Give Me Back the Fifteen
The first visit to Epanchin is a model the rest of the book will fail to reuse on Myshkin's own behalf. He names his limits: no errand, no money, no scheme. He does not weaponize the naming. Directness here is a boundary that still looks like courtesy. He can tell the truth about himself to a powerful man. He will not be able to tell the truth about his own need to the people who extract him.
Key Insight
The skills of a compassionate limit are not mystical. They appear in Myshkin when he is the visitor. They vanish when he is the resource. Capacity that only points outward is not a boundary. It is a one-way valve.
“Oh, I have no special business; my principal object was to make your acquaintance.”Full analysis
