(presumably)
Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov - the main character in the novel by Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment".
Encyclopedic YouTube
1 / 2
✪ #BusinessRiddle 04. ANSWER. The winners are Denis Kudinov and Rodion Raskolnikov.
✪ Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky 1 \\ 2, Crime and Punishment, a summary of the audio book listen
Subtitles
Raskolnikov in the novel
Raskolnikov is a former law student from St. Petersburg, who was forced to leave his studies at the university due to a lack of funds. Lives extremely poorly.
“He decided to kill an old woman, a titular counselor who gave money for interest.
The old woman is stupid, deaf, sick, greedy, takes huge interest, evil and seizes someone else's age, torturing her younger sister in her workers. "She's not good for anywhere", "what does she live for?", "Is she useful to anyone?" Etc. " ...
"It gives four times less than the thing is worth, and takes five or even seven percent per month, etc." ( ).
However, he does not dare to commit a crime until he receives a letter from his mother, which says about the upcoming marriage of his sister with a certain Mr. Luzhin. Realizing that the sister does not love her future husband, but sacrifices herself for the welfare of the family and, to a greater extent, for the sake of Raskolnikov himself, he deceived him into the old woman's apartment, killing and robbing her, simultaneously killing an accidental witness in the same apartment.
Having his theory that people are divided into ordinary people floating with the flow, and people like Napoleon, who are allowed to do anything, Raskolnikov prior to his murder reckons himself in the second category; however, after the murder, he discovers that he fully relates to the first.
Appearance
By the way, he was remarkably handsome, with beautiful dark eyes, dark Russian, taller than average, thin and slender ... He was so poorly dressed that another, even a familiar person, would be ashamed to go out in such rags during the day.
Prototypes
1. Gerasim Chistov.
The clerk, a schismatic of 27 years old, who killed with an ax in January 1865 in Moscow two old women (a cook and a washerwoman) with the aim of robbing their mistress, a bourgeois woman Dubrovina. Money, silver and gold things were stolen from the iron chest. The killed were found in different rooms in pools of blood (the newspaper "Golos", 1865, September 7-13).
2. A. T. Neofitov.
Moscow professor of general history, maternal relative of Dostoevsky's aunt, merchant AF Kumanina, and, along with Dostoevsky, one of her heirs. Neophytov was involved in the case of ticket counterfeiters of a 5% internal loan (compare the motive of instant enrichment in Raskolnikov's mind).
A French criminal for whom killing a person was the same as drinking a glass of wine; justifying his crimes, Lasener wrote poems and memoirs, proving in them that he was a "victim of society", an avenger, a fighter against social injustice in the name of a revolutionary idea allegedly prompted to him by the utopian socialists (an account of the Lasener trial of the 1830s on the pages of Dostoevsky's magazine "Time", 1861, No. 2).
Literary critics about the character
Historical prototypes of Raskolnikov
Mikhail Bakhtin, pointing to the historical roots of the image of Raskolnikov, noted that a significant correction must be made: we are talking more about the “prototypes of the images of ideas” of these individuals, rather than about themselves, and these ideas are transformed in public and individual consciousness according to the characteristic features of the Dostoevsky era.
In March 1865, the book of the French emperor Napoleon III "The Life of Julius Caesar" was published, where the right of a "strong personality" to violate any moral norms obligatory for ordinary people was upheld, "without stopping before blood." The book caused fierce controversy in Russian society and served as the ideological source of Raskolnikov's theory. The "Napoleonic" features of Raskolnikov's image undoubtedly bear traces of the influence of the image of Napoleon in the interpretation of Alexander Pushkin (a contradictory mixture of tragic greatness, genuine generosity and immeasurable selfishness, leading to fatal consequences and collapse - the poem "Napoleon", "Hero"), as , however, and the imprint of the epigone "Napoleonism" in Russia ("We all look at Napoleons" - "Eugene Onegin"). Compare the words of Raskolnikov, who secretly brought himself closer to Napoleon: “Suffering and pain are always obligatory for a wide consciousness and a deep heart. Truly great people, it seems to me, should feel great sadness in the world. " Compare also the provocatively ironic answer of Porfiry Petrovich "Who in Russia does not consider himself Napoleon now?" Zametov's remark also parodies the craze for "Napoleonism", which has become a vulgar "commonplace": "Could it be that Napoleon which future Alena Ivanovna killed with an ax last week?"
