It is not in vain that such a mysterious and gloomy person as Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigailov appears in the novel Crime and Punishment. Dostoevsky contrasts him in a rather interesting way with the main character, Rodion Raskolnikov, but more on that later.
Svidrigailov is described as a cynical and immoral person, his world is dark Petersburg dens. Suddenly getting rich and gaining power over the serfs, he embarked on an even more lecherous and destructive path. “We are in the same field of berries,” Svidrigailov says to Raskolnikov. “Crime and Punishment” is a novel with deep philosophical thought, which deals with issues of recognition of good and evil, justice of crime and moral responsibility, repentance and punishment. And if you take deeper, then the issues of the state system, and the socialist revolution.
The novel "Crime and Punishment." Svidrigailov
The author’s opposition of these two heroes paints a picture of the fact that each of them has his own point of view on life and circumstances, and completely opposite. Therefore, different Raskolnikov and Svidrigailov will receive punishment. “Crime and Punishment” tells about the fate of these heroes, and here’s what’s interesting: the murderer Svidrigailov, who poisoned his wife, will shoot himself at the end of the novel, and the murderer Raskolnikov will spend eight years in prison and will receive a reward of mutual love with Sonechka Marmeladova, who follows he will leave for hard labor, in order to somehow alleviate his suffering, and the deepest repentance for his deeds.
What do these heroes have in common and what makes them so different? Why such a different fate?
Svidrigailov (Crime and Punishment): Description
The thing is that, of their own free will, motivated by different goals, they crossed the line of permissibility and went to intentional murder. When it became known that Raskolnikov killed the old woman and her niece, Svidrigailov, unlike the close circle of Raskolnikov, Razumikhin, Dunyasha and Sonya, took this news quite calmly, he even reassured and cheered up the yearning, painfully nervous and restless Rodion.
So, who is he - Svidrigailov? “Crime and Punishment” (a characteristic of this character) shows that the novel describes him as a person who is uncharacteristically remorseful of his actions and actions.
Difference
However, he was very surprised by the throwings and doubts of Raskolnikov Svidrigailov. “Crime and Punishment” describes their meeting and conversation, where Arkady Ivanovich tells Rodion that if he was so tormented by conscience and moral issues, then why he had to take on his own business and expresses all this in a rude and harsh form.
So, if we compare these two heroes, then still in Rodion there was that human and living that tormented him every minute and second, but in Svidrigailov this was nothing - there was only emptiness, anger and disappointment. Hence the indifferent cynicism, and the accuracy of understanding Raskolnikov's idea-theory, which he perfectly accepts as his own. His words are: "Single villainy is permissible if the main goal is good." Everything seems to be simple and clear, but it was not so simple to live with these thoughts in my head.
Justification of goals
Continuing to reveal the theme of “Crime and Punishment”: the image of Svidrigailov, it must be noted right away that for this hero moral questions have become absolutely superfluous, he believes that achieving a “good goal” justifies any villainy. His goals include unlimited voluptuousness, some terrible things happen for him, Marfa Petrovna dies, a young girl dies, then Svidrigailov prepares to marry a sixteen-year-old bride and plotting violence against Dunyasha Raskolnikova, whom she wants to achieve at all costs.
Everything would go further according to his prudent and insidious plan, for he had come to Petersburg to get Dunyashin's love at all costs. He set a trap for Dunya and knows that the "bird" will fall into it. The poor girl is forced to go on a date to talk about the grave secret of her poor brother. And this is the saving straw that Svidrigailov clings to. "Crime and Punishment" in these minutes, the plot is heating up to the limit. Their date has become a very strong and exciting place in the work.
As a result of the fight, when Dunya, breaking out of Savidrigailov’s strong hands, grabbed a revolver and directed it at the offender, he was frightened, and not at all with weapons, but with the girl’s spiritual strength. He stepped back before his love for her. It was then that he finally realized that he had no escape from despair, which means that he had no future, and now he will have eternity in a “bank with spiders”.