as an abstract ideal but as a living vision of a living person. The Ridiculous Man saw how an earthly paradise was possible and found far greater power in that vision than in mankind’s presumed “natural” state. That vision is enough to transform his intention to kill himself into a determination to devote his life to fighting everything that would prevent the realization of the vision: ” ‘Consciousness of life is higher than life, knowledge of the laws of happiness is higher than happiness’—that is what we must fight against!”

An essential quality of this vision, whenever it appears in Dostoevsky’s work, is that the transformation is potentially instantaneous. All that is needed is that one must “love others as one loves oneself, that is the main thing, that is all, absolutely nothing more than that is needed, and then one would instantly find a way to build paradise.”

Adaptations

The story was adapted into an animated film in 1992 by Aleksandr Petrov.