In the same vein as Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy solved the "Napoleonic" theme (the "Napoleonic" ambitions of Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov and their complete disappointment in "Napoleonism"). Dostoevsky undoubtedly took into account, in addition, the comic aspect of the image of Napoleon, captured by N.V. Gogol (Chichikov in profile is almost Napoleon). The idea of \u200b\u200ba "superman" was finally developed in M. Stirner's book "The One and His Property", which was in the Petrashevsky library (V. Semevsky) and served as another source of Raskolnikov's theory, for his article, analyzed by Porfiry Petrovich, was written "about one book ": it can be a book by Stirner (V. Kirpotin), Napoleon III (F. Evnin) or T. de Quincey's treatise" Murder as one of the fine arts "(A. Alekseev). Just as Mohammed in the cave of Khira experienced the torments of the birth of a new faith, Raskolnikov nurtures an "idea-passion" (in the words of Lieutenant Porokh, Raskolnikov - "ascetic, monk, hermit"), considers himself a prophet and herald of a "new word" The law of Mohammed, according to Raskolnikov, is the law of power: Mohammed Raskolnikov represents with a saber, he fires from a battery (“blowing into the right and the guilty”). Mohammed's expression about man as a "trembling creature" becomes the leitmotif of the novel and a kind of term in Raskolnikov's theory, dividing people into "ordinary" and "extraordinary": "Am I a trembling creature or do I have the right?"< …> Allah commands, and obey, "trembling" creature! " (Compare: "And I came with a banner from your Lord. Fear Allah and obey me" - Cor., 2,44,50). Compare also A. Pushkin: “Love the orphans, and my Koran // Preach to the trembling creature” (V. Borisova). For Dostoevsky, Christ and Mohammed are antipodes, and Raskolnikov fell away from God, as Sonia Marmeladova says: "You departed from God, and God struck you, betrayed the devil!"
Raskolnikov's literary predecessors
- Biblical Job (V. Etov). Similarly, Job, Raskolnikov, in a state of crisis, solves the "last" issues, revolts against the unjust world order. In the epilogue of the novel, Dostoevsky meant that Raskolnikov, like Job, would find God.
- Corsair, Lara, Manfred - rebel heroes of Lord Byron.
- Jean Sbogard is the hero of the novel of the same name by C. Nodier, a noble robber and individualist.
- A leap from the novel by Georges Sand, a pirate who acquired wealth and fame at the cost of crime.
- Rastignac O. Balzac.
- Julien Sorel from Stendhal's novel Red and Black.
- Medard is the hero of Hoffmann's novel Elixirs of Satan.
- Faust is the hero of Goethe's tragedy.
- Hamlet is the main character in Shakespeare's tragedy.
- Franz and Karl von Moor are the characters of one of the favorite works of F. M. Dostoevsky in F. Schiller's drama "The Robbers".
The ethical problematic of the novel is especially closely connected with the image of the latter: Karl Moor and Raskolnikov equally drive themselves into a moral dead end. "Karl Moor, - wrote
He describes it as follows: “Gloomy, gloomy, arrogant and proud; recently, and, perhaps, much earlier, hypochondriac is suspicious. Generous and kind. He does not like to express his feelings and would rather do cruelty than express his heart with words ... Terribly sometimes he is not talkative! He has no time for everything, everything interferes with him, but he himself lies, does nothing. He is never interested in what everyone is interested in at the moment. He values \u200b\u200bhimself terribly and, it seems, not without some right to do so. "
Crime and Punishment. Feature Film 1969 Episode 1
In some scenes of "Crime and Punishment" (see its summary), the reader sees how, behind this crust of dryness and pride, created from insults, humiliation and life bitterness, sometimes a tender and loving heart opens up. Raskolnikov is drawn mainly to the "humiliated and insulted." He draws closer to the unfortunate Marmeladov, listens to the whole life story of his long-suffering family, goes to their home, and gives them the last money. He picks up the horse who found himself under his feet on the pavement Marmeladov, takes care of him, and Raskolnikov is pleased with the childish enthusiastic gratitude of his little sister Sonya who hugged him.
It is these impressions that fill him with a joyful sense of life: “He was full of a new immense sensation of a suddenly rushing full and powerful life. This sensation could be like that of someone on death row who is suddenly and unexpectedly pardoned. "Enough," he said resolutely and solemnly, "away from mirages, away from feigned fears, away from ghosts ... There is life! Didn't I live now!"
