The Theme in the Work
In the novel beauty is almost always a face, and the face is almost always that of Nastasya Filippovna Barashkova. Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin knows her from a portrait before he meets her, and what he reads there is not charm: it is suffering, pride, and a question about goodness, on which everything would depend. Before the Epanchin girls he postpones judgment on the most beautiful and says that beauty is an enigma; in the same chapter, Adelaida Ivanovna Epanchina says that a beauty like the one in the portrait is strength, that with it one can turn the world around. The book leaves both sentences standing and goes on showing beauty in places where it saves no one: in the face the prince ends up unable to bear, in the painting in which there is none, in the Pavlovsk trees that offend whoever is about to die. The famous phrase about the world saved by beauty is never spoken by the prince before the reader: it arrives quoted secondhand, first as mockery, then as prohibition.
In Part One, ch. III, looking at the portrait that Gavrila Ardalionovich Ivolgin handed to the general, the prince reads a whole life and stops where he cannot read.
Удивительное лицо! [...] Лицо веселое, а она ведь ужасно страдала, а? [...] Это гордое лицо, ужасно гордое, и вот не знаю, добра ли она? Ах, кабы добра! Все было бы спасено!, A surprising face! [...] The face is cheerful, and yet she suffered terribly, didn't she? [...] It is a proud face, terribly proud, and yet I don't know whether she is good. Ah, if only she were good! Everything would be saved!
In Part One, ch. VII, asked about the face of Aglaya Ivanovna Epanchina, he refuses the judgment he had made so easily about the others.
вы чрезвычайная красавица, Аглая Ивановна. Вы так хороши, что на вас боишься смотреть. [...] Красоту трудно судить; я еще не приготовился. Красота — загадка., You are an extraordinary beauty, Aglaya Ivanovna. You are so lovely that one is afraid to look at you. [...] Beauty is hard to judge; I am not yet prepared. Beauty is an enigma.
Still in Part One, ch. VII, on the way to the drawing room, he stops at the window and looks at the portrait again, and what he finds in its beauty is a contradiction that awakens compassion.
Как будто необъятная гордость и презрение, почти ненависть, были в этом лице, и в то же самое время что-то доверчивое, что-то удивительно простодушное; эти два контраста возбуждали как будто даже какое-то сострадание при взгляде на эти черты. Эта ослепляющая красота была даже невыносима, красота бледного лица, чуть не впалых щек и горевших глаз; странная красота!, It was as if there were in that face an immense pride and contempt, almost hatred, and at the same time something trusting, something astonishingly guileless; these two contrasts seemed to arouse some kind of compassion at the sight of those features. That dazzling beauty was even unbearable, the beauty of the pale face, of the almost hollow cheeks and the burning eyes; a strange beauty!
In Part Two, ch. V, sitting in the Summer Garden so as not to think about the shop window and the eyes that follow him, the prince thinks of the second before the attack, in which everything is resolved into a high harmony, and calls that beauty and prayer, knowing it comes from the illness.
Если в ту секунду, [...] ему случалось успевать ясно и сознательно сказать себе: «Да, за этот момент можно отдать всю жизнь!», — то, конечно, этот момент сам по себе и стоил всей жизни, If in that second [...] he happened to have time to say to himself, clearly and consciously: "Yes, for this moment one could give one's whole life!" then, of course, that moment in itself was worth the whole of life.
In Part Three, ch. V, the phrase about beauty comes through the mouth of Hippolyte Terentyev, who heard it from Kolya, and already as mockery.
Правда, князь, что вы раз говорили, что мир спасет «красота»? [...] А я утверждаю, что у него оттого такие игривые мысли, что он теперь влюблен, Is it true, prince, that you once said that the world will be saved by "beauty"? [...] And I maintain that he has such playful ideas because he is now in love.
In Part Three, ch. VI, Rogozhin's painting is described by the absence of beauty in it.
