The concept of the novel

Objective reality, the living conditions of people living in the first half of the nineteenth century, are closely related to the history of the creation of "Crime and Punishment" Dostoevsky. In the work, the writer tried to present his reflections on the urgent problems of contemporary society. He calls the book a novel - a confession. “My whole heart will rely with blood on this novel,” the author dreams.
The desire to write a work of this kind appeared in Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky in hard labor in Omsk. The hard life of a convict, physical fatigue did not prevent him from observing life and analyzing what was happening. Being convicted, he decided to create a novel about a crime, but he did not dare to start work on the book. A serious illness did not allow making plans and took away all moral and physical strength. The writer managed to bring his idea to life only after a few years. Several others have been created over the years. famous works: "Humiliated and Insulted", "Notes from the Underground", "Notes from the House of the Dead".

The problems raised in these novels will be reflected in Crime and Punishment.

Dreams and cruel reality

Life unceremoniously interfered with Dostoevsky's plans. The creation of a great novel took time, and the financial situation deteriorated every day. To earn money, the writer suggested that the Otechestvennye Zapiski magazine publish a short novel, Drunken. In this book, he planned to draw public attention to the problem of drunkenness. The storyline of the narrative was to be connected with the stories of the Marmeladov family. The main character is an unfortunate drunkard official who was dismissed from service. The editor of the magazine put forward other conditions. The hopeless situation forced the writer to agree to sell the rights to publish the complete collection of his works for a negligible price and, at the request of the editors, write a new novel in a short time. So, all of a sudden, a rush to work on the novel Crime and Punishment began.

Getting started on a work

Having signed the contract with the publishing house, FM Dostoevsky managed to improve his affairs at the expense of the fee, relaxed and succumbed to temptation. A keen gambler, he was unable to cope with his illness this time. The result was disastrous. The remaining money is lost. Living in a hotel in Wiesbaden, he could not pay for the light and table, he did not find himself on the street only by the mercy of the hotel owners. To finish the novel on time, Dostoevsky had to hurry. The author decided to briefly tell the story of one crime. The main character is a poor student who decided to kill and rob. The writer is interested in the psychological state of a person, the "process of crime."

The plot moved to a denouement when, for some unknown reason, the manuscript was destroyed.

Creative process

The feverish work began anew. And in 1866 the first part was published in the journal "Russian Bulletin". The time allotted for the creation of the novel was drawing to a close, and the writer's intention was only expanding. The life story of the protagonist is harmoniously intertwined with the story of Marmeladov. To satisfy the customer's requirements and avoid creative bondage, F.M.Dostoevsky interrupts work for 21 days. During this time, he creates a new work called "The Gambler", gives it to the publisher and returns to the creation of "Crime and Punishment". The study of the crime chronicle convinces the reader of the urgency of the problem. “I am convinced that my subject partly justifies the present,” Dostoevsky wrote. Newspapers reported that there were more cases when young educated people like Rodion Raskolnikov became murderers. The printed parts of the novel were a great success. This inspired Dostoevsky, charged him with creative energy. He is finishing his book in Lublin, on his sister's estate. By the end of 1866, the novel was completed and published in the Russian Bulletin.

Diary of hard work

The study of the history of the creation of the novel "Crime and Punishment" is impossible without the writer's rough notes. They make it possible to understand how much labor and painstaking work on the word has been invested in the work. The creative concept changed, the range of problems expanded, the composition was rebuilt. In order to better understand the character of the hero, in the motives of his actions, Dostoevsky changes the form of the narrative. In the final third edition, the story is told from the third person. The writer preferred "a story from himself, not from him." It seems that main character lives its own independent life and does not obey its creator. Workbooks tell how painfully long the writer himself is trying to understand the motives of Raskolnikov's crime. Not finding an answer, the author decided to create a hero in which "two opposite characters alternately change." In Raskolnikov, two principles are constantly fighting: love for people and contempt for them. It was not easy for Dostoevsky to write the finale of his work. “Inscrutable are the ways in which God finds man,” we read in the writer's draft, but the novel itself ends differently. It keeps us thinking, even after the last page has been read.

The history of the creation of the novel "Crime and Punishment"

Abeltin E.A., Litvinova V.I., Khakass State University named after N.F. Katanova

Abakan, 1999

In 1866, the journal "Russian Bulletin", published by M.N. Katkov, published the manuscript of Dostoevsky's novel, which has not reached our time. The surviving notebooks of Dostoevsky give reason to assume that the idea of \u200b\u200bthe novel, its theme, plot, ideological orientation did not take shape immediately, most likely in the future two different creative ideas were combined:

1.On June 8, 1865, before leaving abroad, Dostoevsky proposed to A.A. Kraevsky - the editor of the journal "Otechestvennye zapiski" - the novel "Drunken": "It will be connected with the current question of drunkenness. Not only the question is sorted out, but all its ramifications are presented, mainly pictures of families, raising children in this environment, etc. not less than twenty, but maybe more. "

The problem of drunkenness in Russia worried Dostoevsky throughout his creative path... The mild and unhappy Snegirev says: “... in Russia, we have drunk people and the kindest. good people we have the most drunk. People in an abnormal state become kind. What is a normal person? Evil. The good drink, but the good also act badly. The good are forgotten by society, the evil rule life. If drunkenness flourishes in a society, this means that the best human qualities are not appreciated in it "

