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    File: \DP\0056\00568.TXT         Sat Jul 03 11:52:59 1993
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$Unique_ID{MON00568}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Crime and Punishment: Part Six}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Dostoyevsky, Fydor}
$Affiliation{Associate Professor Of Modern Languages, Florida State University}
$Subject{raskolnikov
suffering
himself
life
dunya
svidrigaylov
chapter
does
first
how}
$Date{}
$Log{}
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 Six

Chapter One

     Theme. While Raskolnikov is not insane in the ordinary sense of the word,
it is clear that he is mentally unbalanced. Lucidity and confusion alternate.
When he comes to the defense of the women, he is alert and articulate. As soon
as he reflects on his own existence, however, he forgets facts, imagines
experiences, and spends whole days in deep depression without food or drink.

     In this chapter we find Raskolnikov completely alone for the first time
since the crime. He is plagued by an indefinable mood that makes him feel
uneasy. He tries to escape this "uneasy presence" by seeking out lonely places
and taking solitary walks in the countryside. But the more isolated the
place, the more he senses the unseen presence and he hastens back to the city
to mingle with crowds in taverns and cafes. The feeling, though, persists
and he realizes that he must come to some kind of understanding with his
life and the events of the last ten days but finds he cannot. This sense of
malaise coupled with a vague, ill-defined fear is Dostoyevsky's way of
describing an archetypal guilt feeling at work.

     Characterization. Razumikhin is at his wits' end because he cannot
understand how anyone in his right mind could treat his family like
Raskolnikov does. His only explanation is that his friend is mad. In fact, he
had heard several rumors to this effect. At any rate, Razumikhin at this point
had decided to insult Raskolnikov and then wash his hands of the whole family
before going out and getting good and drunk. But when he meets Raskolnikov he
happens to be quite reasonable and succeeds in dispelling such thoughts by
simply mentioning that he and Dunya had spoken of him, Razumikhin, the day
before and that both had agreed on his superior human qualities. When
Raskolnikov mentions that Dunya senses Razumikhin's love, the young man leaves
enraptured, cursing himself that he suspected his friend of the murder that
night under the street lamp. Now he believes that his friend is a political
conspirator about to embark upon some desperate undertaking and that Dunya is
part of it. His conviction grows firmer the more he thinks about it.

     Razumikhin must not be regarded as merely simple-hearted and gullible.
Like Sonia, he is a genuine human being reluctant to think bad of his fellow
man. It is precisely because of these qualities that he is easily misled. Yet
he possesses extraordinary insight. He intuitively senses that Raskolnikov may
be guilty of murder, but prefers other explanations for Raskolnikov's behavior
as long as possible.

Chapter Two

     Porfiry's Psychology. In this chapter Porfiry has another chance to
display his ability to manipulate subjects. Changing his tactics because he is
now convinced of the student's guilt, he puts aside his professional tricks
and treats the young man with sympathy and respect. He is no longer the
detective mercilessly pursuing the criminal as in Chapter Five of Part Four.
He now becomes a father figure who tries to help Raskolnikov regain his
self-respect through confession. Finally, he lays all his cards on the table,
relating how he suspected the student's guilt long before he and Razumikhin
came to his house and how Raskolnikov's behavior gradually transformed his
suspicions into conviction.

     Porfiry tells the student that he will have to arrest him soon. Despite
this warning, the detective is not concerned that Raskolnikov will run away. A
common criminal would try to escape, but not this man. As mentioned before,
both Porfiry and Raskolnikov know that a person cannot run away from himself.
Eventually, he would return of his own accord because he needs the suffering
to gain redemption. As Porfiry says: "You can't get on without us." Italicized
in the original, these words introduce one of the chief themes of the novel,
the doctrine of salvation through suffering.

     Nature Of Suffering. Dostoyevsky firmly believed in the regenerative
power of suffering, considering it essential for the expiation of guilt.
Furthermore, suffering voluntarily accepted leads to spiritual rebirth. The
nature of suffering and its role in Dostoyevsky's novels will be clearer if
we pause to consider its position in Russian thought.

