White Nights

Cobwebs appear late in the story as a quiet but potent symbol of emotional and social stagnation. When Matrona tells the narrator, “I have taken all the cobwebs off the ceiling; you can have a wedding or give a party” (89), the gesture is meant to signal the potential of new beginnings—but it also highlights just how long the room has gone without life or change.

The cobwebs mirror the narrator’s inner world: neglected, untouched, and suspended in time. Though Matrona clears them, the narrator notes that the room still feels dim and decayed, as if time has passed without renewal. He even imagines himself in the same room “fifteen years hence…just as solitary” (90)—his surroundings and his future thick with the same metaphorical dust. Dostoyevsky uses this symbol to reflect the narrator’s fear that nothing will change, that the joy he briefly experienced was only a break in an otherwise static existence. The cobwebs represent emotional inertia, the burden of memory, and the return to isolation.

Letters and books serve as indirect, mediated forms of communication in “White Nights,” highlighting the distance between characters and their desires. Unlike face-to-face conversation, these written forms are controlled, delayed, and often ambiguous—symbolizing the difficulty of expressing true feelings and the risks of misunderstanding.

For Nastenka, books initially open a world beyond her grandmother’s house. They are passed down from the lodger as moral and romantic education, filtered through her grandmother’s wary approval. Later, when Nastenka writes a letter to the lodger, it becomes a vulnerable gesture—her attempt to bridge silence and uncertainty. The fact that no response comes deepens the theme of emotional disconnection.

The narrator, too, thrives on the written word. His long, ornate monologues read like internal letters never sent. In a world where both characters struggle to speak directly, letters and books reflect their craving for connection—and their fear of confronting it head-on.