Who is a schismatic crime and. Rodion Raskolnikov: the image in the novel "Crime and Punishment". The theory of one's own chosenness as a defensive reaction to the injustice of the world

("Crime and Punishment")

The main character of the novel, a former student; the son and elder brother of the Raskolnikovs. In the draft materials, the author says about Raskolnikov - it is underlined: “His image expresses in the novel the idea of ​​excessive pride, arrogance and contempt for society. His idea: to take this society into power. Despotism is his trait ... ". But, at the same time, already in the course of the action, this hero in relation to individuals often acts as a true benefactor: from the last means he helps a sick fellow student, and after his death and his father, saves two children from the fire, gives everything to the Marmeladov family the money that his mother sent him stands up for the defense accused of theft ...
A sketch of his psychological portrait on the eve of the crime is given on the first page of the novel, when explaining why he does not want to meet with the landlady when leaving his “coffin” room: “Not that he was so cowardly and downtrodden, quite the opposite; but for some time he was in an irritable and tense state, similar to hypochondria. He became so deep in himself and retired from everyone that he was afraid even of any meeting, not just a meeting with the hostess. He was crushed by poverty; but even the constrained situation has recently ceased to weigh on him. He completely stopped his daily affairs and did not want to do it. In fact, he was not afraid of any mistress, no matter what she planned against him. But stopping on the stairs, listening to all sorts of nonsense about all this ordinary rubbish, to which he has nothing to do, all this harassment about payment, threats, complaints, and at the same time dodging, apologizing, lying, - no, it’s better to slip through somehow. cat up the stairs and sneak away so that no one sees ... ". A little further, the first sketch of the appearance is given: “The feeling of the deepest disgust flashed for a moment in the thin lines of the young man. By the way, he was remarkably handsome, with beautiful dark eyes, dark Russian, above average height, thin and slender.<...>He was so badly dressed that another, even a familiar person, would have been ashamed to go out into the street in such rags during the day.<...>But so much evil contempt had already accumulated in the soul of a young man that, despite all his, sometimes very young, delicacy, he was least ashamed of his rags on the street ... ”. Even further, it will be said about Raskolnikov's student days: “It's wonderful that Raskolnikov, being at the university, had almost no comrades, he was averse to everyone, did not go to anyone and took it hard. However, everyone soon turned away from him. Neither in general gatherings, nor in conversations, nor in amusements, in anything, he somehow did not take part. He worked hard, not sparing himself, and for this he was respected, but no one loved. He was very poor and somehow arrogantly proud and uncommunicative; as if he was hiding something to himself. It seemed to some of his comrades that he looked down on them all as children, from above, as if he had outstripped all of them in development, knowledge, and convictions, and that he looked at their convictions and interests as something inferior. .. ". Then he got along more or less only with Razumikhin.
and gives and paints the most objective portrait of Raskolnikov at the request of his mother and sister: “For a year and a half I have known Rodion: gloomy, gloomy, arrogant and proud; recently (and perhaps much earlier) hypochondriac is also suspicious. Generous and kind. He does not like to express his feelings and will sooner do cruelty than the heart will express in words. Sometimes, however, he is not at all a hypochondriac, but simply cold and insensitive to the point of inhumanity, right, as if in him two opposite characters are alternately replaced. Terribly taciturn sometimes! He has no time for everything, everyone interferes with him, but he himself lies, does nothing. Not mocking, and not because there was not enough sharpness, but as if he did not have enough time for such trifles. Doesn't listen to what they say. He is never interested in what everyone is interested in at the moment. He values ​​himself terribly and, it seems, not without some right to do so ... ".
The novel life of Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov begins with the fact that he, a young man of 23 years old, who three or four months before the described events left his studies at the university due to lack of funds and who almost did not leave his closet for a month from the tenants, who looked like a coffin, he went out into the street in his terrible rags and in indecision went through the July heat, as he called it, “to test his enterprise” - to the apartment of the usurer. Her house was exactly 730 paces from his house - he had already walked and measured before that. He climbed up to the 4th floor and rang the bell. “The bell rattled weakly, and it was as if it was made of tin, not copper ...” (This call is a very important detail in the novel: later, after the crime, it will be remembered by the murderer and beckon to him.) Raskolnikov gives his "samples" for a song (1 rub. 15 kopecks) the silver watch he inherited from his father and promises to bring a new mortgage the other day - a silver cigarette case (which he did not have), and he himself carefully conducted "exploration": where is the mistress holds keys, room layout, etc. The impoverished student is completely in the grip of the idea that he had endured in his fevered brain over the