В картине же Рогожина о красоте и слова нет; это в полном виде труп человека, вынесшего бесконечные муки [...] На картине это лицо страшно разбито ударами, вспухшее, со страшными, вспухшими и окровавленными синяками, глаза открыты, зрачки скосились; большие, открытые белки глаз блещут каким-то мертвенным, стеклянным отблеском, In Rogozhin's painting there is not a word about beauty; it is, in full, the corpse of a man who endured endless torments [...] In the painting this face is terribly battered, swollen, with terrible swollen and bloodied bruises, the eyes open, the pupils turned aside; the large, open whites of the eyes gleam with a deathly, glassy shine.
In Part Three, ch. VII, near the end of the Explanation, the beauty of the world is what offends Hippolyte most.
Что мне во всей этой красоте, когда я каждую минуту, каждую секунду должен и принужден теперь знать, что вот даже эта крошечная мушка, которая жужжит теперь около меня в солнечном луче, и та даже во всем этом пире и хоре участница, место знает свое, любит его и счастлива, а я один выкидыш, What is all this beauty to me, when every minute, every second, I must and am compelled to know that even this tiny fly, buzzing now near me in a sunbeam, even it takes part in all this feast and chorus, knows its place, loves it and is happy, and I alone am an abortion.
In Part Four, ch. VI, Aglaya puts the phrase on the list of what the prince must not say before the guests.
если вы заговорите о чем-нибудь в роде смертной казни, или об экономическом состоянии России, или о том, что «мир спасет красота», то… я, конечно, порадуюсь и посмеюсь очень, но… предупреждаю вас заранее: не кажитесь мне потом на глаза!, if you start talking about something like the death penalty, or the economic condition of Russia, or that "beauty will save the world," then... I, of course, will be very glad and laugh a great deal, but... I warn you in advance: don't show yourself before my eyes afterward!
In Part Four, ch. VII, he does not say the phrase, but he says its simplest form, standing, shortly before the attack.
Знаете, я не понимаю, как можно проходить мимо дерева и не быть счастливым, что видишь его? Говорить с человеком и не быть счастливым, что любишь его! О, я только не умею высказать… а сколько вещей на каждом шагу таких прекрасных, которые даже самый потерявшийся человек находит прекрасными? Посмотрите на ребенка, посмотрите на божию зарю, посмотрите на травку, как она растет, посмотрите в глаза, которые на вас смотрят и вас любят…, You know, I do not understand how one can pass by a tree and not be happy to see it. To speak with a person and not be happy that one loves them! Oh, I just cannot put it into words... and how many things, so beautiful at every step, that even the most lost person finds beautiful? Look at a child, look at God's dawn, look at the grass, how it grows, look into the eyes that look at you and love you...
In Part Four, ch. IX, talking with Evgeny Pavlovich Radomsky, who speaks to him of the fantastic beauty that enchanted him on the first day, the prince confesses what he has never said to anyone about the face in the portrait.
я этого никому не говорил, никогда, даже Аглае, но я не могу лица Настасьи Филипповны выносить… [...] я смотрел на ее лицо! Я еще утром, на портрете, не мог его вынести… Вот у Веры, у Лебедевой, совсем другие глаза; я… я боюсь ее лица!, I never told this to anyone, never, not even to Aglaya, but I cannot bear Nastasya Filippovna's face... [...] I was looking at her face! Already in the morning, in the portrait, I could not bear it... Vera, the Lebedev girl, has quite different eyes; I... I am afraid of her face!
The beauty of the book has two faces that the prince never separates. One is that of simple things, the tree, the child, the dawn, which he points to in Part Four, ch. VII and which even the most lost person finds beautiful. The other is that of Nastasya Filippovna's face, which in Part One, ch. VII attracts him through its contradiction and in Part Four, ch. IX frightens him. The first consoles; the second demands something of him. The phrase that beauty will save the world stands between the two and is never put to the test, because the book only lets it be heard quoted by those who attack it or forbid it.
