#alyosha and lize(?)'s relationship really feels like this too bc alyosha has SO much love in his heart and his proposal to lize really just

[neige-leblanche]

someone's probably made this post before but reading dostoevsky as an aromantic really hits different, bc so many of the main or major characters when pursuing their love interests give the impression that they never learned how to fall in love, or that they know romance isn't supposed to be something moral or political but can't truly conceptualize it as otherwise. prince myshkin proposes to nastasya filippovna because he likes the idea of validating a "fallen woman" through marriage; raskolnikov sees sonya as the only person who can save him due to her "innocent sinner" position; ivan is said to be in love with grushenka, but these interactions primarily happen offscreen, and his brother and father are the only ones with a real chance at marrying her, because they're impulsive sensualists with specific desires who act on them. i think what really hit hardest was razumikhin and dunya's relationship; there seems such a strong tacit acceptance that this is how real people fall in love; good people with care in their hearts fall in love because of romantic desire, and it's utterly wholesome even when messy and imbalanced and in the midst of turbulence, and it is by no means a feeling raskolnikov can experience in his current condition. the way that "good" characters and "bad" characters both experience this tangible separation from romance too ;-;