past month of lying in "underground"- to kill an ugly old woman and thereby change his life-destiny, to save his sister Dunya, who is bought and wooed by the villain and the merchant Luzhin. Following the test, even before the murder, Raskolnikov meets the impoverished man, his entire family and, most importantly, his eldest daughter Sonya Marmeladova, who became a prostitute in order to save the family from final death. The thought that sister Dunya was essentially doing the same thing (selling herself to Luzhin) in order to save him, Rodion, became the last impetus - Raskolnikov kills the old woman-pawnbroker, while, as it happened, he hacked to death the old woman's sister, who became an involuntary witness. And this ends the first part of the novel. And then there are five parts with the "Epilogue" - punishment. The fact is that in the "idea" of Raskolnikov, in addition to its, so to speak, material, practical side, for a month of lying and thinking, the theoretical, philosophical component has finally grown and matured. As it turned out later, Raskolnikov once wrote an article entitled "On the Crime", which two months before the murder of Alena Ivanovna appeared in the newspaper "Periodic speech", which the author himself did not suspect (he gave to a completely different newspaper), and in which carried out the idea that all mankind is divided into two categories - ordinary people, "trembling creatures", and extraordinary people, "Napoleons". And such a "Napoleon", according to Raskolnikov, can give permission to himself, his conscience, to "step over the blood" for the sake of a great goal, that is, he has the right to a crime. So Rodion Raskolnikov posed the question to himself: "Am I a trembling creature, or do I have the right?" So, mainly, to answer this question, he decided to kill the vile old woman.
But the punishment begins even at the very moment of the crime. All his theoretical reasoning and hopes at the moment of "stepping over the line" of being cold-blooded fly to hell. He was so lost after the murder (with several blows with the ax on the crown of the head) of Alena Ivanovna that he was not even able to rob - he began to grab the ruble mortgage earrings and rings, although, as it turned out later, there were thousands of rubles in cash in the chest of drawers in plain sight. Then there was an unexpected, absurd and completely unnecessary murder (with the point of an ax right in the face, in the eyes) of the meek Lizaveta, which at once crossed out all the excuses before her own conscience. And - from these minutes begins a nightmarish life for Raskolnikov: he immediately from a "superman" falls into the category of a persecuted beast. Even his external portrait changes dramatically: “Raskolnikov<...>was very pale, absent-minded and gloomy. Outside, he looked like a wounded person or enduring some severe physical pain: his eyebrows were pulled together, his lips were compressed, his eyes were inflamed ... ”. The main "hunter" in the novel is the bailiff of investigative affairs. It was he who, exhausting Raskolnikov's psyche with conversations similar to interrogations, all the time provoking a nervous breakdown with hints, manipulation of facts, hidden and even outright mockery, forces him to confess. However, the main reason for Raskolnikov's “surrender” is that he himself understood: “Did I kill an old woman? I killed myself, not the old woman! And then he smacked himself at once, forever! .. ". By the way, the thought of suicide obsessively pursues Raskolnikov: "Or give up life altogether! .."; "Yes, it's better to hang yourself! .."; "... otherwise it's better not to live ...". This obsessive suicidal motive sounds constantly in the soul and head of Raskolnikov. And many of the people around Rodion are simply sure that he is overcome by a craving for voluntary death. Here the simple-minded Razumikhin naively and cruelly frightens Pulcheria Alexandrovna and Dunya: “... well, how is he (Raskolnikova. - N.N.) Let one go now? Perhaps he will drown himself ... ". Here the meek Sonya is tormented by fear for Raskolnikov "at the thought that maybe he really will commit suicide" ... And now the cunning inquisitor Porfiry Petrovich first hints in a conversation with Rodion Romanovich, they say, after the murder of another faint-hearted murderer sometimes "From the window ali from the bell tower pulls", and then straight away, in his disgusting mock-servile style, he warns and advises: "Just in case, I also have a request to you<...>she is ticklish, but important; if, that is, just in case (which, incidentally, I do not believe and consider you completely incapable), if in case - well, just in case - the hunt would come to you in these forty or fifty hours somehow business to finish otherwise, in a fantastic way - to raise the handles like this (an absurd assumption, well, you will forgive me), then leave a short but detailed note ... ". But (Raskolnikov's double in the novel) even suddenly (suddenly?) Offers the murderer student: “Well, shoot yourself; what, al do not want to? .. ". Even before his own suicide, Svidrigailov continues to think and reflect on the final life-fate of his novel double. Handing over the money to Sonya, he pronounces a prediction-sentence: “Rodion Romanovich has two roads: either a bullet in the forehead, or along Vladimirka (that is, to hard labor. - N.N.) ... ". In practice, as in the case of Svidrigailov, the reader, at the will of the author, should suspect, guess, long before the finale, that Raskolnikov, perhaps, will commit suicide. Razumikhin only suggested that his comrade, God forbid, would drown himself, while Raskolnikov was already standing on the bridge and peering into the "darkened water of the ditch." It would seem, what is so special about it? But then, in front of his eyes, a drunken beggar woman rushes off the bridge (), she was immediately dragged out and rescued, and Raskolnikov, watching what was happening, suddenly confesses to himself in suicidal thoughts: “No, disgusting ... water ... not worth it .. . ". And soon, completely in a conversation with Dunya, the brother openly admits his obsession: “-<...