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PARTISAN REVIEW
reproached himself! ) 'Say of wh a t if you da re,' he kept tellin g himself
continu all y with reproach and chall en ge. ' Formul a te all your
thought, dare to express it clearl y, precisely, without falterin g! Oh , I
am ignobl e!' he repea ted with indi gna tio n and a flu sh on hi s face.
'With wh at eyes shall I look u pon tha t man fo r th e rcst of my life!
Oh , wha t a day! Oh , God, wh a t a ni ghtma re!'
Myshkin assumes tha t hi s suspi cions of Rogozhin, his loss of confi–
dence in him, a re in some way responsibl e fo r Rogozhin 's a ttack on
him. In the deepest sen se, thi s is true, fo r the a ttack is in fact a
representa ti on of Myshkin 's th oughts and des ires. Th e chas te and
gentl e p rince has the same pass ion s as o ther men , the same energ ies of
lust and hatred . Wha t di stingui shes him from the vi o lent soul s around
him is tha t Mys hkin can onl y experi ence these forces pass ively; th ey
mu st appea r to overwhelm him from outside, through th e agency o f
Rogozhin , who represents bo th th e viola ti on from outside th a t is the
destin y of the meek soul , and the vio lence that it fears within itse lf and
projects outwa rds onto the fi gure o[ the aggressor. The fo rm in whi ch
in stin ctual forces a re expressed in the scene of th e a ttack, the absolutely
primiti ve lust and aggress ion of Rogozhin , sugges ts the reason fo r the
terror these fo rces in spire in Myshkin . and expl a in s the un earthl y
p urit y o f hi s personality: th e expression o f in stinct is conceived of as
leading
to
mutil a tion and even to death.
In
Th e Id iot,
then, the epil epti c seizure is o verdetermin ed in an
extremely comp lex way; it is a sort o f noda l po int at whi ch a ll the
strands of sexual and aggress ive feelin g are ti ed int o a sin gle expres–
sion . It h as a sexu al meaning as a substitute fo r and a symboli c repre–
senta tion of ero ti c contact with th e fa th er, whi ch implies the terrifyin g
coroll ary of castra tion . But the suffering o r dea thlike aspect of the
attack also serves as a puni shment fo r the parricida l wi shes aroused by
the fear o f castra ti on , here reinfo rced by the homosexua l wi sh . As it is
represented in the novel, th e epil eptic persona lity is one in whi ch
sexua l and agg ressive drives have assumed a pa rti cul arl y dangerous
character, invo lving h omo sexua l and parri cida l wi shes so threa tenin g
to the ego tha t they must be entirely repressed . T he epil eptic seizure,
then , represents the periodi c erupti on of these energ ies in the form o f a
vi olent a ttack in whi ch the ego does indeed lose a ll control.
But Myshkin 's epil epsy has a lso ano ther dimen sion , a powerfull y
pos iti ve aspect th at makes it the fund amenta l eni gma of hi s being, the
point of transfo rmati on at whi ch di sease may become sanctity. This
do ubl e qua lity of Myshkin 's illn ess su ggests tha t the dua li sm and the
vi olent antinomi es of Dostoevsky's who le conceptio n of mo ra l experi-
