Chapter Нелепые отцы в художественном мире Ф.М. Достоевского

Overview & Synopsis

Funny Fathers. Types of the ridiculous old man in Dostoevsky’s novels. The first chapters from Dostoevsky’s novel Netochka Nezvanova deal with the fate and the peculiar story of life of the heroine’s stepfather. He is called Efimov and, being an alcoholic and overconfident, he plunges his family into misery. Therefore, he can be considered a prototype of ridiculous father figures occurring in the great novels (Marmeladov from Crime and Punishment, General Ivolgin from The Idiot and Stepan Trofimovič from The Demons). The article focuses on the determining character traits of these figures who embody the dramatic failure of the father generation. While characterising those laughable vecchi, special attention is given to the seemingly paradox criterium of the tragicomic, which finally results in questioning the tension between freedom and a predetermined fate.