>you see, sister, I finally wanted to make up my mind and many times walked near the Neva; I remember it. I wanted to end there, but ... I did not dare ...<...>Yes, in order to avoid this shame, I wanted to drown myself, Dunya, but I thought, already standing above the water, that if I considered myself strong until now, then let me not be afraid of shame ... ”. However, Raskolnikov would not have been Raskolnikov, if a minute later he had not added with an "ugly grin": "- Don't you think, sister, that I just chickened out the water? ..".
In one of the draft notes for the novel, Dostoevsky outlined that Raskolnikov should shoot himself in the finale. And here the parallel with Svidrigailov is quite clear: he, like his double, having renounced the shameful “female” method of suicide in dirty water, would most likely have, just as accidentally, like Svidrigailov, got a revolver somewhere ... The psychological touch that the author "gave" to the hero from his own life impressions is very characteristic - when Raskolnikov finally refuses to commit suicide, what is happening in his soul is described and conveyed as follows: declare forgiveness ... ". Quite logically justified is the roll call of Svidrigailov's dying thoughts and Raskolnikov's convict thoughts about each other. The student murderer, like the suicidal landowner, does not believe in eternal life, does not want to believe in Christ either. But it is worth remembering the scene-episode of Sonya Marmeladova and Raskolnikov reading the Gospel parable about the resurrection of Lazarus. Even Sonya was surprised why Raskolnikov insisted on reading aloud: “Why do you need it? You don’t believe? .. ”. However, Raskolnikov was painfully persistent and then “sat and listened motionless”, in essence, a story about the possibility of his own resurrection from the dead (after all - “I killed myself, not the old woman!”). In hard labor, he, along with other shackled companions, goes to church during Great Lent, but when suddenly a quarrel happened, “all at once attacked him with fury” and accusing him that he was “an atheist” and “must be killed "One convict even rushed at him in a decisive frenzy, however, Raskolnikov" waited for him calmly and silently: his eyebrow did not move, not a single feature of his face trembled ... ". At the last second, the escort stood between them and the murder (suicide ?!) did not happen, it didn’t happen. Yes, practically - suicide. Raskolnikov seemed to want to repeat the suicidal feat of the early Christians, who voluntarily accepted death for faith at the hands of the barbarians. In this case, the convict-murderer, by inertia and formally observing church rituals, and out of habit, from childhood, wearing a cross around his neck, for Raskolnikov, as it were, a newly converted Christian, is to some extent, indeed, a barbarian. And that the process of conversion (return?) To Christ in Rodion's soul is inevitable and has already begun - this is obvious. Under his pillow on the bunk lies the Gospel given to him by Sonya, according to which she read to him about the resurrection of Lazarus (and, it should be added, what was lying in hard labor under Dostoevsky's pillow! ), thoughts about his own resurrection, about the desire to live and believe - no longer leave him ...
Raskolnikov, regretting at first in the prison that he did not dare to execute himself following the example of Svidrigailov, could not help but think that it was not too late and even preferable to do it in the prison. Moreover, a convict life, especially in the first year, seemed to him (presumably, for Dostoevsky himself!) Absolutely unbearable, full of "intolerable torment." Here, of course, Sonya and her Gospel played a role, kept him from committing suicide, and pride-pride still controlled his mind ... But one should not discount the following circumstance, which extremely struck Raskolnikov (and first of all, Dostoevsky himself in his initial days and months of hard labor): “He looked at his convict comrades and wondered: how, too, they all loved life, how they treasured it! It seemed to him that in prison they loved and appreciated her even more, and valued her more than in freedom. What terrible torment and torture some of them, for example, vagabonds, did not endure! Can it really mean so much for them one ray of the sun, a dense forest, somewhere in an unknown wilderness, a cold spring, marked from the third year and about a date with which a tramp dreams, like a date with a mistress, sees him in a dream, green grass around him, a singing bird in the bush? .. ".
Raskolnikov's final return to the Christian faith, the rejection of his "idea" occurs after the apocalyptic dream of "trichinas" that infected all people on earth with the desire to kill. Rodion is also saved by the sacrificial love of Sonya Marmeladova, who followed him to hard labor. In many ways, she, the Gospel given by her, infect the criminal student with an irresistible thirst for life. Raskolnikov knows that "he does not get a new life for nothing", that he will have to "pay for it with a great future feat ...". We will never know what great feat the Raskolnikov, who refrained from suicide and resurrected to a new life, performed in the future, because a "new story" about his future fate, as the author promised in the final lines of the novel, did not follow.

