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The main character of the novel F.M. Dostoevsky is a student of Rodion Raskolnikov. It is through the story of the fate of this character that the writer tries to convey his thoughts to the reader.
The whole work is, in fact, an exposure of the first near-Nietzschean ideas that gained some popularity at the end of the 19th century. It is no coincidence that the hero comes from a student environment, most of all subject to the most diverse trends and unrest.
Rodion is an attractive, smart, but extremely poor young man, he lives in a shabby apartment and cannot continue his studies. The idea of the superiority of some people over others takes root in the head of the hero. He, of course, refers himself to the highest category, and considers the rest to be a useless gray mass. Following his own logic, the Nietzschean theorist decides to kill the vile old woman in order to use her money for good deeds.
However, Dostoevsky immediately shows the hero's struggle with himself. Raskolnikov constantly doubts, then abandoning this idea, then returning to it again. He sees a dream in which, as a child, he cries over a downtrodden horse, and understands that he cannot kill a person, but when he accidentally hears that the old woman will be at home alone, he nevertheless decides to commit a crime. Our hero has developed an impeccable plan, but everything ends with a real massacre: he kills not only Alena Ivanovna, but also her pregnant sister, and runs away in a panic, taking with him only a handful of jewelry. Raskolnikov is not a villain or a madman, but lack of money, illness and hopelessness drive him to despair.
Having committed a crime, Rodion loses his peace. His illness worsens, he is bedridden and suffers from nightmares in which he relives what happened again and again. The ever-increasing fear of exposure torments him, and from within the hero is tormented by conscience, although he himself does not admit it. Another feeling that became an integral part of Raskolnikov was loneliness. Crossing the law and morality, he separated himself from other people, even his best friend Razumikhin, his sister Dunya and mother Pulcheria become alien and incomprehensible to him. He sees his last hope in the prostitute Sonya Marmeladova, who, in his opinion, has also crossed the law and morality, and therefore can understand the killer. Perhaps he was hoping for an acquittal, but Sonya urges him to repent and accept the punishment.
In the end, Raskolnikov is disappointed in himself and surrenders to the police. However, Rodion still continues to believe in his theory of "they have the right" and "trembling creatures." Only in the epilogue does he realize the meaninglessness and cruelty of this idea, and, having renounced it, the hero embarks on the path of spiritual rebirth.
It is through the image of Raskolnikov that Dostoevsky overthrows egocentrism and Bonapartism, and elevates Christianity and philanthropy.
Interesting? Save it on your wall!The novel "Crime and Punishment" was written by F. M. Dostoevsky in 1866. The writer spent 2 years at work, although the idea came to him much earlier, when he was serving a term in hard labor. As a result, the work became incredibly famous and was translated into many languages. The main character, Rodion Raskolnikov, is a complex and multifaceted character. This article is devoted to his portrait characteristics.
The plot of the novel
The life story of the main character at the age of 23 is very sad. Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov is a poor law student. The author describes him as a tall brunette with a handsome face: "...he was remarkably good-looking, with beautiful dark eyes, taller than average, thin and slender ..."
The main character barely makes ends meet, living in a small room. He has nothing to eat, nothing to pay for an apartment and pay for his studies. He considers help from his mother and a friend at the university to be humiliating. All these circumstances torment him, drive him to despair. Rodion decides to take a desperate step: he is going to kill the old pawnbroker Alena Ivanovna, whom he considers "subhuman."
As a result, events do not develop at all as the poor student expected. Having hacked an old woman with an ax, for whom he did not feel sympathy, and believed that by doing such an act, he would make the world cleaner, he also kills Lizaveta, the younger, innocent sister of an elderly woman.
There were no witnesses to the crime, however, the investigator Porfiry Petrovich suspects Raskolnikov of the murder because of his note in the article about "extraordinary people" and "ordinary people", where the former are allowed much more than the latter.
Acquaintance with the Marmeladov family, namely Sonya Marmeladova, changes the life of the protagonist of the novel. A young girl forced into prostitution saves his soul, fills it with faith, and without a shadow of a doubt follows him to hard labor.
The image of Raskolnikov
From the first pages of the novel, it becomes clear that Rodion Raskolnikov is a gloomy, proud man who does not accept self-pity. He never accepts help from his university friend Razumikhin. He also accepts money from his mother with great difficulty.
The character is like two people. One is a gloomy melancholic who keeps away from people, the other is generous and kind, able to sacrifice himself for the sake of loved ones.
The article “On Crime”, which the hero sends to one of the St. Petersburg newspapers, can tell a lot about the portrait of Rodion Raskolnikov. The article says that all people can be divided into two types: people created to move this world, the so-called "Napoleons", and ordinary people, that is, "material". "Napoleons" are allowed to do much more than "ordinary people", they are allowed to commit crimes and break laws. It was to such people that Raskolnikov tried to reckon himself when he was plotting a murder, but in the end he did not receive satisfaction from what he had done.
Talking surname Raskolnikov
According to literary critics, F. M. Dostoevsky does not just endow the protagonist of the work “Crime and Punishment” with the surname Raskolnikov. Mentioning that the family has been known for 200 years, he makes a reference to the schismatics. Schismatics are those who, without rejecting the mainstream and its principles, separate from it, but at the same time do not reject it.
Like schismatics, the protagonist rejects the laws of morality and morality accepted in society, justifying his actions with great goals. The perfect crime finally split his soul, separated him from friends, relatives and society. The only person who can revive him is Sonya Marmeladova, a sinful girl who became a saint for Rodion and gave faith in the future.
Also, the character's last name may indicate that two people coexist inside him - a sociophobe who prefers to communicate with people as little as possible, and a generous person with a big heart.
This article will help students write an essay on the topic "Raskolnikov". The work reveals the image of the protagonist of the novel, his biography, relationships with people around him.
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Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov is the main character in Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment.
