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?
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?
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