The name of the protagonist is two-valued: on the one hand, the split is like a split; on the other hand, a split as schismaticism. This surname is deeply symbolic: it is not for nothing that the schismatic takes on the crime of the "nihilist" Raskolnikov.

Raskolnikov Rodion Romanovich is the main character of the novel. Romantic, proud and strong personality. Lives in St. Petersburg in a rented apartment. Extremely poor. A former law student who left because of poverty and his theory.
The consciousness of the hero is tormented by two questions: "is it allowed to commit a small evil for the sake of a great good, does a noble goal justify a criminal means?" and "Am I a trembling creature or have the right." To resolve them, Raskolnikov kills an old money-giver and, by chance, her wretched pregnant sister Lizaveta.
The very thought of violence disgusts Rodion. In a dream-memory of a horse being whipped in the eyes, the true essence of the hero's personality appears. A person cannot transgress the moral law without spiritual suffering and death.

But Raskolnikov still committed a crime. The "idea" has penetrated into his subconscious and completely controls the hero.
After the murder, Raskolnikov experiences a deep spiritual shock. He feels himself alienated from all people, alone in the “icy desert”. The hero has a fever, he is close to insanity and suicide. Nevertheless, he helps the Marmeladov family by giving her the last money.
Sometimes the hero thinks that he will be able to live with a "black spot on his conscience." Pride and self-confidence awaken in him. With his last strength, he confronts the investigator Porfiry Petrovich.
Gradually, the hero begins to realize the value of ordinary life: "No matter how you live - just live!" His pride is crushed, he is ready to accept the fact that he is an ordinary person, with all the weaknesses and shortcomings. Raskolnikov can no longer remain silent: he confesses his crime to Sonya. She advises him to publicly repent on Sennaya Square. But the hero could not say "I killed" there. He goes to the police station and confesses everything. The hero is sentenced to seven years in hard labor. Sonia, who fell in love with him, goes to hard labor after Rodion. Raskolnikov is ill for a long time in hard labor. He painfully experiences his "ordinariness", does not want to come to terms with it, does not communicate with anyone. Sonechka's love and Raskolnikov's own love for her resurrect him for a new life.

• Prince Valkovsky - characterization of the hero (character) (Humiliated and insulted Dostoevsky F.M.) - -
• The old woman-pawnbroker - characterization of the hero (character) (Crime and Punishment Dostoevsky F.M.) - -
• Sonechka Marmeladova - characterization of the hero (character) (Crime and Punishment Dostoevsky F.M.) Option 3 - -

Raskolnikov in the novel

Raskolnikov is a former law student from St. Petersburg who, due to lack of funds, was forced to leave his studies at the university. Lives extremely poor.

“He decided to kill an old woman, a titular counselor who gave money for interest.

The old woman is stupid, deaf, sick, greedy, takes huge interest, evil and seizes someone else's age, torturing her younger sister in her workers. "She's not good for anywhere", "what does she live for?", "Is she useful to anyone?" Etc. " ...

"It gives four times less than the thing is worth, and takes five or even seven percent per month, etc." ( ).

However, he does not dare to commit a crime until he receives a letter from his mother, which says about the upcoming marriage of his sister with a certain Mr. Luzhin. Realizing that her sister does not love her future husband, but sacrifices herself for the welfare of the family and, to a greater extent, for the sake of Raskolnikov himself, he deceived him into the old woman's apartment, kills and robbing her, simultaneously killing an accidental witness in the same apartment.

Having his theory that people are divided into ordinary people, floating with the flow, and people like Napoleon, who are allowed to do anything, Raskolnikov prior to his murder classifies himself in the second category; however, after the murder, he discovers that he fully refers to the first.

Appearance

By the way, he was remarkably good-looking, with beautiful dark eyes, dark Russian, taller than average, thin and slender ... He was so poorly dressed that another, even a familiar person, would be ashamed to go out into the street in such rags during the day.

Prototypes

Gerasim Chistov

A bailiff, a 27-year-old schismat, who killed with an ax in January 1865 in Moscow two old women (a cook and a washerwoman) with the aim of robbing their mistress, a bourgeois woman, Dubrovina. Money, silver and gold things were stolen from the iron chest. The killed were found in different rooms in pools of blood (newspaper "Golos" 1865, September 7-13).

A. T. Neofitov

Moscow professor of general history, maternal relative of Dostoevsky's aunt, merchant AF Kumanina, and, along with Dostoevsky, one of her heirs. Neophytov was involved in the case of ticket counterfeiters of 5% of the internal loan (compare the motive of instant enrichment in the mind of Raskolnikov).

A French criminal for whom killing a person was the same as "drinking a glass of wine"; justifying his crimes, Lasener wrote poems and memoirs, proving in them that he was a "victim of society", an avenger, a fighter against social injustice in the name of a revolutionary idea, allegedly prompted to him by the utopian socialists (an account of the Lasener trial of the 1830s on the pages of Dostoevsky's magazine "Time", 1861, No. 2).

Literary critics about the character

Historical prototypes of Raskolnikov

Mikhail Bakhtin, pointing to the historical roots of the image of Raskolnikov, noted that a significant correction must be made: it is more about the "prototypes of the images of ideas" of these individuals, rather than about themselves, and these ideas are transformed in public and individual consciousness according to the characteristic features of the Dostoevsky era.

