The article examines the ambiguity of the motives of light and darkness and their significance in F.M. Dostoevsky’s novel Netochka Nezvanova. These motives permeate the whole text, changing from the first part to the third part (conventionally). At the beginning, the motives appear rarely and in its concreteness, then gradually acquiring a metaphorical meaning. In the second part there is a struggle between light and darkness, while in the third part they are the means Dostoevsky uses to create the portraits of Alexandra Mikhailovna’s family members.