Bureaucracy and the Bureaucrat
Dostoyevsky has much to criticize about Russia, but the target of most of that criticism is systemic. As far as the people, its culture and its virtues, he is a staunch defender. “The Crocodile” is an unusually absurdist work that is assuredly critical of the infamous Russian bureaucracy, but within that criticism is a demand for respect toward the unfortunate man inside the belly of the beast. Throughout his body of short fiction can be found various plots which bring the system of bureaucracy into the target of his profound disappointment, yet his bureaucrats themselves are often portrayed as victims as much as the people they disappoint in their service.
Lonely Men and Young Women: Unhappily Ever After
When one actually begins looking for recurring motifs and storylines a very starkly defined theme comes into shape almost immediately. “White Nights,” “Dream of a Ridiculous Man,” and “A Gentle Creature” just three of the most well-known stories that are riffs upon this storyline. The stories involve characters from various backgrounds and the lines of narrative the plots are driven down swerve off onto assorted exits, but they all wind up at the same destination: unluckiness in love for the lonely men. The endings for the young women, however, are spread across a more expansive topography.
Planting the Seeds of Existentialism
The most deeply embedded theme in the short fiction of Dostoyevsky is one that manifests itself in a variety of different ways. Issues surrounding morality come into play inevitably as a conflict between good and bad becomes the screw upon which the plot turns. What makes this theme interesting is that the conflict is only sometimes embodied in a “good” person versus a “bad” person. Usually, his characters are more ambiguously drawn to create a sense of paradox. “An Honest Thief” even situates this paradox into its very title as the story makes inquiries into what makes a criminal honest and what makes an honest man morally inferior to a criminal. The answer—always—lies inside the conscience and character of the person. Either one has the conscience and character to live an existence based on a belief in God and the unique qualities of human beings or one goes down the path of atheistic acceptance that man is nothing more than another animal.