In March 1865, the book of the French emperor Napoleon III "The Life of Julius Caesar" was published, where the right of a "strong personality" to violate any moral norms obligatory for ordinary people, "without stopping at the blood", was upheld. The book caused fierce controversy in Russian society and served as the ideological source of Raskolnikov's theory. The "Napoleonic" features of Raskolnikov's image undoubtedly bear traces of the influence of the image of Napoleon in the interpretation of A.S. Pushkin (a contradictory mixture of tragic greatness, genuine generosity and immeasurable selfishness, leading to fatal consequences and collapse - the poem "Napoleon", "Hero"), as , however, and the imprint of the epigone "Napoleonism" in Russia ("We are all looking at Napoleons" - "Eugene Onegin"). Compare the words of Raskolnikov, who secretly brought himself closer to Napoleon: “Suffering and pain are always obligatory for a wide consciousness and a deep heart. Truly great people, it seems to me, should feel great sadness in the world. " Compare also the provocatively ironic response of Porfiry Petrovich "Who in Russia does not consider himself Napoleon now?" Zametov's remark also parodies the craze for "Napoleonism", which has become a vulgar "commonplace": "Could it be some future Napoleon who killed our Alena Ivanovna last week with an ax?"

In the same vein as Dostoevsky, LN Tolstoy solved the "Napoleonic" theme (the "Napoleonic" ambitions of Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov and their complete disappointment in "Napoleonism"). Dostoevsky undoubtedly took into account, in addition, the comic aspect of the image of Napoleon, captured by N.V. Gogol (Chichikov in profile is almost Napoleon). The idea of ​​a "superman" was finally developed in M. Stirner's book "The One and His Property", which was in the library of Petrashevsky (V. Semevsky) and served as another source of Raskolnikov's theory, for his article, analyzed by Porfiry Petrovich, was written "about one book ": it can be a book by Stirner (V. Kirpotin), Napoleon III (F. Evnin) or T. de Quincey's treatise" Murder as one of the fine arts "(A. Alekseev). Just as Mohammed in the cave of Khira experienced the torments of the birth of a new faith, Raskolnikov nurtures an "idea-passion" (in the words of Lieutenant Porokh, Raskolnikov - "ascetic, monk, hermit"), considers himself a prophet and herald of a "new word". The law of Mohammed, according to Raskolnikov, is the law of power: Mohammed Raskolnikov represents with a saber, he firing from a battery (“blowing into the right and the guilty”). Mohammed's expression about man as a "trembling creature" becomes the leitmotif of the novel and a kind of term in Raskolnikov's theory, dividing people into "ordinary" and "extraordinary": "Am I a trembling creature or have I the right?"< …>Allah commands, and obey, "trembling" creature! " (Compare: "And I came with a banner from your Lord. Fear Allah and obey me" - Cor. 2,44,50). Compare also A. Pushkin: "Love the orphans, and my Koran // Preach the trembling creature" (V. Borisova). For Dostoevsky, Christ and Mohammed are antipodes, and Raskolnikov fell away from God, as Sonia Marmeladova says: "You departed from God, and God struck you, betrayed the devil!"

Raskolnikov's literary predecessors

• Biblical Job (V. Etov). Similarly, Job, Raskolnikov, in a state of crisis, solves the "last" issues, revolts against the unjust world order. In the epilogue of the novel, Dostoevsky meant that Raskolnikov, like Job, would find God.
• Corsair, Lara, Manfred - rebel heroes of Lord Byron.
• Jean Sbogard is the hero of the novel of the same name by C. Nodier, a noble robber and individualist.
• A leap from the novel by Georges Sand, a pirate who acquired wealth and fame at the cost of crime.
• Rastignac O. Balzac.
• Julien Sorel from the novel "Red and Black" by Stendhal.
• Medard is the hero of Hoffmann's novel Elixirs of Satan.
• Faust is the hero of Goethe's tragedy.
• Hamlet is the main character in Shakespeare's tragedy.
• Franz and Karl von Moor are the characters of one of the favorite works of F. M. Dostoevsky in the drama by F. Schiller "The Robbers".

The ethical problems of the novel are especially closely connected with the image of the latter: Karl Moor and Raskolnikov equally drive themselves into a moral impasse. “Karl Moor, - wrote G. Hegel, - suffered from the existing system,< …>goes beyond the circle of legitimacy. Breaking the shackles that restrained him, he creates a completely new historical state and proclaims himself a restorer of truth, a self-appointed judge who punishes lies,< …>but this private revenge turns out to be petty, accidental - with the insignificance of the means at his disposal - and only leads to new crimes. "

Which almost immediately became a household name in Russian literature. At the beginning of the novel, this character is faced with a dilemma - is he a superman or an ordinary citizen.

In the novel "Crime and Punishment" Fyodor Dostoevsky guides the reader through all the stages of decision-making and repentance after the deed.

Crime and Punishment

Rodion Raskolnikov's crime theory, with which he tries to solve more global issues, subsequently fails. Dostoevsky in his novel shows not only the issues of evil and good and crime with responsibility. Against the background of moral disagreements and struggles in the soul of a young man, he shows the everyday life of Petersburg society in the nineteenth century.