Who Embodies It
Nastasya Filippovna is the beauty that everyone measures and no one can judge. In Part One, ch. XIII, dazzled, the prince tells her at the door of the party that everything in her is perfection, and she answers that he is mistaken and that she will remind him of it still that night.
В вас всё совершенство… даже то, что вы худы и бледны… вас и не желаешь представить иначе… Мне так захотелось к вам придти… я… простите…, In you everything is perfection... even the fact that you are thin and pale... one does not wish to imagine you otherwise... I so wanted to come to you... I... forgive me...
Aglaya is the beauty that frightens one to look at, and she is the one who most doubts the beauty of feelings. In Part Two, ch. VII, after reciting the ballad of the poor knight (The Poor Knight) with the letters swapped, she leaves the prince unable to separate one thing from the other.
как можно было соединить такое истинное, прекрасное чувство с такою явною и злобною насмешкой?, how was it possible to join such a true, beautiful feeling with such an open and malicious mockery?
In Part Three, ch. X, in the letters, Nastasya Filippovna reverses the roles and places in Aglaya the perfection that the prince had placed in her.
но вы для меня — совершенство! Я вас видела, я вижу вас каждый день. Ведь я не сужу вас; я не рассудком дошла до того, что вы совершенство; я просто уверовала, but you, for me, are perfection! I have seen you, I see you every day. For I do not judge you; I did not reach by reason the point of seeing that you are perfection; I simply came to believe it.
Where It Appears
- Part One, ch. III: The prince reads joy, suffering and pride in Nastasya Filippovna's portrait, and says that everything would be saved if she were good.
- Part One, ch. VII: The prince tells Aglaya that beauty is an enigma, kisses the portrait in secret, and Adelaida says that a beauty like that is strength.
- Part One, ch. XIII: At the door of the party, the prince tells Nastasya Filippovna that everything in her is perfection, even her thinness and paleness, and she answers that he is mistaken.
- Part Two, ch. V: In the Summer Garden, the prince thinks of the instant of harmony that precedes the attack and calls it beauty and prayer.
- Part Two, ch. VI: Aglaya says that the poor knight believed in the pure beauty of the lady and bowed before her forever.
- Part Two, ch. VII: Aglaya recites the ballad with Nastasya Filippovna's initials, and the prince cannot separate the beautiful feeling from the mockery.
- Part Three, ch. V: Hippolyte asks in front of everyone whether it is true that the prince said beauty will save the world.
- Part Three, ch. VI: Hippolyte says that in Rogozhin's painting there is not a word about beauty, only the corpse of a man who was tortured.
- Part Three, ch. VII: Hippolyte asks what the beauty of the world is good for, if even the fly in the sunbeam has a place at the banquet and he does not.
- Part Three, ch. X: In the letters, Nastasya Filippovna writes to Aglaya that she is perfection, and that she came to this by believing, not by judging.
- Part Four, ch. VI: Aglaya warns the prince that if he speaks before the guests of beauty saving the world, he should not appear before her again.
- Part Four, ch. VII: The prince tells the guests that he does not understand how one can pass a tree without being happy to see it.
- Part Four, ch. IX: Radomsky speaks of the fantastic beauty that enchanted the prince, and the prince confesses that he is afraid of Nastasya Filippovna's face.
Where the Readings Diverge
The phrase that beauty will save the world can be read in two ways, and the book does not choose. It may be the prince's conviction, which in Part Four, ch. VII he reduces to the happiness of seeing a tree and a child; or it may be the ideal the novel puts to the test and lets fall, with Hippolyte in Part Three, ch. VII suffering from the beauty that does not save him, and the prince, in Part Four, ch. IX, afraid of the face that he once found perfect.
The moment of beauty and prayer in Part Two, ch. V comes from the illness, and the prince knows it; the speech about the tree in Part Four, ch. VII is delivered shortly before the attack. On both occasions when he speaks of beauty most fully, it arrives together with the aura. The text sustains both readings: that the illness opens a door to what is true, and that the beauty he sees is the first symptom.