An essay on the topic of female characters in the novel crime and punishment. Female images in the novel F
In F. M. Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment” there are many images that often contradict each other and are contrasting. Women's images are also revealed in different ways, helping the reader see the society of that time from all sides.
The central and, without a doubt, the most significant female image in the novel is the image of Sonya Marmeladova. The author also connects biblical motifs with this heroine, since throughout the entire work the gospel truths are viewed through the prism of Sonya’s personality. Purity, purity, selflessness, self-sacrifice for the sake of the family - these are the main features inherent in the character of the heroine, what determines her attitude to life, her view of the world. The image of this girl evokes very warm feelings in the reader, mixed with boundless pity for her. It’s scary to re-read those lines in which the author describes Sonya’s “fall”: “And I see, at about six o’clock, Sonechka got up, put on a scarf, put on a burnusik and left the apartment, and at nine o’clock she came back... She paid thirty rubles. She didn’t utter a word... she just took... a handkerchief... completely covered her head and face with it and lay down on the bed against the wall, only her shoulders and body kept shaking...” Despite the fact that Sonya becomes a “fallen creature” in the eyes of society, in this “in the fall” we see the greatest feat for the sake of loved ones.
The image of Sonya also helps us reveal the character of the main character of the novel, Raskolnikov. The heroine’s spirituality collides with the student’s inhumane, inhumane theory and, to some extent, directs him to the right path, helps him recover from a serious illness. Sonya is a highly moral person. If we recall the text of the novel, we will see that it is in her mouth that the author puts one of the key phrases of the work. To Raskolnikov’s words “Yes, I killed a louse!” Sonya replies: “Is this man a louse?”
Unfortunately, despite the enormous saving role that Sonya plays in the work, we understand that she is sinful. The heroine violated one of the most important commandments and is punished along with Raskolnikov, going to hard labor.
Sonya Marmeladova, being one of the most striking images of the “humiliated and insulted,” does not lose her faith, confidence in the possibility of salvation, and this is where the heroine’s strength is revealed.
Another significant female character in the novel is Raskolnikov’s sister Dunya. In it we also see an example of self-sacrifice for the sake of loved ones. Dunya is going to marry a stranger, an unworthy man, so that Rodion Raskolnikov does not descend into a miserable existence. Her image is very closely intertwined with the image of Raskolnikov’s mother Pulcheria Alexandrovna. Both heroines love Rodion madly and are ready to do anything for him. We can judge this from the letter Raskolnikov received at the very beginning of the novel: “You know how much I love you; You are the only one for us, for me and Dunya, you are our everything, all our hope, our hope.” Mother and sister try to help the hero, despite the fact that they themselves have a very bad time - this is their blind love. However, one should not condemn either Dunya or Pulcheria Alexandrovna, since the motive of self-sacrifice on their part sounds in the novel on a par with the feat of Sonya Marmeladova, revealing the strength of the characters of these women.
Another image with which Dostoevsky connects gospel motifs is the image of Lizaveta. Quiet, modest, meek, hard-working, she never did harm to anyone. Lizaveta is shown in the novel as a holy, defenseless and innocent victim of Raskolnikov. Dostoevsky needed this heroine because she increases the severity of the protagonist’s crime. Raskolnikov kills the person for whose sake, according to his theory, he is “crossing the line.”
Completely opposite to all the analyzed images is the old money-lender Alena Ivanovna. Disgust for her awakens in the reader’s soul as soon as he meets her for the first time: “She was a tiny, dry old woman, about sixty years old, with sharp and angry eyes, a small pointed nose and bare hair. Her blond, slightly gray hair was greased with oil. Around her thin and long neck, similar to a chicken leg, there was some kind of flannel rag wrapped around her, and on her shoulders, despite the heat, a frayed and yellowed fur coat was hanging.” The image of an old woman in the novel is identified with evil, injustice, and insignificance, but it confirms the idea that “blood according to conscience” is impossible, since even the murder of such a person makes the hero suffer.
So, if we consider the female images in the novel “Crime and Punishment,” we would like to note that, no matter how contrasting they may be at times, each of them plays a huge semantic role in the work, and therefore cannot be missed or forgotten.
- “Life is boring without a moral goal...” (F. M. Dostoevsky). (Based on the works of A. S. Pushkin, M. Yu. Lermontov, F. M. Dostoevsky) - -
- “Art creates good people, shaping the human soul” (V. G. Belinsky). (Based on the works of A. S. Pushkin, F. M. Dostoevsky, A. P. Chekhov) - -
.) In the draft notes of “Crime and Punishment” (see summary and full text of the novel), this hero is called A-ov, after the name of one of the convicts of the Omsk prison Aristov, who in “Notes from the House of the Dead” is characterized as the limit of “moral decline ... decisive depravity and ... arrogant baseness.” “This was an example of what one physical side of a person could reach, not internally restrained by any norm, any legality... It was a monster, a moral Quasimodo. Add to the fact that he was cunning and intelligent, handsome, even somewhat educated, and had abilities. No, better is fire, better is pestilence and famine than such a person in society!” Svidrigailov was supposed to be the embodiment of such complete moral ugliness. However, this very image and the author’s attitude towards it turned out to be incomparably more complex: along with cheating, dirty debauchery and cruelty that led his victim to suicide, he turns out to be unexpectedly capable of good deeds, philanthropy and generosity. Svidrigailov is a man of enormous inner strength who has lost the sense of boundaries between good and evil.
