Will beauty save the world? The problem of beauty and female characters in F. M. Dostoyevsky's novels. Article 1

A variety of female characters in Dostoyevsky's late novels is considered in relation to the problem of beauty that remained the most important for the writer in all periods of his creative work. The article shows evolution in the view on beauty (from the humanistic to clerical and Orthodox one), and the way from the general ideal of beauty (in the novel Crime and Punishment ) to the national Russian ideal (in the novels Demons, The Adolescent, The Brothers Karamazov ) is traced. The transition from the humanistic understanding of beauty to the Christian one is done in the novel The Idiot that completes the process of “regeneration” of Dostoyevsky's beliefs in the 1860-s. The transition from the pagan and national (the novel Demons ) to the Orthodox and national (the novel The Brothers Karamazov ) happening inside the Russian ideal of beauty is shown. The category of beauty in Dostoyevsky's works is also viewed as an element of antique kalokagatia, on the one hand, and the Christian sophia unity, on the other. Close attention is paid to the interconnection between beauty and foolishness for Christ.