It seems that the traits Dostoevsky placed, especially, in the personality of Myshkin would be inconceivable to someone who never observed them acting in real life. Inconceivable because they would seem absurd and unconvincing. But there it is: this innocence that seems to be and is not stupidity, this absolute lack of astonishment, this benevolence without limits, this speech that errs in the choice of words, this acting that is a little shy, a little confused, that seems indecisive and generates so much strangeness… All this complexity that always seems to be what it is not, added to the look of those who know and accept it, without fear, without surprise, without judgment and without reaction, leads those who observe it to a perplexity that logic is unable to explain. Reasoning cannot accept what it sees and, lacking a better explanation, puts everything on the account of folly and absurdity. Myshkin, however, is real, and contrary to the expectations of a race imprisoned in the meanness of spirit, he shows that the human soul, by raising itself up, gets rid of what ties it to the ground.
It Seems That the Traits Placed by Dostoevsky…