A moment of love, pity, compassion, a feeling of spiritual closeness to people, universal brotherhood, gives him the feeling of a full and joyful life. Thus, the properties of Raskolnikov's mental nature are in complete contradiction with his theory, with his provisions. Dostoevsky shows how, in spite of all his views, Raskolnikov possessed a tender, impressionable and painfully sensitive soul to human suffering. He suffers from all the nightmares of city life, he evokes a gentle and trusting attitude of children towards himself, in his past he experienced a love story for a humpback girl whom he wanted to brighten up his life, so that the further turning point in Raskolnikov's life is sufficiently explained by these features of his personality ...
The protagonist of the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" (1866).
Raskolnikov's characteristic
Rodion Raskolnikov is an erudite young man of 23 years old, whose soul is in constant search. He is not sure exactly who he is in the structure of his own theory of the division of human mass into two main types: "Inferior people" and "The people themselves".
In the first category, Raskolnikov classifies "trembling creatures" or "material" - law-abiding, conservative, ordinary people. In the second, there are outstanding, worthy people who move the world, even having the right to violate the laws of ethics and morality.
The hero hopes that he is destined to be among the “chosen ones”. But he is worried about his own indecision in making decisions that infringe on the norms of morality. In fact, behind the gloomy, arrogant and proud melancholic lies the second "I" of Raskolnikov - a sensitive, generous, kind person who loves his family and does not want anyone to suffer. Having gone to a bloody crime, Raskolnikov sought to prove to himself that he himself belongs to the second type of people, and special accomplishments await him ahead. However, the result disappointed the theoretical killer, remorse led him to the conclusion that he was deeply mistaken.
Role in the plot of the novel
Three years ago, Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, born into a poor but proud family, came from a deep province to St. Petersburg to study at a law university. A dark-eyed brown-haired man, above average height, slender in figure and pleasant in appearance, went out into the streets of Petersburg in terrible rags and in a hat that was badly worn out with spots and holes. The hero was on the verge of poverty and could no longer pay for his studies and living in the big city.
This unpleasant fact pushed him to commit a heinous crime. Several times Rodion applied for loans to Alena Ivanovna, a stingy and unpleasant grandmother who profited from desperate situations of people in serious need. The student killed an old woman with an ax, who was giving out money with interest and bail, and her quiet sister Lisa, who accidentally witnessed the incident. An innocent person was detained for the crime he committed.
The investigator guesses about Raskolnikov's involvement, but there is no evidence - if you do not take into account "Raskolnikov's theory" and his ambiguous, nervous, depressive behavior. Rodion meets the Marmeladov family and unexpectedly finds sympathy in the person of Sonechka, who sacrificing her honor, earns on the panel to feed her half-brothers and sisters. He is oppressed by the global difference between the motives of his crime and that of the poor girl. The state of spiritual split is growing every day.
Unable to reconcile with himself, Raskolnikov quarrels with his mother and sister, with his only friend, refuses Sonechka's sympathy and, in the end, confesses to the police. After the trial, the hero will face hard labor and exile. Together with him, of his own free will, Sonya Marmeladova, who sympathizes with him, goes to serve his sentence. Next to her, Raskolnikov will find happiness and truly repent of his sins.
Raskolnikov's quotes
- Suffering and pain are always obligatory for a wide consciousness and a deep heart. Truly great people, it seems to me, should feel great sadness in the world.
- He is an intelligent man, but to act intelligently - one mind is not enough.
- Will I be able to overstep or not! Do I dare to bend over and take it or not? Am I a trembling creature or have the right!
- A scoundrel man gets used to everything!
“… I talk too much. That’s why I don’t do anything because I talk. Perhaps, however, and so: because I chatter because I do nothing.
- Everything is in the hands of a man, and he carries everything past his nose, solely from cowardice. this is an axiom. Curious what people are more afraid of? They are most afraid of a new step, a new word of their own.
- Power is given only to those who dare to bend over and take it. There is only one thing, one thing: you just have to dare!
- The more cunning a person is, the less he suspects that he will be knocked down on a simple one. The most cunning person should be shot down on the simplest one.
- Little things, little things are the main thing. These little things always ruin everything.
- And now I know, Sonya, that whoever is strong and strong in mind and spirit is the master over them! Whoever dares much is right with them. Whoever can spit on more is their legislator, and whoever can dare more than anyone else is more right than everyone else! This is how it has been and always will be!
