Literature Humanities 07-08

Salvation by the River. Is it real? What does it mean?

As I was reading the brutal murder description of the pawnbroker and her sister, I kept thinking about why Raskolnikov did what he did.  I finally figured out that it was a combination of wanting to superior and prideful along with his very deranged mental state. "The old woman was a mistake perhaps, but she's not the point! The old woman was merely a sickness . . . I was in a hurry to step over . . . it wasn't a human being I killed, it was a principle! So I killed the principle, but I didn't step over, I stayed on this side . . . All I managed to do was kill. And I didn't even manage that, as it turns out." So if you take the whole idea of wanting to be supreme and by removing the pawnbroker to better society, how does the religious aspect play into the murder?  Throughout history, powerful leaders such as Hitler and Stalin used the same premise that if a group of individuals were disrupting the welfare of the general public, the only logical conclusion would be to eliminate them.  So what do you think that the author is trying to say when Raskolnikov has a baptism moment at the end of the book and as we discussed in class is simply living and not thinking with his deranged mind?  Is he making a passive commentary on the Christian religion?  Is he denouncing the religion by allowing the main character to have such a moment of renewal?  Or is it that the doubt at the end of the epilogue is supposed to remind us that it may never work out for Raskolnikov?

Crime and Punishment, Part V (p.419)

I simply killed--killed for myself, for myself alone--and whether I would later become anyone's benefactor, or would spend my life as a spider, catching everyone in my web and sucking the life-sap out of everyone, should at that moment have made no difference to me[...]Understand me: perhaps continuing on that same path, I would never again repeat the murder. There was something else I wanted to know; something else nudging my arm. I wanted to find out then, and find out quickly, whether I was a louse like the rest, or a man? Would I be able to step over, or not! Would I dare to reach down and take, or not? Am I a trembling creature, or do I have the right...

And what about the mother?

I'd like to focus our attention on Raskolnikov's mother. In class we talked about the end of the novel, but we seemed to ignore her character and the fact that she dies in such a stressful way. In the Epilogue, once Raskolnikov is in jail and everyone has moved on with their lives, we get a couple of pages about Pulcheria Alexandrovna, and about how nobody tells her anything about Raskolnikov, and how Donya is just silent about him. The problem is that, much like Rodya's guilt process, she starts going crazy not knowing where her son is and fearing the worse news. She then finds out that he had saved two kids from a fire and goes ecstatic with this information, starts telling everyone about. Then, at one point, she believes that Raskolnikov will come home in nine months and she starts preparing everything for his visit, and Dunya herself starts helping her. And then, "after a troubled day spent in ceaseless fantasies, in joyful dreams and tears, she fell ill during the night, and by morning was in fever and raving. She became delirious. Two weeks later she did. In her raving certain words escaped her from which it could be concluded that she had a far greater suspicion of her son's terrible fate that had even been supposed" (541). In the end, I felt sorry for her situation and just thought, why couldn't Sonya, Donya, or Razumikhin just write her a letter and pretend it was from Raskolnikov? Why this fatal silence and why did Sonya not do anything even though she knew her mother was going crazy? I guess the most important question is: do you care about Alexandrovna as a character? I mean, is she important to the reader? (Why/why not?) Or does it seem as if Dostoevsky just killed her to kind of finish the cycle of a character that had been left alive?

“Oi, dat’s not allowed, it’s de wrong place!”

A couple of things I'd like to get your views on:
1) Lizaveta is described as always pregnant in the novel. Why did Dostoevsky need to do this? We never meet any children or anything. What is he saying about the character? Lizaveta was the innocent victim of her sister Alyona and Raskolnikov. What else does this mean considering Lizaveta and Sonya were intimate friends who shared crucifixes (in fact, the crucifix Raskolnikov wore was actually Lizaveta's, which is another question in itself…)?

2) Would the book have been better without the Epilogue at all? Why or why not?

3) We never talked about what I feel is the most naïve part of the novel, the Raskonikov's dream on p. 547. I won't type it out, but it was about a "yet unknown and unseen pestilence spreading from Europe from the depths of Asia". A bit of dream analysis here might be interesting.

4) THE BIG QUESTION: Why does Svidrigailov commit suicide and Raskolnikov doesn't? Raskolnikov certainly thinks about it, but doesn't take the plunge. Svidrigailov begins to talk about "going to America" in the bar, but when does he really decide to kill himself? Why does he really do it, considering the ghosts and these dreams? Is he angry that he cannot get his way? Is he sane? Is it a sense of purposeless in life? Is it only love that stops Raskolnikov from suicide? Also, Svidrigailov actually end up with the upper hand? He was never punished and essentially died in a manner that he chose, not like Alyona, the Marmeladovs, etc. What do you think? (Svidrigailov pulls the trigger on p.511, if you want to look back…)
With all due respect, Evan J. Biederstedt

Foils and Love

Today in class we talked about the prevalence of doubling methods and foils for Raskolnikov that Dostoevsky uses throughout "Crime and Punishment." I started thinking about who else could be a foil for Raskolnikov and thought that perhaps Luzhin is comparable to the protagonist of this novel. Luzhin wants to marry Dunya because, supposedly among other reasons, he believes "a husband ought to owe nothing to his wife, but it is much better if a wife looks upon her husband as a benefactor" (36). Similarly, Raskolnikov first takes a liking to Sonya after seeing her for the frail, self-sacrificing creature that she is. In addition, Luzhin is a despicably pretentious character while Raskolnikov tries to elevate himself to the rank of "extraordinary" by murdering Alyona. So, would you describe Luzhin and Raskolnikov as foils? Why is it that Luzhin is unable to convince Dunya to be with him while Sonya ends up with Raskolnikov? Is that contingent on the characteristics of the two female characters or is simply a reflection of the male characters' traits? Furthermore, considering Sonya to be the Jesus figure in this novel, she is often considered responsible for redeeming Raskolnikov's character. In the final scene of the novel Raskolnikov falls to Sonya's feet and "infinite happiness lit up in her eyes; she understood, and for her there was no longer any doubt that he loved her, loved her infinitely" (549). However, there is a sense of uncertainty that revolves around his love for Sonya. What is your take on his and Sonya's relationship? Are they truly in love or is Raskolnikov simply grateful to her giving him the opportunity to fulfill his punishment and ultimately be redeemed?