The title: “An Honest Thief”
Thieves are largely regarded as devious individuals who filch other people’s things without pondering the painful repercussions of their actions. However, Astafy Ivanovitch upholds that honest thieves exist based on his familiarity with Emelyan Ilyitch. The title’s irony emphasizes the subjectivity of exemplifying honesty.
The Irony of Yevgeny Nikolaitch-(“A Novel in Nine Letters”)
Dostoevsky Fyodor elucidates, “On the sixteenth of November, Pyotr Ivanitch received by post two letters addressed to him. Opening the first envelope, he took out a carefully folded note on pale pink paper. The handwriting was his wife's. It was addressed to Yevgeny Nikolaitch and dated November the second.” The letter gathers that Pyotr Ivanitch’s wife is having a clandestine affair with Yevgeny Nikolaitch that is why she is beseeching that they meet on the third of December. The letter’s genuineness is amplified by the calligraphy .
Correspondingly, “On the seventeenth of November Ivan Petrovitch received by post two letters addressed to him. Opening the first letter, he took out a hasty and carelessly written note. The handwriting was his wife's; it was addressed to Yevgeny Nikolaitch, and dated August the fourth.” Tatyana’s letter to Yevgeny Nikolaitch submits that she was amorously involved with Yevgeny Nikolaitch before she wedded Ivan Petrovitch because the letter, which seems to have been authored on a day before her nuptial to Ivan Petrovitch, offers Tatyana’s goodbye to Yevgeny Nikolaitch. This script is in Tatyana’s handwriting.
How is it probable that Yevgeny Nikolaitch has/had affairs with the two wives yet the two men esteem him as their acquaintance? It is not well-defined how the two men acquired the letters. Perhaps, they emulated the wives’ handwriting to wound each other’s egos.
