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" by 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. Over the years, several other famous works were created: "The 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 narration was to be connected with the stories of the Marmeladov family. The main character is an unfortunate, drunken official, 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, the rushed 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 failed this time to cope with his illness. The result was disastrous. The remaining money is lost. Living in a hotel in Wiesbaden, he could not pay for the light and the table, he did not find himself on the street only at 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 coming to an end, and the writer's plan 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 criminal chronicle convinces the reader of the urgency of the problem. “I am convinced that my plot 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. 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 "the story from himself, not from him." It seems that the main character lives his own independent life and does not obey his creator. The workbooks tell about 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.
Dostoevsky's novel was literally suffered by the author and excites the minds of readers to this day. The history of the creation of the novel "Crime and Punishment" is not easy, it is very interesting. The writer put his whole soul into this novel, which still haunts many thinking and thinking people.
The birth of an idea
The idea of writing a novel originated with Dostoevsky at a time when the writer was in hard labor in Omsk. Despite the hard physical work and ill health, the writer continued to observe the life around him, the people, whose characters in the conditions of imprisonment were revealed from completely unexpected sides. And here, in hard labor, seriously ill, he decided to write a novel about crime and punishment. However, hard hard labor and a serious illness made it impossible to start writing it.
"My whole heart will rely with blood on this novel",
This is how Dostoevsky imagined the work on the work, calling it a confession novel. However, the author was able to start writing it much later. Between the idea and its embodiment, "Notes from the Underground", "The Humiliated and the Insulted", "Notes from the House of the Dead" were born. Many themes from these works, the problems of society described in them, found their place in "Crime and Punishment".
Between dream and reality
After returning from Omsk, Dostoevsky's financial situation leaves much to be desired, worsening every day. And writing a huge problem-psychological novel took time.
Trying to earn at least a little, the writer suggested that the editor of the Otechestvennye Zapiski magazine publish a short novel, Drunken. The author wanted to draw public attention to drunkenness. The plot was supposed to be connected with the Marmeladov family. The head of the family, a former official who was dismissed from the service, is drinking too much, and the whole family suffers.
However, the editor insisted on other conditions: Dostoevsky sold all the rights to publish his complete works for a meager fee. In accordance with the requirements of the editorial board, the author begins to write a novel, which must be submitted as soon as possible. So almost all of a sudden, the writer began working on the novel Crime and Punishment.
Start
Dostoevsky suffered from a player's illness - he could not help but play. And, having received a fee from the magazine, the writer, having corrected his affairs a little, again succumbed to the temptation of gambling. In Wiesbaden, he had nothing to pay for the table and light in the hotel. Thanks only to the kindness of the owners of the hotel, Dostoevsky did not stay on the street.
To get the money, it was necessary to finish the novel on time, so I had to hurry. The writer decided to tell a story about how a poor student decided to kill and rob an old woman. The plot was supposed to be a story about one crime.
The author was always interested in the psychology of his heroes, but here it was extremely important to study and describe the psychological state of a person who took another's life, it was important to reveal the "process of crime" itself. The writer had almost finished the novel, when he suddenly destroyed the manuscript for a completely incomprehensible reason.
Psychology of creativity
However, the novel had to be handed over to the editor by agreement. And the hurried work began again. The first part of the magazine "Russian Bulletin" was published already in 1866. The term for writing the novel was coming to an end, and Dostoevsky's plan was only gaining more and more completeness. The student's story is closely intertwined with the story of the drunkard Marmeladov and his family.
The writer was in danger of creative bondage. To avoid it, the author is distracted from Crime and Punishment for 21 days and literally in three weeks writes a new novel The Gambler, takes it to the publishing house.
Then he again continues to write a drawn-out novel about a crime. He studies crime chronicles and becomes convinced of the relevance of the chosen topic. He finishes the novel in Lublin, where he lives at this time with his sister on the estate. The novel was completely finished and was published at the end of 1866.
Diary of work on the novel
It is impossible to study the history of writing a novel without studying the writer's drafts. Sketches and rough notes help to understand how much effort, work, soul and heart, how many thoughts and ideas the author put into his novel. They show how the concept of the work changed, how the range of tasks expanded, how the entire architecture of the composition of the novel was built.
The writer almost completely changed the form of the narrative in order to understand the behavior and character of Raskolnikov as detailed and thoroughly as possible, to understand the motives of his actions and deeds. In the final version (third), the narration is already conducted from the third person.
So the hero begins to live his life, and completely independently of the will of the author, does not obey him. Reading workbooks, it becomes clear how long and painfully Dostoevsky himself has been trying to figure out the motives that pushed the hero to the crime, but the author almost failed.
And the writer creates a hero in which "two opposite characters alternately change." It is clearly seen how in Rodion two extremes, two principles are simultaneously present and fight with each other: contempt for people and love for them.