Crime and Punishment. Feature Film 1969 1 episode
The image of Lebezyatnikov in Crime and Punishment
All other images of the novel were not subjected to major processing. The businessman and careerist Luzhin, who considers any means acceptable to achieve his selfish goals, the vulgar Lebezyatnikov, one of those people who, in the words of Dostoevsky, “stick to the most fashionable current idea in order to vulgarize, caricature everything that they most sincerely serve.” ”, - were conceived the same as we see them in the final edition of the novel. By the way, emphasizing the typicality of Lebezyatnikov’s image, Dostoevsky even creates the term “fawning.” According to some reports, Lebezyatnikov’s character reflected some personal traits of the famous Russian critic V. Belinsky, who at first welcomed the works of the young Dostoevsky, and then criticized them from clumsy and primitive “materialistic” positions. (See Description of Lebezyatnikov, Theory of Lebezyatnikov - quotes from Crime and Punishment.)
The image of Razumikhin in “Crime and Punishment”
The image of Razumikhin in the process of working on Crime and Punishment also remained unchanged in its ideological content, although according to the initial outlines he should have taken a much larger place in the novel. Dostoevsky saw in him positive hero. Razumikhin expresses soil views inherent in Dostoevsky himself. He opposes revolutionary Western trends, defends the importance of “soil”, Slavophile-understood folk foundations - patriarchy, religious and moral foundations, patience. Razumikhin's reasoning Porfiry Petrovich, his objections to supporters of the “environmental theory”, who explained human actions by the social conditions of life, objections Fourierists and materialists who allegedly seek to level out human nature and eliminate free will, Razumikhin’s assertions that socialism- a Western idea, alien to Russia - all this directly resonates with Dostoevsky’s journalistic and polemical articles.
Razumikhin is a spokesman for the author’s positions on a number of issues and is therefore especially dear to him.
Crime and Punishment. Feature film 1969 Episode 2
The image of Sonya Marmeladova in Crime and Punishment
But already in the next notebook, Sonya Marmeladova appears to the reader as in the final text of the novel - the embodiment of the Christian idea: “NB. She constantly considers herself a deep sinner, a fallen depraved woman who cannot beg for salvation” (First Book, p. 105). The image of Sonya is the apotheosis of suffering, an example of the highest asceticism, complete oblivion of one’s own personality. Life for Sonya is unthinkable without faith in God and the immortality of the soul: “What was I without God,” she says. This idea was very clearly expressed by Marmeladov in his rough drafts for the novel. In response to Raskolnikov’s remark that perhaps there is no God, Marmeladov says: “That is, there is no God, sir, and there will be no His coming... then... then it’s impossible to live... It’s too bestial... Then I would have rushed to the Neva at once. But, dear sir, this will be, this is promised, for the living, well, what then will remain for us... Whoever lives, even in (...) up to his neck, but if only he actually living then he suffers, and therefore, he needs Christ, and therefore, there will be Christ. Lord, what did you say? The only people who don’t believe in Christ are those who have no need for him, who live little, and whose soul is like an inorganic stone” (Second Notebook, p. 13). These words of Marmeladov did not find a place in the final edition, obviously because after combining two ideas - the novel “Drunk” and the story about Raskolnikov - the image of Marmeladov faded into the background.
At the same time, the hard life of the lower classes of the city, depicted by Dostoevsky with such brightness and relief, cannot but cause protest, manifested in one form or another. So, Katerina Ivanovna, dying, refuses to confess: “I have no sins!
During the publication of “Crime and Punishment” in “Russian Messenger”, differences emerged between the writer and the editors of this magazine. The editors demanded the removal of the chapter of the novel in which Sonya reads the gospel to Raskolnikov (Chapter 4, Part 4 according to a separate edition), with which Dostoevsky did not agree.
In July 1866, Dostoevsky informed A.P. Milyukov about his disagreements with the editors of the Russian Messenger: “I explained it to both of them [Lyubimov and Katkov] - they stand their ground! I can’t say anything about this chapter myself; I wrote it in the present inspiration, but it may be bad; but their point is not in literary merit, but in fear for moral. In this I was right - there was nothing against morality and even on the contrary, but they see something else, and, in addition, they see traces nihilism. Lyubimov announced decisively what needs to be changed. I took it, and this reworking of a large chapter cost me at least three new chapters of work, judging by the work and melancholy, but I forwarded it and passed it.”
