The Girard Reader by René Girard Page B

this conversionary discovery occurs above all in Dostoyevsky,
    whose Notes from the Underground "is the turning point between romanticism and the
    novel," and whose conclusion to The Brothers Karamazov affirms the reality of the death and resurrection to which the agnostic Proust gives literary expression in The Past Recaptured
    and Remembrance of Things Past .
    The ultimate meaning of desire is death but death is not the novel's ultimate meaning. The
    demons like raving madmen throw themselves into the sea and perish. But the patient is
    cured. Stepan Trofimovitch on his deathbed recalls the miracle: "But the sick man will be
    healed and 'will sit at the feet of Jesus,' and all will look upon him with astonishment."
    These words are applicable not only to Russia but to the dying man himself. Stepan
    Trofimovitch is this sick man who is healed in death and whom death heals. Stepan let
    himself be carried away by the wave of scandal, murder, and crime which engulfed the town.
    His flight has its roots in the universal madness but as soon as it is undertaken its significance
    changes -- it is transformed into a return to the mother earth and to the light of day. His
    roaming finally leads the old man to a wretched
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    bed in an inn where a Gospel woman reads him the words of St. Luke. The dying man sees
    the truth in the parable of the swine of Gerasa. Out of supreme disorder is born supernatural
    order.
    The closer Stepan comes to death, the more he withdraws from lying: "I've been telling lies
    all my life. Even when I told the truth I never spoke for the sake of the truth, but always for
    my own sake. I knew it before, but I only see it now." In these words Stepan clearly
    contradicts his former ideas .
    The apocalypse would not be complete without a positive side. There are two antithetical
    deaths in the conclusion of The Possessed : one death which is an extinction of the spirit and
    one death which is spirit; Stavrogin's death is only death, Stepan's death is life. This double
    ending is not unusual in Dostoyevsky. We find it in The Brothers Karamazov where the
    madness of Ivan Karamazov is contrasted with the redeeming conversion of Dmitri. We find
    it in Crime and Punishment where Svidrigailov's suicide is contrasted with the redeeming
    conversion of Raskolnikov. The Gospel woman who watches at Stepan's bedside plays a
    similar role to Sonia's though less pronounced. She is the mediator between the sinner and the
    Scriptures.
    Raskolnikov and Dmitri Karamazov do not die a physical death but they are nonetheless
    restored to life. All Dostoyevsky's conclusions are fresh beginnings; a new life commences,
    either among men or in eternity.
    But perhaps it would be better not to push this analysis any further. Many critics refuse to
    accept Dostoyevsky's religious conclusions. They find them artificial, ill-considered, and
    superficially imposed on the novel. The novelist is supposed to have written them when he
    ran out of novelistic inspiration, in order to give his work an appearance of religious
    orthodoxy.
    So let us leave Dostoyevsky and turn to the conclusions of other novels, such as Don Quixote .
    The hero's death is very like that of Stepan Trofimovitch. His passion for chivalry is
    portrayed as an actual possession of which the dying man sees himself fortunately, though
    somewhat belatedly, delivered. The clarity of vision that he regains enables Don Quixote , like Stepan Trofimovitch, to reject his former existence.
    At this time my judgment is free and clear and no longer covered with a thick blanket of
    ignorance woven by my sad and constant reading of detestable books of chivalry. I recognize
    their extravagance and trickery. My only regret is that my disillusionment has come too late
    and that I do not have time to make up for my mistake by reading other books which would
    help to enlighten my soul.
    The Spanish desengaño has the same meaning as Dostoyevsky's conversion. But again there
    are many writers