Ilyusha Snegiryov

Ilyusha, Ilyushechka, or simply Ilusha in some translations, is one of the local schoolboys, and the central figure of a crucial subplot in the novel. His father, Captain Snegiryov, is an impoverished officer who is insulted by Dmitri after Fyodor hires him to threaten the latter over his debts, and the Snegiryov family is brought to shame as a result. The reader is led to believe that it is partly because of this that Ilyusha falls ill, and eventually dies (his funeral is the concluding chapter of the novel), possibly to illustrate the theme that even minor actions can touch heavily on the lives of others, and that we are "all responsible for one another".…more