In the "Diary of a Writer" the author draws attention to the drunkenness of factory workers after the abolition of serfdom: "The people started drinking and drinking - first with joy, and then out of habit." Dostoevsky shows that even with a "huge and extraordinary turning point" not all problems are solved by themselves. And after the “break”, the correct orientation of people is necessary. Much depends on the state. However, the state actually encourages drunkenness and an increase in the number of taverns: "Almost half of our current budget is paid for by vodka, that is, in the present-day people's drunkenness and people's debauchery, - hence the entire people's future. the stately budget of the European power. We cut the tree at the very root in order to get the fruit as soon as possible. "

Dostoevsky shows that this stems from an inability to manage the country's economy. If a miracle happened - people would all stop drinking at once - the state would have to choose: either to force them to drink by force, or - financial collapse. According to Dostoevsky, the reason for drunkenness is social. If the state refuses to take care of the future of the people, the artist will think about it: "Drunkenness. Let those who say: the worse, the better, rejoice at it. There are now many of them. We cannot see the roots of the people's power poisoned without grief." This entry was made by Dostoevsky in drafts, but in essence this idea is set out in the "Writer's Diary": "After all, the people's power is running out, the source of future riches is stalling, the mind and development pale - and what will the modern children of the people endure in their minds and hearts grown up in the filth of their fathers. "

In the state, Dostoevsky saw a hotbed of alcoholism, and in the version presented by Kraevsky, he wanted to tell that a society where drunkenness flourishes, and the attitude towards it is condescending, is doomed to degeneration.

Unfortunately, the editor of Otechestvennye zapiski was not as far-sighted as Dostoevsky in determining the reasons for the degradation of the Russian mentality and refused the writer's proposal. The idea of \u200b\u200bthe "Drunken" remained unfulfilled.

2. In the second half of 1865, Dostoevsky set to work on a "psychological account of one crime": "The action is modern, this year. A young man expelled from university students, a philistine by birth and living in extreme poverty ... decided to kill one old woman , a titular counselor who gives money for interest. The old woman is stupid, deaf, sick, greedy ... evil and seizes someone else's age, torturing her younger sister in her housekeepers. " In this version, the essence of the plot of the novel "Crime and Punishment" is clearly stated. Dostoevsky's letter to Katkov confirms this: "Insoluble questions arise before the murderer, unsuspecting and unexpected feelings torment his heart. God's truth, the earthly law takes its toll, and he ends up being forced to bring himself to bear. Compelled to die in hard labor, though. but to join people again. The laws of truth and human nature have taken their toll. "

Upon his return to St. Petersburg at the end of November 1855, the author destroyed almost completely the written work: "I burned everything. A new form (the hero's confession novel. - VL), a new plan carried me away, and I began anew. I work days and nights and still work a little. " From that time on, Dostoevsky defined the form of the novel, replacing the first-person narration with the narration from the author, his ideological and artistic structure.

The writer liked to say about himself: "I am a child of the century." He has never really been a passive contemplator of life. "Crime and Punishment" was created on the basis of Russian reality in the 1850s, magazine and newspaper disputes on philosophical, political, legal and ethical topics, disputes between materialists and idealists, followers of Chernyshevsky and his enemies.

The year of publication of the novel was special: on April 4, Dmitry Vladimirovich Karakozov made an unsuccessful attempt on the life of Tsar Alexander II. Mass repressions began. A.I. Herzen talked about this time in his "Kolokol": "St. Petersburg, after him Moscow, and to some extent the whole of Russia are almost in a state of war; arrests, searches and torture go on continuously: no one is sure that he tomorrow will not fall under the terrible Muravyevsky court ... "The government oppressed the student youth, censorship achieved the closure of the magazines" Sovremennik "and" Russkoe slovo ".

Dostoevsky's novel published in Katkov's magazine turned out to be an ideological opponent of the novel "What is to be done?" Chernyshevsky. While polemicizing with the leader of revolutionary democracy, opposing the struggle for socialism, Dostoevsky, nevertheless, treated the participants in the "split of Russia" with sincere sympathy, who, in his opinion, being mistaken, "selflessly turned to nihilism in the name of honor, truth and true benefit. "while revealing the kindness and purity of their hearts.

Criticism immediately responded to the release of "Crime and Punishment". The critic N. Strakhov noted that "the author took nihilism in its most extreme development, at the point beyond which there is almost nowhere to go."

M. Katkov defined Raskolnikov's theory as "the expression of socialist ideas."

DI. Pisarev condemned the division of people by Raskolnikov into "obedient" and "rebels", reproached Dostoevsky for calling for obedience and humility. And at the same time, in the article "Struggle for Life" Pisarev stated:

"Dostoevsky's novel made a deeply amazing impression on the readers thanks to the correct mental analysis that distinguishes the works of this writer. I radically disagree with his beliefs, but I cannot but recognize in him a strong talent capable of reproducing the most subtle and elusive features of everyday human life of the internal process. Especially aptly he notices painful phenomena, subjects them to the most rigorous assessment and seems to experience them in himself. "

What was the first stage of the work on the novel? Its result? The story "Drunken", the issues of raising children in families of alcoholics, the tragedy of poverty, lack of spirituality, and so on. The story remained unfinished, because Kraevsky refused to publish Dostoevsky.