Sending the revised chapter to the editor, Dostoevsky wrote to N. A. Lyubimov: “Evil and Kind highly separated, and it will no longer be possible to mix them and use them incorrectly. I made all the other amendments you indicated, and, it seems, with more than... Everything that you said, I fulfilled, everything is divided, demarcated and clear. Reading the Gospel given a different flavor.”
In “Crime and Punishment” we have a whole gallery of Russian women: Sonya Marmeladova, Rodion’s mother Pulcheria Alexandrovna, sister Dunya, Katerina Ivanovna and Alena Ivanovna killed by life, Lizaveta Ivanovna killed with an ax.
F.M. Dostoevsky was able to see main feature Russian female character and reveal it in your work. In his novel there are two types of heroines: soft and flexible, forgiving - Sonechka Marmeladova - and rebels who passionately intervene in this unfair and hostile environment - Katerina Ivanovna. These two female characters interested Dostoevsky and forced him to turn to them again and again in his works. The writer, of course, is on the side of meek heroines, with their sacrifice in the name of their loved one. The author preaches Christian humility. He prefers Sonya's meekness and generosity.
And rebels are most often immensely proud, in a fit of offended feeling they go against common sense, putting not only passion on the altar own life, but what’s even worse is the well-being of their children. This is Katerina Ivanovna.
Depicting the fates of Katerina Ivanovna and Sonya Marmeladova, Dostoevsky gives, as it were, two answers to the question about the behavior of a suffering person: on the one hand, passive, enlightened humility and on the other, an irreconcilable curse on the entire unjust world. These two answers left their mark on artistic structure novel: the entire line of Sonechka Marmeladova is painted in lyrical, sometimes sentimental and conciliatory tones; in the description of Katerina Ivanovna’s misadventures, accusatory intonations predominate.
The writer presented all types in his novels, but he himself remained on the side of the meek and weak in appearance, but strong and not broken spiritually. This is probably why his “rebel” Katerina Ivanovna dies, and the quiet and meek Sonechka Marmeladova not only survives this scary world, but also helps to save Raskolnikov, who has stumbled and lost his support in life. This has always been the case in Rus': a man is a leader, but a woman was his support, support, and adviser. Dostoevsky does not just continue traditions classical literature, he brilliantly sees the realities of life and knows how to reflect them in his work. Decades pass, centuries replace each other, but the truth of a woman’s character, captured by the author, continues to live, excite the minds of new generations, invites us to enter into polemics or agree with the writer.
Dostoevsky was probably the first Russian writer to make the art of psychoanalysis accessible to a wide circle readers. Even if someone does not understand or realize what the author has shown him, he will definitely feel that it will nevertheless bring him closer to seeing the true meaning of the picture of reality outlined in the work. Dostoevsky's heroes actually do not go beyond the boundaries of everyday life and solve their purely personal problems. However, at the same time, these heroes constantly act and are aware of themselves in the face of the whole world, and their problems ultimately turn out to be universal. To achieve such an effect, the writer must do extremely painstaking work, with no room for error. IN psychological work there can't be any extra words, hero, event. Therefore, when analyzing female characters in a novel, you should pay attention to everything, down to the smallest details.
On the first pages we meet the moneylender Alena Ivanovna. “She was a tiny, dry old woman, about sixty years old, with sharp and angry eyes, a small pointed nose and bare hair. Her blond, slightly gray hair was greased with oil. On her thin and long neck, similar to a chicken leg, there was a - a flannel rag, and, despite the heat, a frayed and yellowed fur coat hung on his shoulders. Dostoevsky F. M. Crime and Punishment: A Novel - Kuibyshev: Publishing House, 1983, p. 33." Raskolnikov is disgusted by the pawnbroker, but why? Because of appearance ? No, I specifically brought her full portrait, but this is a common description of an old person. For her wealth? In a tavern, one student told an officer: “She’s rich like a Jew, she can give out five thousand at once, and she doesn’t disdain a ruble mortgage. She’s had a lot of our people. She’s just a terrible bitch...” But there is no malice in these words. The same young man said: “She’s nice, you can always get money from her.” In essence, Alena Ivanovna does not deceive anyone, because she names the price of the mortgage before concluding the deal. The old woman earns her living as best she can, which does her credit, unlike Rodion Romanovich, who admitted in a conversation with another heroine: “My mother would send to contribute what is needed, but for boots, a dress and bread I would and I probably earned it myself! The lessons were offered for fifty dollars. But Razumikhin worked! This is who deserves censure: a person who does not want to work, is ready to continue living on the money of his poor mother and justifies himself with some kind of philosophical ideas. We must not forget that Napoleon with his own hands paved the way for himself from the bottom to the top, and it is this, and not the murders he committed, that makes him a great man. To discredit the hero, the murder of the moneylender would be enough, but Fyodor Mikhailovich introduces another character and makes him the second victim of the young student. This is Alena Ivanovna’s sister, Lizaveta. “She has such a kind face and eyes. Very much so. Proof - many people like her. She’s so quiet, meek, unrequited, agreeable, agrees to everything.” Her build and health allowed her not to be offended, but she preferred the existing order of things. In the novel she is considered almost a saint. But for some reason everyone forgets about “why the student was surprised and laughed.” It “was that Lizaveta was pregnant every minute...”