Therefore, it was very difficult for the author to write the ending of the novel. At first Dostoevsky wanted to end with how the hero turned to God. However, the final version ends quite differently. And this prompts the reader to reflect, even after the last page of the novel has been turned.
Introduction
FM Dostoevsky's novel "Crime and Punishment" is a socio-psychological one. 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 contemporary person trying to find a solution to pressing social problems. At the same time, Dostoevsky does not give 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 a murder. What led him to this terrible crime? Dostoevsky tries to find the answer to this question through a thorough analysis of the psychology of this person. The deep 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 the 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 F.M. Dostoevsky first encountered strong personalities who stood outside the moral law, and it was in 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 torture and punishment, 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 FM 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 individualist hero - 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 a story cannot, as far as I can guess, contradict your magazine in anything, even 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 shaky 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 no good for anything,” “what does she live for?”, “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 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, to 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, to the point of rudeness, they expose 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. Unsolved questions arise before the killer, unsuspecting and unexpected feelings torment his heart. God's righteousness, the earthly law takes its toll, and he ends up being forced to convey it to himself. Compelled to, although perish in hard labor, but again join 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 beliefs, 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 saw this even on the most undeveloped people, on the most gross accident. I wanted to express this precisely on a developed person, on a new generation, so that the thought would be brighter and more obligatorily 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 storyline partly justifies the present ”.
The plot of the novel is based on the idea of an “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 peculiarities of the structure: of the 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 to the Russian Bulletin in mid-December 1865. 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 completed the publication of the novel.
Three notebooks with drafts and notes to "Crime and Punishment" have survived. three handwritten editions: the first (short) - "story", the second (long) and the third (final) edition, characterizing 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, the last 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 love for people and the idea of contempt for them. The draft notebooks for the novel show how painfully F.M. 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 the case to the real point and eliminate uncertainty, that is, this or that way 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 love,” when Christ himself saves the repentant sinner.
But what is the end of a person who combines both opposite 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 has stood.
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: “Crime will always remain a crime, 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! " No, this is not allowed. " The novel "Crime and Punishment" is almost entirely devoted to the analysis of the social and moral nature of the crime and the punishment that will follow. 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 promoting the idea of a 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 up". But she also ate poor Sonechka Marmeladova, and 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 ponders.
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 man 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 did not 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 lies in the fulfillment of 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 high 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 get back 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.
When was the novel "Crime and Punishment" very few people remember, although everyone remembers its plot.
"Crime and Punishment" year of writing
The novel "Crime and Punishment" was written in 1866 year by the writer F.M.Dostoevsky.
Dostoevsky wrote the novel from 1865-1866. “Crime and Punishment” reproduces the life of the urban poor, reflects the growth of social inequality and crime.
The novel was published in parts from January to December 1866. Dostoevsky worked a lot on the novel, in a hurry to add fresh chapters to each regular 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.
The main motive of the novel "Crime and Punishment"- this is a fall in morality. In his work, FM Dostoevsky talks about people living an intense spiritual life, who painfully and persistently seek the truth.
The writer shows the life of different social groups: the disadvantaged urban people, crushed by want and humiliation, the educated poor, rebelling against evil and violence, successful businessmen. Dostoevsky deeply investigates not only the inner world of an individual person, but also his psychology. He poses complex social, moral and philosophical questions. The search for answers to these questions, the struggle of ideas - this is what constitutes the basis of the novel.
"Crime and Punishment", whose history of creation lasted almost 7 years, is one of the most famous novels by Fyodor Dostoevsky both in Russia and abroad. In this creation, the classic of Russian literature, as never before, revealed his talent as a psychologist and connoisseur of human souls. What prompted Dostoevsky to write a work about a murderer, and after all, this topic is not characteristic of the literature of that time?
Fyodor Dostoevsky - master of the psychological novel
The writer was born on November 11, 1821 in the city of Moscow. His father, Mikhail Andreevich, was a nobleman, court counselor, and his mother, Maria Fedorovna, came from a merchant family.
There was everything in the life of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky: loud fame and poverty, dark days in the Peter and Paul Fortress and years of hard labor, addiction to gambling and conversion to the Christian faith. Even during the life of the writer, such an epithet as "genius" was applied to his work.
Dostoevsky died at the age of 59 from pulmonary emphysema. He left behind a huge legacy - novels, poems, diaries, letters, etc. In Russian literature, Fyodor Mikhailovich is given the place of the chief psychologist and expert on human souls. Some literary critics (for example, Maxim Gorky), especially of the Soviet period, called Dostoevsky an "evil genius" because they believed that the writer defended "incorrect" political views in his works - conservative and even monarchist at some point in his life. However, one can argue with this: Dostoevsky's novels are not political, but they are always deeply psychological, their goal is to show the human soul and life itself as it is. And the work "Crime and Punishment" is the most striking confirmation of this.
