What It Is
The bright nights of early summer in St. Petersburg, when the sky does not fully darken, and which give the book its title. The text barely names them: the expression white night appears only once, on the Third Night, in the Dreamer's mouth. What the book shows is their regime: the encounters take place at night, outdoors, in a suspended time between day and sleep, and all end in a farewell before dawn, up to the last unit, called Morning, which begins by saying the nights are over.
Where It Appears
On the First Night, the first sentence of the book describes a wonderful night, with a sky so starry and so clear that it could exist only when one is young, and the Dreamer ends the sad day by saying that, even so, his night was better than the day.
Я был так счастлив… до завтра!, I was so happy... until tomorrow!
On the Second Night, the encounter begins at ten, on the embankment, and the Dreamer talks so much that the night becomes the space of confession; he thanks Nastenka for letting him say that he has lived at least two nights.
On the Third Night, written on a rainy day, without light, which seems to him his future old age, he gives the nights a name and a possessive:
Вчера было наше третье свиданье, наша третья белая ночь…, Yesterday was our third meeting, our third white night...
On the Fourth Night, after the plans, the two walk as though in a fog, always returning to the bench, and he shows the bright sky, the moon and a yellow cloud passing; it is in that sky that the lodger appears.
On the Morning, the nights end in the morning, on a dark rainy day, with fever, and the light that disappears behind a cloud is one of the two causes the Dreamer gives for the vision of the future:
я увидел себя таким, как я теперь, ровно через пятнадцать лет, постаревшим, в той же комнате, так же одиноким, с той же Матреной, I saw myself as I am now, exactly fifteen years from now, aged, in the same room, as lonely as I am now, with the same Matryona.
What It Means
The white night is a time that is neither day nor night, and it is the exact time of the Dreamer: daydreaming, a life that is neither fully real nor entirely invented. Encounters exist only within it, and each ends in a farewell, before day arrives; daytime life, with rent, letters and marriage, belongs to the lodger.
The book counts the nights as possessions, four nights and one morning, and the Dreamer calls them ours on the Third Night, on a day when he no longer sees Nastenka. The brightness that gives the work its name is that of a happiness seen whole because it does not darken, and that ends when ordinary light returns, on the Morning: the first sentence of the book says that nights like these exist only for the young, and the last unit shows him seeing himself old.
Relationships
- Standard themes: Happiness, Dream and fantasy.
- Themes of the work: Happiness, Dream and fantasy.
- Characters: the Dreamer, Nastenka, the lodger.
- Neighboring symbols: the embankment and the bench, because the white night is the time and the embankment is the place of the same encounters.