Sciences

Crime and Punishment. Genre features of the novel "Crime and Punishment. Features of the genre of the novel. Crime and Punishment briefly.

According to the genre, Crime and Punishment (1866) is a novel, the main place in which is occupied by social and philosophical problems of contemporary Russian life for the writer. In addition, in "Crime and Punishment" genre signs can be noted: a detective story (the reader knows from the very beginning who the killer of the old woman pawnbroker is, but the detective intrigue persists to the end - Raskolnikov admits, will he fall into the trap of investigator Porfiry Petrovich or will he slip out?), Everyday essay (a detailed description of the poor quarters of St. Petersburg), a publicistic article (Raskolnikov's article "On the Crime"), spiritual scripture (quotes and paraphrases from the Bible), etc.

This novel can be called social because Dostoevsky portrays the life of the inhabitants of the slums of St. Petersburg. The theme of the work is to show the inhuman living conditions of the poor, their hopelessness and anger. The idea of ​​"Crime and Punishment" is that the writer condemns the society of his day, which allows its citizens to live in hopeless need. Such a society is criminal: it condemns weak, defenseless people to death and at the same time generates a retaliatory crime. These thoughts are expressed in the confession of Marmeladov, which he pronounces in a dirty tavern in front of Raskolnikov (1, II).

Describing the poverty and misery of the Marmeladov family, the Raskolnikov family, Dostoevsky continues the noble tradition of Russian literature - the theme of the "little man." Classical Russian literature often portrayed the torment of the "humiliated and insulted" and attracted public attention and sympathy to people who found themselves, even through their own fault, at the "bottom of life."

Dostoevsky shows in detail the life of the poor Petersburg quarters. It depicts Raskolnikov's room, which looks like a closet, Sonya's ugly dwelling, a passage-corridor room where the Marmeladov family huddles. The author describes the appearance of his poor heroes: they are not only poorly dressed, but very poorly, so that it is a shame to appear on the street. This concerns Raskolnikov when he first appears in the novel. Marmeladov, met by a beggar student in the tavern, “was dressed in a black, old, completely torn tailcoat, with crumbling buttons. Only one still held on to the braids, and it was on her that he buttoned up. A shirt-front stuck out from under the nanke vest, all crumpled, soiled and flooded ”(1, II). In addition, all the poor heroes are starving in the literal sense of the word: Katerina Ivanovna's little children cry from hunger, Raskolnikov's head is constantly spinning from hunger. From the inner monologues of the protagonist, from the confession of Marmeladov, from the half-insane cries of Katerina Ivanovna before her death, it is clear that people are driven to the limit of suffering by poverty by that unsettled life, that they very keenly feel their humiliation. Marmeladov exclaims in confession: “Poverty is not a vice ... But poverty, my dear sir, poverty is a vice, sir. In poverty, you still retain your nobility of innate feelings, in poverty, no one ever. For poverty, they do not even drive them out with a stick, but sweep them out of the company of men with a broom, so that it would be all the more insulting ... ”(1, II).

Despite his open sympathy for these heroes, Dostoevsky does not try to embellish them. The writer shows that both Semyon Zakharovich Marmeladov and Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov are largely to blame for their sad fate. Marmeladov is a sick alcoholic who is ready to rob even his little children for the sake of vodka. He does not hesitate to come to Sonya and ask her for the last thirty kopecks for a drink, although he knows how she earns this money. He realizes to himself that he is acting unworthily in relation to his own family, but nevertheless he gets drunk to the cross. When he tells Raskolnikov about his last binge, he is very worried that the children probably did not eat anything for five days, unless Sonya brought at least a little money. He sincerely regrets that his own daughter lives on a yellow ticket, but he uses her money himself. Raskolnikov understood this well: “Oh yes Sonya! What a well, however, they managed to dig and use it! " (1, II).

Dostoevsky's ambiguous attitude towards Raskolnikov. On the one hand, the writer sympathizes with the student, who must earn a penniless living with penny lessons and translations. The author shows that the antihuman theory of "creatures" and "heroes" was born in the sore head of the protagonist, when he was tired of honestly fighting shameful poverty, as he saw that scoundrels and thieves were flourishing around. On the other hand, Dostoevsky portrays Raskolnikov's friend, Razumikhin's student: life is even more difficult for him than for the main character, since he does not have a loving mother who sends him money from her pension. At the same time, Razumikhin works a lot and finds the strength to endure all the hardships. He thinks little about his own person, but he is ready to help others, and not in the future, as Raskolnikov plans, but now. Razumikhin, a poor student, calmly assumes responsibility for Raskolnikov's mother and sister, probably because he truly loves and respects people, and does not ponder the problem of whether or not it is worthy to shed "blood according to conscience."

In the novel, the social content is closely intertwined with the philosophical (ideological): Raskolnikov's philosophical theory is a direct consequence of his desperate life circumstances. An intelligent and determined person, he thinks about how to fix an unjust world. Perhaps by violence? But is it possible forcibly, against will, to impose a fair society on people? The philosophical theme of the novel is the discourse on the "right to blood", that is, consideration of the "eternal" moral question: does a lofty end justify criminal means? The philosophical idea of ​​the novel is formulated as follows: no noble goal justifies murder, it is not a human matter to decide whether a person is worthy to live or not.

Raskolnikov kills the usurer Alena Ivanovna, whom the writer himself paints as extremely unattractive: “She was a tiny, dry old woman of about sixty, with keen and angry eyes, a small, pointed nose and simple hair. Her blond, slightly gray hair was greased with oil. On her thin and long neck, similar to a chicken leg, there was some kind of flannel rag ... ”(1, I). Alena Ivanovna evokes disgust, starting with the given portrait and despotic attitude towards sister Lizaveta and ending with her usurious activities, she looks like a louse (5, IV), sucking human blood. However, according to Dostoevsky, even such a disgusting old woman cannot be killed: any person is sacred and inviolable, in this respect all people are equal. According to Christian philosophy, the life and death of a person is in the hands of God, and people cannot decide this (therefore, murder and suicide are mortal sins). From the very beginning, Dostoevsky aggravated the murder of the malignant pawnbroker by the murder of the meek, unrequited Lizaveta. So, wanting to test his abilities as a superman and preparing to become a benefactor of all the poor and humiliated, Raskolnikov begins his noble activity by killing (!) An old woman and a holy fool, who looks like a big child, Lizaveta.

The attitude of the writer to the "right to blood" is clarified, among other things, in Marmeladov's monologue. Arguing about the Last Judgment, Marmeladov is sure that God will eventually accept not only the righteous, but also degraded drunkards, insignificant people like Marmeladov: “And he will say to us:“ You pigs! the image of the beast and its seal; but you also come! " (...) And he will stretch his hand towards us, and we will fall ... and weep ... and we will understand everything! Then we will understand everything! .. ”(1, II).

"Crime and Punishment" is a psychological novel, as it focuses on the description of the mental anguish of a person who has committed a murder. In-depth psychologism is a characteristic feature of Dostoevsky's work. One part of the novel is devoted to the crime itself, and the other five parts are devoted to the emotional experiences of the murderer. Consequently, the most important thing for a writer is to portray Raskolnikov's pangs of conscience and his decision to repent. A distinctive feature of Dostoevsky's psychologism is that he shows the inner world of a person "on the edge", being in a semi-delusional, semi-insane state, that is, the author is trying to convey a morbid mental state, even the subconsciousness of the heroes. This is how Dostoevsky's novels differ, for example, from the psychological novels of Leo Tolstoy, where the harmonious, varied and balanced inner life of the characters is presented.