Raskolnikov is the son of Pulcheria Alexandrovna and the elder brother of Avdotya Romanovna Raskolnikov. A young man of 23 years old. Lives in St. Petersburg in a rented apartment in a room that looks like a coffin. Extremely poor. A former law student who he was forced to leave due to lack of money and his "Theory of Exceptionality". Romantic, proud and strong personality. As a university student, Raskolnikov "almost had no comrades, he was alienated from everyone, he did not go to anyone and he received it hard. However, everyone soon turned away from him. Neither in general gatherings, nor in conversations, nor in fun, in anything he somehow he didn't take part. it seemed to him that he looked down on them all, like children, from above, as if he had outstripped them all in development, and knowledge, and convictions, and that he looked at their convictions and interests as something lower ... ". He got along more or less only with Razumikhin.
Razumikhin gives and draws the most objective portrait of Raskolnikov at the request of his mother and sister: “I have known Rodion for a year and a half: gloomy, gloomy, arrogant and proud; lately (and perhaps much earlier) hypochondriacal hypochondriac. Magnanimous and kind. He does not like to express his feelings and will sooner do cruelty than the heart will express in words. Sometimes, however, he is not a hypochondriac at all, but simply cold and insensitive to the point of inhumanity, really, as if in him two opposite characters are alternately replaced. Terribly taciturn sometimes! He has no time for everything, everyone interferes with him, but he himself lies, does nothing. Not mocking, and not because there was not enough wit, but as if he did not have enough time for such trifles. Doesn't listen to what they say. Never interested in what everyone is interested in at the moment. He values himself terribly highly and, it seems, not without some right to do so ... ".
Appearance
“By the way, he was remarkably good-looking, 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 tatters during the day outside". The consciousness of the hero is tormented by two questions: “Is it allowed to commit a small evil for the sake of a great good, does a noble goal justify a criminal means?” and "Am I a trembling creature, or do I have a right." To resolve them, Raskolnikov commits a crime.
In the draft materials, the author said about Raskolnikov, emphasized: “In his image, the thought of exorbitant pride, arrogance and contempt for society is expressed in the novel. His idea is to take over this society. Despotism is his trait ... ". But, at the same time, already in the course of action, this hero often acts as a true benefactor in relation to individuals: from the last means he helps a sick fellow student, and after his death and his father, saves two children from a fire, gives everything to the Marmeladov family the money that his mother sent him comes to the defense of Sonya Marmeladova, accused by Luzhin of theft... The surname of the protagonist is ambiguous: on the one hand, the split is like a bifurcation; on the other hand, a schism as a schismatic. This surname is deeply symbolic: it is not for nothing that the crime of the “nihilist” Raskolnikov is taken upon himself by the schismatic Nikolai Dementiev.
If we talk about the polyphony of Dostoevsky's novels, we can single out not only the fact that characters with very different beliefs get the right to vote in them, but also the fact that the thoughts and actions of the characters exist in close linkage, mutual attraction and mutual repulsion. Crime and Punishment is no exception.
On the pages of the novel, more than ninety characters pass, flicker or actively participate in the action. Of these, about ten are primary, having sharply defined characters, views, which play an important role in the development of the plot. The rest are mentioned sporadically, only in a few scenes and do not have an important impact on the course of action. But they are not introduced into the novel by accident. Each image is needed by Dostoevsky in his search for the only true idea; the heroes of the novel reveal the course of the author's thought in all its turns, and the author's thought unites the world he depicts and highlights the main thing in the ideological and moral atmosphere of this world.
Therefore, in order to understand the character, views, motives of Raskolnikov's behavior and actions, it is necessary to pay attention to Dostoevsky's correlation of his image with other characters in the novel. Almost all the characters in the work, without losing their individual identity, to one degree or another explain the origin of Raskolnikov's theory, its development, failure and, ultimately, collapse. And if not all, then most of these faces attract the attention of the protagonist for a long time or for a moment. Their actions, speeches, gestures from time to time pop up in Raskolnikov's memory or instantly affect his thoughts, forcing either to object to himself, or, on the contrary, to assert himself even more in his convictions and intentions.
Dostoevsky's characters, according to the observations of literary critics, usually appear before the reader with already established convictions and express not only a certain character, but also a certain idea. But it is equally obvious that none of them personifies the idea in its pure form, is not schematic, but is created from living flesh, and, moreover, the actions of the heroes often contradict the ideas that they are the bearers of and which they themselves wanted to would follow.
Of course, it is impossible to characterize the impact of all the characters in the novel on the main character, sometimes these are very small episodes that not every reader will remember. But some of them are of key importance. I want to talk about such cases. Let's start with the Marmeladov family.
Semyon Zakharovich Marmeladov- the only one of the main characters of the novel, with whom the author brought Raskolnikov together before the crime. The conversation of a drunken official with Raskolnikov is, in fact, Marmeladov's monologue; Rodion Raskolnikov does not insert even three remarks into it. There is no dispute out loud, but Raskolnikov’s mental dialogue with Marmeladov could not fail, because both of them are painfully pondering the possibility of getting rid of suffering. But if for Marmeladov only hope remained for the other world, then Raskolnikov has not yet lost hope of resolving the questions that torment him here on earth.
Marmeladov firmly stands on one point, which can be called the “idea of self-abasement”: beatings “not only cause pain, but also pleasure” to him, and he accustoms himself not to pay attention to the attitude towards him as to the pea jester of those around him, he and I’m already used to spending the night where I have to ... The reward for all this is the picture of the “Last Judgment” that arises in his imagination, when the Almighty accepts Marmeladov and similar “pigs” and “ragmen” into the kingdom of heaven precisely because not a single one of them “himself I considered myself worthy."
So, not a righteous life in itself, but the absence of pride is the key to salvation, according to Marmeladov. Raskolnikov listens attentively to him, but he does not want to humiliate himself. Although the impression of his confession from Raskolnikov remained deep and quite definite: if you sacrifice yourself, lose honor, then not for thirty rubles, like Sonya, but for something more substantial. Thus, despite the opposite of the ideas professed by these two heroes, Marmeladov not only did not dissuade, but, on the contrary, further strengthened Raskolnikov in his intention to commit murder in the name of exaltation over the “trembling creature” and for the sake of saving the lives of several noble, honest people.
