White Night Summary

INTRODUCTION

It is a short book containing many different stories, written by Fyodor Dostoevsky and originally published in 1848. The story touches on the themes of loneliness, dreams, love, despair etc. The narrator describes the story over four night and one morning.

First night: The rendezvous; second night: The dreamers; third night: New ties;fourth night: Deception; final morning: Redemption and loneliness.

The names are given by myself and are not mentioned in the book. These titles explain the central idea of each night and morning. Dostoevsky didn’t write this novella in  favour of romance but instead warned us against it. Through the plots he explains the dark side of love. Why this book is so important? Because it is not like any other romance novella; it beautifully explains the agony of unrequited love.

CHARACTERS

The Narrator: The name of the main character our beloved narrator is not mentioned nor is his whereabouts; he is a lonely dreamer, a poetic person who lives in Saint Petersburg. He wandered the city, observed the every single detail and remained disconnected from the people.  He had no desire to form a new relation. He is acquainted with houses and architect. He once became friend with the old man , only person, who had taken an interest in his existence. He described his personality in a detailed monologue to Nastenka that will be discussed later.

Nastenka: The female main lead is a poor naive girl of seventeen. She is waiting for her lover to return, who has gone for years and  hasn’t returned, although he had promised her. She loved him and remained faithful to him to very end. She lived with her grandmother, who didn’t allow her to leave the the house. She is flirtatious ,callow and kindhearted. She met our narrator each night and quickly became friends with him.

The lodger: He is a lover of Nastenka. A young, handsome man. Who for some years lived in Nastenka ‘s house as a lodger. However he was not initially in love with her, she took initiative and wanted to elope  with him. He wanted her to wait for him until he returned because he was poor and had nothing to live by , he has to go to the Moscow to care of his business. Although he didn’t bind Nastenka to him, he told her if she found another suitor she was free to marry him.

Grandmother: ( of Nastenka )  an old women, who is blind and fastened Nastenka to a safety pin with her because she didn’t trust her, she believed Nastenka was mischievous but later indeed she wanted her to marry someone and agreed upon Nastenka ‘s wedding with the lodger.

SUMMARY

The story of novelette is distributed over four nights and one morning and I will explained the story according to that.

Dostoevsky is known as melancholic, psychological writer. He took a deep dive into the emotional state of his characters, revealing their authentic selves to readers. He had done something similar with the character of narrator. He has seen as emotionally sensitive and poetic person.

He is lonely person a dreamer by personality. The book opens into daily life of narrator, where he is wandering the city and keenly observe his surrounding he noticed everyone but nobody noticed him. On his first night, when he was returning  home from his work he came across a moaning young girl, she was being followed by some stalker so in order to protect her he offered his arm to her so that stalker think that she was not alone.

she was terribly pretty, as said by narrator himself. They both quickly became friends and talked to each other , they promised to meet again at same point tomorrow night because she was not allowed to leave his house in the morning.

The second night, they met again and told their respective stories to each other. The narrator told her he is a dreamer and how lonely he is  and he spent his whole day and night dreamer about imaginary things that could be a situation a women. Nastenka listened to him attentively but she became gloomy after hearing his story.

Then she told her part of the story, the lodger about her grumpy grandmother how she is unhappily living with her. She believed he had come back and ignoring her purposely and that he had forgotten about her. she was in grie and requested the dreamer  deliver a letter to his friend. The dreamer agreed on it.

Third night, they promised each other to not fall in love and to remain friends. The dreamer had delivered the letter and both are now waiting for the lodger to turn up as per mentioned in the letter but he didn’t come. Nastenka sobbed and the narrator tried his best to comfort her and in process fell in love with her.

At fourth night, the last night they both waited for long but he didn’t appear now she believed that he had betrayed him, her last hope was shattered. when she was explaining her sadness to him the dreamer finally confessed his feelings for her. At first, she was puzzled but then realized that he truly loved her, Nastenka accepted his love.

They both began to make plans for future, she wanted him to live in her place as a lodger where she would introduced him to her grandmother but our narrator didn’t know something tragic was waiting for him.

When they were busy in dreaming about their future. The lodger appeared from a distance called her name. he tore herself away from the dreamer and ran towards him then, she came back kissed his neck and vanished with the lodger, without saying a word.

The next morning narrator felt sick and received a letter from Nastenka

He didn’t protest to her, and this was the last line of the story,

” My God, a moment of bliss Why , isn’t that enough for a whole lifetime”

CONCLUSION AND MAIN MESSAGE.

1- Was Nastenka a villain?

Readers had vilified the character of Nastenka for what she had done to the narrator. But, that was very obvious, she was already in love someone and had waited for years for him to return. She even promised the narrator  not t fall for her and remained the narrator ‘s friend. She clearly didn’t have any romantic feeling towards the narrator.

Yes, you may counterargue that she was planing to live her life with him but that occurred when she accepted her fate that lodger had abandoned her. She was a simple girl, who stayed home all the time, she had no one to turned to except him.

2- The danger of being a dreamer

The identity of the narrator is revealed as that of a dreamer, who had little real life and indulge in his dream all the time. His fantasy world is so interesting and fascinating, that he refused to take any action to improve his actual life. His personality had shown the danger of excess daydreaming. Imagination and manifestation is first step of improving one ‘s life.

But if one stuck in his phase, and began procrastinating his own life. They would end in despair. The narrator had many long monologue, in the story, here is mentioned.

” That dreamer live in those corners. A dreamer , if you want me to define him, is not a real human being but sort of intermediate creature . . . . . . . . I have fall in love with the ideal women, the ideal women, the one I had dreamed of, I can dream up whole  novels, you know. Oh, you really have no idea about me! . . . . . I am simply a dreamer who has little real life , and moments like this are so rare in my existence that I must repeat them again and again in my thoughts. You will stay in my thoughts throughout the night.”

This stanza clearly shows the personality of narrator. He overthought and ruminated his thoughts . That particular, disease made him, disconnected with his real life and shrank away.

3- The last ground breaking line.

” My God, a moment of bliss, why, isn’t that enough for a whole lifetime?”

Being a dreamer, one moment of happiness and bliss is enough for him. He can spent his whole life with rethinking about the nights he spent with Nastenka, picturing both of them together. I want to clarify this point, the narrator is not depressed, he is lonely and gloomy but when he interact with Nastenka  he was delighted and helped her selflessly.He did long for true human connection but he was not depressed.

Think about some impoverished family. Who doesn’t have food to eat while working day and night. When some altruistic person provides a one time meal, their face gleams with joy and they remain grateful for the person and moments, they experienced for months. Thinking about the moment of bliss again and again. This example is mentioned to prove that above statement, could be beneficial for someone. You don’t necessary have to pick every flaw in the dreamer’s personality. This statement is both joyful and sad.

I recommend all the reader to read the novelette to gain further understanding. Please leave the comment.