After some careful thought, I can see where Dostoyevsky is coming from when he talks about the “active man”. He considers the active man to be a fool; however, according to Dostoyevsky, the fools are the only ones who really become anything in life. After today’s discussion, I think I have a better understanding as to why Dostoyevsky believes this. The fool does not posses the consciousness that the main character has. He sees one path and he takes it because he is certain that there’s nothing more to it, there is only one right answer. So while Dostoyevsky’s character is sitting around idly making up his mind as to the “character” he will become, the fool is already halfway down his path because he has not given it a second thought or brought himself to fully understand both sides of it. The fool will willingly and unquestioningly spend one third of his life in school, the other third looking for a job, and the final third basically counting down the days because he has been convinced this is the only way to do things. The fool doesn’t recognize any “inherent contradictions” because he doesn’t have the capacity to see something more/he has not been given anything else to believe is right by others.
No comments:
Post a Comment