Dostoevsky is considered one of the most influential writers in Russian literature.
In this article, we will see some interesting facts about the Russian writer you might not know before.
Dostoevsky was a man of many life lessons, but perhaps the most important of which is that you cannot control everything in life.
Despite his best efforts, he was not able to prevent his family from falling apart, and he was not able to prevent himself from succumbing to alcoholism. However, through all these experiences, Dostoevsky learned some valuable lessons that he applied to his writing.
First and foremost, Dostoevsky teaches us that you can’t control everything in life, by facing challenges and writing about them, he was able to find solace and understanding.
Also, he visualizes his mentality and thoughts through the personalities chosen in his novels. We can see that he wrote about his struggles and issues, maybe to find hope and to understand life.
In Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky wrote about a young man who was struggling with his conscience, and he thought that if he killed a rich woman, he might help his family and solve all his problems. Through the story, we can conclude that we should consider thinking before taking a risky action like that. Because we certainly can’t handle the feeling of pain and regret.
Raskolnikov becomes convinced that murdering this old woman is justified by his financial need, and this is what happens to a lot of people, we choose to build our happiness on someone else’s pain.
He ends up murdered in a state of emotional turmoil, and after he struggles with not only guilt but also fear and paranoia.
He had epilepsy and a mental disorder
During the last decades of his life, epilepsy continued to interfere with his life and work. However, not all doctors agreed that the novelist had epilepsy.
For example, the famous psychoanalyst and neurologist Sigmund Freud wrote an essay in 1928 entitled “Dostoyevsky and Patricide”, in which the writer’s seizure disorder was simply a symptom of “his neurosis”. It was a symptom, and “must be.” It is properly classified as hysteric epilepsy, which is severe hysteria.”
Like many great writers, Dostoevsky wrote about what he knew and how he experienced the world. Not surprisingly, many of his characters suffered from epileptic seizures.
Dostoevsky uses epileptic characters in 4 of his 12 novels, Kirillov in The Possessed, Smirdyakov in The Brothers Karamazov, Nellie in The Insulted and Injured, and Prince Myshkin in The Idiot. As Gide states about Dostoevsky, “his persistence in making epilepsy intervene as a factor in his novels sufficiently indicates the role, he assigned to this disease in molding his ethical conceptions and directing the course of his thought.”
An interesting aspect of this and subsequent accounts is that they are not only aware of body tremors and loss of consciousness. It explains many of the cardinal symptoms of different types of attacks, down to the severe fatigue that is often felt afterward.
Good or bad, useful or not, epilepsy seemed to frame Dostoevsky’s life, and “Superman” as the philosophy of Superman framed the life of Raskolnikov.
What is remarkable about this 19th-century writer is that he was able to create such great art out of his disability rather than letting it define him or defeat him.
Conclusion
As a human being, Dostoevsky has given a lot of thoughts and ideologies to consider and think about. Throughout his life, he faces many issues but that didn’t stop him from doing the work that he mastered and it’s his writing.
This might be a sign for everyone to continue in any domain despite the daily struggles.