     Ranking as one of the chief characteristics of Russian Orthodoxy is
mysticism, the belief in the possibility of direct communion with God. This
communion does not depend on any outside factors such as revelation, or
answers to prayers. Rather the highest communion is achieved by direct
imitation, or identification which enables the soul to partake of the divine
essence. The mystic accepts symbolism as literally or metaphysically true. In
this state of mind, God ceases to be an idea and becomes an experience. Since
Christ's greatest moment on earth was his suffering and death for humanity,
the Russian feels that when he suffers he approaches Christ in both a mystical
and literal sense.

     This mystical-religious disposition and the belief in the absolutism of
suffering is a result of the peculiar history of Russia. It is one of
suffering. Christianity was the people's only comfort during the centuries of
immeasurable hardship when it was at the mercy of other nations. This
traditions and legends of the people emphasize the conviction that the weak,
the insulted and the injured will, at the Last Judgment, be exalted above the
domineering aristocracy from whom and for whom they endured such anguish. The
dictum "The meek shall inherit the earth" has real meaning for them.

     The Russian ideal, then, finds expression in suffering as a spiritual
bond between men and God. If we consider for a moment the actions and life of
Christ, we can better understand the significance of this bond. The difference
between the Old and the New Testament determines man's relationship both to
himself and to humanity at large. The Ten Commandments are concerned chiefly
with actions, whereas Jesus' law focuses on feeling-the love of God and one's
neighbor. If action is subordinated to feeling, the concepts of sin, freedom,
and law undergo a basic change. As Christianity developed in the West,
however, the importance of actions rather than states of mind continued to be
stressed. According to Jesus, laws can be fulfilled only through humility and
love. He had infinite patience with thieves, drunkards, and harlots and
reserved his wrath for the Scribes and Pharisees whose actions might have been
irreproachable but whose feelings and minds were corrupt. Likewise,
Dostoyevsky portrayed murders, prostitutes, and alcoholics as basically good
people whereas he viciously attacks men of empty actions, merchants,
bureaucrats, in fact the whole hypocritical middle class. The Russian
interpretation of Christianity, therefore, tries to do justice to the
primitive status of being. Feeling!

     Nikolay's Actions Explained. The religious sanctity of suffering accounts
for the actions of Nikolay, the painter. After a few days in prison he
voluntarily confesses to the murder, not because he is under pressure to do so
but because he is thirsting for punishment. Of course, Porfiry does not
believe him and orders an investigation. The inquiries turn up the revealing
information that in addition to a very strict religious education, several
members of his family belonged to a primitive religious sect which exalted
suffering above all else and that Nikolay himself had been the disciple of a
certain mystical elder. In the solitude of his cell he thinks about the elder
and the Bible which leads him to regret his life of profligacy since coming to
Petersburg. So by accepting punishment for a crime of which he is innocent, he
will be able to expiate his real, or imaginary, "sins." Similar to Nikolay's
are the actions of a prisoner Porfiry once knew who spent his time with the
Scriptures, finally reading himself into a frenzy. One day this prisoner
succumbed to the desire for punishment, seized a stone, and threw it at the
governor, aiming a few feet to one side so as not to injure him. Porfiry says:
"Do you know, Rodion Romanovich, the force of the word 'suffering' among these
people! It's not a question of suffering for someone's benefit, but simply
'one must suffer.'"

     We now understand the significance of Porfiry's words when he tells
Raskolnikov that he needs punishment if he is to rejoin the human community.
We also understand better why the detective is not afraid that the criminal
will run away: "I am convinced that you will decide to take 'your
suffering'...For suffering, Rodion Romanovich, is a great thing...Don't laugh
at it, there's an idea in suffering, Nikolay is right. No, you won't run away,
Rodion Romanovich."

     Sonia, too, knows what Raskolnikov must do, but she feels in her heart
what Porfiry perceives through psychology. When Raskolnikov asks what he can
do to be rid of the agony, she replies that he must go the crossroads, kiss
the earth that he has defiled, and finally bow down to all humanity saying
aloud that he is a murderer. "Then God will send you life again ... Suffer and
expiate your sin by it, that's what you must do."

