Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky is one of the most significant creators of not only Russian literature, but also world-wide, universal. The novels of the great writer to this day are translated and published in more and more new languages. Dostoevsky’s work is saturated with compassion and boundless love for ordinary people. The unique talent to show the deepest qualities of the human soul, which everyone so painstakingly hides from the whole world, is what attracts people in the works of the great writer.
Fedor Dostoevsky: "Crime and Punishment" - the year of writing and reader reviews
Perhaps Dostoevsky’s most controversial novel is Crime and Punishment. Written in 1866, it made a lasting impression on the venerable audience of readers. As always, opinions were divided. Some, flipping through the first pages superficially, were indignant: "A battered topic!" Those who began to read anything in order to emphasize their status and boast of the fact of reading, and not understanding the author’s thoughts, sincerely spared the honest killer. Still others abandoned the novel, exclaiming: "What torment is this book!"
These were the most common reviews. Crime and Punishment, a work so valuable in the literary world, did not immediately find proper recognition. However, it fundamentally changed the entire way of social life of the nineteenth century. Now at social receptions and fashionable evenings there was a topic of conversation on duty. An awkward silence could be filled by a discussion of Raskolnikov. Those who had the misfortune of not immediately reading a work quickly made up for lost time.
False View of Crime and Punishment
To understand what Dostoevsky’s novel was supposed to convey to the reader, then few could. Most saw only the tip of the iceberg: the student killed, the student went crazy. The craziness version was also supported by many critics. In the described situation, they saw only absurd ideas about the life and death of the protagonist. However, this is not entirely true: you need to look deep into the soul, to be able to catch subtle hints of the true state of affairs.
The problems raised by F. M. Dostoevsky
The main problem raised by the author is difficult to single out from all the others - Crime and Punishment turned out to be too multifaceted. The book contains problems of morality, or rather, its absence; social problems that create inequality between identical at first glance people. Not the least role is played by the topic of misplaced priorities: the writer shows what happens to a society obsessed with money.
Contrary to popular opinion, the main character of Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment” does not personify the young generation of that time. Many critics took this character with hostility, deciding that Raskolnikov expressed contempt for the popular trend of the late nineteenth century - nihilism. However, this theory is fundamentally wrong: in a poor student, Dostoevsky showed only a victim of circumstances, a man who broke down under the onslaught of social vices.
Summary of the novel Crime and Punishment
The described events take place in the 60's. 19th century, in gloomy Petersburg. Rodion Raskolnikov, a poor young man, a former student, is forced to huddle in the attic of an apartment building. Tired of poverty, he goes to the old woman-interest-bearer to lay the last value. Acquaintance with the drunkard-Marmeladov and a letter to the mother, which describes their difficult life with her daughter, prompt Rodion to a terrible thought - about the murder of an old woman. He believes that the money that he will be able to take from the mortgage agent will be able to make life easier if not for him, then at least for his family.
The thought of violence is disgusting to the student, but he decides to commit a crime. To understand Raskolnikov’s own theory, quotes from Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment will help: “In one life, thousands of lives saved from decay and decay. One death and a hundred lives in return — arithmetic!” “Not only great ones,” the student believes, “but a little out of the rut people, by their nature, should be criminals, - more or less, of course.” Such thoughts prompt Rodion to test himself, having realized his plan. He kills the old woman with an ax, takes away something valuable and hides from the scene of the crime.
Due to the strong shock of Raskolnikov, the disease overcomes. For the rest of the story, he is incredulous and alienated from people, which causes suspicion. Rodion's acquaintance with Sonechka Marmeladova, a prostitute who is forced to work for the benefit of a poor family, leads to recognition. But, contrary to the killer’s expectations, deeply believing Sonya pities him and convinces him that the torment will stop when he surrenders and is punished.
As a result, Raskolnikov, although convinced of his innocence, confesses to the deed. Following him, Sonya rushes to hard labor. The first years of Rodion is cold to her - he is also alienated, taciturn, suspicious. But over time, sincere repentance comes to him, and a new feeling begins to arise in the soul - love for a devoted girl.
The main characters of the novel
It is impossible to make an unambiguous opinion about a character - everyone here is as real as the reader himself. Even from a small passage of the text it is easy to understand that this is Fedor Dostoevsky - "Crime and Punishment." The main characters are completely unique, the characters require a long and thoughtful analysis - and these are signs of real psychological realism.
