Amour Proper of Nastasya Filippovna
"Amour Proper of Nastasya Filippovna", acrylic on canvas, 2022, Bishop Maxim
Of the many characters we see in Dostoyevsky’s novels, few of the principal characters are female. However, in one of his more famous novels, The Idiot, we find perhaps one of the strongest female characters of most nineteenthcentury literature, if not of Europe, then at least of Russia. Nastassya is the most dramatic and complex character in the novel The Idiot. Defined by her sensual beauty and remarkable looks, she steers the course of this novel and the fate of Prince Myshkin and Rogozhin. Nastasya Filippovna, a proud, yet exploited woman, is by far one of Dostoyevsky’s most intriguing characters. She has an instantaneous and dramatic effect on the characters surrounding her. The Idiot can understand Nastasya Filippovna’s abrupt changes of mood, and perhaps we should not attempt to narrow the formula for her motivations.