So, the novel "Crime and Punishment" is an extremely complex work of fiction, in which the paintings of contemporary Dostoevsky's Russian life (60s of the XIX century) and discussions about the "eternal" question of mankind - about the "right to blood" are closely combined. The writer sees the way out of Russian society from the economic and spiritual crisis (otherwise it is called the first revolutionary situation) in the conversion of people to Christian values. He gives his own solution to the posed moral question: under no circumstances does a person have the right to judge - live or die for another, the moral law does not allow "blood according to conscience."

Thus, Dostoevsky's “eternal” question is resolved in an extremely humane manner, and the depiction of the life of the lower strata of society is also humane in the novel. Although the writer does not excuse either Marmeladov or Raskolnikov (they are largely to blame for their plight themselves), the novel is structured in such a way as to arouse sympathy from readers for these heroes.

Writing

Crime and Punishment is an ideological novel in which inhuman theory collides with human feelings. Dostoevsky, a great connoisseur of human psychology, a sensitive and attentive artist, tried to understand modern reality, to determine the degree of influence on a person of the ideas of the revolutionary reorganization of life and individualistic theories popular at that time. Entering into polemics with democrats and socialists, the writer sought to show in his novel how the delusion of immature minds leads to murder, shedding of blood, maiming and breaking young lives.

The main idea of ​​the novel is revealed in the image of Rodion Raskolnikov, a poor student, an intelligent and gifted person who is unable to continue his education at the university, eking out a beggarly, unworthy existence. Drawing the miserable and wretched world of the Petersburg slums, the writer traces step by step how a terrible theory arises in the hero's mind, how it takes possession of all his thoughts, pushing him to murder.

This means that Raskolnikov's ideas are generated by abnormal, humiliating living conditions. In addition, the post-reform breakup destroyed the age-old foundations of society, depriving the human individuality of the connection with the long-standing cultural traditions of society, historical memory. The personality of a person was thus freed from any moral principles and prohibitions, especially since Raskolnikov at every step sees a violation of universal human moral norms. It is impossible to feed a family with honest labor, so the minor official Marmeladov finally gets drunk, and his daughter Sonechka goes to the panel, because otherwise her family will die of hunger. If unbearable living conditions push a person to violate moral principles, then these principles are nonsense, that is, they can be ignored. Raskolnikov comes to approximately this conclusion when a theory is born in his inflamed brain, according to which he divides all of humanity into two unequal parts. On the one hand, these are strong personalities, "superhuman" such as Mohammed and Napoleon, and on the other, a gray, faceless and obedient crowd, which the hero awards the contemptuous name - "trembling creature" and "anthill".

Possessing a sophisticated analytical mind and painful pride. Raskolnikov quite naturally thinks about which half he himself belongs to. Of course, he wants to think that he is a strong person who, according to his theory, has the moral right to commit a crime for the sake of achieving a humane goal. What is this goal? The physical destruction of the exploiters, to whom Rodion ranks the malevolent old woman-usurer who profited from human suffering. Therefore, there is nothing wrong with killing a worthless old woman and using her wealth to help poor, needy people. These thoughts of Raskolnikov coincide with the ideas of revolutionary democracy popular in the 60s, but in the theory of the hero they are fancifully intertwined with the philosophy of individualism, which allows "blood according to conscience", violation of moral norms accepted by the majority of people. According to the hero, historical progress is impossible without sacrifice, suffering, blood and is carried out by the mighty of this world, great historical personalities. This means that Raskolnikov dreams of both the role of the sovereign and the mission of the savior. But Christian, selfless love for people is incompatible with violence and contempt for them.

The correctness of any theory must be confirmed by practice. And Rodion Raskolnikov conceives and carries out murder, lifting himself from a moral prohibition. What does the check show? To what conclusions does it lead the hero and the reader? Already at the time of the murder, the adjusted plan is significantly violated with mathematical precision. Raskolnikov kills not only the pawnbroker Alena Ivanovna, as planned, but also her sister Lizaveta. Why? After all, the old woman's sister was a meek, harmless woman, a downtrodden and humiliated creature who herself needs help and protection. The answer is simple: Rodion kills Lizaveta no longer for ideological reasons, but as an unwanted witness to his crime. In addition, there is a very important detail in the description of this episode: when Alena Ivanovna's visitors, suspecting something was wrong, try to open the locked door. Raskolnikov stands with a raised ax, obviously, in order to destroy all those who burst into the room. In general, after his crime, Raskolnikov begins to see murder as the only way to fight or defend. His life after the murder turns into a real hell.

Dostoevsky examines in detail the thoughts, feelings, experiences of the hero. Raskolnikov is seized with a sense of fear, the danger of exposure. He loses control of himself, fainting in the police station, falling ill with a nervous fever. A painful suspicion develops in Rodion, which gradually turns into a feeling of loneliness, alienation from everyone. The writer finds a surprisingly accurate expression characterizing the inner state of Raskolnikov: he "seemed to cut himself off from everyone and everything with scissors." It would seem that there is no evidence against him, the criminal showed up. You can use the money stolen from the old woman to help people. But they remain in a secluded place. Something prevents Raskolnikov from taking advantage of them, living calmly on. This, of course, is not remorse for what he has done, not pity for the murdered Lizaveta. No. He tried to overstep his nature, but could not, for a normal person is alien to bloodshed and murder. The crime fenced off him from people, and a person, even such a secretive and proud, like Raskolnikov, cannot live without communication. But despite suffering and torment, he is by no means disappointed in his cruel, inhuman theory. On the contrary, she continues to dominate his mind. He is disappointed only in himself, believing that he has not passed the test for the role of ruler, which means, alas, that he belongs to the "trembling creature."

When Raskolnikov's torment reaches its climax, he opens up to Sonya Marmeladova, confessing his crime to her. Why exactly to her, an unfamiliar, nondescript girl who does not have a bright mind, who, moreover, belongs to the most pitiful and despised category of people? Probably because Rodion saw her as an ally in crime. After all, she also kills herself as a person, but she does it for the sake of her unhappy, starving family, denying herself even suicide. This means that Sonya is stronger than Raskolnikov, stronger than her Christian love for people, her readiness for self-sacrifice. In addition, she disposes of her own life, not someone else's. It is Sonya who finally refutes Raskolnikov's theorized view of the world around him. After all, Sonechka is by no means a humble victim of circumstances and not a "trembling creature." In terrible, seemingly hopeless circumstances, she managed to remain a pure and highly moral person, striving to do good to people. Thus, according to Dostoevsky, only Christian love and self-sacrifice are the only way to transform society.