- I didn’t kill the old woman, I killed myself!
- If it fails, everything seems silly!
- The matter is clear: for himself, for his comfort, even to save himself from death, he will not sell himself, but for another he is selling! For a dear, for an adored person will sell!
- Bread and salt together, and tobacco apart.
- In a word, I deduce that everyone, not just great people, but also a little out of tune people, that is, a little even able to say something new, must, by their nature, be by all means criminals, - more or less, of course.
Characteristics of the hero Raskolnikov, Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky. Raskolnikov character image
Characteristics of the hero Raskolnikov
Raskolnikov appears in the novel as a young man who is not satisfied with either his life situation or who he is. And he wants, no more, no less, to become a "superman". In his theory, he divided all people into two classes: reptiles "trembling creatures" and actually people - "having the right". People from the first of these classes serve only as material for self-reproduction and their role in this life is insignificant, and world progress is driven by representatives of the class "entitled to" who, in order to achieve their goals, can transgress any laws.
Rodion wants to think that he, after all, belongs to the category of "higher people". But this can only be verified empirically - through the commission of a specific act. Just in mind there is such, as it seems to him, an "insect man" - the old woman-pawnbroker Alena Ivanovna, who does nothing good, but only rob the poor. There is also a higher goal for which you can sacrifice an old woman - I mean helping the unfortunate family of Semyon Zakharovich Marmeladov.
Thinking over the murder of Alena Ivanovna, Raskolnikov constantly reflects on the loyalty of his theory and even almost abandons it. But the whirlwind, which he swirled inside himself, nevertheless draws in the main character, and he kills the old woman and her innocent sister.
The crime has been committed, but Rodion's torment only intensifies. He begins to understand that he is no "superman", since he is able to worry so much about only one murder. Communication with such characters as Luzhin and, especially, Svidrigailov, lead him to the conclusion that the path he has chosen leads nowhere, and the world is ruled by love and humility. For this, he must thank Sonya, who did not leave him and went with him to Siberia.
The image and characteristics of Rodion Raskolnikov in the novel "Crime and Punishment"
F. M. Dostoevsky he lived and worked in an era when dissatisfaction with the existing order was growing in the country, and the writer in his works showed people who are trying to protest against the reigning evil. Such is Rodion Raskolnikov, the main character of the novel Crime and Punishment. The terrible poverty plunges Raskolnikov into despair, he well understands that the wolfish customs of the possessive system reign around him, he is outraged to the depths of his soul by the heartlessness and cruelty of the rich.
Embittered by his impotence to help people, Raskolnikov decides on a crime - the murder of an old woman-lender who profits from human suffering. “Raskolnikov sees and feels in himself how people take advantage of the sufferings of their neighbors, how skillfully and diligently, how carefully and safely they suck the last juices from the poor man, exhausted in an unbearable struggle for a miserable and stupid existence,” - this is how critic D. I. Pisarev emphasized the social meaning of Raskolnikov's behavior, the main protesting, anti-capitalist pathos of the novel.
But the hero does not become a fighter for a better future. Familiar with revolutionary ideas only by hearsay, he does not believe that a just structure of society is possible. “People will not change, and no one will remake them, and labor is not worth spending. This is how it was done and it will always be so! " - Raskolnikov declares bitterly. But the proud hero does not want to come to terms with the cruel fate of the strong-willed and proud hero. Imagining himself as an extraordinary, outstanding person, a man who is allowed everything, even a crime, Raskolnikov decides to kill and rob a rich old woman-usurer. After long and painful hesitation, he carries out his terrible intention. The hero goes through mental anguish: he is haunted by terrible memories of spilled blood, fear of exposure and punishment, and most importantly, a feeling of hopeless loneliness and senselessness of the crime he has committed.
Depicting despair and the mental anguish of his hero, Dostoevsky strove to convince his readers that such a struggle against injustice not only does not improve life, but, on the contrary, makes it even darker and more terrible. The punishment begins even before the crime, the thought of which burns and torments Raskolnikov: “No, I cannot bear it, I won’t bear it! Let, even if there is no doubt about all these calculations. »The punishment is aggravated at the moment of the crime. The hero feels that the greedy old woman-pawnbroker is still a human being, and it is unbearably scary and disgusting to put an ax on her head. Lizaveta is a helpless child frightened to a numbness: "She only slightly raised her free left hand, far from her face, and slowly stretched it forward to him, as if pushing him away."
