Roman F. M. Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" for a century and a half has caused a lot of controversy and ambiguous assessments. This is due to the ideological concept of the work, which embodies the main character Rodion Raskolnikov. The causes of the crime and its behavior invariably lead the reader to reflection on the role of the individual in history, on how destructive the obsession that encompasses the human mind can be.
Based on philosophical theories, questions about the superman and the "cult of heroes" that haunted Rodion worried the writer himself.
Prototypes of the protagonist
The image of Raskolnikov in the novel did not arise spontaneously. It has several specific prototypes.
- Twenty-seven-year-old clerk G. Chistov, who lived in Moscow. Like a hero, he killed two old women with an ax, and then pulled money and valuables from their chests. This news was published in the September issue of the Golos newspaper for 1865.
- Frenchman Lassener is a murderer who justified his crimes by acting as a fighter for justice.
- A relative of Dostoyevsky's aunt A. Neofitov, who, together with the writer, claimed her inheritance. He was engaged in fake valuable tickets, which echoes Raskolnikov’s idea of ​​quick and easy enrichment.
We should also mention the great Napoleon, whose image appears on the pages of the novel. And also Pushkin German. They believed that a strong personality has the right to kill a worthless little man, if all others benefit from it. The hero of the novel Crime and Punishment is guided by a similar theory.
Thus, the idea of ​​the novel had a real basis, and was not exclusively a figment of the creative imagination of the writer.
"Nowhere to go"
The key to understanding the mental state of the hero of Dostoevsky is in many ways the description of St. Petersburg in the novel Crime and Punishment. An analysis of the life of ordinary people and the image not of the magnificent and magnificent, as it is most often represented, but of the poor, stuffy, constantly pressing the city's people - this is what turns out to be important for the writer. This is what daily surrounds Raskolnikov. His idea is ripening in a tiny little room, where everything: a debt to the hostess, the need to pledge valuable things in the least, concern for food, makes the hero constantly feel “humiliated and insulted”. Raskolnikov’s idea is becoming stronger when he sees that Marmeladov lives in even worse conditions, learns about Sonya’s sacrifice for the sake of the family, recalls the need for her sister to marry a wealthy man so that he, his beloved brother, could finish his studies. Thus, through the image of the “yellow” and ugly Petersburg, the image of Raskolnikov in the novel Crime and Punishment is revealed.
On the way to kill
The moral torment of the young man and the constant search for ways to get out of this situation lead him to the possibility of getting rid of an old woman who is not needed. The idea that her death would be a boon to a lot of people who came to her debtors was accidentally overheard by Raskolnikov in the tavern.
Then a series of events takes place that strengthened him more and more in the correctness of the idea. This acquaintance with the Marmeladovs and Sonya. Letter from mother about the imminent marriage of Dunyasha. A dirty scene with a drunk girl and Svidrigailov on the boulevard.
Dostoevsky gradually draws a new image of Raskolnikov in the novel Crime and Punishment. Rodion is increasingly convinced of the correctness of the decision. And only a terrible dream with a dying horse shows what a struggle all this time took place in the hero’s soul. Despite the fact that fate itself, it would seem, patronizes Raskolnikov in the commission of his “great” business - this is an eavesdropping conversation, an ax that immediately fell into his hands, and a story with an empty room in the old woman’s house, the young man’s soul protests and never will come to terms with what has happened.
The development of the idea of ​​a personality entitled
However, Raskolnikov’s act does not boil down to caring for “the humiliated and offended.” Having appeared in a small, cramped and dirty little room, his idea of ​​social injustice is further developed.
He turns to the history of mankind. An analysis of the actions of such figures as Napoleon and his ilk leads the young man to the idea of ​​dividing all people into "ordinary" or "creatures trembling" and "extraordinary", "the right to have."
The image of Raskolnikov in the novel Crime and Punishment is undergoing evolution. The hero gradually departs from his initial thoughts. Now the main thing for him was not the salvation of several needy at the cost of killing an insignificant old woman, but the verification of his own theory in practice. Who is he, Rodion Raskolnikov: “trembling creature” or a person who “has a right”? And all the other excuses for the act could no longer hide the absurdity of his idea.
This was followed by a “test”, which could still alert the hero and save him from a fatal step, the murder itself, constant torment of conscience, which were aggravated from meetings with the investigator Porfiry Petrovich, and, finally, the realization of his insignificance.
The image of Raskolnikov in the novel Crime and Punishment is rather complicated. It was more important for the author to show how the split of the hero’s soul occurred, when there was an ongoing struggle between opposing principles: love and hate, evil and good, ugliness and beauty, etc.
The conceptual design of the novel Crime and Punishment
An analysis of the behavior and psychological state of Raskolnikov, thus, shows how the idea of ​​social injustice received a perverted development and ultimately led the hero to a crime. Evil, even if it is committed in the name of good, has no right to exist - the author brings this thought to the reader.
The hero of the novel "Crime and Punishment" goes to hard labor. He is still only on the way to rethinking what he did, but it can be assumed that the moral purification and rebirth of the hero is still possible. And the true punishment for him was moral torment, caused by the realization that he could not step over himself.
The meaning of the novel and the image of Raskolnikov
The merit of F. Dostoevsky is great, since he tried to show what kind of power over a person the idea of ​​his exclusivity can acquire. In this regard, the conclusion that arises as a result of the analysis of the image of Raskolnikov is quite obvious: any theory, no matter how justified, most often turns out to be absolutely powerless in front of the realities of life.