4 Raskolnikov's riot

In 1866 F. M. Dostoevsky wrote the novel "Crime and Punishment". This is a complex work that amazes with the philosophical depth of the questions posed in it and the psychological character of the characters of the main characters. The novel captures the acuteness of social problems and the strangeness of the narrative. In it, the foreground is not a criminal offense, but the punishment (moral and physical) that the offender bears. It is no coincidence that out of six parts, only the first part of the novel is devoted to the description of the crime, and all the rest and the epilogue are devoted to the punishment for it. In the center of the narration is the image of Rodion Raskolnikov, who committed murder "according to his conscience." Raskolnikov himself is not a criminal. He is endowed with many positive qualities: intelligence, kindness, responsiveness. Raskolnikov helps the father of a deceased comrade, gives the last money for the funeral of Marmeladov. There are many good principles in him, but need, difficult life circumstances bring him to exhaustion. Rodion stopped attending the university because he had nothing to pay for his studies; he has to avoid the hostess, since the debt for the room has accumulated; he is sick, starving ... And around him Raskolnikov sees poverty and lack of rights. The novel is set in the Sennaya Square area, where poor officials, artisans and students lived. And very close to the Nevsky Prospekt was located with expensive shops, chic palaces, gourmet restaurants. Raskolnikov sees that society is organized unfairly: some bathe in luxury, while others die of hunger. He wants to change the world. But this can only be done by an extraordinary person, capable of "breaking what is needed, once and for all" and taking power "over all the trembling creature and over the entire anthill." "Freedom and power, and most importantly - power! ... This is the goal!" - says Raskolnikov to Sonya Marmeladova. Under the low ceiling of the room, a monstrous theory arises in the mind of a hungry man. According to this theory, all people are divided into two "categories": ordinary people who make up the majority and are forced to obey the force, and extraordinary people, "masters of fate" 0 such as Napoleon. They are able to impose their will on the majority, in the name of progress or a lofty idea, without hesitation, "step over the blood." Raskolnikov wants to be a kind ruler, a defender of the "humiliated and insulted", he raises a revolt against the unjust social order. But he is tormented by the question: is he the master? "Am I a trembling creature, or do I have the right?" he asks himself. To get an answer, the schismatics contemplate the murder of the old woman-pawnbroker. It’s like an experiment on himself: is he able, as a sovereign, to step over the blood? Of course, the hero finds a "pretext" for the murder: to rob a rich and worthless old woman and use her money to save hundreds of young people from poverty and death. But nevertheless, Raskolnikov always internally realized that he committed the murder not for this reason and not because he was hungry, and not even in the name of saving Dunya's sister from the marriage with Luzhin, but in order to test himself. This crime fenced him off from other people forever. Raskolnikov feels like a murderer, with the blood of innocent victims on his hands. One crime inevitably entails another: having killed the old woman, Raskolnikov was forced to kill her sister - "the innocent Lizaveta." Dostoevsky convincingly proves that no goal, even the loftiest and noblest, can serve as an excuse for criminal means. All the happiness in the world is not worth a single tear of a child. And this understanding, in the end, comes to Raskolnikov. But repentance and awareness of guilt did not come to him right away. This was largely due to the saving influence of Sonya Marmeladova. It was her kindness, faith in people and in God that helped Raskolnikov abandon his inhuman theory. Only in hard labor there was a turning point in his soul, and a gradual return to people began. Only through faith in God, through repentance and self-sacrifice could, according to Dostoevsky, the resurrection of the dead soul of Raskolnikov and any other person take place. Not an individualistic rebellion, but beauty and love will save the world.

"Towards the evening of the hottest July day, shortly before sunset, already casting its slanting rays, a former student, Rodion Raskolnikov, emerges from a pitiful closet" under the very roof of a high five-story building "in grievous anguish. This is how Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment begins. At the very beginning of our work, we see the oppressive environment surrounding the characters throughout the entire action of the novel. From that moment on, rushing about the dirty streets of St. Petersburg, stopping at endless bridges, entering dirty drinking places - without rest and rest, without respite, in frenzy and thoughtfulness, in delirium and fear, is the hero of Dostoevsky's novel Rodion Raskolnikov. And all this time we feel next to him the presence of some inanimate character - a huge gray city. The image of St. Petersburg occupies a central place in Dostoevsky's work, since many of the writer's memories are associated with this city.

In fact, there were two Petersburgs. The city, created by the hands of brilliant architects, Petersburg Palace Embankment and Palace Square, Petersburg palace coups and magnificent balls, Petersburg is a symbol of the greatness and prosperity of post-Peter the Great Russia, which amazes us with its splendor today. But there was another, distant and unknown to us, today's people, Petersburg - a city in which people live in "cells", in yellow dirty houses with dirty dark stairs, spend time in small stuffy workshops or in stinking taverns and taverns, the city is half-crazy , like most of the heroes of Dostoevsky we are familiar with. In St. Petersburg, where the plot of the novel "Crime and Punishment" unfolds, life is in a state of moral and social decay. The stuffiness of the Petersburg slums is a part of the general atmosphere of the novel, hopeless and stifling. There is a definite connection between the thoughts of Raskolnikov and the "turtle shell" of his little room, "a tiny room six steps long," with yellow, dusty wallpaper that has lagged behind the walls and a low wooden ceiling. This little room is a small copy of the grander, equally stuffy "little room" of the big city. It is not for nothing that Katerina Ivanovna says that on the streets of St. Petersburg it is as if in rooms without vents. A sense of spiritual loneliness haunts the picture of crowdedness, suffocating crowding of people in "confined spaces". People treat each other with distrust and suspicion, they are united only by curiosity about the misfortunes of their neighbors and gloating about the successes of others. To the drunken laughter and poisonous taunts of the visitors to the tavern, Marmeladov tells the story of his own life, stunning in his tragedy; the tenants of the house where Katerina Ivanovna lives run up to scandal. A distinctive feature of Russian social thought, Russian literature has always been the intensity of spiritual searches, the desire of writers to raise fundamental philosophical, worldview questions related to the moral orientation of a person in the world, to search for the meaning of life. The spiritual world of Dostoevsky's heroes is revealed through such categories as evil, good, freedom, virtue, necessity, God, immortality, conscience. Dostoevsky, as an artist, is distinguished by the subtlety of psychological analysis, his works are characterized by the depth of philosophical content. This is the most important feature of his work. His heroes are people seeking, obsessed with this or that idea, all their interests are concentrated around some issue, over the solution of which they are tormented. The image of St. Petersburg is given brightly, in dynamics, the city personifies the souls of heroes torn apart by the tragedy of life. Petersburg is also one of the heroes that is constantly present in the works of Dostoevsky. The image of St. Petersburg was created in their works by Pushkin, Gogol, and Nekrasov, revealing more and more of its facets. Dostoevsky depicts Petersburg at a time of rapid development of capitalism, when tenement houses, bank offices, shops, factories, workers' suburbs began to grow like mushrooms. The city is not just a background against which any action takes place, it is also a kind of "character". Dostoevsky's Petersburg strangles, crushes, evokes nightmarish visions, instills insane ideas. Dostoevsky draws the slums of St. Petersburg: there are many drinking, drunk, hungry, people who have lost the meaning of life, who often commit suicide, unable to withstand an intolerable life. Raskolnikov is ashamed of his rags, avoids meeting friends on the street, he owes his mistress and tries not to see her once again in order to avoid swearing and shouting. His room is like a stuffy closet. Many live even worse than Raskolnikov, although if you think about it, then the thought comes - people live not only in the stuffy rooms of the slum of St. Petersburg, but also in the inner stuffiness, losing their human appearance. A gray, gloomy city, in which there are booths at every corner, inviting the poor to pour out their grief, and on the streets - prostitutes and drunken people, we see it as a kind of "kingdom" of lawlessness, disease, poverty. Here you can suffocate, there is a desire to quickly escape from here, to draw fresh country air into your lungs, to get rid of the fumes of "anger", meanness and immorality. F.M. Dostoevsky. The images of "little people" created by the author in the novel "Crime and Punishment" are imbued with the spirit of protest against social injustice, against humiliation of man, and with faith in his high calling. The fundamental truth on which the worldview of the writer is based is love for a person, recognition of the spiritual individuality of a person. All Dostoevsky's quests were aimed at creating living conditions worthy of man. And the city landscape of St. Petersburg bears a huge artistic load. Dostoevsky's landscape is not only a landscape of impression, it is a landscape of expression, which is internally connected with the human world depicted in the novel and emphasizes the feeling of hopelessness experienced by the heroes of the work.

