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$Title{Works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Crime and Punishment: Part Three}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Dostoyevsky, Fydor}
$Affiliation{Associate Professor Of Modern Languages, Florida State University}
$Subject{raskolnikov
crime
chapter
himself
human
life
dostoyevsky
dostoyevsky's
even
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$Date{}
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Title:       Works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Book:        Crime and Punishment
Author:      Dostoyevsky, Fydor
Critic:      Simons, John D.
Affiliation: Associate Professor Of Modern Languages, Florida State University

Crime and Punishment: Part Three

Chapter One

     Theme. This chapter contains several important developments. It
introduces Raskolnikov's mother and sister and shows how he feels about them.
Furthermore, it indicates the awakening of love between Dunya and Razumikhin.

     As we have already pointed out, Raskolnikov stands in a love-hate
relationship to his family. Since he is powerless to relieve their poverty
and has moreover been a burden to them, he intensely resents their presence
because they make him feel guilty. He rejects their expressions of love and
hurts their feelings. Even though he has not seen them for three years, he
sends them away immediately.

     Characterization. This chapter is devoted largely to developing the
character of Razumikhin and his relationship to Raskolnikov's sister and her
mother. This man is an anomaly in Dostoyevsky's pantheon of tortured misfits.
He is altruistic, generous, and intensely passionate, embodying all those
qualities that the author admired in men and women in general. Accordingly,
the two women immediately take a liking to this friendly giant and place
their trust in him. For his part, Razumikhin is ecstatic. From the minute he
sees Dunya, who is among other things startlingly beautiful, he falls
helplessly in love with her. Consequently, he performs all those selfless and
slightly absurd acts of which only lovers are capable.

     Among Dostoyevsky's strong points as an author is his ability to portray
women as complete human beings. Dunya is beautiful, self-reliant, and strong.
Her pride is offset by an expression of kindness and the ability to show
true emotion. Pulcheria, on the other hand, is emotional and shy. She is
honest and forthright in her dealings with others and has a sharply defined
set of principles. More than willing to compromise, there is a point
beyond which she cannot go. This somewhat rigid morality will later be the
cause of mental instability when she learns of her son's crime.

Chapter Two

     Characterization. This episode allows us to view Raskolnikov from the
viewpoint of his friends and family. Over breakfast Razumikhin is allowed to
indulge his fondness for talking. Giving his impressions of Raskolnikov, he
adds new information that explains much. Although Raskolnikov is basically
good and kind, he is either unable or unwilling to show it, feeling perhaps
that such traits belong to the common man. In his struggle to prove himself
a superior individual, he has become melancholy and proud, never missing a
chance to speak insolent, cruel, and ungrateful words. He is impatient,
indifferent to the interests of others, and extremely callous. He always
seems to be preoccupied with his own thoughts and never listens to what is
being said to him. This frame of mind belies his normal childhood and his
happy family life before coming to Petersburg. Modern psychology subsumes
this kind of behavior under the heading psychological fixation, a kind of
mental derangement in which the thinking is focused on a single idea.

     Luzhin's Letter. Luzhin's letter further illuminates his base character.
Again expressing himself in the stilted jargon of the business world, he
makes excuses for not meeting his fiancee at the train and for his inability
to join them for breakfast. We are not taken in. He is reminding them of their
total dependence on him. Next, he announces his visit for that evening and
orders that under no circumstances should Raskolnikov be allowed to be present
because of the "gross and unprecedented affront" which Luzhin had suffered
from him. He then tries to undermine the family's unity by writing that
Raskolnikov consorts with women of ill repute and that he has personally
seen him give money to one, money which his mother had raised on her pension.
This, of course, is a gross distortion the object of which is to repay the
student for his insults.

Chapter Three

     Theme And Characterization: Beneath the small talk of this family
gathering the members are communicating on an unconscious level. So subtly has
the author constructed this scene that it calls for close scrutiny. Through
facial expressions, intonation, or perhaps choice of words, impressions are
made. His mother and sister gradually sense intuitively what they want to
know, or better, what they are afraid to know because both sense that
something is terribly wrong with Raskolnikov. His behavior is odd. Though
this time outwardly warm and communicative, he does not listen to what is
being said. He is dreamy and listless. Only once during the visit does he give
way to his thoughts when he marvels at the paradox that people are unhappy if
they reach a line they will not overstep and will be unhappier still if they
do. This, of course, is a veiled reference to his own predicament.

