White Nights is the story of Fyodor Dostoevsky, which was first published in the journal Patriotic Notes in 1848. The writer dedicated his work to A.N. Pleshcheyev, a friend of youth. Perhaps this particular person is the prototype of the main character, since it is known that at this time he was thinking about his own version of the story, whose hero is in the clouds. The characteristics of the dreamer from the story "White Nights" will be considered in our article.
We are all dreamers
"White Nights", according to many researchers of the writer's work, is one of his most poetic and bright works. Dostoevsky himself, in addition, wrote that we are all, to some extent, dreamers. That is, the story in a sense can be called autobiographical. After all, Fyodor Mikhailovich, like the main character of the work, often recalled his dreams. He wrote that in youthful imagination he sometimes liked to present himself as Mary, then Pericles, then as a knight in a tournament, then as a Christian during the reign of Nero, etc. The atmosphere of this work is romantic, as well as the images of its main characters - a young girl and a bureaucrat-official. Both of them have a pure soul.
Meeting with Nastya
The story consists of five parts. Moreover, in four of them nights are described, and in the final morning. The young man, the protagonist, is a dreamer who has lived for eight years in St. Petersburg, but could not find friends in this city. He went out for a walk on one of the summer days. But suddenly the hero thought that the whole city had left for the cottage. Being a lonely person, the dreamer felt with great strength his isolation from the rest. He decided to go on foot out of town. Returning from a walk, the main character noticed a young girl (Nastenka), sobbing at the railing of the canal.
They got into a conversation. These events begin the story "White Nights" Dostoevsky.
The character of the protagonist
Having chosen the narrative form in the first person, the author of the work gave him the features of confession, reflection, having an autobiographical character. It is characteristic that Dostoevsky did not name his hero. This technique strengthens the association with a close friend of the writer or the author himself. All his life, the image of a dreamer worried Fedor Mikhailovich. He even wanted to write a novel of the same name.
The characteristic of the dreamer from the story "White Nights" is as follows. In the work, the main character is a full-bodied, educated young man. However, he calls himself a lonely and timid dreamer. This character lives on romantic dreams, replacing reality for him. Everyday worries and affairs are not interesting to him. He performs them only by necessity and feels himself a stranger in this world. The poor dreamer is hiding in the dark corners of St. Petersburg, where the sun never looks. This person is always embarrassed; he constantly feels guilty. The hero has ridiculous manners, stupid speech.
The external characteristic of the dreamer from the story "White Nights" is very scarce. The emphasis is made by the author on his inner world. So, we can’t say what he does, where he serves. This depersonalizes him even more. The dreamer lives without friends, and he also never met girls. Because of this, the hero becomes the object of hostility and ridicule of others. He compares himself with a dirty, rumpled kitten, with hostility and resentment looking at the world.
All the time it feels like the main character is a little boy or a teenager who is having fever. Confused confessions and excessive emotions, which he splashes out chaotically, seem to have absolutely nothing to do with the situation. He does not know the world at all, as the characterization of the dreamer from the White Nights story shows. If a girl decides to connect her life with this hero, gentle sighs are waiting for her, but such a person will not invite her to visit either the theater or the theater - only a ban at home will make her a hostage to sentimentality. The characteristic of the dreamer allows us to draw such a conclusion.
The sinfulness of the dreamer's life, his creative powers
Fedor Mikhailovich believes that such a ghostly life is sinful, since it leads a person out of the world of reality. He turns into a "strange creature" of some kind of "middle kind". The dreams of the protagonist at the same time have creative value. After all, this man, as Dostoevsky notes, is an artist of his own life. He creates it out of his own free will every hour.
"Extra man"
The dreamer is a type of so-called extra person. However, only his criticism is turned inward. He does not despise society, like Pechorin or Onegin. This hero feels sincere sympathy for strangers. The dreamer-altruist is able to serve another person, to come to his aid.
Reflection of mood in society in the work
Many contemporaries of Dostoevsky had an inherent tendency to dreams of something unusual and bright. Disappointment and despair reigned in society, which were caused by the defeat of the Decembrists. After all, the rise of the liberation movement in the 60s has not yet ripened. Fedor Mikhailovich himself was able to abandon empty dreams in favor of the ideals of democracy. However, the protagonist of “White Nights” never managed to escape from the captivity of dreams, although he understood all the destructiveness of his own attitude.
Nastenka
Contrasted to this hero-dreamer Nastya is an active girl. Dostoevsky created the image of a romantic and sophisticated beauty, who is the "soul mate" of the hero, although a little naive and childish. Respects the sincerity of the feelings of this girl, her desire to fight for her own happiness. However, Nastya herself needs support.
The love that a dreamer experienced
Dostoevsky (White Nights) in his work describes the pure, sincere feeling of a dreamer. The hero of the egoistic impulses is unknown. He is ready to sacrifice everything for another, therefore he seeks to make this girl happy, without thinking for a moment that Nastya’s love is the only thing he has in this life. The dreamer's feeling is trusting, selfless. It is as pure as white nights. Love saves the hero from his "sin" (that is, daydreaming), allows you to quench your thirst for the fullness of life. However, his fate is sad. He is a lonely man again. F. Dostoevsky (White Nights), however, does not leave hopeless tragedy in the finale. Once again, the dreamer blesses his beloved.
This story is a kind of idyll. This is an authorial utopia about what people could be if they showed the best feelings. The work “White Nights”, in which the dreamer is a generalized, typical character, is more a dream of a beautiful, different life than a reflection of reality by Dostoevsky.
Dreamers at Tolstoy and Dostoevsky
It is interesting to look at the main character's ideas about happiness (the ideal of compassion and brotherhood) through the prism of Tolstoy's work “After the Ball”. The characterization of the dreamer ("White Nights") in the light of this story becomes particularly prominent. The endless isolation from life and the sentimentality of the hero of Dostoevsky are in sharp contrast with the deep feelings inherent in the young romanticist from Tolstoy's work. He, unlike the first, makes vital, serious decisions. The hero Fedor Mikhailovich is completely immersed in his experiences. For him, somewhere outside there is the outside world. Own dreams - the only motive for the commission of an action, as shown by the comparative characteristics of the dreamer ("White Nights") and his "double" from the story "After the Ball". Any sentimentality is an indicator of misunderstanding of urgent needs, spiritual loneliness, a consequence of a feeling of estrangement from the world that owns a person. F. Dostoevsky (White Nights) nonetheless sympathizes with the hero and does not condemn him.