Women saving men was a theme throughout the novel, Crime and Punishment. One of the girls that had to sacrifice herself was Sonya Marmeladov. Sonya was the embodiment of purity and innocence, a smart girl with only a minimal formal education. Her father was a drunk who could not hold a job, and whose wife pressured Sonya into prostituting herself in order to make more money. Shortly after, she was kicked out of her home and was forced to rent a room from a tailor. Sonya was disgraced through the incompetence of her own father. Her father “wept a bit and got accustomed” to living off her dishonor. He said that he cared for her but he was not willing to give up the money she was making. Throughout her suffering and loss, she was able to keep her family clothed and fed, not well, but better than her father. Rakolnikov wanted to help so he left money on their window but changed his mind and went back for it. …show more content…
After losing her job and her reputation in the home of the Svidrigailovs, Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin proposed to her. Luzhin was a forty-five year old, well-off and respected gentleman. They did not get engaged because of love but because it would be convenient for both parties Luzhin wanted a humble and grateful wife. Caring only for himself and his money, love does not matter. Dunya hoped that Luzhin’s status and money would help her to better her family’s circumstances. She knows that he was a conceited snob but she was willing to sacrifice her happiness for her brother’s sake. Dunya assumed that Luzhin would give money to her brother, or even employment, but he proved that he had no interest in helping her family financially. He did not even offer to pay their way to Petersburg, though he was part of the reason they were going. Even though it made her miserable, with the promise of only a miserable future, she nobly sacrificed herself for the family she dearly
As Rodya analyzes Luzhin’s character, he realizes that intellect unrestrained by moral purpose is dangerous due to the fact that many shrewd people can look right through that false façade. Luzhin’s false façade of intellect does not fool Rodya or Razumikhin, and although they try to convince Dunya into not marrying Luzhin, she does not listen. Rodya believes that Luzhin’s “moral purpose” is to “marry an honest girl…who has experienced hardship” (36). The only way he is able to get Dunya to agree to marry him, is by acting as if he is a very intellectual person, who is actually not as educated as he says he is. This illustrates the fact that Rodya knows that it is really dangerous because he knows that people can ruin their lives by acting to be someone they are not. Rodya also knows that people will isolate themselves from others just so that no one will find out their true personality. This is illustrated in through the fact that Luzhin tries to avoid Dunya and her mother as much as possible. The way he writes his letter, exemplifies his isolation, for Luzhin does not know how to interact with society. He has no idea how to write letters to his fiancée and his future mother in law. This reflects on Rodya’s second dream because he is unable to get Dunya married off to a nice person. He feels isolated from everyone else because his intellect caused him to sense that Luzhin is not telling the truth about his personality. However, it was due to his lack of moral purpose that Rodya berates his sister’s fiancé. He is unable to control himself, and due to his immoral act of getting drunk, Rodya loses all judgment and therefore goes and belittles Luzhin. Although Rodya’s intellectual mind had taken over and showed him that Luzhin wa...
Svidrigailov is one of the most unfathomable characters in Crime and Punishment. As the novel goes on, Svidrigailov’s pursuit of Dunya progresses into sheer harassment. After eavesdropping on Raskolnikov’s confession to Sonya, he uses his newly acquired information to lure Dunya into his room. Svidrigailov proceeds to promise help to Raskolnikov if she will give him her hand in marriage. He then threatens to rape her when she tries to run away. Right when Svidrigailov appears to be purely evil, he surprises us all when his rational side kicks in and allows Dunya to leave. Although he may seem to be the cold-hearted villain of the book, his good deeds cannot go unnoticed. It cannot be forgotten that he is willing to give Dunya the three thousand rubbles in his wife’s will and offers ten thousand rubbles to help Dunya because he thinks her marriage will be a disadvantage to her in the end. Once Katerina Ivanonva dies, Svidrigailov also promises to pay for the funeral arrangements and to provide for the children, who will be sent to an orphanage. Although...
Life is a wheel rolling inexorably forward through the temporal realm of existence. There are those that succumb to its motion and there are a certain few, like Christ and Napoleon, who temporarily grasp the wheel and shape all life around them. "Normal" people accept their positions in life and are bound by law and morality. Extraordinary people, on the other hand, supersede the law and forge the direction and progress of society. Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky, is the story of a group of people caught beneath the wheel and their different reactions to their predicament. One individual, Raskolnikov, refuses to acknowledge the bare fact of his mediocrity. In order to prove that he is extraordinary, he kills two innocent people. This despicable action does not bring him glory or prove his superiority, but leads to both his physical, mental, and spiritual destruction. After much inner turmoil and suffering, he discovers that when a person transgresses the boundaries of morality and detaches himself from the rest of humanity, faith in God and faith in others is the only path to redemption.
