XVII. Moral Emotions in Dostoevsky’s “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man”

Abstract

Dostoevsky’s “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man” is a philosophical tale that explores the emotional dynamics of its eponymous first-person narrator. “Dream” recounts the story of a “vile Petersburgian” infected by Western Enlightenment thinking who sees a little star in the dark sky, decides to commit suicide, encounters a little girl who begs him for help, feels pity then anger, drives her away, returns home, speculates about his emotions, has a dream vision of an Edenic paradise that floods him with love, and awakens with a thirst for life.1 His story recounts the conversion of a fallen man whose journey of self-knowledge gives him a life-saving dream vision that includes a version of the Christian myth of paradise, fall, and redemption. His story reflects Dostoevsky’s message that beauty can save us: the Ridiculous Man starts with