What was fundamentally new in the new version of the novel? The earliest sketches of the work date back to July 1855, the latest - to January 1866. Analysis of drafts allows us to assert:

the first-person narration is replaced by the author's narration;

it is not the drunkard who is brought to the fore, but the student, driven by the environment and time to the point of murder;

the form of the new novel is defined as the confession of the protagonist;

the number of actors: the investigator, Dunya, Luzhin and Svidrigailov are represented by the psychological doubles of Raskolnikov;

various episodes and scenes from the life of St. Petersburg were developed.

What elements and images of "The Drunken" found artistic expression in the second version of the novel?

the image of a drunken Marmeladov;

tragic pictures of the life of his family;

description of the fate of his children;

In what direction did the character of Raskolnikov develop?

In the original version of the novel, the narrative is in the first person and is a confession of the criminal, recorded a few days after the murder.

The first-person shape made it possible to explain some of the "oddities" in Raskolnikov's behavior. For example, in the scene with Zametov: “I was not afraid that Zametov would see that I was reading this. On the contrary, I even wanted him to notice that I was reading about it ... I don’t understand why I was tempted to risk this bravado, but I was tempted to take a risk. Out of anger, perhaps, with animal anger that does not reason. " Rejoicing at the lucky coincidence of circumstances, the "early Raskolnikov" reasoned: "It was an evil spirit: how else could I have overcome all these difficulties."

In the final text, the hero says the same words to Sonya after his confession. There is a noticeable difference in the characterization of the hero. In the second version, where the narration is already conducted from a third person, the humanity of his intentions is more clearly traced: thoughts of repentance come immediately after the commission of a crime: "And then, when I become a noble, benefactor of all, a citizen, I will repent. I prayed to Christ, lay down and sleep. "

Dostoevsky did not include in the final text an episode - Raskolnikov's reflection after a conversation with Polenka: "Yes, this is a complete resurrection," he thought to himself. He felt that life had broken at once, hell had ended and another life had begun ... he was not alone, not cut off from people, but with everyone. Resurrected from the dead. What happened? The fact that he gave his last money - is that what? What nonsense. This girl? Sonya? "Not that, but all together.

He was weak, he was tired, he almost fell. But his soul was too full. "

Such thoughts are premature for the hero, he has not yet drunk the cup of suffering in order to be healed, therefore Dostoevsky transfers the description of such feelings into the epilogue.

The first manuscript describes the meeting with his sister and mother differently:

“Nature has mysterious and wonderful outcomes. A minute later he squeezed both of them in his hands and never before had he experienced a more impetuous and enthusiastic sensation, and in another minute he was proudly aware that he was the master of his reason and will, that he is not a slave and that consciousness - again justified him. The illness ended - the panic fear ended. "

Dostoevsky does not include this passage in the final text, since it destroys the ideological orientation. Raskolnikov should be completely different: a meeting with loved ones, like a conversation in the office, is the reason for his fainting. This is a confirmation that human nature is unable to bear the gravity of a crime and reacts in its own way to external influences. She no longer obeys reason and will.

How is the relationship between Raskolnikov and Sonya developing in different versions of the novel?

Dostoevsky carefully worked out the nature of the relationship between the characters. According to an early plan, they fell in love with each other: “He is on his knees in front of her:“ I love you. ”She says:“ Surrender to judgment. ”In the final version of the heroes, compassion united:“ I bowed not to you, I bowed to all human suffering. ”Psychologically it is more deeply and artistically justified.

Initially, the scene of Raskolnikov's confession to Sonya sounded in a different tone: "She wanted to say something, but said nothing. Tears burst from her heart and ached in her soul." And how could not come? "- she added suddenly, as if illuminated ..." O blasphemer! God, what is he saying! You have departed from God, and God struck you with deafness and dumbness, betrayed you to the devil! Then God will send you life again and resurrect you. He resurrected Lazarus by a miracle! and resurrect you ... Darling! I will love you ... Honey! resurrect! Go! repent, tell them ... I will love you forever and ever, you unfortunate one! We are together ... together ... together and will rise again ... And God bless ... Will you go? Will you go?

Sobs stopped her frantic speech. She hugged him and, as it were, froze in this embrace, she could not remember herself. "

In the final text, the characters' feelings are just as deep and sincere, but more restrained. They don't talk about love. The image of Sonya now merges for him with the image of Lizaveta, who was killed by him, evoking a feeling of compassion. He sees her future tragically: "throw yourself into a ditch, get into an insane asylum ... or go into debauchery, stupefying the mind and petrifying the heart." Dostoevsky knows more and sees beyond his hero. At the end of the novel, Sonya is saved by faith, deep, capable of working miracles.

Why are the images of Sonya and Svidrigailov more fully revealed in the final version of Crime and Punishment?