Raskolnikov, whose image literally after the first release of the novel became a household name, suffers from a mismatch of his thoughts and plans with reality. He wrote an article about the elect, who are allowed to do anything, and is trying to check if he belongs to the latter.

As we will see later, even hard labor did not change what Raskolnikov thought of himself. The old woman-pawnbroker became for him just a principle, through which he stepped over.

Thus, in the novel of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, through the prism of the suffering of a former student, many philosophical and moral-ethical issues are revealed.

The beauty of the work lies in the fact that the author shows them not from the point of view of the main character's monologues, but in a collision with other characters, acting as doubles and antipodes of Rodion Raskolnikov.

Who is Raskolnikov?

Rodion Raskolnikov, whose image is amazingly described by Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, was a poor student. Life in St. Petersburg has never been cheap. Therefore, without a constant income, this young man slides into hopeless poverty.

Rodion was even forced to quit his studies at the university, as he did not have enough funds for anything. Subsequently, when we deal with the different facets of his personality, we will make sure that this student has lived in a world of illusions for a long time.

So, why did Raskolnikov consider murder the only correct step towards the future? Was it really impossible to go the other way? Next, we will deal with the motives of the act and situations in life that led to such an idea.

First, let's give a description of Raskolnikov. He was a slender young man at the age of twenty-three. Dostoevsky writes that Rodion's height was above average, his eyes were dark, and his hair color was dark blond. Further, the author says that because of the distress, the student's clothes looked more like rags, in which an ordinary person would be ashamed to go out into the street.

In the article we will consider what events and meetings led to the crime of Raskolnikov. Essay at school usually requires the disclosure of his image. This information can help you complete this task.

So, in the novel we see that Rodion, having read Western philosophers, is inclined to divide society into two types of people - "trembling creatures" and "having the right". This reflects the Nietzschean idea of ​​the superman.

At first, he even considers himself to be in the second category, which in fact leads to the murder of the old woman-pawnbroker. But after this atrocity, Raskolnikov turns out to be unable to withstand the burden of the crime. It turns out that the young man originally belonged to ordinary people and was not a superman to whom everything is permitted.

Criminal prototypes

Literary critics have argued for many years about where such a character as Rodion Raskolnikov came from. The image of this person can be traced both in the press reports of that time, in literary works, and in the biographies of famous people.

It turns out that the protagonist owes his appearance to various people and messages that were known to Fyodor Dostoevsky. Now we will highlight the criminal prototypes of Rodion Raskolnikov.

In the press of the nineteenth century, three cases are known that could influence the formation of the storyline of the protagonist of "Crime and Punishment".

The first was the crime of a twenty-seven-year-old clerk, described in September 1865 in the Golos newspaper. His name was Gerasim Chistov, and among his acquaintances the young man was considered a schismatic (if you check the dictionary, this term in an allegorical sense means a person who is contrary to generally accepted traditions).

He killed with an ax two old servants in the house of a bourgeois woman, Dubrovina. The cook and the washerwoman prevented him from robbing the premises. The perpetrator brought out gold and silver objects and money, which he stole from an iron-lined chest. The old women were found in pools of blood.

The atrocity practically coincides with the events of the novel, but Raskolnikov's punishment was slightly different.

The second case is known from the second issue of the Vremya magazine in 1861. It described the famous "Lasener trial" that took place in the 1830s. This man was considered a serial French killer to whom the lives of other people meant absolutely nothing. For Pierre-François Lasener, as contemporaries said, it was the same "what to kill a man, what to drink a glass of wine."

After his arrest, he writes memoirs, poems and other works in which he tries to justify his crimes. According to his version, he was influenced by the revolutionary idea of ​​"combating injustice in society", which was instilled in him by the utopian socialists.

Finally, the last case is connected with one of the acquaintances of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. Professor of history, Muscovite, relative of the merchant Kumanina (the writer's aunt) and the second contender for her inheritance (along with the author of Crime and Punishment).

His last name was Neofitov, and he was detained during the process of issuing counterfeit domestic loan tickets. It is believed that it was his case that prompted the writer to put the idea of ​​instant enrichment into the thoughts of Rodion Raskolnikov.

Historical prototypes

If we talk about famous people who influenced the formation of the image of a young student, then we will talk more about ideas than about real events or personalities.

Let's get acquainted with the reasoning of great people who could form the description of Raskolnikov. In addition, all of their treatises are seen on the pages of the novel in replicas of minor characters.

So, without a doubt, in the first place is the work of Napoleon Bonaparte. His book, The Life of Julius Caesar, quickly became a nineteenth-century bestseller. In it, the emperor showed the society the principles of his worldview. The Corsican believed that among the general mass of humanity, "superhumans" were rarely born. The main difference between these individuals and others is that they are allowed to violate all norms and laws.

In the novel, we see the reflection of this thought all the time. This is Rodion's article in the newspaper, and the reflections of some of the characters. However, Fyodor Mikhailovich shows a varied understanding of the meaning of the phrase.

