Human Behaviour Lesson from reading Dostoevsky (Part 10)
This is the last post of this series-
Today, I’m going to tell you how Dostoevsky overcame his worst habit and how he became the legend we know today.
As I’ve mentioned before, Dostoevsky was a compulsive gambler. He lost most of his money at gambling tables. He tried various methods and tactics to quit—but nothing worked. All his efforts failed.
After his first wife Maria, died, he tried to form a relationship with Polina, but she didn’t truly love him. Later, he married Anna, a woman much younger than him. At the time, Dostoevsky was drowning in debt due to his gambling addiction.
His publishers were furious. He had taken advance payments but failed to deliver the manuscripts on time. One publisher even warned him: if he didn’t meet the deadline, they would retain the rights to his older works.
Anna was deeply frustrated and decided to teach Dostoevsky a lesson. One day, she went to gamble herself—and lost all their remaining money. That night, they had nothing to eat.
This moment shocked Dostoevsky. It was a turning point. He realized the depth of his actions, became serious, and finally quit gambling.
Later, he wrote:
“A woman has an enormous influence in a man’s life.”
All of Dostoevsky’s greatest works were written after this transformation. And it was Anna—his patient, intelligent, and loyal wife—who showed him the way to immortality (metaphorically speaking).
I believe Anna truly loved him, too. Cause After Dostoevsky’s death, she lived for another 37 years, but never remarried.
Now back to the series of human behaviour-
1. Humans are capable of both angel and devil in the same soul.
Story: Ivan Karamazov wrestles with lofty ideals yet hallucinates the devil, showing both extremes within one mind.
Memory Hook: A coin with a saint on one side, a demon on the other.
Example: Public figures with noble ideals and dark contradictions.
Many leaders, artists, or revolutionaries have shown great vision and moral failure in the same life. Examples: Martin Luther King Jr, Gandhi, donad trump, Putin, Taylor Swift, Elon Musk. This isn’t to tarnish them — but to reveal the Dostoevskian truth: that greatness does not erase shadow.
In Hamlet by Shakespeare, the Character Is Introspective, philosophical, and idealistic, yet he also becomes a murderer, consumed by doubt, rage, and moral collapse.
2. Contradictions define us.
Story: The Underground Man craves love yet pushes it away, proud yet self-loathing.
Memory Hook: A man rowing with two oars in opposite directions.
Example: People wanting freedom but also security, independence but also closeness — living in tension rather than resolution.
Hamlet – ShakespeareWavers between action and inaction, certainty and doubt — his contradictions are his identity.
In the movie, Joker, Arthur Fleck craves recognition and warmth — but his alienation turns him into something monstrous
3. Humans cling to illusions as much as truth.
Story: Nastasya clings to self-destructive fantasies rather than accept healing love from Myshkin.
Memory Hook: A bird refusing to leave a painted cage.
Example: People stay in toxic relationships because the illusion of love feels safer than loneliness. Activists who preach peace but carry personal bitterness. People who crave intimacy but self-sabotage. Artists who destroy their own success.
In the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Joel and Clementine erase their memories, but gravitate back — chasing the idea of love more than its truth.
4. Goodness can be more unsettling than evil.
Story: Prince Myshkin’s purity unnerves others — they feel judged simply by his innocence.
Memory Hook: A bright mirror making every stain visible.
Example: Honest colleagues sometimes make others uncomfortable, not because they preach, but because their integrity reveals others’ compromises.
In the movie Forrest Gump, His simple goodness changes lives — but people mock, manipulate, or leave him, unable to match his purity.
Individuals like Nelson Mandela, Malala Yousafzai, or Mother Teresa are revered — but also mocked, attacked, or doubted, because their unwavering moral stance reveals others’ compromises.
5. Evil wears masks of logic.
Story: In Demons, revolutionaries justify murder as “necessary” for the cause.
Memory Hook: A wolf in a professor’s robe.
Example: Dictators framing oppression as “public safety” or scammers calling theft “business” like The Holocaust, Stalinist purges, Terrorist acts, and Eugenics policies.