     Theme Of Alienation: The author firmly believed that the chief
consequence of crime lies not so much in the remorse and despair that
overtakes the repenting criminal but in the transgressor's alienation from
other human beings. The very act of "stepping  over" the boundaries of
Christian morality also means "stepping outside" the human community. This
is the worst of all possible punishments because man simply cannot endure such
isolation. These ideas are illustrated in the present chapter. The young man
makes every effort to communicate, asks questions, responds to remarks, tries
to tell them about himself. All in vain. His mind always returns to the crime.
He, too, is aware of the magnitude of his alienation when he says: "And
everything happening here seems somehow far away...I seem to be looking at
you from a thousand miles away."

     Dunya's Self-Sacrifice. From preceding chapters we know that Dunya plans
to marry Luzhin mainly out of dedication to her brother. But she is unwilling
to admit the true motive even to herself and so looks for other, more
acceptable reasons. She tells her brother that she prefers Luzhin to poverty.
Moreover, she has convinced herself that although she does not love her
fiance, she respects him and believes that he feels the same way about her.
So far-reaching is her delusion tha she closes her eyes to all contrary
evidence. She explains away Luzhin's parsimony and glosses over his conceit
and vanity. Both Razumikhin and Raskolnikov see through Luzhin, but only
Raskolnikov knows the real reason for Dunya's actions. She, like her mother,
finds satisfaction in self-sacrifice.

Chapter Four

     Characterization. Thinking Raskolnikov alone, Sonia comes to thank him
for his gift whereupon he introduces her to his mother and sister. This is
unusual because in Russia at that time prostitutes were considered little
more than human vermin not fit to be introduced into polite society. At the
risk of belaboring the obvious, it must be pointed out that this is not just
Raskolnikov's way of flouting social tradition. He is attracted to Sonia above
all as the representative of suffering humanity. Although this theme is more
elaborately developed in later chapters, it will be well to speak of it here.

     It is difficult for the modern student to appreciate the division of
classes that prevailed in Russia until the revolution and the role this played
in determining a person's life. It was almost a caste system. If, for
example, a person was born into the working class, he was condemned to remain
in that class for the rest of his life regardless of any special talents
he possessed. We are not speaking of the highly gifted who find their way out,
but of that vast number of individuals of above average intelligence who find
the direction of their lives determined at the moment of birth. Like
Raskolnikov, Sonia is such a person. Intelligent, sensitive, and attractive,
her life would have been entirely different had she been from the upper
classes. Yet all that she can hope for is a life of drudgery, with too many
children and an alcoholic husband. Society does not permit her even this
lowly existence. Forced into prostitution to save her family from starvation,
she lives in misery, loathing herself. Raskolnikov sees in her the eternal
victim.

     In this scene the reader notices Sonia's beneficial influence on the
student. No longer irritable and preoccupied, he engages her in conversation
and becomes surprisingly loquacious. The reaction of his mother and sister
is noteworthy. While his mother cannot resist expressing her disapproval,
Dunya comprehends the situation and goes out of her way to be polite.

Chapter Five

     At Porfiry's. Raskolnikov has known for some time that he cannot avoid a
semi-official meeting with Porfiry, the detective assigned to the case,
because the police have two items he pawned, and would arouse suspicion if he
did not claim them. Furthermore, the criminal is impatient to find out how
much Porfiry knows and if he suspects him. Consequently, he makes careful
plans for the meeting.

     His first step is to enter Porfiry's apartment laughing, reasoning
that a criminal burdened with guilt and terrified of incriminating himself
would act differently. So just before arriving he makes fun of the way
Razumikhin has washed and combed his hair especially for Dunya. Naturally,
his friend becomes flustered and makes a spectacle of himself. Raskolnikov is
pleased that they can meet the detective in this casual, unsuspicious way.

     There now follows one of the great detective scenes in literature.
Dostoyevsky's art will be more highly appreciated if we pause to consider
that those of us brought up on traditional mystery stories expect something
quite different from a detective pursuing his suspect. Modern novels along
with television drama have taught us to look for accusations, evidence,
denials, alibis, and clear motives. And too, we expect the criminal to be
either an obvious villain or a sophisticated, evil genius who dresses
expensively and plays Bach on the organ just prior to ruthlessly
liquidating a thousand innocent people. Instead of this we are confronted
with a chilling battle of wits between two highly unlikely protagonists.
Porfiry is round and a little womanish while Raskolnikov is the possessed
idealist. Each has the reader's sympathy and we find ourselves in the
ridiculous position of hoping that both will win.

