Humiliated and insulted
Humiliated and Insulted (Original title: rus. : Униженные и оскорблённые, Unischennyje i oskorbljonnyje ) was the first novel , the Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky after his eight-year exile to Siberia in 1861 in St. Petersburg Sankt monthly magazine Vremya published. The novel is about the futile love affairs in a social hierarchy that is determined by differentiated social interests.
The plot is set in the urban misery of Saint Petersburg. The novel tells the fictional story of the writer Ivan Petrovich, who had great success with his debut, but now, disappointed, humiliated and insulted by life, tells the love experiences of the last year of his life in the hospital, occasionally banal and completely sentimental, but still stylistically excellent .
action
On a cold St. Petersburg winter day, Ivan Petrovich, called Vanya, a young author looking for an affordable apartment, observes a decrepit old man who goes to a pastry shop with his equally miserable dog. He follows the two of them and, after a brief episode inside the pastry shop, is alone with the old man when he dies and confides his last words to him - a Petersburg address.
Vanya decides to move into the old man's room that has become vacant.
Ivan Petrovich, the adopted son of the Ichmenews, happily grew up next to their daughter Natascha, with whom he fell selflessly in love as a young adult. The family man of the Ichmenews - who was initially the manager of the apparently generous and noble Prince Pyotr Alexandrowitsch Walkowski and even briefly took in the princely child, the naive but always honestly moved Alyosha, for a rural education - soon became involved in an extensive legal dispute with the prince , which the latter makes an effort out of hurt vanity and for no real reason. The Ichmenews move to Petersburg.
The prince, an unscrupulous, vengeful and insidious aristocrat , seeks to ruin the existence of his landlord and to destroy the Ichmenev family by means of the legal dispute he has initiated.
The prince energetically pursues the goal of marrying his heir Aljoscha with Katerina Feodorovna (called Katja), the first daughter of a rich Petersburg family, in order to guarantee the advancement of the Walkowskis in the Petersburg aristocratic circles through the rich fortune of the bride.
Natascha Ichmenewka and Aljoscha have fallen in love infinitely in the meantime and live together in their own apartment. Natascha, who left her parents, is rejected by her father. The Ichmenevs suffer very much from being abandoned by their lovable daughter.
Wanja, who feels his love for Natascha in a completely self-sacrificing way, stands by her as a loyal friend regardless of her love for Aljoscha and mediates with great sensitivity between the runaway and the left, hurt parents. Even in the complicated love affairs with the lavish and weak-willed Aljoscha he mediates without a word of jealousy.
The prince sees his marriage plans for Aljoscha in jeopardy, but at first feigns admiration for Natascha and gives his blessing to the engagement. But he sneakily takes advantage of Aljoscha's weak and impressionable character by bringing him together with the childish and pure Katja as often as possible. Aljoscha should gradually forget his love for Natascha.
Natascha sees through the prince's game and suffers terribly from the fact that Alyosha is unable to see through the manipulation as well. For him, Katja is a kindred spirit who could never threaten the engagement to Natascha. Little by little he leaves Natascha for hours, then for days to be with Katja.
Wanja visits Natascha every evening and endures her pain in true love for her.
The thirteen-year-old orphan Helene - the granddaughter of the ancient and sick man who dies in front of Wanja's eyes at the beginning of the novel - comes to her grandfather's apartment one evening. Vanya rescues the completely intimidated and misdirected creature from its predicament, child prostitution, and takes care of it in serious illness.
Little by little, Helene opens up and allows him to call her Nelly.
When the prince realizes that he has successfully manipulated Aljoscha, he drops his mask on Vanya and, in all sadism, gives him his falsehood, his depraved view of life and people. Natascha, who loves Aljoscha unbroken, sees that the marriage with Katja is the best for him and takes herself and her feelings back, yes, makes things easier for him by creating illusions of compatibility.
As it turns out, the prince is also Nelly's father. He had borrowed a large sum of money from a rich man - Nelly's grandfather, who died under poor conditions - and cold-bloodedly used his daughter - Nelly's mother - to destroy the promissory note. Then he dropped it.
Nelly's mother lived a poor and sick life, scorned and despised by her father, on the streets of Petersburg, where she had to send Nelly begging to live. Even on her deathbed, the old man refuses to forgive her, and when he finally makes up his mind, it is too late.
After Nelly tells her tragic story to Ichmenew, who is implacable towards Natascha, he forgives Natascha and takes her back to his heart.
Nelly dies soon after, terminally ill of "nerve fever" .
Natascha and her parents move back to the country and finally Vanya and Natascha say goodbye to each other forever - Natascha's look says: "How happy we could have been."
Stage adaptations
- Frank Castorf , humiliated and insulted, premiere at the Wiener Festwochen on May 28, 2001, Berlin premiere on October 12, 2001
- Sebastian Hartmann , humiliated and insulted, Staatsschauspiel Dresden , premiere on March 29, 2018
Quote
"And the more virtuous an action is, the more egoism is behind it."
"This renewal of pain and the enjoyment achieved through it were understandable to me: many humiliated and insulted people who have trodden down by fate and are aware of its injustice prepare this enjoyment."
literature
- Fyodor Dostoyevsky: Uncle's Dream. Three novels , Munich: Piper (2000). ISBN 978-3492104050