In the book 1984 by George Orwell, Evil is bureaucratic, rational, and justified. The Party tortures and kills in the name of “order” and “truth”. In the movie The Dark Knight, Harvey Dent: “You either die a hero, or live long enough to become the villain.” Justifies vigilantism and cruelty step by step, logically, until he becomes Two-Face.
6. People often destroy what they most love.
Story: Rogozhin murders Nastasya, the woman he both adores and cannot control.
Memory Hook: A man crushing a rose in his fist while kissing it.
Example: Partners who sabotage loving relationships out of jealousy or fear of abandonment. Cases of domestic violence often begin with declarations of love. Untransformed insecurity becomes danger. In the book Anna Karenina by Tolstoy (one of the books that changed my worldview), Anna’s obsessive love for Vronsky unravels into despair, jealousy, and eventually self-destruction.
In the film Black Swan, Nina’s obsession with perfection and artistic beauty — the thing she most loves leads to her own psychological and physical ruin.
7. Compassion is revolutionary.
Story: Alyosha transforms lives not with power, but by small acts of love and presence.
Memory Hook: A drop of water rippling through a still pond.
Example: One kind teacher or mentor turning a troubled student’s entire life around. In Atticus Finch’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Faces hates and injustice not with anger, but with dignified empathy and calm courage.
Fred Rogers(brand ambassador of humanity) transformed generations through kindness, listening, and moral courage. His compassion was so radical, Congress once called it “revolutionary television.”
In the film Dead Poets Society, Mr. Keating’s love and belief in his students liberate their spirits, not with rules, but with presence and trust.
8. Humans are drawn to mystery over clarity.
Story: The Grand Inquisitor tale suggests people prefer mystery and ritual over clear truth.
Memory Hook: A crowd staring at fog, ignoring the sun.
Example: Many prefer superstitions, horoscopes, or conspiracy theories over clear but boring facts. Even in a data-driven age, people turn to: Tarot, Astrology, and Sacred traditions. Not always for truth — but for symbolic resonance and emotional clarity.
In Life of Pi, the story ends with two versions: one rational, one magical. The narrator asks: “Which story do you prefer?” We are drawn to the mystery — because it gives us something more than facts.
9. Freedom is both a blessing and a curse.
Story: Every Dostoevsky novel wrestles with this — freedom can uplift (Alyosha) or destroy (Stavrogin).
Memory Hook: A bird flying high, but sometimes straight into storms.
Example: People who escape strict households sometimes thrive in independence, while others collapse without structure. Post-modern choice paralysis, Modern people have unprecedented freedom: To change jobs, reinvent identities, and choose beliefs. Yet this has led to anxiety, loneliness, and a crisis of meaning — not because freedom is bad, but because freedom without direction is a void.
In the movie Into the Wild, Chris McCandless flees society for radical freedom — only to realize that connection is part of what gives freedom meaning.
10. The human soul is an unfathomable mystery.
Story: At the end of Brothers Karamazov, Alyosha declares, “we are all guilty before all and for all” — showing the boundless depth of human responsibility and connection.
Memory Hook: A deep well with no bottom.
Example: Even modern psychology cannot fully capture why we love, hate, dream, or destroy — the soul remains deeper than science can measure. Great spiritual figures (e.g., Gandhi, Tolstoy, Teresa) confessed faults while radiating peace — showing that depth is not purity, but awarenes. Often saw the soul as something not to be “improved,” but to be listened to.
In the movie A Hidden Life, His soul, unseen by history, holds eternal weight. An Austrian farmer resists Nazi enlistment out of a quiet conscience.
Guys, this is the end of the series.
My intention behind writing this was simple:
There was no one to guide me when I first set out to explore human behavior. Every book I read, every YouTube video I watched, every blog I came across — they all talked about shallow pop psychology stuff. Nothing went deep. Nothing spoke to the real, raw, messy truth of being human. So I wrote this series for the version of me that once needed it — and maybe for the version of you that needs it now. Don’t let these ideas stay trapped in theory. Bring them into your conversations, your decisions, your relationships. The real magic begins when we apply what we’ve explored. Revisit the parts that spoke to you. Share your reflections. Start the uncomfortable discussions. Inspire someone. You have the tools now — use them to shape your world, make smart decisions, and reduce chaos in your life.
& until next time, bye! Take care!