The fate of the humiliated and abused in the novel

In his novel "Crime and Punishment" FM Dostoevsky raises the theme of the "humiliated and insulted", the theme of the little man. The society in which the heroes of the novel live is so arranged that the life of each of them is possible only on humiliating conditions, on constant bargains with conscience. The writer depicts the oppressive atmosphere of a hopeless life of a person, forcing people to see the image of the underworld behind the fate of people, where a person is humiliated and crushed, where a person has "nowhere to go". The episodes depicting the life of the "humiliated and insulted" indicate that the fate of the heroes of the novel is not determined by some random tragic circumstances or their personal qualities, but by the laws of the structure of society.

The author, leading the reader around St. Petersburg, draws people of different social strata, including the poor, who have lost the meaning of life. Often they commit suicide, unable to withstand their dull existence, or ruin their lives in numerous taverns. In one of these taverns, Rodion Raskolnikov meets Marmeladov. From the story of this hero, we learn about the unfortunate fate of his entire family.

Marmeladov's phrase: “Do you understand, my dear sir, what it means when there is nowhere else to go…” raises the figure of a small man, ridiculous in his solemnly ornate and clerical manner of speaking, to the height of tragic reflection on the fate of mankind.

There is nowhere to go to Katerina Ivanovna, who was ruined by the contradiction, unbearable for her ambitious nature, between the past secured and rich life and the miserable, beggarly present.

Sonya Marmeladova, a girl of pure soul, is forced to sell herself in order to feed her sick stepmother and her young children. However, she does not require any gratitude. She does not blame Katerina Ivanovna for anything, she simply resigns herself to her fate. Only Sonechka is ashamed of herself and God.

The idea of ​​self-sacrifice, embodied in the image of Sonya, raises him to a symbol of the suffering of all mankind. For Dostoevsky, these sufferings merged with love. Sonya is the personification of love for people, which is why she retained moral purity in the dirt into which she threw her life.

The image of Dunya, Raskolnikov's sister, is filled with the same meaning. She agrees to the sacrifice: for the sake of her beloved brother, she agrees to marry Luzhin, who embodies the classic type of a bourgeois businessman, a careerist, humiliating people and capable of doing anything for personal gain.

Dostoevsky shows that a situation of hopelessness, a dead end pushes people to moral crimes against themselves. Society confronts them with the choice of such paths that lead to inhumanity.

Raskolnikov also makes a deal with his conscience, deciding to kill. The living and humane nature of the hero comes into conflict with the misanthropic theory. Dostoevsky shows how every time he encounters human suffering, Raskolnikov feels an almost instinctive desire to come to the rescue. His theory of permissiveness, the bifurcation of humanity into two categories, is failing. The feeling of rejection, loneliness becomes a terrible punishment for the criminal.

Dostoevsky shows that Raskolnikov's idea is inextricably linked with the immediate conditions of his life, with the world of St. Petersburg corners. Painting a terrifying picture of human overcrowding, filth, stuffiness, Dostoevsky at the same time shows the loneliness of a person in the crowd, loneliness, above all, spiritual, his life restlessness.

Raskolnikov and Svidrigailo

Raskolnikov and Svidrigailov are the heroes of one of Dostoevsky's best novels, Crime and Punishment. This novel is distinguished by the deepest psychologism and an abundance of sharp contrasts. At first glance, there is nothing in common in the characters of Raskolnikov and Svidrigailov, moreover, they seem to be antipodes. However, if you take a closer look at the images of these heroes, you can find a certain similarity. First of all, this similarity is manifested in the fact that both heroes commit crimes. True, they do it for different purposes: Raskolnikov kills the old woman and Lizaveta in order to test his theory, with the noble goal of helping the poor, disadvantaged, humiliated and insulted. And Svidrigailov directs all his base energy to obtaining dubious pleasures, trying to achieve what he wants at any cost. Raskolnikov and Svidrigailov appear before readers as "strong" personalities. And indeed it is. Only people with exceptional willpower and equanimity can force themselves to cross the bloody line, deliberately commit a crime. Both of these heroes are well aware that in essence they are extremely close. And it is not for nothing that at the very first meeting Svidrigailov says to Raskolnikov: "We are of the same berry field." Subsequently, Raskolnikov comes to understand this. The crime is followed by punishment. It is about the same for both heroes. Both Raskolnikov and Svidrigailov are experiencing the strongest pangs of conscience, they repent of their deeds and are trying to rectify the situation. And, it would seem, they are taking the right path. But the mental anguish soon becomes unbearable. Svidrigailov's nerves can not stand, and he commits suicide. Raskolnikov realizes with horror that the same thing can happen to him, and in the end confesses what he had done. Unlike Raskolnikov, Svidrigailov has a somewhat ambiguous character. On the one hand, it seems that he is an ordinary, normal, sober-minded person, as he seems to Raskolnikov, but this side of his character is drowned out by his eternal and irresistible attraction to pleasure. Raskolnikov, in my opinion, is a much more firm person in his intentions. He even somewhat resembles Turgenev's Bazarov, who strictly adheres to his theory and tests it in practice. For the sake of his theory, Raskolnikov even breaks off relations with his mother and sister, he wants to impress others with his theory and puts himself much higher than those around him. In the above considerations, in my opinion, there are differences and similarities between Raskolnikov and Svidrigailov, which can be called two sides of the same coin.

