How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"Once you did me the honour of giving me your confidence. Perhaps you have quite forgotten me now! How is it that I am writing to you? I do not know; but I am conscious of an irresistible desire to remind you of my existence, especially you. How many times I have needed all three of you; but only you have dwelt always in my mind's eye. I need you—I need you very much. I will not write about myself. I have nothing to tell you. But I long for you to be happy. ARE you happy? That is all I wished to say to you—Your brother, PR. L. MYSHKIN."
On reading this short and disconnected note, Aglaya suddenly blushed all over, and became very thoughtful. […] Next day, she took it out, and put it into a large book, as she usually did with papers which she wanted to be able to find easily. She laughed when, about a week later, she happened to notice the name of the book, and saw that it was Don Quixote de la Mancha. (2.1.44-46)
This might well be the point when Aglaya starts thinking of Myshkin as "the poor knight," what with the Don Quixote coinkidink and everything. What do we make of this letter? Aglaya reads it as a straight-up love letter, um, probably because of all that "I need you" stuff —but later, when asked about it, Myshkin is all, oh, I didn't really mean anything by it. Why this misunderstanding?
Quote #8
[Ippolit] began joyfully. "[…] I wanted to be a man of action—I had a right to be. Oh! what a lot of things I wanted! Now I want nothing; I renounce all my wants […]. Yes, nature is full of mockery! Why"—he continued with sudden warmth—"does she create the choicest beings only to mock at them? The only human being who is recognized as perfect, when nature showed him to mankind, was given the mission to say things which have caused the shedding of so much blood that it would have drowned mankind if it had all been shed at once!
[…]
Well, let me tell you that if I hate anyone here—I hate you all," he cried, in a hoarse, strained voice—"but you, you, with your jesuitical soul, your soul of sickly sweetness, idiot, beneficent millionaire—I hate you worse than anything or anyone on earth! I saw through you and hated you long ago; […]."
"He is ashamed of his tears!" whispered Lebedev to Lizabeta Prokofievna. "It was inevitable. Ah! what a wonderful man the prince is! He read his very soul." (2.10.80-103)
It's interesting that Ippolit goes from anger at the world for using the idea of Jesus ("the only human being recognized as perfect") as an excuse for bloodshed to getting angry at Myshkin for sitting there and empathizing with him. It might be because Myshkin is the closest thing to Jesus Ippolit has ever seen, but is just as unable to intervene in human misery on a large scale. What do you think of Lebedev's commentary on the prince's infuriating empathy?
Quote #9
Myshkin was glad enough to be left alone. He went out of the garden, crossed the road, and entered the park. He wished to reflect, and to make up his mind as to a certain "step." This step was one of those things, however, which are not thought out, as a rule, but decided for or against hastily, and without much reflection. The fact is, he felt a longing to leave all this and go away—go anywhere, if only it were far enough, and at once, without bidding farewell to anyone. He felt a presentiment that if he remained but a few days more in this place, and among these people, he would be fixed in this world irrevocably and permanently. However, in a very few minutes he decided that to run away was impossible; that it would be cowardly; that great problems lay before him, and that he had no right to leave them unsolved, or at least to refuse to give all his energy and strength to the attempt to solve them. (2.11.30)
Again, this is a callback to Jesus's thoughts in the garden at Gethsemane while he waits for Judas to betray him so he can go and be crucified already. The sense of duty that Myshkin feels in having to stick around to face the music, rather than just taking off Nastasya-style when the going gets tough, is of course yet another mark of his "perfect" character. Is it just us, or did the phrase "a certain step" make anyone else think Myshkin is considering suicide?