Theme of the family in Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel “The adolescent”

The article analyses the theme of the family in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel "The Adolescent". The protagonist’s family seems to be secured, but its members have uneasy relations relations and conflicts. Sofya selflessly loves her husband, but Versilov's love is paradoxically combined with dismissiveness. Incertitude of the family status determined the women’s diffidence and anxiety. Arkady, who has grown up outside the family and experienced indignity because of his illegitimacy, wants to be closer to his birth father, who has suddenly remembered about him. Arkady meets his sister Lisa and his mother, appreciates the kindness of Sofya and Lisa, and feels himself a son and a brother. Blaming herself for his long orphanhood, his mother takes care of him. Versilov treats his son with irony, but their talks help him socialize. Arkady hardly joins the family, but eventually he retrieves it.