"Truth" by Sonya Marmeladova (based on Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment")

In Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment, as in every novel, there are many different characters. The main one - Raskolnikov - studies the rest, creates a theory on the basis of his reasoning, he has a certain conviction, which pushes him to a crime. All the heroes with whom he communicated are to blame for the appearance of this conviction, and, therefore, for the commission of this crime by him: after all, they were the same as Raskolnikov saw them, on their basis he formed his theory. But their contribution to the creation of Raskolnikov's convictions is ineffective, since it happens by chance, unintentionally. But the minor characters of the novel make a much greater contribution to Raskolnikov's awareness of the incorrectness of his theory, which prompted him to confess to the whole people. The greatest such contribution was made by Sonya Marmeladova. She helped the hero to understand who she is and who he is, what gives him recognition, why they need to live, helped to revive spiritually and look at themselves and others in a different way. She was a pretty girl of about eighteen, slender and short. Life was very cruel to her, as well as to her family. She lost her father and mother early. After the death of her mother, her family was in dire straits, and she had to go to the panel to feed herself and the children of Katerina Ivanovna. But her spirit was so strong that it did not break even in such conditions: when a person's morale decays, the probability of success in life is low, existence becomes more and more difficult, the spirit restrains the oppression of the environment and, if a person's spirit is weak, it cannot withstand and begins to pass negative energy inward, spoiling the soul. Sonya's spirit is very strong, and in the face of all adversity, her soul remains pure, and she goes to self-sacrifice. A pure, untouched soul in her very quickly finds all the flaws in the souls of other people, comparing them with her own; she easily teaches others to remove these flaws, because she periodically removes them from her soul (if she did not have any flaws yet, she artificially creates them for herself for a while and tries to feel what her instincts are telling her to do). Outwardly, this is manifested in her ability to understand other people and have compassion for them. She regrets Katerina Ivanovna for her stupidity and unhappiness, her father, who is dying and repenting before her. Such a girl attracts the attention of many people, makes (including herself) respect herself. Therefore, Raskolnikov decided to tell her about his secret, and not Razumikhin, Porfiry Petrovich, or Svidrigailov. He suspected that she would be the wisest to assess the situation and make a decision. He really wanted someone else to share his suffering with him, he wanted someone to help him go through life, to do some work for him. Having found such a person in Sonya, Raskolnikov was not mistaken with the choice: she was the most beautiful girl who understood him and came to the conclusion that he was the same unhappy person like her, that Raskolnikov did not come to her for nothing. And such a woman is also called "the damsel of out-and-out behavior." (Here Raskolnikov realized the incorrectness of his theory in this). This is what Luzhin calls her, being vile and selfish himself, not understanding anything about people, including Sonia, that she behaves in a degrading way for herself only out of compassion for people, wanting to help them, to give them at least a moment a feeling of happiness ... All her life she has been engaged in self-sacrifice, helping other people. So, she helped Raskolnikov, she helped him to rethink himself, that his theory is also wrong, that he committed a crime in vain, that he needed to repent of him, confess everything. The theory was wrong, since it is based on dividing people into two groups according to their external characteristics, and they rarely express the whole person. A striking example is the very Sonya, whose poverty and humiliation do not fully reflect the whole essence of her personality, whose self-sacrifice is aimed at helping other needy people. She really believes that she has resurrected Raskolnikov and is now ready to share the punishment with him in hard labor. Its “truth” is that in order to live a life with dignity and die feeling that you were a great person, you need to love all people and sacrifice yourself for the sake of others.

“Crime and Punishment” is one of the most famous and widely read novels by F.M. Dostoevsky. The novel brought him fame. Here he touches upon the same theme as in the novels The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov, the theme of sin and atonement. In most of his works, Dostoevsky tells about the degradation of Russian society and family. This novel is no exception, since we are talking about the poor student Raskolnikov, who kills the old woman pawnbroker Alena Ivanovna and her sister Lizaveta Ivanovna, kills for the highest goal, to free people from her oppression.

Since the novel contains murder planning, an investigation and a judge's decision, it can be called a criminal one. But the novel also contains elements of other genres. He is considered psychological, since the inner world of Raskolnikov before and after the crime, the path to Siberia, where he is serving a sentence, is fully disclosed.

Also, through the life of Raskolnikov, we can follow the life of the alcoholic Marmeladov and his family: the sick wife of Katerina Ivanovna and daughter Sonya, who will sacrifice her life for the sake of her family.

In addition, there is the family of Marfa Petrovna, which, together with other characters, symbolizes poverty, opening through them the kingdom of the poor. The novel can be called social, since there is a clear division of society into rich and poor. In addition, the novel has philosophical tendencies, since it tells about a murder committed for ethical reasons, in which Raskolnikov passionately believes.

He formed the idea of ​​extraordinary people who have a greater right to break the laws in order to achieve the highest goal that will help humanity. The novel consists of 6 parts and an epilogue. Murder and killer are presented in the first part, the investigation and internal battles of Raskolnikov in subsequent parts.

Genre: novel

Topic: Raskolnikov is tormented by the idea of ​​justice, and he will understand this as soon as he kills Alena Ivanovna, the old pawnbroker, making the poor happier with their money. After the murder, his conscience does not allow him to live in peace.

Place: Russia

Time: 19th century

Crime and punishment retelling

The plot time span is only 9 and a half days, the action takes place in St. Petersburg, Russia. Everything happens in the 19th century. The story revolves around a young, poor law student, Rodion Raskolnikov. He misses more and more lectures, and absorbs more and more ideas from Western Europe.

Raskolnikov believes that humanity is divided into two parts. Ordinary mortals who must live in harmony with the laws and exceptions, such as Napoleon, who can commit any crime if in return they can offer something more valuable to humanity.

Raskolnikov decides to realize his ideas in life, killing Alena Ivanovna. She was an old, greedy pawnbroker, killing her, at least more than a thousand people will be saved. With her disappearance, many would be simply happy, for example, her sister Lizaveta Ivanovna, who suffers from the harassment of her older sister. At first, Raskolnikov pushes these thoughts away from himself, although he had already decided to develop a murder plan for himself, but he was not completely sure that he would be able to pull off this plan.

He depends on many small details that incite him to commit crimes, such as letters from his mother. Conversations with Marmeladov, meeting with Sonya. His mother wrote that the only way to save his sister from Svidrigailov was to marry her to Luzhin. The money and position that she can get will help Raskolnikov graduate from law school. He was not able to accept such a sacrifice of his sister, and the sad Sonya also plunges him into even greater depression. In the end, he learns that the old woman pawnbroker is left alone at about 7 o'clock.

After an internal struggle, he comes to Alena's apartment. Kills an old, greedy woman. But things get complicated as Lizaveta suddenly appears. Raskolnikov also had to kill her.

He starts to panic as he does not know what to take with him at this moment. He grabs a few things and runs away. After the murder, he falls ill, and spends several days in a semi-conscious state. Razumikhin, his friend, takes care of him. While Raskolnikov is ill and in bed, Luzhin, his sister's rich fiancé, visits him.

In fact, Luzhin is looking for a poor and useful woman who will be grateful to him for the rest of her life. He wants to find one who will serve him and will always remain faithful. Raskolnikov asks him to leave, because he is against the superiority that he demonstrates in relation to his sister.

When Raskolnikov gets better, he gets out of bed and decides to go out to read the newspapers. He wants to find out the description of the crime from the newspapers. He is close to telling the cop, and he makes himself the number one suspect as he returns to the scene of the crime.

Raskolnikov is surrounded by terrible things. He witnessed the death of Marmeladov. He is hit by a wagon when he tries to cross the road drunk. Raskolnikov wants to help by giving money to the widow.

He finds Dunya's sister and mother in his room. They are preparing for the wedding, but Raskolnikov is against this marriage. He doesn't want his sister to marry such a pitiful and terrible person. Also Svidrigailov, Dunya's ex-employer, whose wife died a suspicious death, comes to the city.