. What happened to her children, since only two sisters lived in the apartment? You shouldn't turn a blind eye to this. Lizaveta does not refuse her “kindness” to students. This is rather weak-willedness rather than kindness; the younger sister does not feel reality, she does not observe it from the side. She doesn’t live in general, she is a plant, not a person. Perhaps only the simple and hard-working Nastasya looks at Raskolnikov soberly, namely “with disgust.” Accustomed to conscientious work, she cannot understand the owner lying idly on the sofa, complaining about poverty and not wanting to try to earn money, giving himself up to idle thoughts instead of teaching his students. “She came in again at two o’clock, with soup. He lay there as before. The tea stood untouched. Nastasya even got offended and began to push him angrily." A person who is not interested in psychology is unlikely to attach significance to this episode. For him, the further action of the novel will develop according to the generally accepted scenario. Thanks to this character, someone may doubt the correctness of some heroines with whom the author introduces us later. They say that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Who spoiled Rodion like that? Any psychotherapist looks for the roots of the patient’s illness in the latter’s childhood. So, the author introduces us to Pulcheria Raskolnikova, the mother of the main character. us, you are our everything, all our hope, our hope. What happened to me when I found out that you had already left the university for several months, for lack of anything to support yourself, and that your lessons and other means had stopped! How could I, with my one hundred and twenty rubles a year pension, help you? “Dostoevsky, ibid., p.56.. But he is a man, he, and not an elderly mother, must feed the whole family, fortunately he has the opportunity to work. The mother is ready to do anything for the sake of her son, even to marry her daughter to a man,” it seems , good,” but which also Rode “can be very useful even in everything, and we have already assumed that you, even from this very day, could definitely begin your future career and consider your fate already clearly determined. Oh, if only this could come true! ". It is the last phrase of Pulcheria Raskolnikova that is most important. The mother dreams not about the happiness of her daughter, who is walking down the aisle without love and has already suffered, but about how, with the help of her groom, she can better accommodate her idle son. Spoiled children have a very difficult time in life later , which proves further development events in the novel.
The reader knows Marfa Petrovna only from the stories of other characters in the work who are familiar with the Svidrigailov family. There is nothing remarkable about her, she is simply the unloved wife of her husband, who caught him in treason, and received a spouse only thanks to her fortune. At the end of the book we encounter the following phrase addressed to the future suicide: “Not your revolver, but Marfa Petrovna’s, whom you killed, villain! You had nothing of your own in her house.” It seems that this woman appeared among the characters in order to use her to convict the cruel gambler in life.
Next, Raskolnikov meets the Marmeladov family. “Katerina Ivanovna ran out into the street screaming and crying - with the vague goal of finding justice somewhere now, immediately and at any cost.” She is like Fernanda from Marquez’s novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” who “wandered around the house, wailing loudly - so that, they say, she was raised like a queen, to become her servant in a madhouse, to live with her husband - a quitter, an atheist, and she he works and strains himself, takes care of the household..." It is significant that neither one nor the other woman does any of this. Just as Marquez found Petra Cotes, who actually supported Fernanda, so Dostoevsky brought Sonya out to prevent the Marmeladovs from disappearing. Sonya's kindness is dead and imaginary, like the holiness of the late Lizaveta. Why did Sofya Semyonovna become a prostitute? Out of pity for your half-brother and sisters? Why then didn’t she go to the monastery, taking them with her, because there they would obviously live better than with an alcoholic father and a mother who beat them? Let's assume that she did not want to leave Marmeladov and his wife to the mercy of fate. But why then give my father money for drinking, because this is what destroyed him? She probably feels sorry for him, he won’t get drunk, he will suffer. It's time to remember the phrase: "Loving everyone means loving no one." Sonechka sees only her own good deeds, but she does not see, does not want to see, how they manifest themselves on those she helps. She, like Lizaveta, does everything that is asked of her, without understanding why it is, what will come of it. Like a robot, Sonya does what the Bible commands. This is how an electric light bulb shines: because the button is pressed and the current flows.
Now let's look at the end of the novel. In fact, Svidrigailov offers Avdotya Romanovna the same thing that Katerina Ivanovna demanded from Sonechka. But Dunya knows the value of many actions in life, she is smarter, stronger and, most importantly, unlike Sofya Semyonovna, in addition to her nobility, she is able to see the dignity of others. If my brother had not accepted salvation from her at such a price, he would have sooner committed suicide.
