Death. ENG 605: Dostoevski

 ENG 605: Dostoevsky.

Death.

For class this week I wrote a critique examining the death of Ippolit Terentyev from The Idiot in dialogue with Neitzshcean concepts of free will, the will to power and the nihilistic rejection of God regarding death.

So, before I begin, here are some photos from my collection that I would like to share. Life has been good.





















































Critique 4: Ippolit and his “Necessary Explanation”: A Confrontation with Death.

For this week’s critique regarding The Idiot, I would like to explore the death of Ippolit Terentyev, more particularly in his “Necessary Explanation,” the writings of the consumptive, dying Young Nihilist of Russia. In Part Three, chapters 5-7, Dostoevsky is writing from the perspective of a Nihilist who rejects God.

            In Dostoevsky: The Miraculous Years, 1865-1871, Joseph Frank writes that both characters Ippolit and Nastasya function as a “Supreme example in Dostoevsky’s work of what he called ‘the egoism of supreme suffering,’ that is, the egoism of the insulted and injured, who revenge themselves on the world by masochistically refusing all attempts to assuage their sense of injury” (The Miraculous Years, 1865-1871 323).

Ippolit expounds his nihilistic views in “Necessary Explanation,” his polemical writings questioning and attacking the nature of God— basically asking the question that why, if God is good, then why do bad things happen? If there is a God, why would he create man to live, mostly suffer, and then die with no concrete proof that He does in fact exist and without a guarantee but a promise of an eternal afterlife free of suffering where man walks with God in the Kingdom of Heaven? “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, a whosever believeth in shall not perish, but have everlasting life?” John 3:16, KJV.

In “Chapter 17, The Idiot,” Dostoevsky scholar Jospeh Frank writes, “A place here can also be assigned to the dying young consumptive Ippolit Terentyev, whose rage against God…who refuses to reconcile himself with a creator responsible for the supreme injustice of bringing consciousness to birth and then condemning it to death” (citation needed).

Well, in defense of God, one could counter that “all things happen for a reason” and that Ippolit’s destiny is God’s will—to die from consumption. While reading his “Necessary Explanation”, Ippolit explains his indignation and injuries by the Creator and thus denounces Him.

            Which brings us to our next subject. Suicide. Here, Ippolit rationalizes and morally justifies his attempt at suicide. He claims that God has condemned him to die soon. The doctor has confirmed Ippolit’s sickness. And Ippolit, in a last act of defiance, he will defy God’s death sentence to which he has been condemned, with gun in hand, pulls the trigger, but nothing happens. What irony.

            My point concerning Ippolit and suicide relates to the idea of agency and authority. If, apparently, God is in control, and if He controls Ippolit’s destiny, then Ippolit is saying, “no, God, this is my life. I see that I am dying. I would like to take my life now, on my own terms, using my own will, for I am in control of my life and my fate, and rather than suffer through illness and waste away till death, as it is your Will, I will pull this trigger.” As Ippolit is a Young Nihilist, his rationale correlates to the Nietzschean concept of free will and the will to power and the rejection of God.

            Also note the autobiographical connection to Dostoevsky and Ippolit. It is helpful to remember how Dostoevsky himself faced a firing squad and confronted death in 1849 only to get a last-minute stay on his execution, along with a dozen or so other men, with Dostoevsky writing how he would never forget the one prisoner among his presence who went mad before the firing squad and who soon after died. And here in The Idiot, Ippolit faces death, and through his “Necessary Explanation” Dostoevsky reimagines what it is like to face immanent death from one who rejects God and fails to see His benevolence. — Anthony M. Obiedzinski

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