Book Review of The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky
This book reveals that power comes from two sources: beauty and genius.
Beauty is power by its sheer awe-factor. Nastasya and Aglaya are both stunningly attractive and understand the power it grants them. Yet, they are both flawed--one by experience and the other by arrogance. Myshkin, on the other hand, displayed a different kind of beauty--truth and love personified. People are awed by his goodness and cannot help admiring and following him even though they consider him an idiot.
Genius is power by its originality factor. Dostoevsky spends much time defining originality and how many people strive for it unsuccessfully. Ganya, at one point, exclaims that when he becomes rich he will become original. However, genius doesn't work that way. If you have to work to be different, to be uncommon, then you are not a natural genius. A concocted genius is a contradiction, and this paradox probably most lives out its conflict within the person himself. Myshkin, however, while perceived as an idiot, is naturally original. Others see him as unusual and foolish, but he follows no one's example as he seeks the good in people and puts his heart out to help others.
So the characters all look at the prince and see idiocy because they cannot comprehend him. They are awed by his goodness and dumbfounded by his originality...and these are the powers that build him up and eventually pull him down.
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