Punishment is not reduced to a court sentence, it is enclosed in moral torture, which for the hero of the novel is more painful than even prison and hard labor. The pangs of conscience, the chilling fear that haunts Raskolnikov at every step, the consciousness of the meaninglessness of the perfect atrocity, the consciousness of its insignificance, the inability to become a "master", the understanding of the inconsistency of one's theory - all this falls with the hardest oppression on the soul of the criminal. Raskolnikov suffers, feels fear, despair, alienation from all people. The false path chosen by the hero of the novel leads not to the elevation of his personality, but to moral torture, to spiritual death. Having committed the murder, Raskolnikov put himself in an unnatural relationship with the people around him. He is forced to constantly deceive himself and others at every step, and this lie devastates the hero's soul. By the crime Raskolnikov cut himself off from people, but the living nature of the hero, contrary to the convictions and arguments of reason, constantly pulls him to people, he seeks communication with them, tries to return the lost emotional ties.
The desire to somehow fill the spiritual vacuum begins to take on Raskolnikov's painful, perverted forms, reminiscent of a craving for self-torture. The hero is drawn to the old woman's house, and he goes there, once again listens to how he responds with a painful, but still a living feeling in his withered soul, the ringing of a bell, which at the moment of the crime deeply shook him.
Feeling of crime generates a catastrophic disproportion in the hero's relationship with other people, this also applies to Raskolnikov's inner world: he has a painful feeling of suspicion of himself, there is a constant reflection, endless doubts, hence the hero's strange craving for the investigator Porfiry Petrovich. In the "duel" with Raskolnikov, Tsorfiry acts as an imaginary antagonist: a dispute with an investigator is a reflection and sometimes a direct expression of Raskolnikov's dispute with himself. Raskolnikov with a heart instinct does not accept an idea that continues to maintain power over his mind. Raskolnikov is lost in himself, Porfiry's busy chatter irritates, alarms, excites the hero, and this is enough for him not to "psychologically run away" from the investigator. Raskolnikov tries in vain to rationally control his behavior, to “calculate” himself.
The hero keeps in itself the secret of crime and cannot be saved from lies. An hour before his appearance in the police, Raskolnikov said to Duna: “A crime? What a crime. I don’t think about it and I don’t think about washing it off ”. He tries to speak “naturally” with the investigator under conditions that exclude such naturalness, but “nature” is more cunning than calculation and gives itself away. Raskolnikov is let down by an inner sense of her crime. He decides to tell his terrible, painful secret to Sonechka Marmeladova. In his soul, a desire to confess is growing for not entirely clear, subconscious motives: Raskolnikov can no longer hold in himself a painful sense of crime.
In the face of Sonya, he meets a man who is awakening in himself and whom he still pursues as a weak and helpless "trembling creature": “He suddenly raised his head and gazed at her intently; but he met her anxious and painfully solicitous gaze on him; there was love; his hatred disappeared like a ghost. " "Nature" demanded from the hero that he share with Sonechka the sufferings of his crime, and not the manifestation that caused it, Raskolnikov's Christian-compassionate Sonechkin love calls for this version of recognition.
Dostoevsky wrotethat Raskolnikov, contrary to his convictions, preferred “at least to die in hard labor, but to join people again: a feeling of openness and disconnection from humanity. tortured him. " But even in hard labor, Raskolnikov did not consider himself guilty of murder: "He judged himself severely, and a fierce conscience did not find any particularly terrible guilt in his past, except perhaps a mistake that could happen to anyone." Raskolnikov was spiritually dead: "I did not kill the old woman, I killed myself." The real meaning of the Gospel story of the resurrection of Lazarus is revealed to Raskolnikov only when his own soul is resurrected to a new life, when he repents and realizes that his whole life "was some kind of external, strange, as if not even happened to him, fact." And this was not his life, because he is different now - renewed, able to love and open his heart to people and God.
Need to download an essay? Press and save - "The image and characteristics of Rodion Raskolnikov in the novel" Crime and Punishment ". And the finished essay appeared in the bookmarks.
www.studbirga.info
Characteristics of Raskolnikov in the novel "Crime and Punishment"
In this article we will consider and discuss the characteristics of Raskolnikov - the main character of the novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment". In general, a novel can teach the importance of exercising discretion, being open to forgiveness, and showing true love. It took Dostoevsky about six years to ponder the plot and main ideas of the novel, so the book is certainly deep and worth reading if you haven't already.
