So long as man remains free he strives for nothing so incessantly and so painfully as to find some one to worship. - The Brothers Karamazov Summary Each cast member must submit her/his character analysis to vtheatre forum (must subscribe)! [ BG music -- Bach. Why? Plus, techno and sounds. Each character has its own melody, theme, sound, tone, voice, instrument. ] Questions 5.17.03. "Brian, I am making some changes already (Camus was too gentle with D. -- even left in the narrative structure of the novel). If you didn't read the book, please, do (The Possessed, Devils or Demons, the last I think the is best translation) and take a close look at Sravrogin -- I would like to know what you think. The (main) character is great on the pages, but could be non-dramatic on stage (I consider making the whole story as his POV with the dreams, thoughts and visions -- Dostoevsky keeps them hidden). Even more important -- could this be an American story? I place my notes in http://shows.vtheatre.net/devils There are some texts (my own nonfiction), which can help you with understanding of mental directions: PostAmeriKa Anatoly" Notes 2006: Images by Misha Gordin (Conceptual Photography): The Possessed 2003 Costumes * Monologue Study: 1 101 * 2 comedy * 3 drama * 2006 -- ? Page on "adaptation"? Lebyatkin: "Жил на свете таракан, Таракан от детства, И потом попал в стакан Полный мухоедства...".

Characters

The characters:

* Stepan [Trofimovich] Verhovensky (Mr. V):

". . . Shakespeare and Raphael are of greater value than the emancipation of the serfs, than nationalism, than socialism, than the younger generation, than chemistry—and perhaps even than mankind itself! And it is this way because they represent the very highest human achievement, an achievement of beauty without which I wouldn't be able to go on living. . . .

Let me tell you that mankind could survive without the English, without the Germans, and most certainly without the Russians; that it could subsist without science and even without bread. But it is impossible to do without beauty because then there would be nothing left for us to do in the world! [504]"

... "The main trouble," he says, "is that I believe myself even while I'm lying. The most difficult thing in life is to live without lying and—and not to believe in one's own lies" (668).

"Friends, I need God if only because He is the only Being who is capable of loving eternally. . . . My immortality is necessary if only because God would not wish to do anything unjust and put out the flame of love once it was kindled in my heart. And what is more precious than love? Love is higher than existence. . . . Since T have come to love Him and am happy because of this love, how could He extinguish me and my happiness and turn me into a zero? If God exists, then I, too, am immortal! Voila ma profession de foi— [678-79]"

* Pyotr [Stepanovich] Verhovensky (Peter):

"Each belongs to all and all belong to each. All are slaves and equal in their slavery. In the first place, there is a lowering of the level of education, science, and arts. The highest level . . . is accessible only to those with the greatest abilities.... The most gifted men cannot help being tyrants and they have always perverted others more than they have been useful to them: so they must be ostracized or put to death.... But in the herd there is equality. . . .
All we have to do is organize obedience—that's the weak point in this world of ours.... Everything must be reduced to the common denominator of complete equality. . . . But they need to be shaken up too and we, the rulers, will take care of that. Because slaves must always have rulers. There'll be total obedience and total depersonalization. . . . [399]"

Varvara [Petrovna] Stavrogin (Varvara), Barbara

* Nikolai [Vsevolodovich] Stavrogin (Stavrogin or N.V., N.S.?)
Nikolai Stavrogin: is a former student of Stephan. After traveling and studying abroad he returns home and resides with his mother. Varvara provides him with anything he desires, but he never fully takes advantage of his opportunities. The local women find Stavrogin extremely desirable, but his obnoxious behavior gives him little credibility. His ridiculous actions include: pulling a high social standing man by the nose at a local bar, kissing another man's wife at their own party, and biting the ear of the governor. His wild antics cause him to be diagnosed with insanity. Therefore, Varvara sends Stavrogin abroad once again in hopes of curing him and also to reestablish her social standing after her son's uncivil conduct. He secretly marries Marya and has affairs with numerous women. He is an indifferent member of the group, but Peter tries to get him to be the leader. (See At Tikhon's" for more on Stavrogin).

"This handsome head of black hair was somehow a little too black, his light eyes were perhaps too steady, his complexion too smooth and delicate, and his cheeks too rosy and healthy, his teeth were like pearls and his lips like coral. This sounds like a strikingly beautiful face, but in reality it was repulsive rather than beautiful. His face reminded some people of a mask. [44]"

"... I was then seriously preoccupied with theology. It distracted me a little but afterward things became even more boring. As to my political views, I just felt I'd have liked to put gunpowder under the four corners of the world and blow the whole thing sky-high—if it had only been worth the trouble. [418]"

"It wasn't simply that I had lost the feeling of good and evil, but that I felt there was no such thing as good and evil (I liked that); that it was all a convention; that I could be free of all convention; but that if I ever attained that freedom, I'd be lost" (426).

* Ivan [Pavlovich] Shatov (Ivan or Shatov)

* Alexei [Nilych] Kirillov (Kirilov):

"I must affirm my unbelief, for there's nothing higher for me than the thought that there's no God. The history of mankind is on my side. Man kept inventing God in order to live, so as not to have to kill himself. To this day, the history of mankind consists of just that. I am the first man in history to refuse to invent God. I want it to be known always.
...
I'll be the first and last, and that will open the door. And I'll save them. That alone can save people, and the next generation will be transformed physically. Because the more I've thought about it, the more I've become convinced that, with his present physical make-up, man can never manage without the old God. [636-37]"

...

"There are seconds—they come five or six at a time—when you suddenly feel the presence of eternal harmony in all its perfection. It's not of this earth, I don't mean by that that it's something heavenly but only that man, as he is constituted on earth, can't endure it. He must be either physically transformed or die. It is a clear, unmistakable sensation. It is as though you were suddenly in contact with the whole of nature, and you say, "Yes, this is the truth." When God was creating the world, He said, after each day's creation, "Yes, this is the truth, it's Good." It's not elation, really, it's simply joy.... If it lasted for more than five seconds, the soul wouldn't be able to stand it; it would have to disappear. [609]"

Andrei Antonovich von Lembke (Lembke) (cut out)

Shigalyov (Philosopher)

Liza (?)

[ more ]

SELF

Types

Человек есть тайна. Ее надо разгадать, и ежели будешь ее разгадывать всю жизнь, то не говори, что потерял время; я занимаюсь этой тайной, ибо хочу быть человеком. (Dostoevsky)

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Dostoevsky: 2003 draft