     Porfiry has also made careful plans for the encounter. Knowing that
he has no evidence to connect Raskolnikov to the crime, he nevertheless
suspects his involvement and opts for the psychological approach. For
his part, the student facilitates Porfiry's task because even here he
cannot refrain from incriminating himself. Using innuendo, allusions, an
occasional wink of the eye, Porfiry throws Raskolnikov off balance. The
detective also notices that when the suspect feels himself on strong
ground, he becomes insolent and defiant while when the questions get too near
the truth, he becomes pale and his lips tremble. These and other almost
imperceptible hints begin to convince Porfiry that Raskolnikov is the
murderer. At last, the detective employs the well known police tactic of
putting the criminal at ease only to spring a trap when the suspect is off
guard. At the end of the chapter Porfiry asks him if he happened to see two
painters working in the second-story apartment the evening he visited the
moneylender. We know, of course, that the painters were there on the night of
the murder, not when the student went to pawn his father's watch. But
Raskolnikov sees through the trap in the nick of time.

     Nature Of Crime. While Porfiry spins his web, the conversation turns to
the causes of crime. This is one of Dostoyevsky's favorite subjects. Speaking
through Razumikhin, he deflates the fashionable nineteenth-century contention
that crime is a protest against the iniquities of the social order, that
murder, rape, and mayhem can be ascribed to social imperfections. In other
words, crime will cease if society is made more equitable. The proponents of
this view devised all manner of mathematical formulas for the perfect society.
Dostoyevsky believed that such utopianistic thinking does not take human
nature into account and therefore is doomed to failure from the beginning.
He maintained that this kind of philosophy leads to an ultimate stage of
moral deterioration where freedom and the worth of the individual are no
longer respected. Dostoyevsky, however, does not deny the possibility that
man may eventually discover the formula for a perfect social organization.
Sometimes he seems convinced that such a faultless system already exists,
hidden somewhere in the hearts and minds of people, and that one day we will
find it.

     Economic Utilitarianism. It will be recalled from the previous
discussion of Raskolnikov's theory that he has divided humanity into two
unequal groups, the ordinary and the extraordinary. The ordinary man has to
live under control, has no right to break the law simply because he is
inferior. It is his duty to obey the law. But the extraordinary man has the
right and even the duty to transgress the law if it is essential for the
realization of his idea. In other terms, Raskolnikov's theory claims the
existence of principles that transcend the law and that sanction crime - even
bloodshed - if the act results in the ultimate benefit of humanity.

     Raskolnikov has chosen a utilitarian morality in which the end justifies
the means. Dostoyevsky strongly opposes this kind of utilitarianism because it
reduces human life to a matter of economics. Ultimately, such a view cannot
lead to universal harmony but to mutual annihilation. To him, this theory is
more frightening than any official authorization to take life because not only
does it negate the Judaeo-Christian morality which is the basis of Western
civilization, it sets another anti-Christian code of ethics in its place. The
extraordinary man is not just a person who disobeys the law, he is his own
law.

Chapter Six

     Man In The Overcoat. If the novel's most famous scene occurs when
Raskolnikov returns to the pawnbroker's apartment to ring the bell, the
episode at the beginning of this chapter ranks a close second. Coming out
into the courtyard of his house, the porter shows Raskolnikov a man in a long
overcoat who has been inquiring about him. But when the student approaches,
the man turns and walks away. Apprehensive, the criminal overtakes him and
asks for an explanation. Without stopping, the man looks him straight in the
eye and says "murderer." Though numb with fear and scarcely able to breathe,
Raskolnikov walks at his side for another hundred paces and asks in a barely
audible voice what he means. With a smile of hatred he replies: "You are a
murderer" and disappears into the crowd.

     Theme. This experience leads to a scene of brutal self-analysis. Back in
his room the student reveals for the first time how he really feels about the
crime. To begin with, he admits that he is unable to take the consequences of
his action: "And how dared I, knowing myself, knowing how I should be, take
up an axe and shed blood! I ought to have known beforehand...Ah, but I did
know." He murdered for a principle, wanting to prove not only that he had the
freedom to do so but also the right. He suffers greatly because his theory
proved unworkable: "The old woman was only an illness...I was in a hurry to
overstep...I didn't kill a human being, but a principle! I killed the
principle, but I didn't overstep, I stopped on this side...I was only capable
of killing. And it seems I wasn't even capable of that."

     This is the crux of the novel. Unable to kill with impunity, Raskolnikov
despairs. Why then, is he unable to bear the weight of his crime? To
understand this question fully, we must consider Dostoyevsky's views on
rationalism, the nature of freedom, law, and ethics.

     Freedom And The Law. Many thinkers of the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries held that man, with the proper kind of education, could become an
entirely rational creature. These rationalists believed strongly that we
eventually would be able to solve all our problems through the reasoning
process. Others went even further, claiming the existence of laws governing
human behavior much like those governing the physical universe. Both the
rationalistic and the deterministic explanation of man were anathema to
Dostoyevsky. There was yet another current of thought upon which we have
touched here and there that incensed the author: the contention that man is
totally free. Some of Dostoyevsky's contemporaries (whose spokesman is the
Underground Man) refused to accept an a priori good or evil in their world.
For them, human actions are devoid of value until their value is determined
at the moment of choice. Today we call such a theory situation ethics, knowing
fully that in such a world of relative values conventionally good deeds may be
bad and vice versa. Such views disturbed Dostoyevsky who saw that if there are
no inviolable laws - and there can be none if one is to be totally free - each
of us is his own law, a situation in which humanity could not survive.