As a result of his experiment, Raskolnikov came to the conclusion that the path of a "strong personality" seeking power through "blood according to conscience" is wrong. He looks for a way out and stops at Sonya: she also stepped over, but found the strength to live. Sonya trusts in God and waits for deliverance and wishes the same for Raskolnikov. She correctly understood what had happened to Rodion: "Why are you, that you have done this on yourself!" Suddenly the word "hard labor" flies from her lips, and Raskolnikov feels that the struggle with the investigator is not over in his soul. His sufferings reach the highest strength, "there was a presentiment of some kind of eternity in the yard of space." Svidrigailov also spoke of such eternity.

He, too, stepped over "obstacles", but seemed calm.

In the drafts, Svidrigailov's fate was decided by Dostoevsky differently: "A gloomy demon, from which he cannot get rid of. Suddenly the determination to expose oneself, all intrigue, repentance, humility, leaves, becomes a great ascetic, humility, thirst to endure suffering. It betrays itself. Exile. Asceticism."

In the final version, the outcome is different, more psychologically sound. Svidrigailov departed from God, lost faith, lost the possibility of "resurrection", but he could not live without it.

How did Dostoevsky's contemporaries see the relevance of Crime and Punishment?

Since the late 1850s, St. Petersburg newspapers have reported anxiously about the rise in crime. Dostoevsky to some extent used some facts from the criminal chronicle of those years. This is how the "student Danilov case" became widely known in its time. For profit, he killed the usurer Popov and his maid. The peasant M. Glazkov wanted to take the blame on himself, but was exposed.

In 1865, newspapers reported on the trial of the merchant's son G. Chistov, who killed two women and took possession of their wealth in the amount of 11,260 rubles.

Dostoevsky was greatly impressed by the trial of Pierre Lasener (France), a professional murderer who tried to present himself as a victim of an unjustly organized society, and his crimes as a form of struggle against evil. At the trials, Lasener calmly stated that the idea of \u200b\u200bbecoming a murderer in the name of revenge was born to him under the influence of socialist teachings. Dostoevsky spoke of Lasener as "a personality phenomenal, mysterious, terrible and interesting. Low sources and cowardice before need made him a criminal, and he dared to present himself as a victim of his age."

The scene of the murder committed by Raskolnikov resembles the murder by Lasener of an old woman and her son who happened to be in her apartment.

Dostoevsky took a fact from life, but tested it with his life. He was triumphant when, while working on "Crime and Punishment", he learned from the newspapers about a murder similar to that of Raskolnikov. “At the same time,” recalls N. Strakhov, “when the book of the“ Russkiy Vestnik ”with a description of Raskolnikov’s misdemeanor came out, news appeared in the newspapers about a completely similar crime that had taken place in Moscow. A student killed and robbed a usurer, and, by all indications, he did it out of a nihilistic conviction that all means are allowed to correct an unreasonable state of affairs. I don't know if the readers were amazed by this, but Fyodor Mikhailovich was proud of such a feat of artistic divination. "

Subsequently, Dostoevsky more than once put on the same line the names of Raskolnikov and the killers coming up to him from the newspaper chronicle. He made sure that "Gorsky or Raskolnikov" did not grow out of Pasha Isaev. Gorsky is an eighteen-year-old high school student who, out of poverty, stabbed a family of six for the purpose of robbery, although according to reviews "he was a remarkably developed young man in a mental sense, who loved reading and literary studies."

With extraordinary sensitivity, Dostoevsky was able to single out individual, personal facts, but testifying to the fact that the "eternal" forces changed the direction of their movement.

List of references

Kirpotin V.Ya. Selected works in 3 volumes. M., 1978.T.Z, p. 308-328.

Friedlander G.M. Dostoevsky's realism. M.-L. 1980.

Basina M.Ya. Through the gloom of white nights. L. 1971.

V.I. Kuleshov The life and work of Dostoevsky. M. 1984.

Introduction

FM Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment is social and psychological. In it, the author raises important social issues that worried people of that time. The peculiarity of this novel by Dostoevsky lies in the fact that it shows the psychology of a modern person to the author, trying to find a solution to pressing social problems. At the same time, Dostoevsky does not provide ready-made answers to the questions posed, but forces the reader to ponder over them. The novel is centered on a poor student, Raskolnikov, who committed murder. What led him to this most terrible crime? Dostoevsky tries to find the answer to this question through a thorough analysis of the psychology of this person. The profound psychologism of Dostoevsky's novels lies in the fact that their heroes find themselves in difficult, extreme life situations in which their inner essence is exposed, the depths of psychology, hidden conflicts, contradictions in the soul, ambiguity and paradoxicality of the inner world are revealed. To reflect the psychological state of the protagonist in the novel "Crime and Punishment", the author used a variety of artistic techniques, among which dreams play an important role, since in an unconscious state a person becomes himself, loses everything superficial, alien and, thus, his thoughts are manifested more freely and feelings. Throughout almost the entire novel, a conflict occurs in the soul of the protagonist, Rodion Raskolnikov, and these internal contradictions determine his strange state: the hero is so immersed in himself that for him the line between dream and reality, between sleep and reality is blurred, an inflamed brain gives rise to delirium , and the hero falls into apathy, half-asleep, half-delirious, so it is difficult to say about some dreams, whether it is a dream or delirium, a play of imagination.

