychological necessity to retain the consciousness of freedom.
By identifying freedom with money, the narrator seems to be hinting, the money as money is not of much importance; rather, it is the fulfillment of the inmate’s need to feel free as human instinct. Such a sense of freedom achieved by the possession of money symbolically reflects the sensation of dreaming an infinite, unbridled, and
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fathomless freedom on the other side of the fence with “everything sweet and precious” when a prisoner “looks out…from his window” (188). In this dead house, what the inmate craves is not the reasoning of freedom but a strongly perceptual sense of detachment from daily torment.
As a symbol, money reflects the convict’s yearning for freedom; however, this item of value incorporates another deeper, psychological dimension considering the
explanation of the inmate’s desire to dream about such freedom in varied forms. In the very beginning of the story, money is referred to as “coined liberty” (14) by the
narrator, Aleksndr Petrovitch, who highlighted money by its symbolic role played in the dead house; in the narrative, as a symbol of layers, money is diverted from its merely material value and performs as a means penetrating the convict’s subconscious mind.
The presumed potentials lie in the convicts’ dissimilar ways to value this “coined liberty” whether as property, power, security, or leverage to gain a distinctive sense of freedom. This individuality rings diversity according to the convict’s myriad ways coping with the convulsion of emotive pressure, physical torture, and prolonged frustration faced in prison. The definition of money thus expands widely based on an individual interpretation to fulfill their psychological need; yet the freedom imagined by convicts is the only factor unifying all variations, reflecting the dynamics of possession. One example disclosing such dynamics is that a particular convict tended to spend “all his fortune carousing with noise and music” in order “to forget his depression” (32). Another executed his “coined liberty” (14) by buying foods and drinks on his nameday and ate “like an ox” (32) but alone. Others attained their
The presumed potentials lie in the convicts’ dissimilar ways to value this “coined liberty” whether as property, power, security, or leverage to gain a distinctive sense of freedom. This individuality rings diversity according to the convict’s myriad ways coping with the convulsion of emotive pressure, physical torture, and prolonged frustration faced in prison. The definition of money thus expands widely based on an individual interpretation to fulfill their psychological need; yet the freedom imagined by convicts is the only factor unifying all variations, reflecting the dynamics of possession. One example disclosing such dynamics is that a particular convict tended to spend “all his fortune carousing with noise and music” in order “to forget his depression” (32). Another executed his “coined liberty” (14) by buying foods and drinks on his nameday and ate “like an ox” (32) but alone. Others attained their