Prince Myshkin is the protagonist of the novel and, by his own admission, an “idiot.” Myshkin is from an old aristocratic family which has fallen on hard times. Though he is distantly related to Madame Epanchin, he is the last of his line. He represents a form of finality for a family dynasty, an end point which marks the move from the old aristocratic world into something different and more modern. Myshkin is a full stop at the end of a long-running story, which adds an extra degree of urgency to his marriage proposals but one which does not seem to concern Myshkin himself. The need to continue the family bloodline is entirely absent from Myshkin's thinking.

Though he moves through the elite of Saint Petersburg, in which ancient family names are treated with respect and newly wealthy people are treated with suspicion, he views himself as a flawed, broken person. He does not fit into the society he inhabits in a physical or psychological sense. In a physical sense, Myshkin is aware of his own limitations. He suffers from epilepsy, and this alone makes him a flawed prospect for marriage in society’s eyes; people worry that he may pass on his sickness to the next generation.