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, as a great master psychologist, described people, their thoughts and experiences in a “vortex” flow; his characters are constantly in dynamic development. He chose the most tragic, most significant moments. Hence the universal, universal problem of love, which his heroes are trying to solve.
According to Sonechka, this holy and righteous sinner, it is the lack of love for one’s neighbor (Raskolnikov calls humanity an “anthill,” “a trembling creature”) that is the fundamental reason for Rodion’s sin. This is the difference between them: his sin is a confirmation of his “exclusivity”, his greatness, his power over every louse (be it his mother, Dunya, Sonya), her sin is a sacrifice in the name of love for her relatives: her father - to the drunkard, to the consumptive stepmother, to her children, whom Sonya loves more than her pride, more than her pride, more life, finally. His sin is the destruction of life, hers is the salvation of life.
At first, Raskolnikov hates Sonya, because he sees that this little downtrodden creature loves him, the Lord and “God”, in spite of everything, loves and pities (things are interconnected) - this fact deals a strong blow to his fictitious theory. Moreover, his mother’s love for him, her son, also, in spite of everything, “torments him”; Pulcheria Alexandrovna constantly makes sacrifices for the sake of her “beloved Rodenka.”
Dunya’s sacrifice is painful for him, her love for her brother is another step towards a refutation, towards the collapse of his theory.
The author believes that love is self-sacrifice, embodied in the image of Sonya, Dunya, mother - after all, it is important for the author to show not only the love of a woman and a man, but also the love of a mother for her son, brother for sister (sister for brother).
Dunya agrees to marry Luzhin for the sake of her brother, and the mother understands perfectly well that she is sacrificing her daughter for the sake of her first-born. Dunya hesitated for a long time before making a decision, but in the end, she finally decided: “... before making up her mind, Dunya did not sleep all night, and, believing that I was already asleep, she got out of bed and spent the whole night walked back and forth around the room, finally knelt down and prayed long and fervently in front of the image, and the next morning she announced to me that she had made up her mind.” Dunya Raskolnikova is going to marry a complete stranger to her only because she does not want to allow her mother and brother to descend into a miserable existence in order to improve the financial condition of her family. She also sells herself, but, unlike Sonya, she still has the opportunity to choose the “buyer”.
Sonya immediately, without hesitation, agrees to give all of herself, all her love to Raskolnikov, to sacrifice herself for the well-being of her lover: “Come to me, I will put a cross on you, let’s pray and let’s go.” Sonya happily agrees to follow Raskolnikov anywhere, accompany him everywhere. “He met her restless and painfully caring gaze...” - here is Sonin’s love, all her dedication.
The author of the novel "Crime and Punishment" introduces us to many human destinies faced with the most difficult living conditions. As a result, some of them found themselves at the very bottom of society, unable to withstand what befell them.
Marmeladov gives tacit consent for his own daughter to go to the panel in order to be able to pay for housing and buy food. The old woman-pawnbroker, who, although she has only a little time left to live, continues her activities, humiliating, insulting people who bring the last thing they have in order to get pennies that are hardly enough to live on.
Sonya Marmeladova, the main female character of the novel, is the bearer of Christian ideas that clash with Raskolnikov’s inhuman theory. It is thanks to her main character gradually realizes how much he was mistaken, what a monstrous act he committed, killing a seemingly senseless old woman who was living out her days; It is Sonya who helps Raskolnikov return to people, to God. The girl's love resurrects his soul, tormented by doubts.
The image of Sonya is one of the most important in the novel; in it Dostoevsky embodied his idea of a “man of God”. Sonya lives according to Christian commandments. Placed in the same difficult conditions of existence as Raskolnikov, she retained living soul and that necessary connection with the world, which was broken by the main character, who committed the most terrible sin - murder. Sonechka refuses to judge anyone and accepts the world as it is. Her credo: “And who made me the judge here: who should live and who should not live?”
The image of Sonya has two interpretations: traditional and new, given by V.Ya. Kirpotin. According to the first, the heroine embodies Christian ideas, according to the second, she is the bearer of folk morality.
Embodied in Sonya folk character in her undeveloped childhood stage, and the path of suffering forces her to evolve according to the traditional religious scheme towards the holy fool, it is not for nothing that she is so often compared with Lizaveta. Dostoevsky, on behalf of Sonechka, preaches the ideas of kindness and compassion, which constitute the unshakable foundations of human existence.
All the female characters in the novel evoke sympathy in the reader, force them to empathize with their destinies and admire the talent of the writer who created them.
In Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment, the main characters are complex and contradictory characters. Their fate is closely connected with living conditions, the environment in which life takes place, and individual characteristics. It is possible to characterize the characters of Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” only based on their actions, since we do not hear the author’s voice in the work.