History of the creation of "Crime and Punishment"

Creative history of the novel

"Crime and Punishment", originally conceived in the form of Raskolnikov's confession, follows from the spiritual experience of hard labor. It was there that Fyodor Dostoevsky first encountered strong personalities who stood outside the moral law, and it was during hard labor that the writer's beliefs began to change. “It was evident that this man,” describes Dostoevsky in the “Notes from the House of the Dead” of the convict Orlov, “was able to command himself, infinitely despised all torments and punishments, was not afraid of anything in the world. In him you saw one endless energy, a thirst for activity, a thirst for revenge, a thirst to achieve the intended goal. Incidentally, I was struck by his strange arrogance. "

But in 1859 the "confession-romance" was not started. The nurturing of the idea lasted 6 years, during which F.M.Dostoevsky wrote "The Humiliated and Insulted", "Notes from the Underground". The main themes of these works - the theme of poor people, rebellion and the theme of the hero-individualist - were then synthesized in "Crime and Punishment".

In a letter to the magazine “Russkiy Vestnik”, talking about his new story, which he would like to sell to the editorial board, Dostoevsky described his story as follows: “The idea of \u200b\u200ba story cannot, as far as I can guess, contradict your magazine in anything, on the contrary. This is a psychological record of one crime. The action is modern this year. A young man, expelled from university students, living in extreme poverty, out of frivolity, out of shakiness in concepts, succumbing to some strange, unfinished ideas that are in the air, decided to get out of his situation at once. He decided to kill an old woman, a titular counselor who gives money for interest. The old woman is stupid, deaf, sick, greedy, takes Jewish interest, evil and seizes someone else's age, torturing her younger sister in her workers. “She's worthless,” “what does she live for?”, “Is she useful to anyone,” and so on - these questions are confusing young man... He decides to kill her, rob her, in order to make his mother who lives in the district happy, to save his sister, who lives in companions with some landowners, from the voluptuous claims of this landowner family - claims that threaten her with death - to finish the course, go abroad. and then all my life to be honest, firm, unswerving in the fulfillment of the “humane duty to humanity” - which, of course, will obliterate the crime, if you can only call this act a crime against an old deaf, stupid, evil, sick woman who herself does not know, for what lives in the world, and which in a month, perhaps, would have died by itself.

Despite the fact that such crimes are terribly difficult to commit - i.e. almost always rudely expose the ends, evidence, and so on. and an awful lot is left to chance, which almost always betrays the culprit; he - in a completely random way - manages to commit his crime both quickly and successfully.

He spends almost a month after that, before the final catastrophe, there is no suspicion of him and cannot be. This is where the psychological process of crime unfolds. Unsolvable questions arise before the murderer, unsuspecting and unexpected feelings torment his heart. God's righteousness, the earthly law takes its toll, and he ends up being forced to bring it down to himself. Compelled to, although perish in hard labor, but again join the people, the feeling of openness and separation from humanity, which he felt immediately after the crime was committed, closed him. The law of truth and human nature took their toll, killed convictions, even without resistance. The offender decides to take the torment himself in order to atone for his cause. However, it is difficult for me to clarify my idea.

In addition, my story hints at the idea that the imposed legal punishment for a crime is much less intimidating to the criminal than the legislators think, partly because he himself morally demands it.

I have seen this even in the most undeveloped people, in the grossest accident. I wanted to express this precisely on a developed person, on a new generation, so that the thought would be brighter and more clearly visible. Several recent cases have convinced me that my plot is not at all eccentric, namely that the murderer of developed and even good inclinations is a young man. I was told last year in Moscow (that's right) about a student story - that he decided to break the mail and kill the postman. There are still many traces in our newspapers about the extraordinary vacillation of concepts that lead to terrible deeds. In a word, I am convinced that my story partly justifies the present. "

The plot of the novel is based on the idea of \u200b\u200ban “ideological killer”, which fell apart into two unequal parts: the crime and its causes and, second, the main part, the effect of the crime on the soul of the criminal. This ambiguity of the idea will be reflected in the final edition of the title of the novel - "Crime and Punishment" - and on the features of the structure: out of six parts of the novel, one is devoted to the crime and five - to the influence of this crime on the essence of Raskolnikov and his gradual elimination of his crime.

Dostoevsky sent the chapters of the new novel in mid-December 1865 to the Russian Bulletin. The first part had already appeared in the January 1866 issue of the magazine, but the novel was not yet fully completed. Work on the further text continued throughout 1866.

The first two parts of the novel, printed in the January and February books of the Russian Bulletin, brought success to Dostoevsky.

In November and December 1866, the last, sixth part and an epilogue were written. The magazine in the December 1866 book finished publishing the novel.

Preserved three notebooks with drafts and notes to "Crime and Punishment", ie. three handwritten editions: the first (short) - "story", the second (long) and the third (final) edition, which characterize three stages, three stages of work: Wiesbaden (letter to Katkov), Petersburg stage (from October to December 1865, when Dostoevsky began a "new plan") and, finally, final stage (1866). All handwritten editions of the novel have been published three times, the last two being made at a high scientific level.