When Dostoevsky pondered the idea of the novel The Drunk Ones, Marmeladov was given the role of the protagonist in it. Then Semyon Zakharych entered another novel - about Raskolnikov, receding into the background before this hero. But the author's interpretation of the image from this did not become less complicated. A weak-willed drunkard, he brought his wife to consumption, let his daughter go on a yellow ticket, left small children without a piece of bread. But at the same time, the author cries out with the whole story: oh, people, take at least a drop of pity for him, take a closer look at him, is he really that bad? for the first time he lost his place through no fault of his own, “but due to a change in the states, and then he touched it”; most of all tormented by the consciousness of guilt before the children ...
What Raskolnikov learned from Marmeladov, and what he saw at his house, could not pass without a trace for Rodion Romanovich himself. Thoughts about the meek daughter of Marmeladov and his wife, who was bitter to the limit, from time to time excite the sick imagination of a young man who painfully decides for himself the question of the possibility of a crime in order to protect the unfortunate. And the dream he soon had about a nag beaten to death was to a large extent inspired by a meeting with the unfortunate, "driven" Katerina Ivanovna.
Marmeladov's wife appears on the pages of the novel four times, and all four times Raskolnikov meets her after the strongest shocks of his own, when he, it would seem, is not up to those around him. Naturally, the protagonist never enters into lengthy conversations with her, and he listens to her half-heartedly. But still, Raskolnikov catches that in her speeches, indignation at the behavior of others alternately sounds, whether it be her husband or the mistress of the room, a cry of despair, the cry of a man who has been cornered, who has nowhere else to go, and suddenly boiling vanity, the desire to rise in his own eyes and in the eyes of the listeners to a height unattainable for them.
And if the idea of self-deprecation is connected with Marmeladov, then with Katerina Ivanovna the idea - or rather, not even an idea, but a painful mania - self-affirmation. The more hopeless her position, the more unrestrained this mania, fantasy, or, as Razumikhin put it, "self-indulgence." And we see that any attempt to endure inwardly in the conditions that a ruthless society condemns people to does not help: neither self-abasement nor self-affirmation saves from suffering, from the destruction of the personality, from physical death. At the same time, Katerina Ivanovna's desire for self-affirmation echoes the thoughts of Raskolnikov himself about the right of the elect to a special position, about power "over the whole anthill." In a reduced, parodic form, another hopeless path for a person appears before him - the path of exorbitant pride. It is no accident that Katerina Ivanovna's words about the noble boarding house sunk into Raskolnikov's mind. A few hours later, he reminded her of them, to which he heard in response: “Pension, ha ha ha! Glorious tambourines beyond the mountains! .. No, Rodion Romanych, the dream has passed! We have all been abandoned." The same sobriety awaits ahead of Raskolnikov himself. But even the painful dreams of Katerina Ivanovna, her pathetic "megalomania" do not reduce the tragedy of this image. Dostoevsky writes about her with bitterness and tireless pain.
And the image occupies a very special place in the novel. Sonechka Marmeladova. In addition to the fact that she is the conductor of the author's ideas in the novel, she is also the double of the protagonist, so the significance of her image can hardly be overestimated.
Sonya begins to play an active role at the moment of Raskolnikov's repentance, seeing and experiencing other people's suffering. It imperceptibly appears in the novel from the arabesques of the St. Petersburg street background, first as a thought, as Marmeladov’s story in a tavern about his family, about his daughter with a “yellow ticket”, then indirectly - as a figure of Raskolnikov’s fleeting vision from “their world” on the street: some a girl, fair-haired, drunk, just offended by someone, then a girl in a crinoline, in a straw hat with a fiery feather feather, sang along with the organ grinder, flashed by. All this bit by bit Sonya's outfit, she will appear in it, right from the street, at the bedside of her dying father. Only everything inside her will be a refutation of the noisy beggarly attire. In a modest dress, she will come to Raskolnikov to call him to the wake, and in the presence of his mother and sister, she will timidly sit next to him. This is symbolic: from now on, they will follow the same path, and to the end.
Raskolnikov was the first person to treat Sonya with sincere sympathy. No wonder the passionate devotion that Sonya answered him. It doesn’t even occur to her that Raskolnikov sees in her almost the same criminal as he himself is: both, in his opinion, are murderers; only if he killed the worthless old woman, then she committed, perhaps, an even more terrible crime - she killed herself. And thus forever, like him, doomed herself to loneliness among people. Both criminals should be together, Raskolnikov believes. And at the same time, he doubts his thoughts, finds out whether Sonya herself considers herself a criminal, torments her with questions beyond her consciousness and conscience. Rodion Raskolnikov, undoubtedly, is drawn to Sonya as an outcast to an outcast. In the handwritten versions of the novel there is such an entry on behalf of Raskolnikov: “How will I hug the woman I love. Is it possible? What if she knew that her killer was hugging her. She will know it. She must know this. She should be like me…”
But this means that she must suffer no less than he does. And about the suffering of Sonya Marmeladova, Raskolnikov formed an idea for himself from the half-drunk story of Semyon Zakharych at their first meeting. Yes, Raskolnikov himself suffers, suffers deeply. But he condemned himself to suffering - Sonya suffers innocently, paying with moral torments not for her sins. It means that she is immeasurably above him morally. And that is why he is especially drawn to her - he needs her support, he rushes to her "not out of love, but as to providence." That is why Raskolnikov first tells her about the crime committed. The thought of Raskolnikov horrifies Sonya: “This man is a louse!”. And at the same time, she is very sorry for Raskolnikov, she already knows that nothing can atone for this crime, that the most terrible punishment for sin is every minute self-condemnation, her own inability to forgive herself, to live without remorse. And Sonya herself, after Raskolnikov's terrible confession, begins to believe that they are people of one world, that all the barriers that separated them - social, intellectual - have collapsed.
