White nights

Here's my take on the story after reading it a second time. I am reading the David Magarshack translation of the story.

This is the closing sentence of the story, based on this translation:

"Good Lord, only a moment of bliss? Isn't such a moment sufficient for the whole of a man's life?"

The emphasis is in the text.

I believe that in the final sequence of the story, he quickly regresses into that dismal place of his own making (underground, so to speak). But he takes something back with him. This time, he actually felt real love with a real person. And this time, he actually felt real heartache. What he takes back with him is conveyed with the final paragraph.

"But that I should feel any resentment against you...That I should cast a dark shadow over your bright, serene happiness! That I should chill and darken your heart with bitter reproaches...That I should crush a single one of those delicate blooms...Oh no--never, never!"

I read this passage and that entire paragraph to which it belongs as one giant sarcastic curse. He hates Nastenka now (though I'm not sure he consciously is aware of the hate) and what he takes back "underground" with him is this feeling of hatred, real hatred, because he has really loved, and has been really crushed by the fancies of some young girl who stole his heart. It was easy for me to interpret it the way I did because what he says he'll never do to her is pretty much what she did to him, whether he consciously realizes it or not.

Read the passage I quoted with a sarcastic tone in mind. Go grab the book and read that whole paragraph. It's shocking how venemous the passage can read if you take it that way.

I realize my interpretation is probably wrong, but it makes for interesting talk. If you go back and read Fourth Night, and notice the play of emotions between the narrator and Nastenka. It almost seems like they are purposely playing emotional tag, each one seems in power of the situation, and their emotions, at various times, and then later becomes the weaker one, etc etc.

Any thoughts?