So, in the creative process of nurturing the concept of "Crime and Punishment", in the image of Raskolnikov, two opposite ideas collided: the idea of \u200b\u200blove for people and the idea of \u200b\u200bcontempt for them. The draft notebooks for the novel show how painfully FM Dostoevsky was looking for a way out: either to leave one of the ideas, or to shorten both. In the second edition there is an entry: “The main anatomy of the novel. It is imperative to put the course of affairs to the real point and eliminate uncertainty, that is, one way or another to explain the whole murder and put its nature and relationship clearly. " The author decides to combine both ideas of the novel, to show a person in whom, as Razumikhin says about Raskolnikov in the final text of the novel, “two opposite characters alternately change”.

Dostoevsky was also painfully looking for the novel's finale. In one of the draft notes: “The finale of the novel. Raskolnikov is going to shoot himself. " But this was the final only for the “Napoleon's idea”. The writer also outlines the ending for the “idea of \u200b\u200blove,” when Christ himself saves the repentant sinner.

But what is the end of a person who combines both opposing principles in himself? FM Dostoevsky understood perfectly well that a hundred such people would not accept either the author's court, or the legal one, or the court of his own conscience. Only one court will Raskolnikov take over - the highest court, the court of Sonechka Marmeladova, the very Sonechka in whose name he raised his ax, the very humiliated and insulted, who have always suffered since the earth stands.

The meaning of the title of the novel

The problem of crime is considered in almost every work of F.M.Dostoevsky. The writer talks about crime in a universal sense, comparing this view with various social theories popular at that time. In “Netochka Nezvanova” it is said: “A crime will always remain a crime, a sin will always be a sin, no matter how great a vicious feeling may be.” In the novel “The Idiot,” FM Dostoevsky asserts: “It is said,“ Thou shalt not kill! ”, So because he killed, and to kill him? No, you can't. " The novel "Crime and Punishment" is almost entirely devoted to the analysis of the social and moral nature of crime and the punishment that will follow it. In a letter to MN Katkov, FM Dostoevsky reported: "I am writing a novel about modern crime." Indeed, crime for a writer is becoming one of the most important signs of the time, a modern phenomenon. The writer sees the reason for this in the decline of public morality, which was obvious at the end of the 19th century. Old ideals, on which more than one generation of Russian people were brought up, are crumbling, life gives rise to a variety of social theories propagating the idea of \u200b\u200ba revolutionary struggle for a wonderful bright future (remember, for example, N. Chernyshevsky's novel What Is to Be Done?). Elements of bourgeois European civilization are actively penetrating the established way of Russian life, and - what is most important - Russian society is beginning to move away from the centuries-old tradition of the Orthodox view of the world, atheism is becoming popular. Pushing his hero to murder, FM Dostoevsky seeks to understand the reasons why such a cruel idea arises in the mind of Rodion Raskolnikov. Of course, his "environment has eaten." But she ate poor Sonechka Marmeladova, Katerina Ivanovna, and many others. Why don't they become murderers? The fact is that the roots of Raskolnikov's crime lie much deeper. His views are greatly influenced by the theory of the existence of "supermen", popular in the 19th century, that is, people who are allowed more than an ordinary person, the "trembling creature" about which Raskolnikov reflects.

Accordingly, the very crime of Rodion Raskolnikov is understood by the writer much deeper. Its meaning is not only that Raskolnikov killed the old woman-pawnbroker, but also that he allowed himself this murder, imagining himself to be a person who is allowed to decide who lives and who does not. According to Dostoevsky, only God is capable of deciding human destinies. Consequently, Rodion Raskolnikov puts himself in the place of God, mentally equates himself with him. What does this entail? FM Dostoevsky had no doubt that only God, Christ should be the moral ideal of man. The commandments of Christianity are unshakable, and the way to approach the ideal is to fulfill these commandments. When Rodion Raskolnikov puts himself in the place of God, he himself begins to create for himself a certain system of values. And this means that he allows himself everything and gradually begins to lose all the best qualities, trampling on generally accepted moral norms. FM Dostoevsky has no doubts: this is a crime not only of his hero, but also of many people of this era. “Deism gave us Christ, that is, to such a lofty conception of man that it is impossible to understand him without reverence, and one cannot but believe that this is the eternal ideal of mankind. And what did the atheists give us? " - FM Dostoevsky asks Russia and himself answers: theories that give rise to crime, because atheism inevitably leads to the loss of the moral ideal, God in man. Can a criminal return to normal life? Yes and no. Maybe if he goes through long physical and mental suffering, if he can abandon those "theories" that he created for himself. This was the path of Raskolnikov.

FM Dostoevsky nurtured the idea of \u200b\u200bthe novel "Crime and Punishment" for six years: in October 1859 he wrote to his brother: "In December I will start a novel ... do you remember, I told you about one confession - a novel that I wanted to write after all, saying that I still have to go through it myself. The other day I completely decided to write it immediately ... My whole heart will rely on this novel with blood. I conceived it in hard labor, lying on my bunk, in a difficult moment ... "- judging by the writer's letters and notebooks, we are talking precisely about the ideas of "Crime and Punishment" - the novel originally existed in the form of Raskolnikov's confession. Dostoevsky's rough notebooks contain the following entry: "Aleko killed. The awareness that he himself is unworthy of his ideal, which torments his soul. Here is a crime and punishment" (we are talking about Pushkin's "Gypsies").

The final plan is formed as a result of the great upheavals that Dostoevsky went through, and this plan combined two originally different creative ideas.

