"A Gentle Creature" is a 1876 short story by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Inspired by a real story of a seamstress who committed suicide in 1876, it chronicles the relationship between a girl and a pawnbroker whose shop she visits frequently. When a 16-year-old girl frequently pawns her belongings so that she can advertise as a governess in the newspaper, her dire financial situation is made apparent to the shop owner and narrator, who resolves to give her as much as he can for the things she brings. After some investigating, our narrator learns that she answers to two greedy aunts who have arranged a marriage for her that promises to be abusive. In an attempt to save her from that fate, he himself proposes to the young woman, who accepts. However, perhaps things would have gone better if he had ne