Sonya herself leads the hero “out of the darkness of delusion”, grows into a huge figure of suffering and goodness, when society itself has lost its way and one of its thinking heroes is a criminal. She has no theories other than faith in God, but that is faith, not ideology. Faith, like love, belongs to the realm of the irrational, incomprehensible, this cannot be explained logically. Sonya never argues with Raskolnikov; Sonya's path is an objective lesson for Raskolnikov, although he does not receive any instructions from her, except for advice to go to the square to repent. Sonya suffers in silence, without complaint. Suicide is also impossible for her. But her kindness, meekness, spiritual purity amaze the imagination of readers. And in the novel, even convicts, seeing her on the street, shouted: “Mother, Sofya Semyonovna, you are our tender, sickly mother!” And all this is the truth of life. This type of people like Sonya is always true to himself, in life they meet with varying degrees of brightness, but life always prompts reasons for their manifestation.
The fate of Sonya Marmeladova Raskolnikov correlates with the fate of all "humiliated and insulted." In her, he saw a symbol of universal grief and suffering, and, kissing her feet, he "bowed down to all human suffering." Raskolnikov owns the exclamation: “Sonechka, Sonechka Marmeladova, eternal Sonechka, while the world stands!”. Many researchers believe that Sonya is the embodiment of the author's ideal of Christian love, sacrificial suffering and humility. By her example, she shows the way to Raskolnikov - to restore lost ties with people through gaining faith and love. With the power of her love, the ability to endure any torment, she helps him overcome himself and take a step towards resurrection. Although the beginning of love for Sonya is painful, for Raskolnikov it is close to sadism: while suffering himself, he makes her suffer, secretly hoping that she will discover something acceptable to both, offer anything but a confession ... In vain. “Sonya represented an inexorable sentence, a decision without change. Here - either her road, or his. In the epilogue, the author shows the reader the long-awaited birth of mutual, all-redeeming love, which should support the heroes in hard labor. This feeling grows stronger and makes them happy. However, the complete restoration of Raskolnikov is not shown by Dostoevsky, it is only announced; The reader is given a lot of room for reflection. But this is not the main thing, and the main thing is that the ideas of the author in the novel are nevertheless embodied in reality, and it is with the help of the image of Sonechka Marmeladova. It is Sonya who is the embodiment of the good sides of Raskolnikov's soul. And it is Sonya who carries within herself the truth that Rodion Raskolnikov comes to through painful searches. This highlights the personality of the protagonist against the background of his relationship with the Marmeladovs.
On the other hand, Raskolnikov is opposed by people who were closest to him before he came to the idea of allowing himself the right to kill an "insignificant creature" for the benefit of many. This is his mother, Pulcheria Alexandrovna, sister Dunya, fellow university student Razumikhin. They personify for Raskolnikov the conscience "rejected by him". They have not stained themselves with anything, living in the underworld, and therefore communication with them is almost impossible for the main character.
A noble son with the manners of a commoner, Razumikhin combines a merry fellow and a hard worker, a bully and a caring nanny, a quixote and a deep psychologist. He is full of energy and mental health, he judges the people around him versatile and objectively, willingly forgiving them minor weaknesses and mercilessly scourging complacency, vulgarity and selfishness; at the same time, he evaluates himself in the most sober way. This is a democrat by convictions and by way of life, who does not want and does not know how to flatter others, no matter how high he puts them.
Razumikhin is a man whose friend it is not easy to be. But the feeling of friendship is so sacred to him that, seeing a comrade in trouble, he abandons all his affairs and hurries to help. Razumikhin is so honest and decent himself that he never for a moment doubts his friend's innocence. However, he is by no means inclined towards forgiveness in relation to Raskolnikov either: after his dramatic farewell to his mother and sister, Razumikhin reprimands him directly and sharply: “Only a monster and a scoundrel, if not crazy, could do the same to them as you did; and consequently, you are crazy ... ".
They often write about Razumikhin as a limited person, "smart, but ordinary." Raskolnikov himself sometimes calls him mentally "a fool", "a fool". But I think that Razumikhin is more likely to be distinguished not by narrow-mindedness, but by ineradicable good nature and faith in the possibility of sooner or later finding a solution to the “sick issues” of society - you just need to tirelessly seek, not give up: to the truth." Razumikhin also wants to establish truth on earth, but he never has thoughts that even remotely resemble the thoughts of Raskolnikov
Common sense and humanity immediately tell Razumikhin that his friend’s theory is very far from justice: “I am most outraged that you allow blood in conscience.” But when Raskolnikov's appearance in court is already a fait accompli, he appears in court as the most ardent witness for the defense. And not only because Raskolnikov is his friend and brother of his future wife, but also because he understands how inhuman the system is that pushed a person to a desperate rebellion.
Avdotya Romanovna Raskolnikova according to the original plan, she was supposed to become like-minded brother. The following entry by Dostoevsky has been preserved: “He certainly speaks to his sister (when she found out), or in general speaks of two categories of people and inflames her with this teaching.” In the final version, Dunya almost from the first minutes of the meeting enters into an argument with his brother.
The line of relations between Raskolnikov's brother and sister is one of the most difficult in the novel. The ardent love of a young provincial for her older brother, an intelligent, thinking student, is beyond doubt. He, with all his selfishness and coldness, before committing the murder, dearly loved his sister and mother. The thought of them was one of the reasons for his decision to transgress the law and his own conscience. But this decision turned out to be such an unbearable burden for him, he cut himself off so irreparably from all honest, pure people that he no longer had the strength to love.
Razumikhin and Dunya are not the Marmeladovs: they hardly mention God, their humanism is purely earthly. And, nevertheless, their attitude to Raskolnikov's crime and to his very "Napoleonic" theory is as unshakably negative as that of Sonya.
Do you have the right to kill? Sonya exclaimed.
I am most outraged that you allow blood in conscience, - says Razumikhin.
But you shed blood! Dunya screams in despair.
Raskolnikov seeks to dismiss with contempt any argument of each of them against the "right to commit a crime", but it is not so easy to brush aside all these arguments, especially since they coincide with the voice of his conscience.
If we talk about heroes who, as it were, have the voice of the conscience of the protagonist, one cannot but recall the caustic, “grinning” conscience of Raskolnikov, the investigator Porfiry Petrovich.
