Nikolay Speshnev chapter of "Demons" when, in the midst of confessing to a terrible crime, he formulates the guiding idea of his life: "that I neither know nor feel good and evil and that I have not only lost any sense of it, but that there is neither good nor evil (which pleased me), and that it is just a prejudice." It is speculated that Dostoevsky also refers to Speshnev on one occasion in "The Idiot". The central character, Prince Myshkin, recounts a long conversation with "a certain S—", an erudite and well-bred man, on the subject of atheism. Nikolay Speshnev Nikolay
Prince Myshkin is, and that she is guilty of nothing. In the scene at the Ivolgins' apartment, Nastasya Filippovna mocks Ganya's family (who she knows disapprove of her) and intentionally provokes a scandalous scene, but "Myshkin's voice, intersecting with her internal dialogue in another direction, forces her to abruptly change that tone". She kisses the hand of Ganya's mother and acknowledges the truth of Myshkin's reproach. In the subsequent scandal scene at Nastasya Filippovna's apartment, Myshkin again directly addresses her true, innocent self, prompting her once more to abandon the self-destructive course of the 'fallen woman'. Although it is only temporary, and