After the death of his brother, Dostoevsky finds himself in dire financial need. The threat of a debt prison hangs over him. All year Fyodor Mikhailovich was forced to turn to the St. Petersburg usurers, interest-holders and other creditors.

In July 1865, he offered the editor of Otechestvennye zapiski, A. A. Kraevsky, a new work: "My novel is called" Drunken "and will be in connection with the current question of drunkenness. Not only the question is sorted out, but all its ramifications are presented, mainly pictures families, raising children in this environment, and so on ... and so on. " Due to financial difficulties, Kraevsky did not accept the proposed novel, and Dostoevsky went abroad to concentrate on creative work, but even there history repeats itself: in Wiesbaden, Dostoevsky loses everything at roulette, down to his pocket watch.

In September 1865, addressing the publisher M.N. Katkov to the journal Russkiy Vestnik, Dostoevsky described the novel's intention as follows: "This is a psychological account of one crime. The action is modern, this year. A young man expelled from university students, a bourgeois origin and living in extreme poverty, out of frivolity, out of precariousness in concepts, succumbing to some strange, "unfinished" ideas that are in the air, he decided to get out of his bad situation at once. He decided to kill one old woman, a titular adviser who gives money for interest ... in order to make her mother, who lives in the district happy, to save her sister, who lives in companions with some landowners, from the voluptuous claims of the head of this landowner family - claims that threaten her with death, to complete the course, go abroad and then be all her life honest, firm, unswerving in the fulfillment of the "humane duty to humanity", which, of course, will "ameliorate the crime", if you can only call by dullness this deed over a deaf, stupid, evil and sick old woman who does not herself know why she lives in the world and who in a month, perhaps, would die of herself ...

He spends almost a month before the final disaster. There is no suspicion of him and cannot be. This is where the entire psychological process of crime unfolds. Unsolvable questions rise up before the killer, unsuspecting and unexpected feelings torment his heart. God's truth, the earthly law takes its toll, and he ends up being forced to convey to himself. Compelled, though to die in hard labor, but to join people again, the feeling of openness and separation from humanity, which he felt immediately after the crime was committed, tortured him. The law of truth and human nature took their toll. The offender himself decides to accept the torment in order to atone for his deed ... "

Katkov immediately sends the author an advance. FM Dostoevsky has been working on the novel all autumn, but at the end of November he burns all the drafts: "... much has been written and ready; I burned everything ... new form, the new plan carried me along, and I started over again. "

In February 1866, Dostoevsky informs his friend AE Wrangel: “About two weeks ago, the first part of my novel was published in the January book of the Russian Bulletin. It's called Crime and Punishment. I have already heard many enthusiastic reviews. new things".

In the fall of 1866, when Crime and Punishment is almost ready, Dostoevsky begins again: under a contract with the publisher Stellovsky, he was supposed to submit a new novel by November 1 (we are already talking about The Gambler), and if the contract is not fulfilled, the publisher will be entitled to for 9 years "for free and as it pleases" to publish everything that will be written by Dostoevsky.

By the beginning of October, Dostoevsky had not yet begun writing The Gambler, and his friends advise him to turn to the help of shorthand, which at that time was just beginning to enter life. The young stenographer Anna Grigorievna Snitkina, invited by Dostoevsky, was the best student of the St. Petersburg stenography courses; she was distinguished by her outstanding intelligence, strong character and deep interest in literature. The Gambler was completed on time and handed over to the publisher, and Snitkina soon becomes the wife and assistant of the writer. In November and December 1866, Dostoevsky dictated to Anna Grigorievna the last, sixth part and the epilogue "Crimes and Punishments", which were published in the December issue of the magazine "Russian Bulletin", and in March 1867 the novel was published as a separate edition.

Topic: The history of the creation of a socio-psychological
the novel "Crime and Punishment".
Petersburg as depicted by F.M.Dostoevsky

Objectives: to acquaint students with the history of the creation of "Crime and Punishment" and reviews about it from critics; to form an idea of \u200b\u200bthe genre of the work, features of the composition, plot, main conflict; by analyzing chapters from Part I of the novel, show the unusualness of Dostoevsky's portrayal of the city of St. determine what influence the city had on the heroes of the novel, on their thoughts, feelings, actions.

During the classes

Epigraph to the lesson:

Do you remember, I told you about one confession-novel, which I wanted to write after all ... All my heart with blood will rely on this novel. I conceived it in hard labor, lying on a bunk, in a difficult moment of sadness ...

(from a letter to brother Mikhail
October 9, 1859)

I. introduction teachers.

history of the creation of the novel "Crime and Punishment"

The idea of \u200b\u200b"Crime and Punishment" was hatched by the writer for six years! During a trip abroad, Dostoevsky began writing a novel, which at first wanted to call "The Drunken", and in the center to depict the dramatic history of the Marmeladov family, but the idea changed.

