He concludes that the existence of the prison, with its absurd practices and savage corporal punishments, is a tragic fact, both for the prisoners and for Russia. Dostoevsky portrays the inmates of the prison with sympathy for their plight, and also expresses admiration for their energy, ingenuity and talent. Gradually Goryanchikov overcomes his revulsion at his situation and his fellow convicts, undergoing a spiritual re-awakening that culminates with his release from the camp. Life in prison is particularly hard for Aleksandr Petrovich, since he is a "gentleman" and suffers the malice of the other prisoners, nearly all of whom belong to the peasantry. The narrator, Aleksandr Petrovich Goryanchikov, has been sentenced to deportation to Siberia and ten years of hard labour for murdering his wife. The House of the Dead led Dostoevsky to include the theme of murder in his later works, a theme not found in any of his works preceding House of the Dead. During this time in prison he began experiencing the epileptic seizures that would plague him for the rest of his life. It was a stark contrast to his own heightened sensitivity.
However, he is also astonished at the convicts' abilities to commit murders without the slightest change in conscience. He recalls the guards’ brutality and relish performing unspeakably cruel acts, the crimes that the convicted criminals committed, and the fact that among these hardened criminals there were good and decent individuals. The novel incorporates several of the horrifying experiences he witnessed while in prison. After his time in the camps Dostoevsky returned to write The House of the Dead. Though he often was met with hostility from the other prisoners due to his noble status of dvoryanin, his views on life changed. This experience allowed him to describe with great authenticity the conditions of prison life and the characters of the convicts.Īfter his mock execution on 22 December 1849, Dostoevsky's life was spared in exchange for four years of imprisonment in a katorga labor camp at Omsk in western Siberia. Dostoevsky spent four years in a forced-labour prison camp in Siberia following his conviction for involvement in the Petrashevsky Circle. It is generally considered to be a disguised memoir a loosely-knit collection of characters, events and philosophical discussion based on Dostoevsky's experiences as a prisoner, organised by "theme" rather than as a continuous story. The novel portrays the life of convicts in a Siberian prison camp.
It has also been published in English under the titles Notes from the House of the Dead, Memoirs from the House of The Dead, and Notes from a Dead House, which are more literal translations of the Russian title. It's unclear if stopping or leaving the creeper has any impact on said fate, but it's probably not a bad idea to not take any chances.The House of the Dead ( Russian: Записки из Мёртвого дома, Zapiski iz Myortvovo doma), is a semi-autobiographical novel published in 1860–2 in the journal Vremya by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. Without getting too spoilery, there appears to be multiple different outcomes for the fate of this character dependent on your actions in the game. Whether he eventually goes anywhere though, I'm not sure, because I got mauled by some damn O'Driscolls.Īnyway, the widow he's referring to is the one located north of Annesburg in Willard's Rest, the same one there are some side missions tied to later in the game. In another save game, I attempted to follow him to see where he goes (thinking he may go to the aforementioned widow), but he just rode around the area on horseback doing nothing. I then returned to the campsite to inspect the tent more and found that in addition to numerous pictures and drawings of women, he also had numerous handcuffs, women's clothing, a mannequin head, and other weird stuff that reassured me I was right to throw him off a bridge, despite the lowering of my honor suggesting otherwise.