By which way does F. Dostoevsky compel the reader to empathize with the characters of the novel “Poor people”?
Dostoevsky always had a different understanding of the image of the “little person” from Gogol or Pushkin, so the methods of creating this image look different too. Dostoevsky decided to write a novel in letters not by chance, but because he wanted to show, that the “little person” may also have a rich inner life (world). Through various self-descriptions of the characters, where they tell each other about their experiences and everyday life, Dostoevsky reveals their distinctive identities. For example, Makar in one of his letters argues, that it is not possible for a “little person” to achieve neither honor nor respect in social terms: “And everyone knows, my dear Varya that the poor man is worse than a rag and can’t get any respect from anyone, whatever you write! They, these scribblers, whatever you write!— anyway, the poor man will ever remain as he was."
Dostoevsky compels the reader to get a feeling for characters with the help of their dream, which, despite their position, has no material appearance, like, for example, in Gogol’s “Overcoat”. In Dostoevsky’s novels the identity in the “little person”, his ambitions are much larger, than the outwardly limiting him social and material situation. Devushkin has to put up with his social smallness, sincerely believing that “our positions in life are determined by the Almighty according to our human fates. To such a one He assigns a life in general’s epaulets, to another one – to serve as a privy councilor; for someone to command, but to someone resignedly and in fear of obeying.” Makar Alekseevich discusses about the consciousness of his right to personality: “that I’m not worse than others … that in my heart and thoughts I’m a man too” – this is the nature of the “little person” in the sense of the F. Dostoevsky understanding. For Devushkin loss of identity and self-respect is equal to physical death.
Finally, the most obvious expedient – it’s the tragic denouement of the novel: Varya is taken as a wife by the squire Bykov and takes her away to certain death, and Makar is being left alone with his grief.