literary analysis of an honest thief

1. AN HONEST THIEF
By Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky

2. FYODOR M. DOSTOYEVSKY
• On October 30, 1831, Fyodor Dostoyevsky was born in Moscow.
• An Honest Thief was composed by Dostoevsky in the year
1848. A period in the author’s life whence he had
successfully published two novels,and was acclaimed in the
literary circles of St Petersburg, the place where the arts
mattered. The Honest Thief finds itself among short stories
of the author that were published in the magazine, ‘Annals
of the Fatherland’.

3. PLOT
• After his landlord experiences a break-in and theft, Astafy Ivanovich
tells the landlord the tragic story of a man named Emelyan Ilyitch—an
honest thief he once knew, and whose livelihood Astafy once found
himself responsible for.

4. • The narrator's coat is stolen in broad daylight right in
front of him and the thief gets away. This sends Astafy
into a flashback (In a way, making him the new narrator)
that goes on for the rest of the story. Astafy explains
how a poor, old, drunken man named Emelyan Ilyitch
becomes his unwanted companion and follows him
around from home to home.One day, Astafy's breeches
are stolen and Emelyan is the first accused of this.
Emelyan refuses all allegations and Astafy knows he's
guilty, but he defends him for the sake of keeping the
peace. The guilt starts to eat up Emelyan's spirit to the
point he gets physically sick He eventually dies, but not
before he tells Astafy the truth about his breeches,
which ends the story.

5. SETTING
• Landlord's house
• Rented room in nurse's home

6. • Guilt
• Loneliness
• Conscience
• Addiction
• Forgiveness
• The importance of honesty

7. CHARACTERS
• Narrator: Landlord
• Agrafena: The housekeeper of the narrator
• Astafy Ivanovitch: An elderly gentleman, a former soldier, renter of
the house
• Emelyan Ilyitch, often referred to as Emelyanouska: Poor, old,
drunkard man

8. • First person limited.

9. TITLE AND CONFLICTS
• The title of the story appears to represent a moral impossibility.
• Emelyan is that honest thief, a man who steals, yet whose repentance is
deeply sincere. Throughout the story, Emelyan is a thoroughly pathetic
figure.
• Astafy tells how Emelyan stays drunk for a fortnight, then sits
wordlessly “as though grief was gnawing at his heart, or as though he
wanted to do for himself completely.”
• Emelyan’s departure to the freezing streets is an act of self-punishment
that further expresses his guilt. When he finally confesses to the theft
just before dying, the reader feels that this character has a genuine
desire to live virtuously, despite his failure to have done so.

10. ANALYS
IS

11. "It is always so, sir, when a man is guilty, he always
feels beforehand when trouble approaches, as a
bird feels the coming storm."