Rodion Raskolnikov - the main character of the novel
Rodion Raskolnikov – central character works. The young man has an attractive appearance. “By the way, he was remarkably good-looking, with beautiful dark eyes, dark-haired, above average height, thin and slender.” An extraordinary mind, a proud character, sick pride and a miserable existence are the reasons for the hero’s criminal behavior. Rodion highly values his abilities, considers himself an exceptional person, dreams of a great future, but his financial situation has a depressing effect on him. He has nothing to pay for studying at the university, and does not have enough money to pay off his landlady. The young man's clothes attract the attention of passers-by with their shabby and old appearance. Trying to cope with the circumstances, Rodion Raskolnikov goes to kill the old pawnbroker. Thus, he is trying to prove to himself that he belongs to the highest class of people and can step over blood. “Am I a trembling creature or do I have the right,” he thinks. But one crime leads to another. An innocent, wretched woman is dying. Hero theory of law strong personality leads to a dead end. Only Sonya's love awakens his faith in God and revives him to life. Raskolnikov's personality consists of opposite qualities. An indifferent, cruel killer gives his last pennies for the funeral of a stranger, interferes in the fate of a young girl, trying to save her from dishonor.
Minor characters
The images of the heroes who play the main role in the story become fuller and brighter as a result of the description of their relationships with other people. Family members, friends, acquaintances, episodic persons appearing in the plot help to better understand the idea of the work and understand the motives of actions.
To make the appearance of the characters in the novel clearer to the reader, the writer uses various techniques. We get acquainted with a detailed description of the characters, delve into the details of the dreary interior of the apartments, and consider the dull gray streets of St. Petersburg.
Sofia Marmeladova
Sofya Semyonovna Marmeladova- a young unfortunate creature. “Sonya was short, about eighteen, thin, but quite pretty blonde, with wonderful blue eyes.”
She is young, naive and very kind. Drunk father, sick stepmother, hungry stepsisters and brother - here environment, in which the heroine lives. She is a shy and timid person, unable to stand up for herself. But this fragile creature is ready to sacrifice itself for the sake of loved ones. She sells her body, engaging in prostitution, to help her family, and goes after the convicted Raskolnikov. Sonya is a kind, selfless and deeply religious person. This gives her the strength to cope with all trials and find the happiness she deserves.
Semyon Marmeladov
Marmeladov Semyon Zakharovich- an equally significant character in the work. He is a former official, the father of a family with many children. A weak and weak-willed person solves all his problems with the help of alcohol. A man dismissed from service condemns his wife and children to starvation. They live in a walk-through room with almost no furnishings. Children do not go to school and do not have a change of clothes. Marmeladov is capable of drinking away his last money, taking the pennies he earned from his eldest daughter, in order to get drunk and get away from problems. Despite this, the image of the hero evokes pity and compassion, since circumstances turned out to be stronger than him. He himself suffers from his vice, but cannot cope with it.
Avdotya Raskolnikova
Avdotya Romanovna Raskolnikova- sister of the main character. A girl from a poor but honest and worthy family. Dunya is smart, well-educated, well-mannered. She is “remarkably pretty,” which, unfortunately, attracts the attention of men. In character traits, “she was like her brother.” Avdotya Raskolnikova, a proud and independent nature, determined and purposeful, was ready to marry an unloved person for the sake of her brother’s well-being. Self-esteem and hard work will help her arrange her destiny and avoid irreparable mistakes.
Dmitry Vrazumikhin
Dmitry Prokofievich Vrazumikhin- Rodion Raskolnikov’s only friend. The poor student, unlike his friend, does not give up his studies. He makes a living by all available means and never stops hoping for luck. Poverty does not stop him from making plans. Razumikhin is a noble man. He selflessly tries to help his friend and takes care of his family. Love for Avdotya Romanovna Raskolnikova inspires the young man, makes him stronger and more decisive.
Pyotr Luzhin
Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin- a venerable, respected middle-aged man of pleasant appearance. He is a successful entrepreneur, the happy fiancé of Dunya Raskolnikova, a rich and self-confident gentleman. In fact, under the mask of integrity hides a low and vile nature. Taking advantage of the girl's plight, he proposes to her. In his actions, Pyotr Petrovich is guided not by selfless motives, but by his own benefit. He dreams of a wife who would be slavishly submissive and grateful until the end of her days. For the sake of his own interests, he pretends to be in love, tries to slander Raskolnikov, and accuse Sonya Marmeladova of theft.
Arkady Svidrigailov
Svidrigailov Arkady Ivanovich- one of the most mysterious persons in the novel. The owner of the house where Avdotya Romanovna Raskolnikova worked. He is cunning and dangerous to others. Svidrigailov is a vicious person. Being married, he tries to seduce Dunya. He is accused of murdering his wife and seducing young children. Svidrigailov’s terrible nature is capable, oddly enough, of noble deeds. He helps Sonya Marmeladova justify herself and arranges the fate of orphaned children. Rodion Raskolnikov, having committed a crime, becomes like this hero, since he transgresses the moral law. It is no coincidence that in a conversation with Rodion he says: “We are birds of a feather.”