The history of the creation of the novel "Crime and Punishment"
Fyodor Dostoevsky in 1850 was sent to hard labor in Omsk. "Crime and Punishment", the story of which began there, was first published in 1866, and before that the writer had to go through not the best days in his life.
In 1854, the writer was freed. Dostoevsky wrote in a letter to his brother in 1859 that the idea of a certain confession novel came to him when he was lying on a dirty bunk back in the 50s and was experiencing the most difficult moments in his life. But he was in no hurry to start this work, because he was not even sure that he would survive.
And so, in 1865 Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich, in dire need of money, signs an agreement with one publisher, under which he undertakes to submit a new novel by November 1866. Having received the fee, the writer improved his affairs, but his addiction to roulette played a cruel joke on him: he lost all the remaining money in Wiesbaden, the hotel owners did not evict him, but they stopped feeding and even turned off the light in the room. It was in these conditions that Dostoevsky began Crime and Punishment.
The story of the creation of the novel was nearing completion: the deadlines were running out - the author worked in a hotel, on a steamer, on his way home to St. Petersburg. He practically finished the novel, and then ... he took and burned the manuscript.
Dostoevsky began his work anew, and while the first two parts of the work were being published and the whole of St. Petersburg was being read by them, he was rapidly creating the remaining three, including the epilogue.
"Crime and Punishment" - the theme of the novel is clearly visible in the very title of the work.
The protagonist, Rodion Raskolnikov, decides to murder and rob an old usurer. On the one hand, the young man justifies his action by the fact that he and his family are in need. Rodion feels responsible for the fate of loved ones, but in order to help his sister and mother with at least something, he needs a large amount of money. On the other hand, murder remains an immoral and sinful act.
Rodion successfully commits the intended crime. But in the second part of the novel, he is faced with a problem more serious than poverty - his conscience begins to torment him. He becomes nervous, it seems to him that everyone around him knows about his act. As a result, Rodion begins to be seriously ill. After recovering, the young man seriously thinks about surrendering to the authorities. But his acquaintance with Sonya Marmeladova, as well as the arrival of his mother and sister in the city, for a while, forced him to abandon this venture.
Three suitors are claiming the hand of Rodion's sister, Dunya, at once: court councilor Pyotr Luzhin, landowner Svidrigailov and Rodion's friend Razumikhin. Rodion and Razumikhin manage to upset the planned wedding of Dunya and Luzhin, but the latter leaves angry and thinks about
Rodion Raskolnikov becomes more and more attached to Sonya Marmeladova - the daughter of his late friend. They talk with the girl about life, spend time together.
But a black cloud hangs over Rodion - there were witnesses who confirmed at the police station that recently Raskolnikov often went to the murdered usurer. The young man is still being released from the police station, but he remains the main suspect.
The most important events of the novel "Crime and Punishment" in chapters fall on the 5th part of the work and the epilogue.
The offended Luzhin tries to frame Sonya Marmeladova, passing her off as a thief and thereby quarreling with Raskolnikov. However, his plan fails, but Rodion does not stand up and confesses to Sonya that he had committed murder.
An outsider takes the blame for Raskolnikov's crime, but the investigator is sure that it was Rodion who committed the crime, so he visits the young man and tries to convince him to confess again.
At this time, Svidrigailov tries to get Dunya's favor by force, a frightened girl shoots him with a revolver. When the weapon misfires, and Dunya convinces the landowner that she does not love him, Svidrigailov lets the girl go. Having donated 15 thousand to Sonya Marmeladova and 3 thousand to the Raskolnikov family, the landowner commits suicide.
Rodion confesses to the murder of the usurer and receives 8 years of hard labor in Siberia. Sonya goes into exile after him. The former life for a former student is over, but thanks to the girl's love, he feels like a new stage in his destiny begins.
The image of Rodion Raskolnikov
In the novel "Crime and Punishment", the characterization of Rodion Raskolnikov and the assessment of his actions by the author himself is ambiguous.
The young man is handsome, smart enough, one might say, ambitious. But the life situation in which he found himself, or rather the social situation, does not allow him not only to realize his talents, but even to finish his studies at the university, to find a decent job. His sister is about to "sell herself" to an unloved person (to marry Luzhin for the sake of his fortune). Raskolnikov's mother is in poverty, and her beloved girl is forced to engage in prostitution. And Rodion does not see any way to help them and himself, except to get a large amount of money. But the idea of instant enrichment can only be realized with the help of robbery (in this case, it also entailed murder).
According to morality, Raskolnikov had no right to take the life of another person, and the reasoning that the old woman did not have long to live anyway, or that she had no right to "Jew" on the grief of other people is not an excuse and not a reason for murder. But Raskolnikov, although he is tormented by his act, considers himself innocent to the last: he explains his actions by the fact that at that moment he thought only about how to help loved ones.
