Genre
A novel
Setting and Context
The action takes place in Germany, where many famous casinos are located.
Narrator and Point of View
The novel is recounted by a first- person, the narrator is Alexis himself. In such way, Dostoyevsky wants to show all subtleties of the emotional state, tinges of feelings of the main character. The author opens the inner world of Alexis and shows his troubles.
Tone and Mood
The love relation of Alexis and Polina keeps readers in a tense mood. The description of games of chance forces readers to feel emotional experience and riskiness.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The main protagonist is Antonida Vassilievna Tarassevitcha. The main antagonist is Alexis Ivanovitch.
Major Conflict
The major conflict stands in Alexis and his weak strength of mind. His moral frivolousness brings him to the dependent and spiritual degradation.
Climax
The climax happens when Antonida Vassilievna Tarassevitcha loses big sum of money, when she plays the roulette.
Foreshadowing
Alexis is a compulsive gambler. That’s why it is obvious that he will not have a purport of life and will be a dependent person.
Understatement
N/A
Allusions
This novel alludes to a huge amount of different currencies. For example, thaler, florin, guilder, franc and rouble are mentioned her. Also it alludes to countries such as Russia, German and its big cities Dresden and Moscow.
Imagery
Imagery is used in description of appearance, splendour of casinos and weather. It all overall creates beckground for understanding emotions of the heroes as the plot develops
Paradox
The paradox is that personages understand the bad consequence of the roulette, but they continue playing.
Parallelism
Readers can observe the parallelism in Antonida’s indecision. Actually, she affirms that games destroy her life. But at the same time, she cannot tears herself away from it and continues playing.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
N/A
Personification
In this novel, love personifies the suffering of characters, who always try to get this great feeling. Casino surely personifies a destruction of the striking and strong personality.