The story "A Gentle Creature" tells about people who cannot be considered either harsh authorities or hardened villains. The protagonist, on whose behalf the narrative is conducted, brought his beloved wife to suicide. The form of " A Gentle Creature" is dictated by the circumstances of the plot. This is the work of thought, occurring here and now, in front of the public, the benefit of the character has a habit of talking to himself, and anyone can hide behind the wall with the author and overhear. An important plastic detail: the character's speech at the first moment is inconsistent and jerky. The nervous tension grew and, finally, led the man's consciousness to the fact that he began to reason out loud. Talking to himself, he seems to calm down, until he comes as a result of his reflections to cold despair.
Dostoevsky with his inherent genius psychologism shows how people themselves destroy their own good aspirations. After all, both the usurer officer and his young wife wanted to create a truly happy family. However, they were killed by pride. Dostoevsky leads us to the idea that they are both criminals, both feel themselves criminals.
The Gentle is determined to commit suicide, confessing to her husband in her crime towards him. Indeed, she tried to betray him, tried to kill him - she sinned with a thought. It is characteristic that these are crimes in a purely religious sense, since sin can be committed"by thought, by word, by deed and by default of duty. The Gentle is aware of herself as a sinner and, with an icon in her hands, commits suicide. Like most characters in the works of Dostoyevsky, Gentle has her own prototype. The author of the story read about her in one of his journalistic articles.
The main character, a usurer officer, is distinguished by the fact that in the past, before the death of his wife, he persistently refused to feel wrong. He acted from the point of view of the despised society defined as "mean", and forced himself not to feel guilty before them. But after a terrible event, having managed, it seems, to "gather thoughts to the point", he concludes that he himself is a dead man among the dead, and everything is dead around. " Men are alone — around them is silence — that is the earth! ". Somewhere on the periphery of consciousness he understands that he is guilty of the death of his wife in some sense, he has managed to sense his guilt before her, and partly to the world, and wished to make amends - to prove his own courage, to give his money to the poor and so on. But after the materialized fact of his sin, the usurer officer felt that his inner crime had killed him. He failed to receive the remission of sins and morally died.
