Portrait Poetics in Dostoevsky’s Novel “The Adolescent”

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the features of the construction of portrait characteristics, as well as determining the role of the portrait in revealing the image of the characters of Dostoevsky’s novel “The Adolescent”. The relevance of the article is determined by the study of the portrait as a means of exploring the inner world of characters, the ability to trace the evolution of the use of static and dynamic portraits. The purpose of the article was to study the portrait as a means of artistic and psychological analysis in relation to the author’s concept of personality, the aesthetic views of the writer and the problems of the work. The definition of the role of portrait characteristics in the novel “The Adolescent” is facilitated by the analysis of the principles of portrait construction, a comparative typological method that allows identifying the features of creating static and dynamic portraits. It is noted that in the novel “The Adolescent” the theme of the chaos of post-reform reality, moral and spiritual decay is reflected in the characters of the characters, and by introducing a new type of hero into the novel, first-person narratives, change the ways of creating portraiture. Static and dynamic portraits are colored by subjective assessment, the feeling of the hero-narrator. Portrait typing techniques depend on the content of the person being portrayed. The characters are one-liners, whose inner world is unambiguous, and in the future there are no significant changes in their perception of the world and behavior, are depicted in monologue portraits (Lambert, Makar Ivanovich, etc.). The image of ambivalent heroes, who were affected by “disorder” and spiritual decay, is revealed in dialogical static portraits (Kraft, Vasin, both Princes Sokolsky). Especially in the novel, portraits stand out-impressions of two of the most complex characters and the most important persons in the fate of a teenager – Versilov and Akhmakova. These portraits are imbued with an emotional element. The study of the poetics of the portrait has given reason to assert that in the “The Adolescent” the portrait not only reveals the dominant psychological characteristics of the character, but also becomes a refraction of the inner world of the teenager, his artistic and psychological characteristics.