A Faint Heart

The main character of the novella is a poor clerk and copyist Vasya Shumkov, who continues in Dostoevsky’s works the theme of the “dreamer” and the “little man.” Shumkov considers himself unworthy of happiness because of his social inferiority. The character’s psyche cannot withstand at the same time the happiness expressed by the consent of his beloved girl to become his wife—and his guilt toward his superiors for work he failed to do, which he perceives as ingratitude in return for the favors of his patron-superior.