Suggestions
Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.Please wait while we process your payment
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
Please wait while we process your payment
By signing up you agree to our terms and privacy policy.
Don’t have an account? Subscribe now
Create Your Account
Sign up for your FREE 7-day trial
Already have an account? Log in
Your Email
Choose Your Plan
Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan!
Purchasing SparkNotes PLUS for a group?
Get Annual Plans at a discount when you buy 2 or more!
Price
$24.99 $18.74 /subscription + tax
Subtotal $37.48 + tax
Save 25% on 2-49 accounts
Save 30% on 50-99 accounts
Want 100 or more? Contact us for a customized plan.
Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
SparkNotes Plus
You'll be billed after your free trial ends.
7-Day Free Trial
Not Applicable
Renews February 7, 2023 January 31, 2023
Discounts (applied to next billing)
DUE NOW
US $0.00
SNPLUSROCKS20 | 20% Discount
This is not a valid promo code.
Discount Code (one code per order)
SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Free trial is available to new customers only.
Choose Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
For the next 7 days, you'll have access to awesome PLUS stuff like AP English test prep, No Fear Shakespeare translations and audio, a note-taking tool, personalized dashboard, & much more!
You’ve successfully purchased a group discount. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. You'll also receive an email with the link.
Members will be prompted to log in or create an account to redeem their group membership.
Thanks for creating a SparkNotes account! Continue to start your free trial.
Please wait while we process your payment
Your PLUS subscription has expired
Please wait while we process your payment
Please wait while we process your payment
Money is one of the greatest temptations for man; in the corrupted world of The Idiot, virtually everyone aside from the Prince and Nastassya Filippovna has succumbed to greed. Ganya is willing to do almost anything in his passion for money—even marry someone he despises and of whom his family strongly disapproves. General Ivolgin desires money to support his drinking habit and also because it is the only way for him to spend time with his mistress, Madame Terentyev. Lebedev is willing to put his hands into the fireplace in order to retrieve the package with 100,000 rubles that Nastassya Filippovna discards. No one at Nastassya Filippovna's pays any attention to Myshkin until the moment he announces his inheritance; after he does so, he is surrounded by claimants who desire his money. Those like Burdovsky and his gang even go so far as to lie to try to get some of the prince's money. In the society of The Idiot, money not only creates one's fortune—Ptitsyn's, for example—it also obtains one a bride. "Bids" for Nastassya Filippovna range from 75,000 rubles to 100,000 to over a million. Money, then, is a clear symbol of the perversion of human values in the novel.
The dark and stifling dwelling of the Rogozhin family symbolizes the Rogozhin's lifestyle. Its darkness is symbolic of the man himself: both his physical appearance and his inner world are filled with jealousy, obsession, and aggression. Much like the iron bars on the windows of the house, Rogozhin's passion is stifling. His love for Nastassya Filippovna is oppressing.
In the course of reading his "Essential Statement," Hippolite describes a dream that features a horrific monster about to devour him. This ugly monster fills him with terrible fear. On a psychological level, the monster represents nature as Hippolite sees it—a force that is about to devour him through a death from consumption. On a broader scale, however, the monster represents the ugliness and corruption within the society Dostoevsky portrays in The Idiot. The moral decay we see everywhere threatens to devour the characters in within the novel much as the monster threatens to destroy Hippolite in his dream.
Please wait while we process your payment