The Idiot: Part Two, Chapter Six Summary & Analysis

Lebedev’s dacha is small but pretty. Though he looks fine again, Myshkin is very weak, and is happy to be there. He is grateful that Lebedev’s family is there (minus Doktorenko), and is delighted that both Kolya and General Ivolgin come to visit. Ganya also comes, along with Varya and Ptitsyn. Lebedev makes a big show of protecting Myshkin from too much stimulation, until Myshkin insists that he grows bored if he is left alone. In reality, Myshkin is more exasperated by Lebedev’s constant attention and control. After discussing General Ivolgin, Lebedev tells Myshkin that “a certain person” says that “she wishes very much to have a secret meeting with you.” Myshkin says there is no need for it to be secret, and that he will go visit her himself.   

At that moment Kolya appears, announcing that Mrs. Epanchin and her three daughters have come to visit. Meanwhile, Ptitsyn, Varya, Ganya, and General Ivolgin simultaneously arrive from the other side of the terrace. The Epanchins only very recently learned that Myshkin was in Pavlovsk, and eagerly awaited his visit. When he did not come to visit them, Mrs. Epanchin was angry and hurt. Finally, Kolya came to update them on Myshkin, including his illness, at which point Mrs. Epanchin became terribly worried about him. She tried to call a “medical celebrity” in from St. Petersburg, but her daughters ultimately persuaded her not to do this. 

When Prince Shch. heard that the Epanchin girls were going to visit Myshkin, he decided to join, too. He’d heard many good things about the prince from the girls, and had eventually realized that he and Myshkin knew each other, as they used to live in the same town. Lebedev’s dacha is mere steps away from the Epanchins’. Mrs. Epanchin, who has become convinced that Myshkin is on his deathbed, is annoyed to see Lebedev’s house swarming with visitors. She tells Myshkin that she cares about him more than if he was her own son, and was terribly worried about him, and calls Kolya a “malicious brat” for letting her believe that Myshkin was dying.

Mrs. Epanchin seems rather horrified that Myshkin is staying at Lebedev’s, and offers for him to come and stay at her family’s dacha instead. At this moment, Lebedev’s grown daughter Vera enters carrying his baby daughter Lyubov, and he theatrically explains that his wife died six weeks ago. Aglaya starts asking Lebedev about his thoughts on the apocalypse, and he answers her with great enthusiasm. General Ivolgin interrupts with a rather silly point, introducing himself to Aglaya, who can hardly stop herself laughing. Ivolgin claims that he used to carry Aglaya in his arms, but Mrs. Epanchin then interrupts to say he’s lying. However, Aglaya, Adelaida, and Alexandra all say they remember Ivolgin from their childhood.

Ivolgin tells all young people that he carried them in his arms and thus did not expect to actually be telling the truth this time. Mrs. Epanchin shoos him away, saying she’s heard that he has spent time in debtor’s prison and that he should think about his sins. However, when Ivolgin glumly departs, she beckons him back, saying: “We’re all sinners.” After Ganya leaves, Mrs. Epanchin says that he she hardly recognized him, but is suspicious of Myshkin’s assertion that he’s doing better. Kolya mentions the “poor knight” and Don Quixote, which Aglaya has lately been talking about. Kolya says he recently heard Aglaya say that “there is nothing better than ‘the poor knight,’” but he doesn’t know who she was talking about.

Aglaya is furious, but Kolya continues, saying that Aglaya asked Adelaida to draw a portrait of the poor knight, but Adelaida didn’t because she didn’t know what to draw. Aglaya eventually explains that she admires the poor knight, who is depicted in a recent Russian poem by Pushkin, because he exemplifies a man who devotes his own life to a single ideal. She goes on to explain that the knight doesn’t mind who his lady is, but will love her with total and unconditional love no matter what she is like.  Initially she could not understand him, but now she “love[s] the ‘poor knight’ and, above all, respect[s] his deeds.” Mrs. Epanchin demands that Aglaya recite the poem. Aglaya agrees but, just as she is about to start, her father arrives with a young man.