Finally, noticing that we were laughing at him, Karl Fyodorovitch flushed scarlet with indignation and his eyes filled with tears. In a voice expressing ridiculous emotion, making me feel guilty afterwards, he said to father, ‘You’re a rotten friend.’
makes me feel incredibly sad for Karl F. firstly, because of the face-value reading, but also secondly because of the quite obvious metaphor of him being Efimov’s foil. Karl F. kept his love and integrity as an artist and did not let lofty appreciation of his art make way for arrogance. Efimov did, though. they are both impoverished and poor artists, but one kept his integrity and still works and sincerely asks for judgement of his efforts; while the other abandoned art entirely and started to be obsessed with a continued dream, growing wretched in arrogance.