Pulcheria Raskolnikova
Raskolnikova Pulcheria Alexandrovna- mother of Rodion and Dunya. The woman is poor, but honest. A kind and sympathetic person. A loving mother, ready for any sacrifices and hardships for the sake of her children.
F. M. Dostoevsky pays very little attention to some of his heroes. But they are necessary in the course of the story. Thus, it is impossible to imagine the investigation process without the smart, cunning, but noble investigator Porfiry Petrovich. The young doctor Zosimov treats and understands Rodion’s psychological state during his illness. An important witness to the weakness of the protagonist in the police station is the assistant to the quarterly warden Ilya Petrovich. Luzhin’s friend Lebezyatnikov Andrei Semyonovich returns Sonya’s good name and exposes her deceitful groom. Events, seemingly insignificant at first glance, associated with the names of these characters play an important role in the development of the plot.
The meaning of episodic persons in the work
On the pages of the great work of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky we meet others actors. The list of heroes of the novel is supplemented by episodic characters. Katerina Ivanovna, Marmeladov’s wife, unfortunate orphans, a girl on the boulevard, the greedy old money-lender Alena Ivanovna, the sick Lizoveta. Their appearance is no coincidence. Each, even the most insignificant image, carries its own meaning and serves to embody the author’s intention. All the heroes of the novel “Crime and Punishment” are important and necessary, the list of which goes on and on.
Work test
Sonya Marmeladova is a kind of antipode to Raskolnikov. Her “solution” consists in self-sacrifice, in the fact that she has “transcended” herself, and her main idea is the idea of \u200b\u200bthe “intransigibility” of another person. To transgress another means for her to destroy herself. In this she opposes Raskolnikov, who all the time, from the very beginning of the novel (when he only learned about Sonya’s existence from her father’s confession), measures his crime by her “crime,” trying to justify himself. He constantly strives to prove that since Sonya’s “solution” is not a genuine solution, it means that he, Raskolnikov, is right. It is in front of Sonya that from the very beginning he wants to confess to the murder; it is her fate that he takes as an argument in favor of his theory of the criminality of everything. Intertwined with Raskolnikov’s relationship with Sonya are his relationships with his mother and sister, who are also close to the idea of self-sacrifice.
Raskolnikov's idea reaches its culmination in chapter IV, the fourth part, in the scene of Raskolnikov visiting Sonya and reading the Gospel together with her. At the same time, the novel reaches its turning point here.
Raskolnikov himself understands the significance of his coming to Sonya. "I'm coming to you at last time came,” he says, he came, because everything will be decided tomorrow, and he must say “one word” to her, obviously decisive, if he considers it necessary to say it before the fateful tomorrow.
Sonya hopes for God, for a miracle. Raskolnikov, with his angry, well-honed skepticism, knows that there is no God and there will be no miracle. Raskolnikov mercilessly reveals to his interlocutor the futility of all her illusions. Moreover, in a kind of ecstasy, Raskolnikov tells Sonya about the uselessness of her compassion, about the futility of her sacrifices.
It is not a shameful profession that makes Sonya a great sinner - Sonya was brought to her profession by the greatest compassion, the greatest tension of moral will - but by the futility of her sacrifice and her feat. “And that you are a great sinner, that’s true,” he added almost enthusiastically, “and most of all, you are a sinner because you killed and betrayed yourself in vain. It wouldn’t be a horror! It wouldn’t be a horror that you live in this filth.” , which you hate so much, and at the same time you know yourself (you just have to open your eyes) that you’re not helping anyone with this and you’re not saving anyone from anything!” (6, 273).
Raskolnikov judges Sonya with different scales in his hands than the prevailing morality; he judges her from a different point of view than she herself. Raskolnikov's heart is pierced by the same pain as Sonya's heart, only he is a thinking person, he generalizes.
He bows before Sonya and kisses her feet. “I didn’t bow to you, I bowed to all human suffering,” he said somehow wildly and walked away to the window. He sees the Gospel, he asks to read the scene of the resurrection of Lazarus. Both are absorbed in the same text, but both understand it differently. Raskolnikov thinks, perhaps, about the resurrection of all humanity, perhaps the final phrase, emphasized by Dostoevsky - “Then many of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what Jesus did, believed in him” - he also understands in his own way: after all and he is waiting for the hour when people will believe in him, just as the Jews believed in Jesus as the Messiah.
Dostoevsky understood the iron force of the grip of need and circumstances that squeezed Sonya. With the precision of a sociologist, he outlined the narrow “open spaces” that fate left her for her own “maneuver.” But, nevertheless, Dostoevsky found in Sonya, in a defenseless teenager thrown onto the sidewalk, in the most downtrodden, most last person of a large metropolitan city, the source of its own beliefs, its own decisions, its own actions, dictated by its own conscience and its own will. Therefore, she could become a heroine in a novel where everything is based on confrontation with the world and on the choice of means for such confrontation.