Dostoevsky managed to bring out a complex type of an intelligent and well-wishing investigator for Raskolnikov, who would not only be able to expose the criminal, but also penetrate with all depth into the essence of the theory of the protagonist, make him a worthy opponent. In the novel, he is assigned the role of the main ideological antagonist and "provocateur" of Raskolnikov. His psychological duels with Rodion Romanovich become the most exciting pages of the novel. But at the will of the author, it also acquires an additional semantic load. Porfiry is a servant of a certain regime, he is saturated with an understanding of good and evil from the point of view of the code of prevailing morality and the code of laws, which the author himself, in principle, did not approve of. And suddenly he acts as a father-mentor in relation to Raskolnikov. When he says: "You can't do without us," it means something completely different than a simple consideration: there will be no criminals, and there will be no investigators. Porfiry Petrovich teaches Raskolnikov the highest meaning of life: "Suffering is also a good thing." Porfiry Petrovich speaks not as a psychologist, but as a conductor of a certain tendency of the author. He suggests relying not on reason, but on direct feeling, trusting nature, nature. “Surrender to life directly, without arguing, do not worry - it will carry you straight to the shore and put it on your feet.”
Neither relatives nor people close to Raskolnikov share his views and cannot accept "blood permission in good conscience." Even the old lawyer Porfiry Petrovich finds many contradictions in the theory of the protagonist and tries to convey to Raskolnikov's mind the idea of its incorrectness. But, perhaps, salvation, an outcome can be found in other people who share his views in some way? Maybe we should turn to other characters in the novel in order to find at least some justification for the "Napoleonic" theory?
At the very beginning of the fifth part of the novel, Lebezyatnikov. Undoubtedly, his figure is more parodic. Dostoevsky presents him as a primitively vulgar version of a "progressive", like Sitnikov from Turgenev's novel Fathers and Sons. Lebezyatnikov's monologues, in which he sets forth his "socialist" convictions, are a sharp caricature of Chernyshevsky's famous novel What Is to Be Done? Lebezyatnikov's lengthy reflections on communes, on freedom of love, on marriage, on the emancipation of women, on the future structure of society, seem to the reader a caricature of an attempt to convey to the reader "bright socialist ideas."
Dostoevsky depicts Lebezyatnikov exclusively by satirical means. This is an example of a kind of "dislike" of the author to the hero. Those heroes whose ideology does not fit into the circle of Dostoevsky's philosophical reflections, he describes in a devastating manner. The ideas preached by Lebezyatnikov and previously of interest to the writer himself disappoint Dostoevsky. Therefore, he describes Andrei Semenovich Lebezyatnikov in such a caricature: “He was one of that countless and diverse legion of vulgar people, dead bastards, and petty tyrants who have not studied everything, who in an instant stick without fail to the most fashionable walking idea, in order to immediately vulgarize it, in order to instantly caricature everything, which they sometimes most sincerely serve. For Dostoevsky, even "sincere service" to humanistic ideals does not in the least justify a vulgar person. In the novel, Lebezyatnikov performs one noble deed, but even this does not ennoble his image. Dostoevsky does not give heroes of this type a single chance to take place as a person. And although the rhetoric of both Raskolnikov and Lebezyatnikov is humanistically colored, Andrei Semenovich, who did not commit significantly bad deeds (as well as good ones, by the way), is incomparable with Raskolnikov, who is capable of significant deeds. The spiritual narrowness of the first is much more disgusting than the moral illness of the second, and no "clever" and "useful" speeches raise it in the eyes of the reader.
In the first part of the novel, even before the crime was committed, Raskolnikov learns from his mother’s letter that his sister Dunya is going to marry a completely wealthy and “seemingly kind person” - Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin. Rodion Raskolnikov begins to hate him even before he met him personally: he understands that it is not love that pushes his sister to this step, but a simple calculation - this is how you can help your mother and brother. But subsequent meetings with Luzhin himself only strengthen this hatred - Raskolnikov simply does not accept such people.
But why is Pyotr Petrovich not a groom: everything in him is decent, like his light waistcoat. At first glance, it seems so. But Luzhin's life is a continuous calculation. Even marriage with Dunya is not a marriage, but a sale: he called the bride and future mother-in-law to Petersburg, but did not spend a dime on them. Luzhin wants to succeed in his career, he planned to open a public law firm, to serve law and justice. But in the eyes of Dostoevsky, the existing legitimacy and that new judgment, which he once hoped for as a blessing, is now a negative concept.
Luzhin represents the type of "acquirer" in the novel. Hypocritical bourgeois morality is embodied in his image. He takes it upon himself to judge from the height of his position in life, outlining cynical theories and recipes for acquisition, careerism, and opportunism. His ideas are ideas leading to a complete rejection of goodness and light, to the destruction of the human soul. To Raskolnikov, such morality seems many times more misanthropic than his own thoughts. Yes, Luzhin is not capable of murder, but by nature he is no less inhuman than an ordinary murderer. Only he will not kill with a knife, an ax or a revolver - he will find a lot of ways to crush a person with impunity. This property of his is manifested in its entirety in the scene at the commemoration. And according to the law, people like Luzhin are innocent.
The meeting with Luzhin gives another impetus to the hero's rebellion: "Should Luzhin live and do abominations, or should Katerina Ivanovna die?" But no matter how Raskolnikov hates Luzhin, he himself is somewhat similar to him: “I do what I want.” With his theory, he appears in many ways as an arrogant creature of an age of competition and ruthlessness. Indeed, for the prudent and selfish Luzhin, human life in itself is of no value. Therefore, when committing a murder, Rodion Raskolnikov seems to approach such people, puts himself on the same level with them. And very close fate brings the protagonist to another character - the landowner Svidrigailov.
Raskolnikov hates the ancient lordly depravity, such as the Svidrigailovs, the masters of life. These are people of unbridled passions, cynicism, abuse. And if changes are needed in life, then also because to put an end to their revelry. But no matter how surprising it may be, it is Svidrigailov who is the plot double of the protagonist.
The world of Raskolnikov and Svidrigailov is depicted by Dostoevsky with the help of a number of similar motifs. The most important of them is that both allow themselves to "step over". After all, Svidrigailov is not at all surprised that Raskolnikov committed a crime. For him, crime is something that has entered life, is already normal. He himself is accused of many crimes, and he does not directly deny them.