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, originally published in 1866, tells the story of a young man who commits a crime to prove his superiority to the societal system around him, then suffers mental, emotional, and physical anguish until he admits to his crimes. Dostoevsky uses biblical allusions from The New Testament throughout the novel, which play a major role in character development. These allusions are made evident to the reader through characters and the situations they were involved in, especially in the main characters, Raskolnikov and Sonia, through the depictions created by Dostoevsky for characterization throughout the book. Consequently, Dostoevsky incorporated these allusions by developing two major archetypal characters,
A Study of the literary techniques used by Fyodor Dostoyevsky in Crime and Punishment to convey the downfall and subsequent rise of the main character. "Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky is the story of a young student Raskolnikov and his need to murder an old woman to prove one of his many philosophies. The book begins with the murder, but the primary focus is on his reasoning and reactions before and after the act. It is set in St Petersburg where the main character, Raskolnikov, appears to be an ex-student living, in poverty, a life of lethargy.
First, Dostoevsky gives the reader the character, Raskolnokov. He is the main character, whom Fyodor uses to show two sides of people their admirable side and their disgusting side. He loves Raskolnokov, which is why Fyodor uses Raskolnokov’s point of view throughout the whole novel. Personally, Fyodor dislikes some of his qualities but understands that all people are plagued with some bad traits, and that Raskolnokv is trying to make emends for some of his wrong doings, i.e. the murder of the pawnbroker and her sister. He knows that what he did was wrong and is willing to suffer for his crime, and he does throughout the whole book with his constant depression. Dostoesky believes in punishment for your crimes, this is why he shows Raskolnokov suffering through most of the novel, to show his great love for penance. Dostoevsky likes the kind giving nature of people; this is why he portrays the main character as a kind, gentle, and giving, person. Often, Raskolnokov thinks only of others benefits such as when he helped Katerina by giving her all his money for Marmelodov, as well as his caring about what happens to his sister with her marriage to Luzhin. Raskolnokov hates Luzhin’s arrogant and pompous attitude, which reflects Dostoevsky’s animosity of the same qualities in people in the real world.
The life of Ivan Ilyich, we are told, "had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible" (Tolstoy, Ch. 2). In analyzing this description of Ivan's life, we see that Ivan has always done what is expected of him in the eyes of others (wife, co-workers, employers, etc.). While Ivan believes his life has run easily, pleasantly, and decorously like it should, we see that in reality it is an unfulfilled life. Ivan's closest associates are more worried about who will be next in line for promotion now that he is gone, and at his funeral they are more concerned over a bridge game than grieving for the loss of a friend, "The more intimate of Ivan Ilyich's acquaintances, his so-called friends, could not help thinking also that they would now have to fulfill the very tiresome demands of propriety by attending the funeral service and paying a visit of condolence to the widow" (Tolstoy Ch. 1).
Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment begins with Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov living in poverty and isolation in St. Petersburg. The reader soon learns that he was, until somewhat recently, a successful student at the local university. His character at that point was not uncommon. However, the environment of the grim and individualistic city eventually encourages Raskolnikov’s undeveloped detachment and sense of superiority to its current state of desperation. This state is worsening when Raskolnikov visits an old pawnbroker to sell a watch. During the visit, the reader slowly realizes that Raskolnikov plans to murder the woman with his superiority as a justification. After the Raskolnikov commits the murder, the novel deeply explores his psychology, yet it also touches on countless other topics including nihilism, the idea of a “superman,” and the value of human life. In this way, the greatness of Crime and Punishment comes not just from its examination of the main topic of the psychology of isolation and murder, but the variety topics which naturally arise in the discussion.