Dunya was hired to work for him as a nanny, and Svidrigailov wanted to seduce her. He asks Raskolnikov to arrange a meeting with Dunya, and even offers a lot of money, but Dunya and Raskolnikov come to the conclusion that a connection with such a suspicious person would be out of the ordinary.

While the plot turns towards the lovers of Razumikhin and Dunya, Raskolnikov asks the police to come and pick up the watch that he pawned for Alena. He is put in an awkward position, since Porfiry Petrovich asks a tricky question. The plot suddenly takes an unexpected turn when the artist Nikoi confesses to the crime.

Now he can be happy and free from accusations, but Raskolnikov's conscience does not give him rest. He wants to confess to the murder.

He comes to Marmeladov's daughter Sonya. With her family now in greater distress, she has no choice but to go into prostitution to support her family.

Despite her work, she is a woman of high moral character and very religious. She advised Raskolnikov to confess and repent for his crimes. He soon learns that Nicholas confessed only because he was a religious fanatic who believed that he could atone for his sins by taking on someone else's.

The story twists when Svidrigailov hears a conversation between Raskolnikov and Sonya, in which he confesses to Alena's murder. Since he receives valuable information, he decides to use it to blackmail Dunya. Dunya rejects and shoots at him. The bullet only scratches him, but then he takes the gun and kills himself.

Svidrigailov leaves all the money to Duna, Sonya and Marmeladov's children. So he decided to do one good thing by crossing out his bad life.

In the end, Raskolnikov confesses to what he had done. He is sentenced to eight years in Siberia. Sonya decides to join him and next to her he goes through a spiritual renewal.

Characters: Rodion Raskolnikov, Marmeladov, Katerina Ivanovna, Alena Ivanovna, Lizaveta, Sonya, Dunya, Porfiry, Svidrigailov, Pulcheria Aleksandrovna Raskolnikova, Razumikhin, Luzhin ...

Character analysis

Rodion Raskolnikov- the main character of the novel. He is tall and has dark eyes. Forced to live in a small room in St. Petersburg, which reminds him of a coffin where the streets are dirty with waste. He is described as a law student with a sensitive character, representing both a criminal and a righteous man.

One of the starting points of a crime novel is the motive of the crime

(revenge, passion, mental imbalance ...) The hero enjoys the moments when he feels control over the situation. Raskolnikov is a more complex character than an ordinary criminal. He wants to prove his point of view by committing murder, and for him the crime is nothing more than a moral decision, since he kills the pawnbroker with fear, who wears out other people. Thus, he tested his moral and mental strength.

The protagonist thinks that if he is able to kill the reptile that was the cause of pain in society, then he clearly belongs to the elect, the driving force that will be perceived as the creation of history.

A person can only take someone's life for a higher purpose. The main character wants to help the Marmeladov family. He doesn't think about the profits from the murder.
He fell ill in Siberia, and his ego was also in pain. He did not suffer, taking life broadly, but not being able to achieve the highest goal. And only love was able to cure him, Sonya makes him read the Gospel. The Christian way of thinking conquers his mind, and he becomes a different person

Alena Ivanovna- an old, greedy pawnbroker who is killed by Raskolnikov. He wanted to kill her with good intentions for humanity.

Marmeladov- an alcoholic whose family lives in poverty. He is a true example of life, becomes unhappy due to sad events, and becomes a victim of his vice

Sonya- Marmeladov's daughter becomes a prostitute to feed her family. She helps Raskolnikov to change.

Dunya- Raskolnikov's sister, described as a person capable of doing something for his family. She was even ready to get married for money.

Fyodor Dostoevsky biography

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1821 - 1881) Russian novelist, side by side with Tolstoy, one of the best writers of Russian realism. He lived a difficult life in poverty, was ill with epilepsy. He suffered a death sentence, a Siberian prison and the death of loved ones.

To please his father, he entered the military academy in January 1838, when he was 16 years old. He never liked studying there. He began writing at the age of 20, in May 1845 he wrote his first novel, Poor People.

A big turn in life was participation - in the utopian idea of ​​a socialist society, because of which he was sentenced to death in 1849. But he was saved by hard labor in Siberia, where he spent 10 years.

At the beginning of his career, he followed in the footsteps of Gogol, and presented some ideas of social policy. After serving the sentence described in the work "Notes from the Underground" in 1861, he not only left the path of revolution, but also condemned this idea (the novel "Demons" from 1871 - 1872) and plunged deeply into the world of mysticism and the Orthodox Church.

Dostoevsky worked as a journalist. He began traveling to Western Europe, where he became a gambler, which led to financial difficulties. For some time he borrowed money, but in the end he became one of the most widely read Russian writers.

His books have been translated into over 170 languages. His main novels are Crime and Punishment, Poor People, Notes from the Underground, The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov.

He died in January 1881 of pulmonary hemorrhage.

Crime and Punishment is the first of Dostoevsky's five best novels. The writer himself attached great importance to this work: "The story that I am writing now is perhaps the best of all that I have written." He portrayed in the work such powerlessness and hopelessness of life, when a person has "nowhere to go". The novel "Crime and Punishment" was conceived by Dostoevsky while still in hard labor. Then it was called "Drunken", but gradually the idea of ​​the novel was transformed into a "psychological account of one crime." Dostoevsky himself, in a letter to the publisher M.I. ".

At the same time, the student wants to use the money received in this way for good purposes: to finish the course at the university, to help his mother and sister, to go abroad and “then all my life to be honest, firm, unswerving in fulfilling a humane duty to humanity”. In this statement of Dostoevsky, two phrases must be emphasized: a young man who lives in extreme poverty "and" subjected to some strange unfinished ideas. " It is these two phrases that are key to understanding Raskolnikov's cause-and-effect actions. What happened before: the plight of the hero, which led to illness and a painful theory, or the theory that caused Raskolnikov's terrible plight?

Dostoevsky in his novel depicts the collision of theory with the logic of life. According to the writer, a living life process, that is, the logic of life, always refutes, makes untenable any theory - both the most advanced, revolutionary, and the most criminal. This means that it is impossible to make life according to theory, and therefore the main philosophical idea of ​​the novel is revealed not in a system of logical proofs and refutations, but as a collision of a person possessed by an extremely criminal theory with life processes that refute this theory. Raskolnikov's theory is built on the inequality of people, on the chosenness of some and the humiliation of others. And the murder of the usurer is intended as a vital test of this theory on a separate example.

This way of depicting the murder very clearly shows the author's position: the crime committed by Raskolnikov is a dastardly affair, from the point of view of Raskolnikov himself. But he made it consciously, stepping over his human nature, over himself. By his crime Raskolnikov struck himself out of the category of people, became destitute, an outcast. I didn’t kill the old woman, I killed myself, ”he confessed to Sonya Marmeladova. This separation from society prevents Raskolnikov from living, his human nature does not accept this. It turns out that a person cannot walk without communicating with people, even such a proud person as Raskolnikov.