     But Raskolnikov is not yet ready to take his punishment. He must first to
go Svidrigaylov and meet the ultimate consequences of his ideas.

Chapters Three And Four

     Theme. This and the following chapter, which we shall treat as one, show
Raskolnikov at the crossroads. Not yet ready to confess, he has two
alternatives. He can either continue the struggle with Porfiry and risk losing
his mind altogether. The terms Dostoyevsky uses to describe the student make
it clear that this is a real possibility. His hesitation to choose the latter
course is understandable because it involves more than confession. It is the
agonizing admission that he has been defeated without ever being caught. So he
first goes to Svidrigaylov hoping to find another way out of the predicament,
to hear something that will fill the void left by the collapse of his theory.
Instead, he discovers that this man lives from day to day, which means that
the vacuum in his soul is just as profound as Raskolnikov's.

     Necessity Of Faith. Svidrigaylov's curse consists in the fact that he has
no idea, no principle around which he can organize his life. He dissipates his
energy in debauchery and other vices. Yet even as an atheist he recognizes the
necessity of believing in something as the first premiss of a meaningful
existence. Disillusioned by unsuccessful attempts to find meaning in human
action, he is drawn to people who have something to live for. He admires Sonia
for her implicit faith and he is drawn to Dunya because she has succeeded in
organizing her life around self-sacrifice. Had she lived in the second or
third century A.D., he tells her brother, she would have ecstatically endured
torture and martyrdom as a Christian, while had she lived in the fourth or
fifth century she would have lived in the Egyptian desert for thirty years
sustaining herself on locusts and ecstacies.

     As we have already pointed out, Svidrigaylov suffers from metaphysical
boredom. And it is from boredom that he comes to the capital, hoping that
Dunya can provide him with what he needs. When he meets Raskolnikov, he is
also drawn to him. It is one of the novel's ironies that these two men seek
each other out to learn something new, but when they meet they are like two
mirrors set opposite each other reflecting nothingness.

     Svidrigaylov And Dunya. A considerable portion of Chapter Four concerns
Svidrigaylov's relationship to Dunya. According to his side of the story, she
was strongly attracted to him from the beginning. He maintains that her
emphasis on chastity prevents her from expressing what she feels in a normal
way. Instead, her desire for him manifests itself in a messianic effort to
lift him out of his depravity and rededicate him to a useful life. How else,
he says, can one account for her continually following him about and even
weeping over him? By way of illustration, he tells Raskolnikov about a married
woman he once knew who acted in a similar way. Virtuous, faithful, and chaste,
she could not admit to herself that she was just as eager as Svidrigaylov to
make love. In order to do so she had first to delude herself that the
seduction was an accident, a moment of weakness. Svidrigaylov concludes with
the observation that Dunya, too, would have succumbed had he not been so
impatient during the preliminaries. The reader would be justified in
dismissing this analysis of Dunya's feelings as delusions of male chauvinism
were it not for the events of:

Chapter Five

     Svidrigaylov And Dunya (Continued). Svidrigaylov coaxes Dunya into
meeting him secretly in his apartment. This gives rise to the question why she
agrees to a private meeting with an unscrupulous person she knows to be
passionately in love with her and of whom he is afraid. Certainly not in
response to his letter which hints at her brother's crime because the first
thing she says when entering the room is that she has already heard the rumors
and does not believe a word. And again, why did she not ask Razumikhin to
escort her? The same questions occur to Svidrigaylov, and he also notices how
she quickly changes the subject when he mentions these facts. We also observe
how frequently the color rushes to her face, how she is often scarcely able
to speak from excitement, and the difficulty she has in keeping to the topic
of conversation. These and other minor details, insignificant in themselves
but revealing when viewed as a whole, are evidence that she does feel an
attraction for him. We feel that she agrees to the rendezvous for one reason:
To find out how she feels about him.

