A ridiculous man's dream

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The Dream of a Ridiculous Man ( Russian : Сон смешного человека, Son smeschnowo tscheloweka) is a fantastic story by Fyodor Dostoyevsky , which the author published in his collection of diary of a writer in April 1877 . The text was not reprinted during Dostoyevsky's lifetime.

In Dostoyevsky's second earth laboratory, humans are educated based on their Adam and Eve status. This attempt to “renew man” fails.

Dostoevsky in 1879

action

“I'm a ridiculous person,” the Saint Petersburg first-person narrator introduces his monologue and immediately admits frankly that the others have long since labeled him a madman . “Everyone was always laughing at me,” he complains. That actually turns out to be no complaint, because he “doesn't care”. The ridiculous person finds this November 3rd worth telling. Then he saw - standing in the dark on the street - in the sky behind wispy clouds. This celestial body gives the narrator the idea of ​​finally killing himself. It should be tonight. He bought “a nice revolver” long ago. All he has to do is put the murder tool on his temple and pull the trigger. But with the trigger there is a problem.

The ridiculous person seeks a reason to go on living. An eight year old girl comes to his aid. He cold-heartedly refuses an urgent request for help from the child, but babbles - continuing monologizing - it was precisely the little girl who let him survive the night of November 4th. The ridiculous person leaves the little one and goes to his miserable rented apartment on the 5th floor, sits down, falls asleep and can then tell of a dream. In it he flies after he himself - but only in a dream! - has shot in the heart, with the support of an unknown being who turns out to be a “companion” to the above-mentioned star, which is not a fixed star at all, but a second planet Earth. Already on his original earth, having been properly caged after the suicide, the seasoned space traveler can now enjoy further life on the new earth. "Delighted" is wrong. The ridiculous man wanted to die - certainly also because he was "a boastful and a liar " in his original lifetime .

When the boasters landed, the people on the second earth were - in short - as unspoiled as Adam and Eve were before the fall . But the ridiculous man had spoiled them all - gradually infected with all the Russian wickedness of the 19th century : with reproach and accusation , virtue and honor , sensuality and shame , jealousy , cruelty , bloodshed , slavery and even voluntary slavery.

The conclusion looks familiar to the ridiculous person. Just before he wakes up from his dream, the depraved inhabitants of that second earth think he is a madman. Because his second, well thought-out suicide attempt fails. His new fellow men should nail him to a cross that they nailed together . He really wants to be tortured before he dies.

Christianity

Several readings of the text are possible. Above, something like a utopian narrative was read out under content . A second of - as I said - several possible readings is that of the Christian message: Because the ridiculous person brusquely rejects the above-mentioned little girl who is desperately seeking help for her mother, he does not kill himself with that revolver because he suddenly turns out to be angry Guy recognizes who is on the trail of a truth that could purify him. He experiences this truth in the space dream outlined above, which he also believes to be reality. In any case, this truth has a Christian character and means: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

From then on - after knowing this truth - everything will be fine. The ridiculous person now loves first of all people who laugh at him and secondly he wants to go looking for the little girl with renewed courage.

Adaptations

  • September 25, 2012: Small hall of the Alexandrinsky Theater : a spectacle by Irina Kerutschenko based on The Dream of a Ridiculous Man with Ivan Yefremov in the title role.
  • January 26, 2017: Theater Augsburg, with Sebastian Baumgart . Director: Richard Wagner

reception

  • 1975: Schröder categorizes the novella as philosophical and fantastic, in which Dostoevsky is about the renewal of man in the Goethe sense - out of the "accursed dull hole in the wall" to "living nature".
  • 1993: Harreß also tries to address the ridiculousness of Dostoevsky in the section “The ridiculousness of the world condition” in her dissertation: Dostoevsky increases his comic narrative tone to the point of ridiculous. According to Hegel , comedy only includes "infinite goodwill and confidence". However, according to Aristotle, the ridiculous would add ugly falsities that “cause no pain and no ruin”.

German-language editions

  • A ridiculous man's dream. 4 lithographs by Franz Wimmer. Translated by Julius Rendelstein. Afterword by Leo Langhammer . Wiener Graphische Werkstätten, Vienna 1922 (1st edition). 33 pages
  • A ridiculous man's dream. Fantastic story. Retransmitted by Werner Bergengruen . Elder press Horgen-Zurich, 1947. 62 pages
  • The player . Late novels and short stories. Transferred from EK Rahsin (also contains: The eternal husband. Notes from the underground. The crocodile. Bobok. The gentle one. Dream of a ridiculous person). Piper Verlag, Munich 1965. 781 pages

Used edition

literature

  • Birgit Harreß: Man and the world in Dostoevskij's work. A contribution to poetic anthropology. (Diss.) Böhlau Cologne 1993, ISBN 3-412-00493-6

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Schröder in the edition used, p. 341, 12. Zvo
  2. ↑ Bible , New Testament , ( Mark 12.31  EU )
  3. ↑ Russian Керученко, Ирина Вильямовна
  4. ↑ Russian Иван Ефремов
  5. ↑ Russian Alexandrinski Theater ( Memento of the original from July 6, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.alexandrinsky.ru
  6. ↑ The dream of a ridiculous person ( memento of the original from January 18, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at the Augsburg Theater @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.theater-augsburg.de
  7. ↑ Schröder in the afterword of the edition used, p. 341, 11. Zvo
  8. ↑ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Faust: The tragedy first part. Night in the Gutenberg-DE project
  9. ^ Hegel and Aristotle, quoted in Harreß, p. 116, 7. Zvo