Therefore, the hero's struggle is becoming more and more intense, it goes in many directions, and each of them leads to a dead corner. Raskolnikov, as before, believes in the infallibility of his idea and hates himself for weakness, for mediocrity, over and over again calls himself a scoundrel. But at the same time, he suffers from the inability to communicate with his mother and sister, thinking about them as painfully as he thinks about the murder of Lizaveta. He tries not to do this, since you start to think, then you will certainly have to decide the question of where to place them in your theory - to what category of people. According to the logic, his theories belong to the "lower" category, and, so, the ax of another Raskolnikov may fall on their heads, and on the heads of Sonya, Polechka, Ekaterina Ivanovna. Raskolnikov should, according to his theory, abandon those for whom he suffers. He must hate, kill those he loves, and he cannot survive it.

For him, the thought that his theory is similar to the theories of Luzhin and Svidrigailov is unbearable, he hates them, but has no right to this hatred. “Mother, sister, how I love them! Why do I hate them now? " His human nature here collided most sharply with his inhuman theory. But the theory won out. And that is why Dostoevsky seems to come to the aid of the human nature of his hero. Immediately after this monologue, he gives Raskolnikov's third dream: he again kills the old woman, and she laughs at him. A dream in which the author brings Raskolnikov's crime to the people's court. This scene exposes all the horror of Raskolnikov's action. Dostoevsky does not show the moral revival of his hero, since his novel is not about that at all. The task of the writer was to show what power an idea can have over a person and how terrible and criminal this idea can be. Thus, the hero's idea of ​​the right of the strong to commit a crime turned out to be absurd. Life defeated theory.

The genre features of Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment cannot be delineated with definite boundaries. And not only because this work is complex in relation to its design and large in volume. You can name several different genre definitions, and each of them will be fair in its own way. The novel is philosophical, as it raises the problem of condemning militant individualism and the so-called "superpersonality" is in the center of attention. The novel is psychological, since we are talking, first of all, about human psychology, in its various, even painful manifestations. And to this we can add other more specific genre features associated with the very structure of the work: internal monologues, dialogues-discussions of the characters, pictures of the future world in which the idea of ​​individualism would reign. Also, the novel is polyphonic: each of the heroes asserts his own idea, that is, he has his own voice.

So, the diversity of the genre of "Crime and Punishment" is in this case the main condition for the successful creative implementation of the author's large-scale idea (his didactic attitude).

Genre features of the novel "Crime and Punishment"

Other essays on the topic:

  1. Raskolnikov's dreams and their artistic function in the novel by F. M. Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment" The deep psychologism of F. M. Dostoevsky's novels ...
  2. FM Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment is a social, philosophical and psychological novel. It seems to me that it is most vividly expressed in the novel ...
  3. In terms of the genre, "Crime and Punishment" is an absolutely new type of work. The novel "Crime and Punishment" combines several genre varieties of the novel, ...
  4. The image of Sonya Marmeladova in Dostoevsky's novel "Crime and Punishment" As long as mankind lives, there have always been Good and Evil in it. But...
  5. In the German resort town of Wiesbaden, he began work on the novel Crime and Punishment (1866), which reflected the whole complex and contradictory ...
  6. Crime and Punishment is the first in a series of five major novels by Dostoevsky (Demons, The Idiot, The Brothers Karamazov, The Teenager). It opened up in it ...
  7. FM Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment is the greatest philosophical and psychological work. It's a crime novel, but it's not a genre ...
  8. Let's re-read the first and second parts of the novel, which constitute one stage in the development of Raskolnikov's mental struggle. Philosophically, Dostoevsky depicts ...
  9. FM Dostoevsky is the greatest Russian writer, an unsurpassed realist artist, an anatomist of the human soul, a passionate champion of the ideas of humanism and justice. Speaking of ...
  10. Among the most important questions posed by Russian thought in the 19th century, the question of religion occupies a special place. For Dostoevsky, a deeply religious man, the meaning ...
  11. "Crime and Punishment" firmly establishes the characteristic form of Dostoevsky. This is his first philosophical novel on a criminal basis. It is at the same time ...
  12. The novel "Crime and Punishment" was conceived by FM Dostoevsky in hard labor "in a difficult moment of sadness and self-degradation." It was there, on ...
  13. Rodion Raskolnikov's theory: “trembling creature” and “having the right” FM Dostoevsky is the greatest Russian writer, unsurpassed realist artist, anatomist of the human soul, ...
  14. Crime and Punishment is a novel about Russia in the mid-19th century, which experienced an era of profound social transformations and moral upheavals ....
  15. Composition based on the novel by FM Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment". Crime and Punishment is one of Dostoevsky's best novels. Created ...
  16. On the pages of FM Dostoevsky's novel "Crime and Punishment", a wide panorama of St. Petersburg in the middle of the XIX century is revealed to us. Among the characters ...
  17. The novel opens with the chapter "Address to the reader", stylized as an old syllable, in which the writer acquaints his readers with his goal: "to depict ...
  18. Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment belongs to the most complex works of Russian literature. Dostoevsky describes a terrible picture of the life of people in ...
The full text of this work is available on Wikisource.

"Crime and Punishment"- the novel by Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, first published in 1866 in the journal "Russian Bulletin" (№ 1, 2, 4, 6-8, 11-12). A separate edition of the novel (with a change in the division into parts, some abbreviations and stylistic corrections) was published in 1867.

History of creation

The first parts of "Crime and Punishment" appeared for the first time in 1866 in eight issues of the magazine "Russian Bulletin". The novel is published in parts in January-December. All year Dostoevsky has been working on the novel, in a hurry to add the chapters he has written to the next book of the magazine.

Soon after the publication of the novel in the magazine, Dostoevsky published it as a separate edition: “A novel in six parts with an epilogue by F. M. Dostoevsky. Revised edition ”. For this edition, Dostoevsky made significant reductions and changes in the text: three parts of the journal editorial office were transformed into six, partly and the division into chapters was changed.

Plot

The plot revolves around the main character, Rodion Raskolnikov, in whose head a crime theory is ripening. According to his idea, humanity is divided into “chosen” and “material”. The “Chosen” (Napoleon is a classic example) have the right to commit murder or multiple murders for the sake of future great deeds. Raskolnikov himself is very poor, he cannot pay not only for his studies at the university, but also for his own living. His mother and sister are very poor, he soon learns that his sister (Avdotya Romanovna) is ready to marry a man whom she does not love, for the sake of money, for the sake of her brother. This was the last straw, and Raskolnikov commits the deliberate murder of the old woman-pawnbroker ("louse" by his definition) and the forced murder of her sister, a witness. But Raskolnikov cannot use stolen goods, he hides it. From this time on, the terrible life of a criminal begins, a restless, feverish consciousness, his attempts to find support and meaning in life, justification of an act and its assessment. Subtle psychologism, existential understanding of the deed and further existence of Raskolnikov are colorfully conveyed by Dostoevsky. More and more new faces are involved in the action of the novel. Fate confronts him with a lonely, intimidated, poor girl in whom he finds a kindred spirit and support, Sonya Marmeladova, who has taken the path of self-sale due to poverty. Sonya, who believes in God, is trying to somehow hold out in life, having lost her parents. Raskolnikov also finds support in his university friend Razumikhin, who is in love with his sister Avdotya Romanovna. Such characters appear as the investigator Porfiry Petrovich, who understood the soul of Raskolnikov and wittily brought him to the surface, Svidrigailov, a lecher and a scoundrel - a vivid example of a "chosen" person (according to Raskolnikov's theory), Luzhin, a lawyer and a cunning egoist, and others. social causes of crimes and disasters, moral contradictions, oppressive circumstances of the fall, describes the life of the Petersburg poor, drunkenness and prostitution, describes dozens of peculiar characters and characters. Throughout the novel, Raskolnikov is trying to understand whether he is a worthy person, whether he has the right to judge other people. Unable to withstand the burden of his crime, the main character confesses to the murder, having written a frank confession. However, he sees the guilt not in the fact that he committed the murder, but in the fact that he went to him, not appreciating his inner weakness and pathetic cowardice. He renounces the claim to being chosen. Raskolnikov ends up in hard labor, but Sonya remains by his side. These two lonely people found each other in a very difficult period of life for both. In the end, the hero finds support in love and religious consciousness.

