Alexey Ivanovich Velchaninov is a man who has everything he
wants: land, money, prestige, and, most importantly, a way with women. All this
is thrown in jeopardy when he becomes shadowed by a mysterious man who
eventually reveals himself as Pavel Pavlovich Trusotsky, a man whose house
Velchaninov used to visit frequently in another city. With a good deal of his
land and money at stake in a lawsuit, Velchaninov faces added psychological
turmoil at the memory of an affair he had with Pavel Pavlovich’s late wife. He
begins to wonder anxiously whether his new “friend” is aware of the affair and
whether he has sought him out to execute revenge. In the middle of this silent
feud is Pavel Pavlovich’s young daughter Liza, a tormented girl whom
Velchaninov begins to treat like his own daughter, and after all, she might
well be.
After being underwhelmed by The Double and Notes From theUnderground, I was delighted to rediscover what I love about Dostoyevsky in
this little novella. It has all the psychological roller coaster of his other
works, but loses no coherence even when Velchaninov is at his least sane. Its
ethical focus is what ties it together; Velchaninov, though justly persecuted by
a man he has wronged, has matured since his affair and become a kinder man than
Pavel Pavlovich. His efforts to give Pavel Pavlovich the benefit of doubt are
an even greater struggle than his fear of retribution. In many ways, the
suspense of this story has less to do with fear and more to do with redemption,
which, as always, is a great theme of Dostoyevsky.
Redemption is presented even to the readers who do not
identify with Velchaninov as a great, sucessful man; Pavel Pavlovich, too, has
many opportunities to regain his honor without harming his old friend. His
portrayal as a far less likable character invites us to assume the worst of
him, but gradually there emerges the possibility of a second life for this man
who lost everything at once. What looms in the background is the great seed of
human vice: that wrong will never stop growing, here if Velchaninov’s wrong
toward Pavel Pavlovich will cause the latter to destroy himself in wronging the
former. We can learn from this most effectively on a microcosmic scale, by
examining where we “pay forward” grievances and where we allow them to die.