     Some critics disagree on this point, claiming that Dunya comes solely out
of concern for her brother. Furthermore, they insist that Svidrigaylov's
object in getting her alone is to rape her, and that he is unable to do so
because he is impotent. Judging from what we know of this man's character,
however, it is difficult to imagine that he would have been incapable of
lovemaking had she been willing. Furthermore, were he truly impotent there
would not have been much point in setting up the meeting. It is true that he
does not rape her, but only because he loves her so much that he cannot bring
himself to treat her like the serf girls at his country estate.

     Dunya's moment of cognition comes with a feeling of disgust when
Svidrigaylov attempts to touch her. When he finally understands that she
neither wants nor loves him, the blow is so crushing that he lets her go.

Chapter Six

     Svidrigaylov's Suicide. Dunya destroys whatever hopes he had for a new
life. But even if she wentwith him, his soul sickness would likely have
returned after a short time. Hesimply has nothing to live for, no goal or
object which can absorb hisconsiderable strength. To repeat, in Dostoyevsky's
view, freedom and geniusare of little value if not governed by a guiding
principle. Genius dissipatesitself in trifles and freedom becomes a force of
destruction, turning upon and annihilating itself.

     The moment Dunya leaves the room Svidrigaylov decides to commit suicide.
He spends the last evening of his life in a small hotel located at the
outskirts of the city. His room merits special attention. It looks like an
attic, so low and cramped that he can scarcely stand up in it. The wallpaper
is torn and yellowish, there is dirt in every corner, and there are flies all
around. It was in just such a room that Raskolnikov conceived his theory of
humanity and plotted the murder. Ironically, Svidrigaylov spends his last
evening in a room remarkably like his conception of eternity, "like a bathouse
in the country, black and grimy with spiders in every corner."

     That night, Svidrigaylov's past returns to haunt him in the form of two
dreams. The first recalls a spring day with sunshine and flowers. It stars
Svidrigaylov himself morbidly contemplating the body of a young girl who had
killed herself after having been raped. In the second dream, he sees a
reflection of his own depravity in the face of a five-year-old girl he had
tried to help. He watches with horror how her innocent expression is
transformed within the space of a few seconds into the provocative expression
of a common harlot, the mirror image of his own lust. These dreams force him
to view himself in perspective. Desperate, he leaves the hotel.

     No longer able to face himself, he ends his wasted life in the street. At
the moment he pulls the trigger, Raskolnikov, who has also been wandering
about the city all night, is looking into the rain-swollen waters of the Neva
also contemplating suicide. When he turns away from the swirling torrents, he
rejects Svidrigaylov and his philosophy of unlimited freedom in favor of Sonia
and what she stands for.

Chapter Seven

     Theme And Characterization. The conversation with Dunya just before he
goes to the police reveals Raskolnikov's attitude toward the crime. It should
be pointed out once again that outwardly he feels no remorse. For him, killing
Alyona remains a humane act. Nor does he regret having shed blood. He still
insists that men of superior spirit understand that crime is simply a matter
of definition, a social convenience. Yet Raskolnikov discovers that despite
the rationalizations, his conscience does not give him any peace. In his
present state of mind the only possible conclusion for him is that he is a
weak coward, "a beggarly, contemptible wretch." At this point,
Raskolnikov's decision to confess is motivated more by the desire to punish
himself for his weakness than because of any real change of heart.

     Walking along the street toward Sonia's house, he watches the multitude
running to and fro, knowing that each of them is a criminal at heart, each
quite capable of killing a thousand old women. He cannot understand how he can
feel any guilt toward them. Neither can he comprehend the system of punishment
ordained by this "herd of sheep." He knows that they will send him to prison
not for the sake of regenerating him, but for revenge.

Chapter Eight

     Characterization. During the final moments preceding the confession to
the police, Raskolnikov abandons himself to self-hatred. So intense is his
disgust with himself that he regards genuine emotion as a further sign of
his despicability, and he punishes those toward whom these feelings are
directed.While it wrings his heart to say good-bye to his sister, he abuses
her instead, and when she turns around to look after him on the street, he
angrily waves her away. At Sonia's, to pick up the crucifix, he laughs at
the symbolism of "taking up the cross," and when he realizes that she wants
to accompany him to the police station, he drives her away like a dog.

