Late Romantic Origins of the Image of the Dreamer in Dostoevsky's Early Work

The influence of Romanticism on Dostoevsky's work has been the subject of many works, including those by modern researchers. However, most of the literature on this topic is devoted to Dostoevsky's late works, the novels of his mature period, while his early works have received less attention. At the same time, the influence of Romanticism in them is more obvious and open, which allows us to see more clearly what specific motives and ideas of this worldview penetrated Dostoevsky's work. The article compares individual images from the novel White Nights and the feuilleton Petersburg Chronicle with G. Heine's poem Prologue and M.Yu. Lermontov's poem The Prophet, on the basis of which an attempt is made to trace the origins of the image of the Dreamer as a romantic character. As a result, direct parallels are found between the texts under consideration, expressed in a similar description of the characters, as well as in the similarity of the described circumstances in which they find themselves. The interpretation of the theme of the Dreamer is offered as a development of the popular image of the poet-philosopher or poet-prophet in early German Romanticism, which occupies a significant place in Novalis's “Fragments”. This is a person who, through aesthetic and mystical revelation, has acquired true knowledge of the world, which he seeks to bring to life. The main difference between the Dreamer and his early Romantic prototype, the poet-prophet, is his inability to really change the world, to bring it into agreement with the knowledge of the true, divine reality that he possesses.