Emotions are an integral part of man. We experience a lot of emotions every day, sometimes we are aware of them, and sometimes we are not sure what is the cause. We feel emotions individually, but we are also able to sympathize with the emotions of another person. In this thesis there will be a lot of talk about emotions, theoretical part will explain some basic types of emotions and the process of experiencing itself. Besides that, this work also contains a research part that is also related to emotions. This thesis will explore students ability to compassion, more precisely, their ability to properly perceive emotions during reading. For the purpose of this thesis, an empirical research was made and conducted in the form of survey, and for the content of the survey was chosen a novel by one of the most influental writers of the 20th century Miroslav Krleža „Povratak Filipa Latinovicza“ („The return of Filip Latinovicz“). Krleža was influenced by many other artists, philosophers, painters and psychologists, some of them such as Freud, Munch, Picasso, Nietzsche and Michelangelo. Considering that one of the issues that is highlighted in this novel is precisely the issue of identity, and the students who completed the survey are graduating students who are on the turning point in their life, we could say that they are searching for their own identity, therefore a link is found and possible identification with the main character Filip. Given that this work interweaves literature and emotions, their role and recognition, one might say that there is a certain influence of emotions on identity construction. Thus, D. Piskač points out that from literature something can be learned or even solved a personal problem. He says that literary bibliotherapy can lead to an understanding of the emotional life of the characters, but also of their own. Precisely for this reason it seemed appropriate to try to find the answers on the example ot this novel.