"What is in all this beauty for me when every minute, every second I am obliged, forced to know that even this tiny gnat, buzzing near me in the sunlight now, is taking part in all this banquet and chorus, knows its place in it, loves it, and is happy, and I alone am an outcast"

In Part III, Chapter 7, Hippolite speaks of his feelings toward nature, which he says has excluded him from its happy "banquet." Expected to die of consumption within several weeks, Hippolite feels angry at the thought of his premature death. He feels alienated from the world and from nature. Unlike Prince Myshkin, who, in his idiocy, is likewise alienated from other people yet chooses to embrace nature, the resentful Hippolite rejects nature by attempting suicide. Hippolite feels cheated by nature, and this feeling enrages him. Hippolite's anger sharply contrasts with the Prince's delight contrasted by the Prince's delight in nature as God's creation and his delight in his fellow men.