     Dostoyevsky's Ethics. Dostoyevsky's ethics are rooted in Christianity.
His conviction that Christianity is the foundation of man's ethical behavior
derives from his speculations about the historical development of culture and
religion. It must be emphasized that the Russian author had a very special
conception of Christianity and how it affects our daily lives.

     Dostoyevsky saw clearly that for Western man Christianity is not just a
religion, it is a way of life that pervades every aspect of civilization. He
realized that when that religion first established itself as the dominant
force in Europe, each person from childhood to maturity was under increasing
pressure to conduct himself according to Christian teachings. Soon religion
and the prevalent culture became one. Religious ethics penetrated customs,
laws, the whole social framework. Each succeeding generation internalized the
heritage and reinforced its terms to the point where even the atheist is
forced to play his part in this on going process.

     Thus for Dostoyevsky culture is within us. Culture and the personality
are a unit, indivisible, and mutually dependent. Each decision, every moral
choice, each value judgment, everything we do and think is in accordance with
the total personality. A person can no more exclude cultural heritage from
his personality than he can exclude the unconscious.

     Dostoyevsky's conception of the interrelationship between culture,
religion, and the personality implies a truth about man as an ethical
creature. Each man is a reflection of his heritage and he carries within
himself a system of absolute values and a clear conception of the Good
created in the image of Christianity. Dostoyevsky believes that moral
absolutes are functional inner laws that guide Western man. If this quasi
instinctual knowledge of right and wrong is transgressed, psychic
disintegration will result. As we have pointed out before, Dostoyevsky is not
a rationalist. For him, it is not reason that impels us toward the Good but
the heart, the spirit. If a person refuses to listen to his heart, ethics
become a matter of convenience. Morality loses its foundation, freedom becomes
amoralism. Dissolution awaits the man who infringes those inner absolutes.

     The Crime Reexamined. In the light of the foregoing let us take another
look at the crime. Raskolnikov begins with a simple question: Are there any
moral limits in human nature or is everything permissible? Concluding that
there is no God and thus no sacred canons, he comes to the tempting delusion
that everything is allowable and proceeds to an act of crime. His encounter
with total freedom, however, ends in a spiritual disaster. He murders with
the intention to confirm his theory only to discover soon thereafter that
man's ethical nature forbids the killing of even the most harmful person.
With the old woman he kills all hope to find a guiding principle for his life
outside the traditional moral framework. At this point, however, he does not
comprehend what is happening to him. His confusion is reflected in the dream
in which he tries to kill Alyona a second time.

     Raskolnikov's Dream. The dream is composed of elements from recent
experience. The man who beckons is the same one in the overcoat who called
him a murderer. The student follows him through the streets to Alyona's house,
goes up the staircase, and finds himself once again in the moneylender's
apartment. Everything is the same as on the night of the murder. The events
that follow are a symbolical reenactment of the crime. This time the deed is
presented not as it actually happened but as it affected him. Seeing an object
in the corner covered with a large cloth, he thinks it is the man in the
overcoat. But when he looks, he sees Alyona bent double, hiding her face in
her lap. Removing the axe from the noose, he strikes her with it. When nothing
happens, he bends down to look but she too bends lower. He gets down on the
floor and looks at her face from below and is horrified to see that she is
silently shaking with mirth, doing her best to conceal it. Overcome with
frenzy, Raskolnikov strikes her again and again, but the harder he hits the
louder she laughs. Rushing onto the staircase he sees that all the doors are
open with people silently staring at him. Paralyzed with fear, he can neither
scream nor move.

     The dream dramatizes the hero's predicament and passes judgment on his
existence. In the beginning Raskolnikov had hoped that the crime would give
purpose and direction to his life and perhaps define his potentialities. Now
we understand why Alyona laughs at the failure of his efforts. The young man
has attempted to put himself above humanity and has failed. Striking the old
woman is merely a symbolical flailing out against the impersonal forces that
are closing in on him from all sides. As the dream reveals, all struggle is
ineffectual and hope is a delusion. The magnitude of his powerlessness
dawning at last, Raskolnikov stands on the staircase immobilized by terror,
vainly trying to scream. It is the noiseless scream of impotence.

     This scene is one of Dostoyevsky's most poignant comments on the human
condition. He is saying that life without God, without the living sense of the
Good as the guiding principle, is indeed devoid of meaning.

