Dostoevsky's, "A Gentle Creature," resembles in many ways the archetypal story of Cinderella, however, this story is nowhere near the romantic stories one would be told as a child. Dostoevsky provides a sharp sense of reality by writing about the difficult situation of a young girl within Russian society during Dostoevsky's time. Theses distortions of a romantic framework provide the grounds for a sad critique on the shortcomings within Russia that affected the impoverished in particular. .
The story begins from the first person perspective of a pawnbroker trying to rationalize why his bride has killed herself. Immediately the story diverges heavily from a typical fairytale, revealing the end of the story to the reader. The narrator then begins the story as a long flashback. Dostoevsky in his introduction explains that the story is mean to be read as if, "A stenographer could have overhead him and taken down his words in shorthand" (Dostoevsky 670). This is significant because it really resembles a stream of consciousness writing and helps highlight the narrators precise and hectic thought process. This is totally opposite to what we have studied in class earlier with folk tales and their solid, efficient third person omniscient narrator. .
In terms of the love that the narrator seeks to gain from the girl, it is not a selfless love. He did not fall head over heels in love and go through trials and tribulations to gain her love and trust. It was on a whim for the pawnbroker. "Revenging myself on society" was how he said people might describe his actions. (Dostoevsky 679) Every single conversation he had while she frequented his store, his marriage proposal, and when he got her to sing to him were all small victories that gave the pawnbroker a sense of pride. He is anti-heroic. Ironically when she does end up singing while he was in the house, it was because he realized that she felt like he was no longer some sort of foreboding presence.