Svidrigailov preaches extreme individualism. He says that man is naturally cruel and is predisposed to commit violence against others to satisfy his desires. Svidrigailov tells Rodion Raskolnikov that they are "of the same field." These words scare Raskolnikov: it turns out that Svidrigailov's gloomy philosophy is his own theory, brought to its logical limit and devoid of humanistic rhetoric. And if Raskolnikov's idea arises from a desire to help a person, then Svidrigailov believes that a person deserves nothing more than a "stuffy bath with spiders." This is Svidrigailov's idea of eternity.
Like all doubles in Dostoevsky, Svidrigailov and Raskolnikov think a lot about each other, due to which the effect of a common consciousness of the two characters is created. In fact, Svidrigailov is the embodiment of the dark sides of Raskolnikov's soul. So, the poet and philosopher Vyacheslav Ivanov writes that these two heroes are related as two evil spirits - Lucifer and Ahriman. Ivanov identifies Raskolnikov's rebellion with the "luciferic" principle, sees in Raskolnikov's theory a rebellion against God, and in the hero himself - an exalted and noble mind in his own way. He compares Svidrigailov's position with Ahrimanism, there is nothing here but the absence of vital and creative forces, spiritual death and decay.
As a result, Svidrigailov commits suicide. His death coincides with the beginning of the protagonist's spiritual rebirth. But along with the relief after the news of Svidrigailov's death, a vague anxiety comes to Raskolnikov. After all, one should not forget that Svidrigailov's crimes are reported only in the form of rumors. The reader does not know for sure whether he did them. This remains a mystery; Dostoevsky himself does not give an unequivocal answer about Svidrigailov's guilt. In addition, throughout the course of the novel, Svidrigailov does almost more "good deeds" than the rest of the characters. He himself tells Raskolnikov that he did not take upon himself the "privilege" to do "only evil." Thus, the author shows another facet of Svidrigailov's character, once again confirming the Christian ideas that in any person there is both good and evil, and the freedom to choose between them.
Raskolnikov, Svidrigailov, Luzhin and Lebeziatnikov form ideologically significant pairs among themselves. On the one hand, the extremely individualistic rhetoric of Svidrigailov and Luzhin is contrasted with the humanistically colored rhetoric of Raskolnikov and Lebezyatnikov. On the other hand, the deep characters of Raskolnikov and Svidrigailov are contrasted with the petty and vulgar characters of Lebezyatnikov and Luzhin. The status of the hero in Dostoevsky's novel is determined primarily by the criterion of the depth of character and the presence of spiritual experience, as the author understands it, therefore Svidrigailov, "the most cynical despair", is placed in the novel much higher than not only the primitive egoist Luzhin, but also Lebezyatnikov, despite his certain altruism .
In interaction with the rest of the characters of the novel, the image of Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov is fully revealed. In comparison with the smart, but ordinary Razumikhin, Raskolnikov's personality is uncommon. The soulless business man Luzhin is potentially a greater criminal than Raskolnikov, who committed the murder. Svidrigailov, a dark personality with immoral ideas about life, seems to warn the protagonist against the final moral fall. Next to Lebezyatnikov, who always adhered to the "walking idea", Raskolnikov's nihilism seems lofty in its naturalness.
From this interaction it also becomes clear that none of the ideologies of the above heroes is a reliable and convincing alternative to Raskolnikov's theory, deeply suffered and honest in its own way. Apparently, the author wanted to say that any abstract theory addressed to humanity is in fact inhuman, because there is no place in it for a specific person, his living nature. It is no coincidence that in the epilogue, speaking of Raskolnikov's enlightenment, Dostoevsky contrasts "dialectics" and "life": "Instead of dialectics, life came, and something completely different should have developed in consciousness."
("Crime and Punishment")
The protagonist of the novel, a former student; son and elder brother of the Raskolnikovs. In the draft materials, the author said about Raskolnikov, emphasized: “In his image, the thought of exorbitant pride, arrogance and contempt for society is expressed in the novel. His idea is to take over this society. Despotism is his trait ... ". But, at the same time, already in the course of action, this hero often acts as a true benefactor in relation to individuals: from the last means he helps a sick fellow student, and after his death and his father, saves two children from a fire, gives everything to the Marmeladov family the money that his mother sent him stands up for the accused of theft...
A sketch of his psychological portrait on the eve of the crime is given on the very first page of the novel, when explaining why he does not want to meet the landlady when leaving his “coffin” closet: “It’s not that he was so cowardly and downtrodden, quite the contrary; but for some time he had been in an irritable and tense state, resembling hypochondria. He was so deep in himself and retired from everyone that he was afraid of even any meeting, not only a meeting with the hostess. He was crushed by poverty; but even his cramped situation had ceased to weigh him down lately. He completely stopped his urgent business and did not want to do it. In essence, he was not afraid of any hostess, no matter what she plotted against him. But to stop on the stairs, listen to all sorts of nonsense about all this ordinary rubbish, which he doesn’t care about, all these pestering about payment, threats, complaints, and at the same time dodge, apologize, lie - no, it’s better to slip somehow cat up the stairs and sneak away so that no one sees ... ". A little further on, the first sketch of appearance is given: “A feeling of the deepest disgust flickered for a moment in the thin features of the young man. By the way, he was remarkably good-looking, with beautiful dark eyes, dark blond, taller than average, thin and slender.<...>He was so badly dressed that another, even a familiar person, would be ashamed to go out into the street in such tatters during the day.<...>But so much vicious contempt had already accumulated in the soul of a young man that, despite all his sometimes very young ticklishness, he was least of all ashamed of his rags on the street ... ". Even further, it will be said about Raskolnikov during his student days: “It is remarkable that Raskolnikov, being at the university, had almost no comrades, kept aloof from everyone, did not go to anyone and received it hard at home. However, they soon turned their backs on him. Neither in general gatherings, nor in conversations, nor in fun, did he somehow take part in anything. He studied hard, not sparing himself, and for this he was respected, but no one loved him. He was very poor and somehow arrogantly proud and uncommunicative; as if he was hiding something to himself. It seemed to some of his comrades that he looked down on them all, like children, from above, as if he had outstripped them all in development, and knowledge, and convictions, and that he looked at their convictions and interests as something lower. ..". At that time he got along more or less only with Razumikhin.