The people she loves most take her life of commitment and sacrifice for granted. The reader is thus also inclined to give little emphasis to her role in their lives and in the novel as a whole. As someone who has essentially nothing, Sonya is willing to give everything she has to those she loves. She gives of herself willingly and thanklessly. This life of sacrifice truly embodies Sonya's generous character. This genuine nature of her character allows her to reveal so much about those with whom she interacts throughout the novel. With Sonya's seeming "simplicity" in the background, Tolstoy fully develops the characters of Natasha and Nicholas. He uses Sonya as a contrast for his heroine, Natasha, and also as a chart of growth for Natasha's brother, Nicholas. Tolstoy even uses Sonya as a contrast to Princess Mary. Here, if one looks deeper, one will find that there is very little contrast at all between the two women. Most importantly, Sonya is an illustration of society's effects on a poor selfless young girl who puts her needs below those of all others. Tolstoy employs Sonya's character in a variety of situations. Without Sonya, a great deal of his novel's depth and richness would be lost.
One of the aspects of Crime and Punishment that stands out is that it is much more than a simple crime story. It is in fact a great study of the mind of a murder. Raskolnikov is a terrifying but sympathetic main character precisely because he is just twisted enough, just ill enough, for the reader to believe anyone is capable of such atrocities. The jumping off point for Raskolnikov is his idea of extraordinary and ordinary people. Looking at his theory and applying it as a tool for analysis of Raskolnikov himself leads not only to a deeper understanding of this idea but also of Raskolnikov. It also explains to some degree how seemingly benign ideas can lead a believer to do unspeakable things.
It is apparent that the love between Sonia and Raskolnikov plays a crucial role in Crime and Punishment, pushing Raskolnikov in a direction he otherwise would not have gone. Dostoevsky uses their relationship as a tool to develop the philosophical themes in the novel and prompt profound changes in Raskolnikov’s character. Through their love, Dostoevsky demonstrates the importance of human relationships in finding and maintaining happiness. He also seeks to condemn nihilism and disprove the idea that one cannot make one’s own meaning in life by having Raskolnikov adopt Christian existentialism and find his purpose through Sonia.
He “is nothing but a poor half-crazed creature, soft in temperament, confused in intellect” (Waliszewski), a maverick who believes he must deliver society from mediocrity. Deluded, he murders Alyona Ivanovna, a pawnbroker, and her unsuspecting half-sister, Lizaveta. Throughout the story, Raskolnikov undergoes transformations in all facets of his life, many of which are attributed to his infatuation with Marmeladov’s humble daughter, Sonia. Forced into prostitution, she is seen by Raskolnikov as a fellow transgressor of morality, but also as a savior that will renew him. This new development causes him to decry his nihilistic lifestyle as desolate and insufferable and to expiate, ending his self-imposed alienation and long suffering.
Within the tortured mind of a young Russian university student, an epic battle rages between two opposite ideologies - the conservative Christianity characteristic of the time, and a new modernist humanism gaining prevalence in academia. Fyodor Dostoevsky in the novel Crime and Punishment uses this conflict to illustrate why the coldly rational thought that is the ideal of humanism represses our essential emotions and robs us of all that is human. He uses the changes in Raskolnikov's mental state to provide a human example of modernism's effect on man, placing emphasis upon the student's quest for forgiveness and the effect of repressed emotion.
It is evident that, due to the lack of money in a family, suffering is a constant battle that can not be avoided because there is no alternative choice. They are obligated to go through the pain in order to survive. Not only does Dunya endure a harsh and shameful environment, but she is willing to sacrifice her own love life for the sake of her brother. She is willing to marry a man with no morals and despicable attitude, “ and despite Pyotr Petrovich’s present, quite understandable evasiveness (since he does not know you yet), Dunya is firmly convinced that she will achieve everything by her good influence on her future husband, and she is convinced of it. Of course, we took care not to let Pyotr Petrovitch in on these further dreams of our, above all that you will become his partner (Dostoevsky 37).
In Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, the theme of duality and the conflict between personal desires and morals is present throughout much of the novel. There are dual conflicts: one external between a disillusioned individual and his world, and the other internal between an isolated soul and his inner thoughts. It is the internal conflict in the main character, Raskolnikov, that is the focused on for much of the novel. The first of Rodya’s two sides is his intellectual side. This side of rodya is inhumane, and exhibiting extreme self-will and power. This is the side of him that comes up with his theory. The crime was a result of his theory that some people possess extraordinary abilities while others have no ability. It's this intellectual side of him that caused him to conceive and execute his murder. Through the authors use of setting tone, diction, and allusion, the readers get a better understand if what type of character, rodya is.