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The intrinsic dynamics that drive the plot of Dostoevsky's novels are very different from those of modern traditional literature, such as Iagu in Shakespeare's play Othello, which is the embodiment of jealousy, viciousness, and meanness, where good and evil are clearly distinguished and the characters are consistent. Traditional creators arrange the conflict of stories between different individuals representing different forces (political or moral), and the plot becomes the most important clue to reveal the theme, and finally completes the comedy with the suffering of the good or the punishment of the evil.
In Toshi's novels, the plot becomes less important to revealing the theme. Moving the battlefield into the human heart through the battle of the characters' hearts and minds of the very different natures may be the result of Toshi's profound insight into human nature, but it is also an inevitable strategic choice for the literary themes he wants to reveal. Toh's narrative style is highly relevant to the themes he seeks to present: the times he describes in his novels are filled with the depravity and destruction of human nature; it is a sick society, calm on the surface, but in fact there are undercurrents, and all kinds of deep social contradictions seem to erupt at any time. The author is undoubtedly trying to allude to such a social situation in the novel. Writing about people is actually writing about society.
Raskonikov in Crime and Punishment, Tasrovkin in "The Devil", Wischilov in "The Boy", Ivan and Dmitry in "The Brothers Karamazov", etc., their personalities are in a state of division, the two ends of the spirit are fiercely conflicted, and the behavior dominated by consciousness contradicts each other. Because of this, the characters in Toshi's novels often present a "dual personality" characteristic.
This "dual personality" is crucial to the advancement of the plot of the novel; rather, the advancement of the plot is extremely dependent on the state of the inner "battlefield" of the characters in the novel. The "dual personality" of the characters in Tuoshi's novels does not appear in the structure of primary and secondary distinctions (that is, the main personality is absolutely dominant, the secondary position is suppressed and not revealed, only exists in the heart of the character, and does not have a great impact on the behavior of the characters), but appears to be evenly matched (the main and secondary personalities are fiercely conflicted and compete for dominance, so it is manifested as the extreme instability of the character's behavior pattern).
If the psychological descriptions in Dostoevsky's novels are removed, the storyline presented must reveal a high degree of coincidence or jumping, and the behavior of the characters in the novel becomes completely incomprehensible. For example, in Brothers Karamazov, Dmitry tries to kill his father but suddenly gives up; Ivan has a strong tendency to kill his father but is slow to act. And in Othello, even without Iagu's long and vicious confession, we can roughly speculate about his role in the story just by looking at his behavior.
Toshi reveals the spiritual threads that have traditionally been obscured, and the accidents of the external plot are compensated by the inevitability of the internal conflict of ideas, and the story structure thus achieves causal perfection.
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Berdyaev said: "Russians, the words they most often use to express the unique characteristics of their people are - apocalyptic or nihilist. This means that they cannot be at the center of their spiritual life and culture, and it means that their spirits yearn for end and limit. ”
The fierce inner conflict of the characters in Dostoevsky's novels may be the embodiment of Russia's extreme nationality. There is no moderation or compromise, only "violent ruptures, gunpowder explosions" (Berdyaev's Dostoevsky's Worldview), moving towards end and limit, either heroically destroyed or brilliantly reborn.
Russian intellectuals were heavily influenced by the Orthodox Church and mostly harbored Messianic salvation. However, in the context of the rise of modern capitalism, the development of science and technology, and the violent impact of the European rational spirit, the questioning of religion has permeated the entire modern Russian intellectual class, morality has lost its religious roots, and it cannot take root in the hard material world, so nihilism has grown madly.
In Russia, in Dostoevsky, the result of a violent chemical reaction between nihilism and Messianism or apocalypse eventually led to a strange fusion: "The paradox of the Russian spirit parallels nihilism with the religious desire for the end of the world, for the discovery of a new heaven and a new earth." Russian nihilism is a transmutation of Russia's apocalyptic sentiment. ”
This distorted apocalyptic mood can be attributed to the entanglement of two types of complexes: the "Ideal of the Virgin" and the "Ideal of Sodom", two words spoken by Dmitry, representing the two sources of spiritual conflict between the characters, namely the spiritual realm and the physical realm. Spirit means ascending, transcending, or idealism; physical means descending, sinking, or realism. People live in the city of Sodom, where there are troubles of rice, oil and salt, the temptation of carnal desires, the oppression of life, old age, illness and death, and all kinds of compulsions that drive the labor of the flesh, but they worship the Virgin, and desire to achieve the reconciliation and unity of the whole nation and all mankind in the religious spiritual fusion preserved and refined by the Thousand Years of Christian Tradition (similar to Hegel's "national spirit").
This is simply an irresolvable contradiction.
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The Russian humanistic spirit is peculiar to Chinese. It has been steeped in religion for so long that it carries too many idealistic features. The effort to withdraw the spirit from the material world is not fully understood by us, a people who have long since been freed from the shackles of religion. Zen Buddhism reduces daily life such as drinking water and eating and sprinkling and ploughing to practice, which is the art of spiritual and physical unity in the Eastern way, and it seems that few Westerners have embarked on this path.
From the ancient Greek philosophers, a kind of doctrine that elevated the spirit and denigrated the material arose in Europe. Perhaps the aristocratic traditions and religious rule that have been slow to leave have also contributed to this tendency. And the spirit is revealed by language. In Dostoevsky's case, the emotional entanglements of the characters, the conflicts of interest, and so on, ultimately boil down to a lengthy philosophical or moral discussion. This is rare among Chinese novelists. Chinese novelists tend to prefer the unspoken word: there is no need to discuss too much, so-and-so has done so, and the reason is in the behavior, and the reader can understand it on his own. Such as "Dream of the Red Chamber" and the like.
This difference may be due to the fact that the Russian nation belongs to a culture of guilt. In The Brothers Karamazov, Dmitry takes Katerina Ivanovna's three thousand roubles to spend a day of wine, but is so obsessed with repaying it that the money becomes ironclad evidence of his crime. He said, "You know, Alexei, I may be a despicable man with all kinds of vile and vulgar desires, but Dmitry Karamazov can never be a pickpocket." He made a desperate effort to repay the debt to avoid becoming a "thief."
Orientals may have a hard time understanding why "mean men" and "pickpockets" have such a clear distinction in Dmitry's mind. "Despicable" is a defect in character and style, while "thief" is a moral evaluation. In the eyes of Chinese, these two evaluations are not good evaluations, half a pound and eight two, and there is no obvious difference. Depending on the context, sometimes "despicable" may be even more unbearable. However this was not the case in Dmitry, or in Dostoevsky.
Benedict said: "The early Puritans who settled in the United States worked to base their entire morality on guilt, and all psychiatrists know how the conscience of contemporary Americans is troubled by guilt... We do not use the intense personal chagrin caused by stigma as the driving force behind our basic moral system. "A true culture of shame relies on external constraints to do good, not on inner guilt, like a true culture of guilt." ("Chrysanthemum and the Knife")
Guilt clearly comes from the continuous accumulation and taming of thousands of years of religious discourse. In essence, despite the rapid changes in science, the overthrow of the church, and the decline of religious authority, Western civilization is still rooted in Christian logic, but merely a religiousism that has changed its form and replaced some terms with modern rationalism.
Unlike Nietzsche's resolute struggle against the Christian genes that remained in European culture, Dostoevsky in fact sought to revive and even develop this remnant of religious culture under new conditions. Is this a road of common destiny, a road of no return, or a road of futility where the fog spreads? At least in The Brothers Karamazov, in Alyosha, a saintly figure, Toshi is convinced that this is the path to overcoming guilt and leading to the salvation of all mankind.