and gives and draws the most objective portrait of Raskolnikov at the request of his mother and sister: “I have known Rodion for a year and a half: gloomy, gloomy, arrogant and proud; lately (and perhaps much earlier) hypochondriacal hypochondriac. Magnanimous and kind. He does not like to express his feelings and will sooner do cruelty than the heart will express in words. Sometimes, however, he is not a hypochondriac at all, but simply cold and insensitive to the point of inhumanity, really, as if in him two opposite characters are alternately replaced. Terribly taciturn sometimes! He has no time for everything, everyone interferes with him, but he himself lies, does nothing. Not mocking, and not because there was not enough wit, but as if he did not have enough time for such trifles. Doesn't listen to what they say. Never interested in what everyone is interested in at the moment. He values himself terribly highly and, it seems, not without some right to do so ... ".
The novel life of Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov begins with the fact that he, a young man of 23 years old, who, three or four months before the events described, left his studies at the university due to lack of funds and who for a month had almost never left his closet room from the tenants, who looked like a coffin, he went out into the street in his terrible rags and, in indecision, went through the July heat, as he called it, “to test his enterprise” - to the apartment of the usurer. Her house was exactly 730 paces from his house - before that he had already walked and measured. He climbed up to the 4th floor and rang the bell. “The bell clanged out weakly, and as if it was made of tin, not copper ...” (This call is a very important detail in the novel: later, after the crime, it will be remembered by the killer and beckon to him.) During Raskolnikov gives “samples” for a pittance (1 rub. 15 kopecks) the silver watch inherited from his father and promises to bring a new pledge the other day - a silver cigarette case (which he did not have), and he carefully conducted “reconnaissance”: where is the hostess holds keys, location of rooms, etc. The impoverished student is completely at the mercy of the idea that he endured in an inflamed brain over the past month of lying in "underground"- to kill a nasty old woman and thereby change her life-fate, to save her sister Dunya, who is bought and wooed by the scoundrel and horse-dealer Luzhin. Following the trial, even before the murder, Raskolnikov meets the impoverished man in a pub, his entire family and, most importantly, his eldest daughter Sonya Marmeladova, who became a prostitute in order to save her family from final death. The idea that sister Dunya, in essence, does the same thing (sells herself to Luzhin) in order to save him, Rodion, was the last push - Raskolnikov kills the old money-lender, and at the same time, it happened, hacked to death the old woman's sister, who became an unwitting witness. And that ends the first part of the novel. And then five parts follow with the "Epilogue" - punishments. The fact is that in the “idea” of Raskolnikov, in addition to its, so to speak, material, practical side, for a month of lying and thinking, the theoretical, philosophical component was finally added and matured. As it turns out later, Raskolnikov once wrote an article called "On Crime", which two months before the murder of Alena Ivanovna appeared in the newspaper "Periodical speech", which the author himself did not suspect (he gave it to a completely different newspaper), and in which held the idea that all mankind is divided into two categories - ordinary people, "trembling creatures", and extraordinary people, "Napoleons". And such a "Napoleon", according to Raskolnikov, can give permission to himself, his conscience, "to step over the blood" for the sake of a great goal, that is, he has the right to commit a crime. So Rodion Raskolnikov posed the question to himself: “Am I a trembling creature or do I have a right?” Here, mainly, to answer this question, he decided to kill the vile old woman.
But the punishment begins even at the very moment of the crime. All his theoretical reasoning and hopes at the moment of "stepping over the line" to be cold-blooded fly to hell. He was so lost after the murder (with several blows with the butt of an ax on the crown of the head) of Alena Ivanovna that he was not even able to rob - he began to grab ruble mortgage earrings and rings, although, as it turned out later, thousands of rubles in cash lay in the chest of drawers in plain sight. Then there was an unexpected, absurd and completely unnecessary murder (with the tip of an ax right in the face, in the eyes) of the meek Lizaveta, which at once crossed out all excuses before her own conscience. And - begins from these minutes for Raskolnikov's nightmare life: he immediately falls from the "superman" into the category of a persecuted beast. Even his external portrait changes dramatically: “Raskolnikov<...>was very pale, absent-minded and gloomy. Outwardly, he looked like a wounded person or enduring some kind of severe physical pain: his eyebrows were shifted, his lips were compressed, his eyes were inflamed ... ". The main "hunter" in the novel is the bailiff of investigative affairs. It is he who, exhausting Raskolnikov’s psyche with conversations similar to interrogations, all the time provoking a nervous breakdown with hints, juggling facts, hidden and even outright mockery, forces him to turn himself in. However, the main reason for Raskolnikov's "surrender" is that he himself understood: "Did I kill the old woman? I killed myself, not the old woman! Here, all at once, he slapped himself, forever! ..». By the way, the thought of suicide obsessively haunts Raskolnikov: “Or give up life completely! ..”; “Yes, it’s better to hang yourself! ..”; "... otherwise it's better not to live ...". This obsessive suicidal motive sounds constantly in Raskolnikov's soul and head. And many of the people around Rodion are simply sure that he is overcome by a craving for voluntary death. Here the simple-minded Razumikhin naively and cruelly frightens Pulcheria Alexandrovna and Dunya: “... well, how is it (Raskolnikov. - N.N.) to release one now? Perhaps drowning ... ". Here meek Sonya is tormented by fear for Raskolnikov “at the thought that maybe he really will commit suicide” ... And now the cunning inquisitor Porfiry Petrovich first hints in a conversation with Rodion Romanovich, they say, after the murder of another faint-hearted killer sometimes “It makes me want to jump out of Ali’s window from the bell tower,” and then directly, in his disgusting servile-serving style, he warns and advises: “Just in case, I also have a request to you<...>she is ticklish, but important; if, that is, just in case (which, however, I do not believe and consider you completely incapable), if, in case - well, just in case - hunting would come to you in these forty or fifty hours somehow end differently, in a fantastic way - raise your hands like that (an absurd assumption, well, forgive me for it), then leave a short but detailed note ... ". But (Raskolnikov's double in the novel) even suddenly (suddenly?) Suggests to the student killer: “Well, shoot yourself; what, al don’t want to? .. ". Already before his own suicide, Svidrigailov continues to think and reflect on the finale of the life and fate of his novel double. Transferring money to Sonya, he pronounces a sentence-prediction: “Rodion Romanovich has two roads: either a bullet in the forehead, or along Vladimirka (i.e., to hard labor. - N.N.)...". In practice, as in the case of Svidrigailov, the reader, at the behest of the author, should suspect and guess long before the finale that Raskolnikov might commit suicide. Razumikhin only suggested that his comrade, God forbid, drown himself, and Raskolnikov at that time was already standing on the bridge and peering into the "darkening water of the ditch." It would seem that this is special? But then, before his eyes, a drunken beggar woman rushes from the bridge (), she was immediately pulled out and saved, and Raskolnikov, watching what was happening, suddenly admits to himself suicidal thoughts: “No, disgusting ... water ... not worth it .. .". And soon, completely in a conversation with Dunya, the brother openly admits his obsession: “-<...>you see, sister, I finally wanted to make up my mind and many times walked near the Neva; I remember it. I wanted to end there, but... I didn't dare...<...>Yes, in order to avoid this shame, I wanted to drown myself, Dunya, but I thought, already standing above the water, that if I considered myself strong until now, then let me not be afraid of shame now ... ". However, Raskolnikov would not have been Raskolnikov if, after a minute, he had not added with an “ugly grin”: “Don’t you think, sister, that I was just afraid of water? ..”.