The profession of a prostitute plunges Sonya into shame and baseness, but the motives and goals as a result of which she embarked on her path are selfless, sublime, and holy. Sonya “chose” her profession involuntarily, she had no other choice, but the goals that she pursues in her profession were set by herself, set freely. D. Merezhkovsky turned the real, life-defined dialectic of the image of Sonya into a fixed psycho-metaphysical scheme. Using terminology taken from The Brothers Karamazov, he finds in it “two abysses”, a sinner and a saint, two simultaneously existing ideals - Sodom and Madonna.
Christ, according to the Gospel, saved a harlot from bigots who were going to stone her. Dostoevsky undoubtedly remembered Christ's attitude towards the gospel prostitute when he created the image of Sonya. But the evangelical harlot, having received her sight, left her sinful profession and became a saint. Sonya was always sighted, but she could not stop “sinning”, she could not help but take her own path - the only possible way for her to save the little Marmeladovs from starvation.
Dostoevsky himself does not equate Sonya with Raskolnikov. He puts them in a contradictory relationship of sympathy, love and struggle, which, according to his plan, should end in the affirmation of Sonya's correctness, in Sonya's victory. The word “in vain” belongs not to Dostoevsky, but to Raskolnikov. It was uttered last in order to convince Sonya, in order to transfer her to her path. It does not correspond to the self-awareness of Sonya, who, from Raskolnikov’s point of view, “did not open her eyes” either to her position or to the results of her asceticism.
Thus, we see that the image of Sonya Marmeladova can be considered as a religious-mythological image associated with Mary Magdalene. But the meaning of this image in the novel does not end there: it can also be correlated with the image of the Virgin Mary. Preparation for the image to be seen by the hero and the reader begins gradually, but openly and clearly - from the moment where the convicts’ view of Sonya is described. For Raskolnikov, their attitude towards her is incomprehensible and discouraging: “Another question was insoluble for him: why did they all fall in love with Sonya so much? She didn’t curry favor with them; they rarely met her, sometimes only at work, when she came for one minute to to see him. Meanwhile, everyone already knew her, they also knew that she followed him, they knew how she lived, where she lived, she didn’t give them any special services. Only once, at Christmas, she brought it to them. the whole prison was offering alms: pies and rolls. But little by little, some closer relations began between them and Sonya: she wrote letters to them to their relatives and sent them to the post office, their relatives and relatives who came to the city, at their direction. in Sonya's hands were things for them and even money. Their wives and mistresses knew her and went to see her. And when she appeared at work, came to Raskolnikov, or met a party of prisoners going to work, everyone took off their hats, everyone bowed: “Mother Sofya Semyonovna, you are our tender, sick mother!” these rough, branded convicts said to this small and thin creature. She smiled and bowed, and they all loved it when she smiled at them. They even loved her gait, turned to watch her as she walked, and praised her; They even praised her for being so small; they didn’t even know what to praise her for. They even went to her for treatment" (6; 419).
After reading this passage, it is impossible not to notice that the convicts perceive Sonya as the image of the Virgin Mary, which is especially clear from its second part. What is described in the first part, if read inattentively, can be understood as the formation of the relationship between the convicts and Sonya. But this is obviously not the case, because on the one hand, the relationship is established before any relationship: the prisoners immediately “loved Sonya so much.” They immediately saw her - and the dynamics of the description only indicate that Sonya becomes the patroness and assistant, consoler and intercessor of the entire prison, which accepted her in such a capacity even before any external manifestations.
The second part, even with the lexical nuances of the author’s speech, indicates that something very special is happening. This part begins with an amazing phrase: “And when she appeared...” The greeting of the convicts is quite consistent with the “appearance”: “Everyone took off their hats, everyone bowed...”. They call her “mother”, “mother”, they love it when she smiles at them - a kind of blessing. Well, the end crowns the matter - the revealed image of the Mother of God turns out to be miraculous: “They even went to her for treatment.”
Thus, Sonya does not need any intermediate links; she directly realizes her moral and social goals. Sonya, the eternal Sonechka, marks not only the passive beginning of sacrifice, but also the active beginning of practical love - for the perishing, for loved ones, for one’s own kind. Sonya sacrifices herself not for the sake of the sweetness of sacrifice, not for the sake of the goodness of suffering, not even for the afterlife bliss of her soul, but in order to save her relatives, friends, offended, disadvantaged and oppressed from the role of victim. The underlying basis of Sonya’s sacrifice is the beginning of selfless devotion, social solidarity, human mutual assistance, and humane activity.
However, Sonya herself is not an incorporeal spirit, but a person, a woman, and between her and Raskolnikov a special relationship of mutual sympathy and mutual rapprochement arises, giving a special personal touch to her craving for Raskolnikov and her difficult struggle for Raskolnikov’s soul.
