Netochka Nezvanova

by Fyodor Dostoevsky

‘Three years ago I found this letter in a book. I presumed it had been forgotten; I read it and learnt everything. Since then it has been in my possession because I had no one to whom I could give it. I could not give it to her. Could I have given it to you? But you must have known the contents of this letter, the whole sorrowful story inside… I don’t know why you’re pretending. It’s a mystery to me. I still can’t understand your dark soul. You wanted to keep up your superiority over her and you have done so. But for what purpose? In order to triumph over a ghost, over the distraught imagination of a sick woman? To prove to her that she has erred and that you are more sinless than she? And you’ve achieved your aim, for this is the fixed idea of a failing mind, perhaps the last lament of a broken heart over the injustice of people’s condemnation, with which you were in agreement. “What does it matter if you have fallen in love with her?” That is what she was saying and what she wanted to show you. Your vanity and your jealous egocentricity have been merciless. Farewell! There’s no need to explain! But mind, I know you, I can see through you, don’t forget that!’

So this is how it all ends. If this had been finished, i could leave with a sounder analysis but as it stands, i literally do not know what to think. Dostoyevsky prepared a sweeping romantic drama that explores sin, love, and the suffering of innocent, precocious children. that it ends in such a confrontation, alexandra maybe dead, and katya and netochka never reunited… idk, idk. without a continuation, this is just a tragedy. damn.