Sonya Marmeladova
In the novel "Crime and Punishment", the description of the image of Sonya is as contradictory as that of Raskolnikov: the reader immediately recognizes in them
Sonya is kind and, in a sense, selfless, this is evident from her actions in relation to other people. The girl reads the Gospel, but at the same time is a prostitute. A devout prostitute - what could be more paradoxical?
However, Sonya is engaged in this trade not because she has a craving for debauchery - this is the only way for an uneducated attractive girl to earn a living, and not only for herself, but also for her large family: her stepmother Katerina Ivanovna and her three stepbrothers and sisters. As a result, Sonya is the only one who went to Siberia after Rodion to support him in difficult times.
Such paradoxical images are the basis of Dostoevsky's realism, because in the real world things cannot be only black or only white, like people. Therefore, a girl with a pure soul in certain life circumstances can engage in such a dirty trade, and a young man of noble spirit can decide to kill.
Arkady Svidrigailov
Arkady Svidrigailov is another character in the novel (a 50-year-old landowner) who literally duplicates Raskolnikov in many aspects. This is not an accident, but a technique chosen by the author. What is its essence?
"Crime and Punishment" is filled with dual images, perhaps to show that many people have equally positive and negative traits, can walk the same paths in life, but they always choose the outcome of their lives.
Arkady Svidrigailov is a widower. Even with his wife alive, he harassed Raskolnikov's sister, who was in their service. When his wife, Marfa Petrovna, died, the landowner came to ask for the hand of Avdotya Raskolnikova.
Svidrigailov has many sins behind his shoulders: he is suspected of murder, violence and debauchery. But this does not prevent a man from becoming the only person who took care of the family of the late Marmeladov, not only in a financial sense, but even placed the children in an orphanage after the death of their mother. Svidrigailov in a barbaric way tries to win over Dunya, but at the same time he is deeply wounded by the girl's dislike and he commits suicide, leaving Raskolnikov's sister an impressive amount of inheritance. Nobility and cruelty in this man are combined in their bizarre patterns, as in Raskolnikov.
P.P. Luzhin in the system of images of the novel
Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin ("Crime and Punishment") is another "double" of Raskolnikov. Raskolnikov, before committing a crime, compares himself to Napoleon, and so Luzhin is the Napoleon of his time in its purest form: unprincipled, caring only about himself, striving to amass capital at any cost. Perhaps that is why Raskolnikov hates a successful fellow: after all, Rodion himself believed that for the sake of his own prosperity he had the right to kill a man whose fate seemed to him less important.
Luzhin (Crime and Punishment) is very straightforward, like a character, caricatured and devoid of the inconsistency inherent in Dostoevsky's heroes. It can be assumed that the writer deliberately made Peter just like that, so that he became a clear embodiment of the bourgeois permissiveness that played such a cruel joke with Raskolnikov himself.
Publications of the novel abroad
"Crime and Punishment", the history of which took more than 6 years, was highly appreciated by foreign publications. In 1866, several chapters from the novel were translated into French and published in the Courrier russe.
In Germany, the work was published under the name "Raskolnikov" and by 1895 its published circulation was 2 times more than any other work of Dostoevsky.
At the beginning of the XX century. the novel Crime and Punishment has been translated into Polish, Czech, Italian, Serbian, Catalan, Lithuanian, etc.
Adaptation of the novel
The heroes of the novel "Crime and Punishment" are so colorful and interesting that they have taken on the adaptation of the novel more than once both in Russia and abroad. The first film - "Crime and Punishment" - appeared in Russia in 1909 (directed by Vasily Goncharov). This was followed by film adaptations in 1911, 1913, 1915.
In 1917 the world saw a picture of the American director Lawrence McGill, in 1923 the film "Raskolnikov" was released by the German director Robert Wienet.
After that, about 14 more adaptations were filmed in different countries. The most recent Russian work was the 2007 multi-part film Crime and Punishment (directed by Dmitry Svetozarov).
Romance in popular culture
In films, Dostoevsky's novel often flickers in the hands of the heroes serving imprisonment: in the film The Incredible Adventures of Wallace and Gromit: A Zero Haircut, the TV series Wolf, Desperate Housewives, etc.
In the computer game "Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments" in one of the episodes, the book with the title of Dostoevsky's novel is clearly visible in Sherlock Holmes's hands, and in the game GTA IV "Crime and Punishment" is the name of one of the missions.
Raskolnikov House in St. Petersburg
There is an assumption that Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich settled his hero in a house that actually exists in St. Petersburg. The researchers made such conclusions, since Dostoevsky mentions in the novel: he is in the "S-m" lane, next to the "K-m" bridge. At Stolyarny Pereulok-5, there really is a house that could well serve as a prototype for the novel. Today this building is one of the most visited tourist spots in St. Petersburg.