The most cynical version of the implementation of the idea in the life of a former student. Whom did Raskolnikov kill? The old woman-usurer. However, Rodion himself sees the event differently in certain parts of the novel. At first, the young man believes that "this is the most insignificant creature" and "by killing one creature, he will help hundreds of lives." Later, the thought is reborn into the fact that the victim was not a person, but a “crushed louse”. And at the last stage, the young man comes to the conclusion that he has killed his own life.

Svidrigailov and Luzhin also introduced Napoleonic motives into their actions, but they will be discussed later.

In addition to the book of the French emperor, similar ideas were in the works "The One and His Property" and "Murder as one of the fine arts." We see that during the novel, the student rushes about with an “idea-passion”. But this event looks more like a failed experiment.

At the end of the novel, we see that in hard labor, Raskolnikov understands the erroneous behavior. But finally, the young man does not part with the idea. This is evident from his thoughts. On the one hand, he laments the ruined youth, on the other hand, he regrets that he confessed. If I could stand, maybe I would become a "superman" for myself.

Literary prototypes

The description of Raskolnikov, which can be given to the image of the character, accumulates in itself various thoughts and actions of the heroes of other works. Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, through the prism of a young youth's doubts, examines many social and philosophical problems.

For example, most romantic writers have a lone hero who defies society. So, Lord Byron creates images of Manfred, Lara and Corsair. In Balzac we recognize similarities in Rastignac, and in Stendhal in Julien Sorel.

Considering who Raskolnikov killed, one can draw an analogy with Pushkin's The Queen of Spades. There Hermann is trying to find wealth at the expense of the old countess. It is noteworthy that Alexander Sergeevich's old woman was called Lizaveta Ivanovna and the young man kills her morally. Dostoevsky went further. Rodion really takes the life of a woman with that name.

In addition, there is a fairly large similarity with the characters of Schiller and Lermontov. The first in The Robbers has Karl Moor, who faces the same ethical challenges. And in "A Hero of Our Time" Grigory Aleksandrovich Pechorin is in a similar state of moral experimentation.

And in other works of Dostoevsky there are similar images. Before it was "Notes of the Underground", later - Ivan Karamazov, Versilov and Stavrogin.

Thus, we see that Rodion Raskolnikov combines in himself an opposing society, and a realistic character with his environment, origin and plans for the future.

Pulcheria Alexandrovna

Raskolnikov's mother, with her provincial naivete and innocence, sets off the images of the capital's residents. She perceives events in a more simplified way, closes her eyes for many things, seems unable to understand. However, at the end of the novel, when her last words break out in her dying delirium, we see how wrong the assumptions were. This woman perceived everything, but did not show the whirlpool of passions that raged in her soul.

In the first chapters of the novel, when Rodion Raskolnikov is introduced to us, the mother's letter has a significant impact on his decision. The news that the sister is preparing to "sacrifice herself for the good of her brother" plunges the student into a gloomy mood. He is finally confirmed in the idea of ​​killing the old woman-pawnbroker.

Here, to his plans is added the desire to protect Dunya from crooks. The loot, according to Raskolnikov, should be enough so as not to need financial handouts from the sister's future "husband". Subsequently, Rodion meets Luzhin and Svidrigailov.

Immediately after the first one came to introduce himself, the young man takes him with hostility. Why is Raskolnikov doing this? The mother's letter directly says that he is a scoundrel and a cheat. Under Pulcheria Alexandrovna, he developed the idea that the best wife is from a poor family, since she is completely at the mercy of her husband.

From the same letter, the former student learns about the dirty harassment of the landowner Svidrigailov to his sister, who worked as their governess.

Since Pulcheria Alexandrovna did not have a husband, Rodya becomes the only support of the family. We see how the mother takes care of and takes care of him. Despite his rude behavior and unfounded reproaches, the woman seeks to help with all her might. However, she cannot break through the wall that her son has built around him in an attempt to protect the family from future shocks.

Dunya

In the novel, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky illustrates various life positions and personal philosophies through the opposition of characters. For example, Dunya and Raskolnikov. The characteristics of a brother and sister are similar in many ways. They are outwardly attractive, educated, self-thinking and prone to decisive actions.

However, Rodion was crippled by poverty. He lost faith in kindness and sincerity. We see a gradual degradation of his social life. At the beginning of the novel, it is reported that Raskolnikov is a former student, but now he is hatching plans to "get wealth overnight."

Avdotya Romanovna, his sister, strives for a better, happy future, but in more realistic positions. She, unlike her brother, does not dream of instant wealth and does not harbor romantic illusions.

The culmination of their opposition is expressed in the readiness to kill. If Raskolnikov succeeds and he goes to it in order to prove to himself his own superiority, then with Dunya things are completely different. She is ready to take the life of Svidrigailov, but only because of self-defense.

We see Raskolnikov's punishment throughout most of the novel. It begins not in hard labor, but immediately after the death of the old woman. The harrowing doubts and worries about the course of the investigation torment the student more than the subsequent years in Siberia.
Dunya, having defended her right to freedom, receives a happy life in St. Petersburg as a reward.