     Walking along the street, he suddenly realizes that going to Sonia's for
the cross was just a ruse to cover his desire to see a friendly face and draw
strength from her anguish. Again, he indulges in self-contempt and mocks
himself bitterly for having these human and therefore "contemptible" needs.

     Kissing The Earth. Among the scenes by which the novel is remembered long
after our first impressions have died away is Raskolnikov's bowing down to the
earth. In this act he acknowledges the earth as the mother of all humanity,
the primary source of being. He also humbles himself before the "herd" he
previously despised. Bowing down to the people is a symbolic act which not
only  marks the beginning of his transformation into a living human being but
also his desire to rejoin the human community. The novel ends with the words:
"It was I killed the old pawnbroker woman and her sister Lizaveta with an axe
and robbed them."

     Time. Most readers are surprised to learn that the action of the novel
covers only two weeks, that of Part I three days. Actually, there is no real
lapse of time in the story because the novel relates an experience. Everything
that does not bear directly on Raskolnikov's situation is excluded. Instead
of time, there is a rhythmic contracting and expanding of tension.

Epilogue

     The Epilogue recounts the events of Raskolnikov's trial and describes his
situation in Siberia after his conviction. Although the student's conduct is
exemplary after his arrest and he gets a relatively mild sentence because of
it, he is still not convinced that taking a life, any life, is forbidden to
man. The confession of the crime has not brought him the peace of mind for
which he hoped. He is driven by a "vague and objectless anxiety" and thus
keeps reflecting upon his crime without ever really coming to terms with it.
Having exhausted all other excuses, he now blames his deed on fate, claiming
that at the critical moment he was seized and forced to act by a will greater
than his own. Instead of taking responsibility for his actions, he views
himself like the hero of classical tragedy who is destroyed in a battle with
blind destiny.

     Raskolnikov's regeneration begins nine months after his arrival in
Siberia at Easter. The symbolism is interesting. The human gestation period
is linked to Easter, traditionally associated with rebirth and resurrection.
At that moment we find him in the hospital suffering from wounded vanity,
outraged pride, and physical exhaustion in that order. He still feels no
remorse for what he has done to himself, to his family, and friends. Moreover,
the future seems as bleak as ever. Then suddenly he has a revelation in the
form of a dream.

     He dreams that humanity is attacked by a new form of the plague that
deludes its victims into thinking that they had finally found a philosophy of
life based on truth governed by the power of intellect. Yet, each individual
believed in a different truth. The result, of course, was chaos. Only a few
people survived. The dream carries Raskolnikov's theory of the rights of
superior men to form their own destiny to the extreme. It is the author's way
of telling us again that God's laws are needed to protect mankind from itself.

     Although Raskolnikov does not speak of the dream as if he understands its
true meaning, his changed behavior thereafter reveals a new man. When he is
released from the hospital, he discovers that Sonia is ill and therefore
cannot visit him. Now for the first time since their relationship began, he
finds that he misses her. Then when she finally comes a few days later, the
criminal is all at once overcome by his new-found sense of humanity of which
she now becomes the symbol. He falls to the ground before her, throws his
arms around her knees and weeps bitterly. Doing so, he embraces what she
represents: The striving for identification with Christ through suffering.

     Although this transformation happens suddenly, with almost no
preparation, it is in accordance with Dostoyevsky's doctrine of salvation
through suffering. We are told teat this scene by the river is only the
beginning, the first step of his rebirth and that he must undergo more
anguish and suffering before he can rejoin the community of men. Throughout
his writings, Dostoyevsky emphasizes that only the person who is truly alive
suffers. Anyone who does not suffer is outside of life, a prey to dark and
primal urges that constantly threaten to plunge him into despair. If the
alienated man is to regain Christ, he must first immerse himself in life with
its sufferings and afflictions. It is Dostoyevsky speaking when he has
Marmeladov explain: "Every human being, though he may be struck in dirt up
to his neck, is really living only when he suffers
and consequently needs Christ, and consequently there will be Christ. Only
those do not believe in Christ who are truly not alive and whose soul is
similar to an inorganic stone."