In September 1865, he outlined the program of his work, its main idea in a letter to the publisher of the Russian Bulletin: “This is a psychological account of one crime. The action is modern ... A young man, expelled from university students, a philistine by birth and living in extreme poverty, out of frivolity, out of shakiness in concepts, succumbing to some strange "unfinished" ideas that are in the air, decided to get out of his bad situation at once. He decided to kill one old woman, a titular counselor who gives money for interest! The old woman is stupid, deaf, sick, greedy. "Why does she live?", "Is she useful to anyone?" and so on - these questions confuse the young man. He decides to kill her, rob her, in order to make his mother, who lived in the district, happy, save sister... and then be honest all my life ... Insoluble questions arise before the murderer, unsuspected and unexpected feelings torment his heart ... The laws of truth and human nature have taken their toll ... The offender himself decides to take the tormentto redeem your work. "

This is the original concept of the novel. Gradually it “expanded”, covering a wider range of problems.

According to most literary critics, "Crime and Punishment" (1866) - socio-psychological novel, in which the author examines inner world individual hero, as well as the psychology characteristic of different social groups: humiliated and offended urban people, successful traders, disadvantaged peasants, small employees. The writer expresses sharply opposite judgments, mutually exclusive points of view, clashes characters embodying different ideological principles. The dramatic conflict of the novel is based on "the inner struggle in the souls of the heroes and the struggle of these heroes, torn apart by contradictions, among themselves." () .

At the center of Dostoevsky's work is crime, ideological murder. Thus, "Crime and Punishment" is a novel about the "ideological killer" Raskolnikov. The writer traces the "psychological process of crime."

On the composition of the novel. Literary critics note dualismstructure of the work.

Part I - preparation and commission of a crime.

Part II - the impact of this crime on Raskolnikov's soul.

The chapters within each part are arranged according to the intensity of suffering. () ... The composition is gradually complicated by new storylines.

Dostoevsky's book is "a harsh condemnation to a social order based on the power of money, on humiliation of man, a passionate speech in defense of the human person." The search for a way out of the terrible world of profit and calculation into the world of truth is the main idea of \u200b\u200bthe novel.

About the work: “There are brilliant pages in“ Crime and Punishment ”. The novel definitely looks like it is so slender. With a limited number of actors, it seems that there are thousands and thousands of destinies of unfortunate people in it - the entire old Petersburg is seen from this unexpected angle. A lot of "horrors" have been whipped up to the point of unnaturalness ... "

II. Conversation with students on the topic "Petersburg of Dostoevsky".

"Crime and Punishment" is sometimes called the "Petersburg novel".

1. Tell us about Raskolnikov. Why did the writer give the main character such a surname? (Researchers draw attention to the possibility of an ambiguous interpretation of the name of Raskolnikov: "One comes from the interpretation of the semantic part, as a split - a split, the other puts forward a connection between the root and the split - splitting, obsession with one thought, fanaticism and stubbornness.")

2. How do you see the streets of St. Petersburg, along which Raskolnikov wandered? (Part I, Ch. 1, 2.) (You can highlight the main route of the hero. Raskolnikov left the house - the vicinity of Sennaya Square, visited one of the poorest apartments in the city, in the Marmeladov family; Raskolnikov on K-th Boulevard, then across the bridge , a view of the "other" Petersburg, again on the Sennaya. The house in which the hero lives; a closet room.)

3. Tell us about the people who met on the way of Rodion Raskolnikov. What impression did they make on you? (Something pitiful, dirty, ugly remains from meeting people.)

4. What else is happening on the streets of the city? (The suicide of a woman on the bridge, the fall of Sonya and the girl whom Raskolnikov saw, Svidrigailov shot himself in the street, unfortunate Marmeladov fell under a carriage, beggars, drunken emaciated faces. A life full of hopeless grief.)

5. Where do Dostoevsky's heroes live? (Description of Raskolnikov's closet (part I, ch. 1), the room of the old woman-pawnbroker (part I, ch. 3), the Marmeladovs' passage room (part II, ch. 2), Sonya's dwelling (part IV, ch. 4) ).)

6. Read the pages that describe the landscape. What is the role of the landscape? What is the meaning of color in Dostoevsky's work?

7. What are your feelings about St. Petersburg as described by Dostoevsky?

8. Which of the writers before Dostoevsky portrayed Petersburg in their books?

9. What is unusual about Dostoevsky's Petersburg (in contrast to the depiction of the city in the works of Pushkin, Gogol)? (Dostoevsky's Petersburg is a giant city, striking in its contrasts (luxurious mansions and palaces, beautiful avenues, dressed women - and slums, deaf courtyards, tenement houses with closet rooms, where crowdedness, dirt and stench.) Pushkin wrote about the contrasts of Petersburg , Gogol, Nekrasov, but Dostoevsky has these contrasts “especially sharpened.” (Color painting helps this too. Dostoevsky uses yellow, gray, black (dark) colors that help to show poverty, hopelessness of people's existence.)

In the terrifying pictures of poverty, abuse of personality, unbearable stuffiness of life, we see the image of Petersburg, where a person is trapped by social and material dead ends that give rise to tragedies. There is no way out for the insulted and humiliated. They are suffocating in a huge city. (Marmeladov: "Do you understand, do you understand, my dear sir, what it means when there is nowhere else to go?"). Hopelessness is the leitmotif of the novel.)

Homework.

1. Reading a novel. Parts II, III.

2. The individualistic revolt of Rodion Raskolnikov. (The reasons for the "riot", its implementation, the behavior of the hero after the crime can be traced in the text.)