Thus, Raskolnikov's sister turns out to be more active than her mother. And her influence on her brother is stronger because they mutually care about each other. He sees a certain outlet in helping her find a soul mate.

Raskolnikov and Marmeladov

Marmeladov and Raskolnikov are actually the exact opposite. Semyon Zakharovich is a widower, titular counselor. He is old enough for this rank, but his actions explain this turn of events.

We learn that he is shamelessly drinking. Taking in wife Ekaterina Ivanovna with children, Marmeladov moved to the capital. Here the family gradually sinks to the bottom. It comes to the point that his own daughter goes to the panel to feed her family, while Semyon Zakharovich is "lying drunk".

But in the formation of the image of Raskolnikov, one episode with the participation of this minor character matters. When the young man was returning from the "reconnaissance" of the future crime scene, he ended up in a tavern, where he met Marmeladov.

The key is one phrase from the confession of the latter. He, describing the blatant poverty, says "there are absolutely no barriers." Rodion Romanovich finds himself in the same situation in his thoughts. Inaction and dark fantasies led him to an extremely disastrous situation, from which he saw only one way out.

It turns out that the conversation with the titular counselor is superimposed on the despair that the former student experienced after reading the letter from his mother. This is the dilemma that Raskolnikov faces.

The characteristic of Marmeladov and his daughter Sonya, who would later become a window to the future for Rodion, boils down to the fact that they submitted to fatalism. In the beginning, the young man tries to influence them, help them, change their lives. However, in the end he dies under the pressure of guilt and partly accepts the views and philosophy of Sonya.

Raskolnikov and Luzhin

Luzhin and Raskolnikov are alike in irrepressible vanity and selfishness. However, Pyotr Petrovich is much smaller than a little soul and more stupid. He considers himself successful, modern and respectable, says that he created himself. However, in fact, it turns out to be just an empty and deceitful careerist.

The first acquaintance with Luzhin occurs in a letter that Rodion receives from his mother. It is from marriage with this "scoundrel" that the young man tries to save his sister, which prompts him to commit a crime.

If we compare these two images, both think of themselves as practically “supermen”. But Rodion Raskolnikov is younger and is subject to romantic illusions and maximalism. Petr Petrovich, on the contrary, tries to drive everything into the framework of his stupidity and narrow-mindedness (although he considers himself very smart).

The climax of the confrontation between these heroes takes place in the "numbers", where the unlucky groom, out of his own greed, settled the bride with the future mother-in-law. Here, in an extremely vile environment, he shows his true face. And the result is a final break with Dunya.

Later, he will try to discredit Sonya, accusing her of theft. By this, Petr Petrovich wanted to prove Rodion's inconsistency in the choice of acquaintances whom he introduces into the family (earlier Raskolnikov introduced Marmeladov's daughter to her mother and sister). However, his nefarious plan fails and he is forced to flee.

Raskolnikov and Svidrigailov

In the novel "Crime and Punishment" Raskolnikov, whose image undergoes evolution in the course of events, collides with his antipodes and doubles.

However, there is no direct similarity with any of the characters. All heroes act as the opposite of Rodion or have a more developed specific characteristic. So Arkady Ivanovich, as we know from the letter, is inclined to the constant pursuit of pleasures. He does not disdain murder (this is his only similarity with the main character).

However, Svidrigailov appears as a character with a dual nature. He seems to be a reasonable person, but he has lost faith in the future. Arkady Ivanovich tries to force Dunya to become his wife by coercion and blackmail, but the girl shoots him twice with a revolver. She did not manage to get in, but as a result, the landowner loses all hope of the opportunity to start life from scratch. As a result, Svidrigailov commits suicide.

Rodion Raskolnikov sees his possible future in Arkady Ivanovich's decision. He had already gone to look at the river from the bridge several times, thinking of jumping down. However, Fedor Mikhailovich helps the young man. He gives him hope in the form of Sonechka's love. This girl makes a former student confess to a crime, and then follows him to hard labor.

Thus, in this article we met with a vivid and ambiguous image of Rodion Raskolnikov. In Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky dissects the soul of a criminal with surgical precision to show the evolution from a determination inspired by illusions to depression after facing reality.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment has a huge philosophical meaning, which the author seeks to convey to the reader through the image of the main character - Rodion Raskolnikov. The essence of this character is revealed in the work gradually. Raskolnikov is a complex and ambiguous person, so it is quite difficult, but interesting, to understand the reasons for his actions.

At the very beginning of the novel, in the first chapter, the writer briefly describes the appearance of the protagonist. Raskolnikov appears to the reader as a rather attractive young man: tall, slender, dark blond hair, dark and expressive eyes too.

It was no coincidence that Dostoevsky made the protagonist of his work just such a person as Raskolnikov. He wanted to show the reader the essence of a fundamental problem of all time. And its meaning is that any crime will sooner or later be punished, but a person still tries to get around this law. However, life always turns out to be wiser and more inventive than any of us, it will judge everyone and put everything in its place.

Updated: 2012-07-19

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