The Meek One

An inner monologue of a man whose wife was driven to suicide by the hopelessness of the surrounding life.

The novella tells the story of a woman who turns out to be married to a moneylender. What’s interesting is that the narrator does not name either his own name or hers. The novella shows Dostoevsky’s idea of a executioner and a victim, expressed here through a husband—an oppressor—and his wife, his victim. The author also wanted to depict the realities of that time. Out of lack of money, the girl decides to marry a man she not only didn’t love, but even despised and his line of work. The meek woman tries to rebel against such a life and against her husband—whom she even planned to kill in order to end human suffering: not only her own, but also that of the people dependent on him, who were mortgaging their last property for pennies at high interest. These torments weren’t manifested in quarrels or physical humiliation, but mostly in the constant silence that came to reign between husband and wife some time after the wedding.