Immediately, we note that on our website you can get acquainted not only with the characteristics of Raskolnikov, but also read a summary of "Crime and Punishment", as well as an analysis of the novel.
So, the events mainly revolve around a few of the entire characters, that is, there are not so many of them for such a serious work. The main character is Raskolnikov Rodion Romanovich, who killed the old usher Alena Ivanovna. He also kills her sister Lizaveta.
Description and appearance of Raskolnikov
Already in the first chapter, the reader gets to know the main character. This is a young man, his general condition can be called painful and mixed. He is gloomy, thinks about something all the time and is closed in himself. Rodion Raskolnikov abandoned his studies at the university, where he studied to be a lawyer, and now lives in a meager environment, in a small, pitiful room. His clothes are already worn out, and he has no money to buy new things, however, as well as to pay debts for an apartment and study.
We see how the characterization of Raskolnikov is more clearly revealed in the novel "Crime and Punishment" when we study his portrait. The hero has quite a good appearance, beautiful dark eyes, dark blond hair, he has a slender physique, and his height is average, or slightly taller.
The character and personality of Raskolnikov are as follows: the young man is smart enough, educated, but at the same time proud and tries to be independent. The fact that he found himself in such a humiliating financial situation affects his mood, he walks gloomy and looks at everyone from under his brows. Raskolnikov does not want to communicate with those around him, and he considers it a shame and humiliation to accept help even from close people, such as Dmitry Razumikhin (his friend) or an elderly mother.
What is Raskolnikov's idea
Proud of himself, with sick self-esteem, and at the same time a beggar, the main character Raskolnikov, whose characteristics we are studying, nurtures an idea. It lies in the fact that people are all divided into two groups: ordinary and having the right. Raskolnikov reflects on what his purpose is and prepares a crime. Having killed the old woman, the hero will understand whether his idea is correct and whether a new life will begin, and he will somehow make society happy.
Life shows that everything is wrong. Raskolnikov did not manage to rob the apartment - he did not force himself to take the stolen goods for his own needs, but at the same time, Raskolnikov's characterization is overshadowed by two murders - an old money-lender and a wretched Lizaveta. He becomes disgusted with himself, and now he begins to understand - there was no need to imagine himself as Napoleon and perform a feat. Now the moral line has been crossed, he has become a murderer. Raskolnikov cannot communicate with people, and practically goes crazy.
Punishment and Dostoevsky's Idea
Raskolnikov's close people try to help the young man get rid of his oppressive state and provide support, but the young man's pride does not allow him to accept help. As a result, he finds himself alone.
He begins to take part in the fates of other, unfamiliar people. This can be seen in the example of the Marmeladovs. However, nobility leads to irritation, annoyance and longing.
Although we briefly examined the characterization of Raskolnikov in the novel "Crime and Punishment", the question arises, what is the main idea that the author of the novel wanted to convey to the readers? The hero is punished instantly, right after he commits a murder. He is painfully tormented by doubts, conscience and other oppressive feelings. After breaking up with family and friends, he is on the verge of insanity, and this is a hundred times worse than the long years spent in hard labor. Fyodor Dostoevsky tries to give a warning to his readers so that they do not be mistaken and do not act recklessly. The main thing that should be in a person's life is high morality, genuine faith in God and a manifestation of love for others.
This article presented the characterization of Raskolnikov in the novel "Crime and Punishment". You may be interested in more articles
Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov leaves the university, he does not want to become a family teacher, conversations with his only friend Razumikhin weigh him down, he is imprisoned in his room with a low ceiling. Going out into the street, he tries to avoid meeting the housewife, he tries to go down the stairs unnoticed. The company of other people annoys him. Walking the streets, he tries not to see people coming across to him.
Raskolnikov is ill with cruel misanthropy. Raskolnikov's desire to communicate normally with people is completely overshadowed by this misanthropy. This person, who is so disliked by reality, runs away from it and plunges into fantasy. He is overwhelmed by misanthropy in his heart. Compared with the reality of the present, his illusory reality is more convincing, and it is she who controls his actions. After all, it was not that he burned with a meaningful desire to commit murder, no, at first this murder appeared to him in his fantasies. And this fantasy filled his imagination so much that he could no longer stop himself.
