Prince Myshkin Prince Myshkin Prince Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin (pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform ) is the protagonist of Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel "The Idiot". Dostoevsky wanted to create a character that was "entirely positive... with an absolutely beautiful nature", someone who is truly 'Christian'. According to Joseph Frank, the character of Prince Myshkin approaches "the extremest incarnation of the Christian ideal of love that humanity can reach in its present form, but he is torn apart by the conflict between the contradictory imperatives of his apocalyptic aspirations and his earthly limitations." Prince Myshkin has been in Switzerland for the last four years, at a
Prince Myshkin his friend and brother and, as with Nastasya Filippovna, is able to temporarily draw him out of his darkness and into a space of light and hope. But like Nastasya Filippovna, the negative voice of his obsession always reasserts itself in Myshkin's absence, and provokes him to violence. Aglaya Ivanovna's noble and passionate nature leads her to idealise the Prince, turning him into a Don Quixote-like figure, particularly in relation to his attempts to 'save' Nastasya Filippovna. Although the Prince is fascinated by Aglaya and falls in love with her, at no time is he influenced by this idealisation or