Rodion Raskolnikov
Raskolnikov himself is still haunted by mixed reviews. “Crime and Punishment” is a very multifaceted, voluminous creation, and it’s difficult to immediately understand even such an everyday routine as the character’s character. At the beginning of the first part, Rodion’s appearance is described: a tall, slender young man with dark blond hair and dark expressive eyes. The hero is definitely beautiful - the more sharply he contrasts with the violence and poverty that the world of gray Petersburg is full of.
The nature of Rodion is very ambiguous. As events unfold, the reader will learn more and more new aspects of the hero’s life. Much later than the murder, it turns out that Raskolnikov, like no one else, is capable of compassion: when he found the already familiar drunkard Marmeladov, crushed by a carriage, he gave the last money to his family for a funeral. Such a contrast between morality and murder raises doubts in the reader: is this person so terrible, as it seemed at the beginning?
Assessing Rodion’s actions from a Christian point of view, the author claims: Raskolnikov is sinful. However, his main offense is not suicide, not that he transgressed the law. The worst thing that is in Rodion is what his theory consists of: dividing people into those who “have the right” and those whom he considers “a trembling creature.” “Everyone is equal,” says Dostoevsky, “and everyone has the same right to life.”
Sonechka Marmeladova
Sonya Marmeladova deserves no less close attention . Here is how Dostoevsky describes her: short, thin, but pretty pretty blonde of eighteen years old with beautiful blue eyes. The complete opposite of Raskolnikov: not very beautiful, inconspicuous, meek and modest, Sonechka, as the author called her, also violated the law. But there was no similarity with Rodion: she was not sinful.
This paradox is simply explained: Sonya did not divide people into good and bad; she sincerely loved everyone. Work on the panel made it possible for her family to survive in the terrible conditions of poverty, and the girl herself, forgetting about her own well-being, devoted her life to serving her family. Sacrifice atoned for the fact of the crime - and Sonya remained innocent.
Critical Reviews: Crime and Punishment
As already mentioned above, not everyone was able to appreciate the brainchild of Dostoevsky. People, far from the art of words, in the formation of their own opinions relied more on the opinions of influential critics; those, in turn, each saw something different in the work. Unfortunately, many, understanding the meaning of the novel, were mistaken - and their mistakes entailed deliberately false opinions.
Thus, for example, A. Suvorin is a rather influential person who, with the analysis of Crime and Punishment, made a statement in the well-known print publication Russky Vestnik, saying: the whole essence of the work is interpreted as the “painful direction of all literary activity” by Fedor Dostoyevsky. Rodion, according to the critic, is not at all the embodiment of some kind of direction or mindset, learned by the multitude, but there is only a completely sick person. He even called Raskolnikov nervous, crazy nature.
Such categoricalness found its supporters: P. Strakhov, a person close to Dostoevsky, declared: the writer's primary strength is not in certain categories of people, but "in portraying positions, in the ability to grasp deeply individual movements and shocks of the human soul." Like Suvorin, P. Strakhov did not pay attention to the tragic fate of the heroes, but regarded the work as the deepest perversion of understanding of morality.
Dostoevsky is a realist?
DI Pisarev was able to see the writer-realist most accurately in Dostoevsky by writing valuable reviews about this. “Crime and Punishment” was carefully considered in the article “Struggle for Life”: in it, the critic raised the question of the moral development of the society surrounding the criminal. A very important idea about the novel was formulated precisely by this author: that share of freedom that was at the disposal of Raskolnikov was completely insignificant. The true causes of the crime Pisarev sees poverty, the contradictions of Russian life, the moral decline of the people around Raskolnikov.
The true value of love
"Crime and Punishment" is a book of real Russian life. A characteristic feature of the art of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky is his ability to infinitely love not only "positively beautiful" people, but also those who are fallen, broken, sinful. The motives of philanthropy were reflected in the famous novel Crime and Punishment. The content of the chapters, paragraphs, lines, includes the author’s bitter tears, shed over the fate of the Russian people, over the fate of Russia itself. He desperately urges the reader to compassion, because without him in this dirty, cruel world, life - as well as death - no, there was not, and never will be.