When Raskolnikov in the novel "Crime and Punishment" on the eve of the crime goes "on trial" to the old woman-pawnbroker, he, looking around the room, thinks: "And then, therefore, the sun will shine in the same way!" In fact, at this time he still has doubts about whether he will commit murder, but he speaks of it as if he had already committed it. When he actually commits murder, he is in a lunatic state and, in essence, does not remember himself. When he brings up the ax, his actions are driven by fantasy. We can say that his reality is his fantasies. After the murder, fear takes possession of him, but he feels that this murder was not committed by him, but by someone else.
Murder is the main event of the novel, around which the plot is built. But for Raskolnikov himself, it is not decisive, because he himself is in a solid shell of his fantasies, which do not give him the opportunity to realize that he has lost the ability to communicate with the outside world. The realization that he committed murder with his own hands does not become the source of his suffering and torment. Having gone to Siberian exile, at first he thinks of the "murderer" as a completely outsider and does not feel remorse. His feelings - repentance, joy, sadness - have nothing to do with reality, they are autonomous - and this is the main problem of the hero.
Both Golyadkin from "The Double" and Ordynov from "The Mistress" are also loners who are captive to their fantasies, but, unlike them, Raskolnikov in the novel "Crime and Punishment" has an idea of \u200b\u200b"justice" - even if this is the justice of his fantasies. He believes that humanity is an overwhelming minority that is allowed everything, and the majority is material for the minority, and therefore a person belonging to the “minority” has the right to violate the norms of the “majority”, and this is “fair”. On this point, Raskolnikov, to a certain extent, agrees with Stavrogin, who preaches Russian messianism and the idea of \u200b\u200ba God-man.
In real life, we often come across this type of loner, whose perception and character are different from others, who is not capable of empathy and perceives life in dark colors. As a defense against feelings of disharmony, such a person tries to eliminate his suffering at the expense of some "correct" theory, which supposedly defends some kind of "justice". In psychiatry, this phenomenon is well known: a person is firmly attached to some idea and uses it for his own defense and justification.
Raskolnikov is very eloquent in his monologue substantiation of his "justice". Asserting the right of the strong to protest against the established order, he even more asserts the properties of his nature, suffering from misanthropic irritation and sorrowful discord with the world. Paradoxically, Raskolnikov's idea of \u200b\u200bjustice, which further enhances his loneliness, attracts him to contacts with other people. He is forced to constantly present evidence of the truth of his "justice". His ideas, which serve as a shield for self-defense, support him, but at the same time they are also a weapon for offensive and aggression directed against others.
What prevents people from killing? Commandment "Thou shalt not kill." Therefore, you should trample it. You shouldn't give a damn about her. If you do this, you will be a hero, you will prove your "justice". So I, maybe, will be able to prove my strength. Raskolnikov explains to Sonya his motives in this way: I wanted to prove my heroism and therefore killed.
And before this novel, Dostoevsky repeatedly brought singles onto the stage. These characters wanted to find a friend and be saved, destroying the wall of their loneliness, but the matter began and ended in suffering in the "underground", from which they could not get out. And if Golyadkin managed to get out of him, he immediately ended up in a psychiatric hospital. As for Raskolnikov in the novel "Crime and Punishment", he, waving the ax of his "justice", pounces with him on completely strangers. Incapable of empathy, this lonely man makes contact with the world as a criminal through gruesome murder.
"Crime and Punishment" is Dostoevsky's first truly "criminal" work.
An ordinary person who has managed to overcome his internal problems is unlikely to want to re-examine the complex of aggressiveness that Raskolnikov uses for self-defense. The "justice" that a suffering young man speaks of is very often an expression of utter selfishness. And an adult is unlikely to want to look at it again.
But Dostoevsky does not turn his gaze away from tragedy - that terrible and convulsive self-defense that Raskolnikov chose. He explores not only his psychology and inner world, not only his tormenting discord with the world, which leads to murder. Dostoevsky describes in detail Raskolnikov's bodily reflexes and his physiology. It can be said that the never-before seen picturesqueness of the description of a young man struck by a crisis is achieved precisely through the depiction of his bodily behavior.
"In early July, in an extremely hot time ..." - this is how the novel begins - with a description of a sultry summer evening. The uncertain gait of Raskolnikov, who does not want to return to his closet, his disgust at the stench surrounding him, his strange joy that he experiences from the prophetic words he overheard on the evening Petersburg streets, the weight of the ax that outweighs his will ... All these sensations are written down with detail and reliability.
