Personification

Giving a thing, an animal, or an abstract idea the actions, feelings, or speech of a person.

In The Idiot

Nature is mocking! Why, he resumed suddenly with ardor, why does it create the finest beings only to mock them afterward?

“Nature” is treated as someone who mocks, “is mocking,” and who acts on purpose, “creates the finest beings only to mock them afterward.” The personification gives Hippolyte's death a culprit.

Part Two: The Painting, Hippolyte

What good is all this beauty to me, when every minute, every second, I must and am obliged to know that even this tiny fly, buzzing near me now in a ray of sunlight, takes part in all this banquet and chorus, knows its place, loves it, and is happy, while I alone am a miscarriage.

Part Three: The Explanation, Hippolyte