Is Nastasya Filippovna the best example of a death drive in literature?

Is Nastasya Filippovna the best example of a death drive in literature?

bump

Explain the concept of a "death drive" in general and then I will respond in the context of literature.

does Jesus count?

you can only bump your own threads after someone else posted in them iirc

also i read this seven years ago and forgot the plot

the process through which a character acts willingly and knowingly in a self destructive manner

Raskolnikov
Myshkin
Dmitri
Shatov

The Prince and shatov do not show death drive

The Prince is literally a stand-in figure for Christ, who actually allowed himself to be killed and is the entire origin of a species of this death drive concept. The entire fucking novel is about how Myshkin continually allows himself to be used and sacrificed, he therefore "acts willingly and knowingly in a self-destructive manner."

What you probably mean to say is that this type of death drive doesn't conform to your muh diary desu death drive that you want to use to explain your special snowflake status to the world.

And Shatov literally wanted to become a martyr to further his idol's political agenda.

>And Shatov literally wanted to become a martyr to further his idol's political agenda.
That is kirillov.

And the Prince doesn't act that way because he is self destructive but because he is compassionate, sincere and doesn't believe everyone will take advantage of him.

I see the Prince as a Don Quixote type character, blind to everything but his idealism. He is unable to see the reality of how shitty people are and continues to believe they will not act 100% self-centredly .

My bad about Shatov/Kirillov

Your psychology behind Myshkin's actions is incorrect. Saying that he is compassionate and sincere and leaving it at that is also saying that he is not aware of what is going on around him. He is aware of it, especially at the end when it finally breaks him.
It isn't a coincidence that Nastasya and he are drawn together somehow. They share that death drive that you speak of. The only difference is that Myshkin wanted to escape it and Nastasya knew her destiny was to sink into it. They are two sides of the same coin.

I think your view of myshkin is the same view aglaya first had of him. That he was sacrificing himself to save nastassya (through maybe some sort of death drive). But she later found out that he really did have a compassionate love for nastassya and wanted to save her from her death drive (and I think OP is right that she is a perfect example of it in literature).

I am aglaya desu

read the epilogue of pan by hamsun

>when he shoots himself in the foot because the doctor has a limp

and they say fresh air is good for you

Yes
>She ran away from me. Do you know what for? Simply to show me that she was a degraded creature. But the most awful thing is that perhaps she didn’t even know herself that she only wanted to prove that to me, but ran away because she had an irresistible inner craving to do something shameful, so as to say, to herself at once, ‘There, you’ve done something shameful again, so you’re a degraded creature!’ …Do you know that in that continual consciousness of shame there is perhaps a sort of awful, unnatural enjoyment for her, a sort of revenge on some one.

Less highbrow and Russian but Nicola Six in London Fields literally plans her own murder.

Glad to have another Dostoevsky post a few weeks after the Notes from Underground one. I've yet to read the Idiot, but it's up next on my list. Cheers mates.

Raskolnikov doesn't try to act self destructively, it just turns out that way after his theory fails
And Dmitri doesn't really want to destroy himself, he's just so sensual he can't help himself

Dmitri plans on killing himself after re-stealing the last bit of money his self respect hangs on. He is overly sensual, but I think this leads him to a death drive.

MY
DIARY
DESU