The bitter horror of Raskolnikov, who committed the murder, is transmitted to the reader. Having become a murderer, Raskolnikov does not lose his ideas about "justice", but he also cannot get rid of fear. Disobedient hands, chills, from which "teeth almost jumped out," trembling in the knees, constrained breathing, heat throughout the body, tension and pain to pain ... Dostoevsky mercilessly presents the reader with the bodily and physiological details of his hero's behavior.
The power of the influence on the reader of "Crime and Punishment" lies in the consistent description of the smallest changes in the mood, perception, nervous and bodily state of this young man, living in the world of his fantasies.
From the very beginning of his creative activity, Dostoevsky described the life of loners who do not know how to build relationships with others. These are Golyadkin and Ordynov, these are the main characters, on whose behalf the narration of "White Nights" and "Notes from the Underground" is conducted. All of them are incapable of normal and balanced communication and are restless people. Because of this, no one takes them for their own, and they while away their days alone. Describing their loneliness and suffering, Dostoevsky called them "stillborn."
According to Dostoevsky, such “stillborn” are deprived of inner harmony, they are “wounded,” and irritation, discontent, and pain constantly ooze from this wound. And although this type passionately dreams of getting rid of disharmony, finding a sense of fusion and peace in relations with other people and with nature, and reviving a sense of belonging, but he lacks concern for others and spiritual gentleness. Society weighs on them, they feel themselves in a trap from which they want to escape. This is this morbid type. His soul is split: he wants sympathy and belonging, but he himself rebelles against them.
Raskolnikov belongs to the same "split" type of extreme loner. His closet under the very roof of the house is the most suitable place to not see anyone. Yet his fantasies about "justice" do not completely poison him. In his soul there is a dream to escape from his terrible confinement. On the street, he tries to rescue a girl from the clutches of a lecher. He, having met on the stairs in the house of Marmeladov, Sonya's half-sister, Polechka, asks her to pray for herself. When Marmeladov, drunk in the smoke, falls under the carriage, Raskolnikov immediately comes to his aid, recognizing his acquaintance in Marmeladov. That is, in Raskolnikov there is still a deeply hidden sympathy and desire for life. He wants to lend a helping hand, he wants such a hand extended to him. When Porfiry asks him if he believes in a "new Jerusalem", where all people will be like brothers, Raskolnikov answers in the affirmative without the slightest hesitation. This is the manifestation of his deeply hidden dream of mutual sympathy and help. Just like the hero of Notes from the Underground, he splits in two: he wants to be different from everyone else, but he also wants to feel the warmth of human hands.
Raskolnikov's friend, Razumikhin, sees well his duality. Razumikhin characterizes Raskolnikov as follows: he is a good man by nature, but he also has a coldness that does not allow him to take care of others. "Precisely in him, two opposite characters alternate."
Dostoevsky himself does not discuss with us the question of how correct Raskolnikov's ideas about "justice" are. Of course, Dostoevsky knows everything about the "philosophy of the stillborn," and Porfiry ridicules the philosopher Raskolnikov. It was important for Dostoevsky to describe how his hero, this lonely dreamer, is reborn for sympathy, how he frees himself from the captivity of fantasy and returns to life.
In order to show how Raskolnikov is restoring connections with the world, the author brings the prostitute Sonya, a man full of human feelings, onto the stage. It is difficult for other characters (and Raskolnikov's mother too) to say what state he is in now, but Sonya clearly sees his torment stemming from his discord with nature and people. Sonya is an uneducated person, and she has no thoughts to debunk Raskolnikov's theories of justice. But she pity him and takes his suffering to heart. When Raskolnikov from Crime and Punishment decides whether to confess to him, she tacitly compels him to do so. When he goes to exile in Siberia, she resignedly follows him. There is no cure for the ailment that Raskolnikov suffers from, all that remains is to be around and wait - Sonya and Dostoevsky know about this.
And in the epilogue of the novel, we see how Raskolnikov gets rid of his hardheartedness. For the reader, this epilogue may seem unexpected. Dostoevsky wanted to say that in Raskolnikov - this young man who was held captive by his thought constructs - human feelings have finally awakened. And now he was reborn for a living life, where there is a place to rejoice and grieve with other people.