Scene

The novel takes place in the summer in St. Petersburg.

Characters (edit)

  • Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, a mendicant former student, the protagonist of the story. He believes that he has the moral right to commit crimes and murder only the first step on the uncompromising road that will lead him to the top. Unconsciously he chooses the weakest and most defenseless member of society as a victim, justifying this by the insignificance of the life of an old woman-pawnbroker, after whose murder she faces a severe psychological shock: murder does not make a person “chosen”.
  • Pulcheria Alexandrovna Raskolnikova, the mother of Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, comes to him in St. Petersburg in the hope of marrying his daughter to Luzhin and arranging family life. Disappointment in Luzhin, fear for Rodion's life and peace of mind, her daughter's misfortune lead her to illness and death.
  • Avdotya Romanovna Raskolnikova, sister of Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov. An intelligent, beautiful, chaste girl who is in love with her brother to self-sacrifice. Has a habit of walking from corner to corner in the room in moments of thoughtfulness. In the struggle for his happiness, she was ready to go to a marriage of convenience, but could not make contact with Luzhin for the sake of his salvation. Marries Razumikhin, finding in him a sincere and loving person, a true companion of his brother.
  • Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin, the groom of Avdotya Romanovna Raskolnikova, a lawyer, an enterprising and selfish businessman. The groom of Avdotya Romanovna, who wanted to make her his slave, indebted to him for her position and prosperity. Dislike for Raskolnikov, the desire to embroil him with his family justify an attempt to dishonor Marmeladova, to falsify the theft allegedly committed by her.
  • Dmitry Prokofievich Razumikhin, a former student, friend of Raskolnikov. Strong, cheerful, intelligent guy, sincere and spontaneous. Deep love and affection for Raskolnikov explain his concern for him. Falls in love with Dunechka, proves his love with his help and support. Marries Duna.
  • Semyon Zakharovich Marmeladov, former titular councilor, degraded drunkard, alcoholic. It reflects the features of the heroes of Dostoevsky's unwritten novel "The Drunken", to which the writing of the novel originates genetically. The father of Sonya Marmeladova, himself weighed down by his addiction to alcohol, is a weak, weak-willed person who, however, loves his children. Crushed by a horse.
  • Katerina Ivanovna Marmeladova, wife of Semyon Zakharovich Marmeladov, headquarters officer's daughter. A sick woman, forced to raise three children alone, is not entirely healthy mentally. After the hard funeral of her husband, undermined by constant work, worries and illness, she goes crazy and dies.
  • Sonya Semyonovna Marmeladova, daughter of Semyon Zakharovich Marmeladov from his first marriage, a girl desperate for self-sale. Despite this occupation, a sensitive, timid and shy girl, forced to earn money in such an unsightly way. He understands the suffering of Rodion, finds in him a support in life, and the strength to make him a man again. Leaves for him in Siberia, becomes his lifelong girlfriend.
  • Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigailov, nobleman, former officer, landowner. Libertine, scoundrel, sharper. It is introduced as a counterbalance to Raskolnikov as an example of a person who does not stop at anything to achieve his goals and who does not for a second think about methods and "his right" (Rodion discusses such people in his theory). Avdotya Romanovna became the object of Svidrigailov's passion. An attempt to gain her favor with the help of Rodion was unsuccessful. Sliding into madness and the abyss of debauchery, despite his terrible fear of death, he shoots himself in the temple.
  • Marfa Petrovna Svidrigailova, his late wife, in whose murder Arkady Ivanovich was suspected, according to whom she appeared to him in the form of a ghost. She donated three thousand rubles to Duna, which allowed Duna to reject Luzhin as a groom.
  • Andrey Semyonovich Lebezyatnikov, a young man serving in the ministry. "Progressist", a utopian socialist, but a stupid person who does not fully understand and exaggerate many of the ideas of building communes. Luzhin's neighbor.
  • Porfiry Petrovich, bailiff of investigative cases. A master burned out of his affairs, a subtle psychologist who saw through Raskolnikov and invites him to confess to the murder. But he was not able to prove Rodion's guilt, due to the lack of evidence.
  • Amalia Ludvigovna (Ivanovna) Lippevekhzel, Rented an apartment to Lebezyatnikov, Luzhin, Marmeladov. A stupid and absurd woman, proud of her father, whose origin is not known at all.
  • Alena Ivanovna, collegiate secretary, pawnbroker. A dry and spiteful old woman, killed by Raskolnikov.
  • Lizaveta Ivanovna, the half-sister of Alena Ivanovna, an accidental witness to the murder, killed by Raskolnikov.
  • Zosimov, doctor, friend of Razumikhin

Screen adaptations

Based on the novel, feature films and cartoons have been shot several times. The most famous of them:

  • Crime and Punishment(eng. Crime and Punishment) (1935, USA with Peter Lorre, Edward Arnold and Marian Marsh);
  • Crime and Punishment(fr. Crime et Châtiment) (1956, France, directed by Georges Lampin, with the participation of Jean Gabin, Marina Vladi and Robert Hossein);
  • Crime and Punishment(1969, USSR, with the participation of Georgy Taratorkin, Innokentiy Smoktunovsky, Tatyana Bedova, Victoria Fedorova);
  • Crime and Punishment(eng. Crime and Punishment) (1979, short film featuring Timothy West, Vanessa Redgrave and John Hurt);
  • Shock(eng. Astonished) (1988, USA with Liliana Komorowska, Tommy Hollis and Ken Ryan);
  • Dostoevsky's crime and punishment(eng. Dostoevsky "s Crime and Punishment ) (1998, USA, TV movie with Patrick Dempsey, Ben Kingsley and Julie Delpy);
  • Crime and Punishment(eng. Crime and Punishment) (2002, USA-Russia-Poland)
  • Crime and Punishment(2007, Russia, with the participation of Vladimir Koshevoy, Andrey Panin, Alexander Baluev and Elena Yakovleva).

Theatrical performances

The novel has been staged many times in Russia and abroad. The first attempt to stage the novel by A.S. Ushakov in 1867 did not take place due to the prohibition of censorship. The first production that took place in Russia dates back to 1899. The first well-known foreign production took place at the Parisian theater "Odeon" ().

Translations

The first Polish translation (Zbrodnia i kara) was published in 1887-88.

An imperfect Lithuanian translation by Juozas Balciunas was published in 1929. Its reprint in