In one of the draft notes for the novel, Dostoevsky outlined that Raskolnikov should shoot himself in the finale. And here the parallel with Svidrigailov is quite clear: he, like his double, having abandoned the shamefully “female” way of suicide in dirty water, would most likely have to, just as accidentally as Svidrigailov, get a revolver somewhere .. The psychological touch that the author “given” to the hero from his own life impressions is very characteristic - when Raskolnikov finally refuses to commit suicide, what is happening in his soul is described and conveyed as follows: “This feeling could be like the feeling of a person sentenced to death, who suddenly and unexpectedly pronounce forgiveness... The echo of Svidrigailov's dying thoughts and Raskolnikov's convict thoughts about each other is quite logically justified. The murderous student, like the suicide landowner, does not believe in eternal life, does not want to believe in Christ either. But it is worth remembering the scene-episode of Sonya Marmeladova and Raskolnikov reading the gospel parable of the resurrection of Lazarus. Even Sonya was surprised why Raskolnikov so insistently demanded reading aloud: “Why do you need it? You don't believe, do you?" However, Raskolnikov is painfully persistent and then "sat and listened motionless", in essence, to the story of the possibility of his own resurrection from the dead (after all - "I killed myself, not the old woman!"). In penal servitude, he, along with other shackled companions, goes to church during Great Lent, but when all of a sudden some quarrel broke out - “everyone attacked him with frenzy” and with accusations that he was “a godless” and he “should be killed "One convict even rushed at him in a decisive frenzy, however, Raskolnikov "waited for him calmly and silently: his eyebrow did not move, not a single feature of his face trembled ...". At the last second, the escort stood between them and the murder (suicide?!) did not happen, did not happen. Yes, almost suicidal. Raskolnikov, as it were, wanted to repeat the suicidal feat of the early Christians, who voluntarily accepted death for their faith at the hands of the barbarians. In this case, the convict-murderer, by inertia and formally observing church rites, and out of habit, from childhood, wearing a cross around his neck, for Raskolnikov, as if a newly converted Christian, is to some extent, indeed, a barbarian. And that the process of conversion (return?) to Christ in the soul of Rodion is inevitable and has already begun - this is obvious. Under his pillow, on the bunk, lies the Gospel given to him by Sonya, according to which she read to him about the resurrection of Lazarus (and, it is worth adding, what lay in hard labor under the pillow of Dostoevsky himself! ), thoughts about his own resurrection, about the desire to live and believe - no longer leave him ...
Raskolnikov, regretting at first living in prison that he did not dare to execute himself following the example of Svidrigailov, could not help but think that it was not too late and even preferable to do it in prison. Moreover, hard labor, especially in the first year, seemed for him (presumably for Dostoevsky himself!) completely unbearable, full of "unbearable torment." Here, of course, Sonya and her Gospel played a role, kept him from committing suicide, and pride-pride still controlled his consciousness ... But one should not discount the following circumstance, which extremely struck Raskolnikov (and first of all - Dostoevsky himself in his initial days and months of hard labor): “He looked at his hard labor comrades and was surprised: how they all loved life, how they valued it! It seemed to him that in prison she was even more loved and appreciated, and cherished more than in freedom. What terrible torments and tortures did not endure some of them, for example, vagabonds! Can it really mean so much to them one ray of the sun, a dense forest, somewhere in an unknown wilderness a cold spring, marked since the third year and about a meeting with which the tramp dreams, as about a meeting with his mistress, sees him in a dream, green grass around him, a singing bird in the bush? ..».
The final return of Raskolnikov to the Christian faith, the rejection of his "idea" occurs after the apocalyptic dream of the "trichins", which infected all people on earth with the desire to kill. Saves Rodion and the sacrificial love of Sonya Marmeladova, who followed him to hard labor. In many ways, she, the Gospel she gave, infect the student-criminal with an irresistible thirst for life. Raskolnikov knows that "he does not get a new life for nothing", that he will have to "pay for it with a great future feat ...". We will never know what great feat Raskolnikov, who refrained from suicide and resurrected to a new life, did in the future, because there was no “new story” about his future fate, as the author hinted at in the final lines of the novel.
The surname of the protagonist is ambiguous: on the one hand, the split is like a bifurcation; on the other hand, a schism as a schismatic. This surname is also deeply symbolic: it is not without reason that the crime of the "nihilist" Raskolnikov is taken over by the schismatic.
