In his famous philosophical and psychological work “Crime and Punishment,” Dostoevsky created a whole galaxy of bright and ambiguous images that still amaze readers today with their complexity, brightness and originality.
One of these characters in the novel is the rare scoundrel and scoundrel Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigailov. His image was created by the author in order to draw a parallel between him and the main character Rodion Raskolnikov, because they are in similar life situations: both of them committed a crime, had a “mysterious relationship” with an old pawnbroker. And although Svidrigailov calls him and Rodion “birds of a feather,” this is not entirely true, because he has been on the side of evil for a long time and has no doubt at all about the correctness of his choice.
Characteristics of the main character
Arkady Ivanovich is a rather attractive and youthful fifty-year-old man of noble origin. He is well dressed and makes a favorable impression on those around him, although Raskolnikov subtly notices that his face with cold and thoughtful blue eyes and thin scarlet lips looks like a mask (and a rather unpleasant one), behind which its owner successfully hides his vile essence.
Svidrigailov is a former officer who left his service long ago and indulged in the idle life of a sharper in the capital until he fell into debt. A rich woman, Marfa Petrovna, rescues him from there, she pays off all his debts, takes him to the village, where she becomes his wife. However, he does not feel a drop of love or gratitude for her, and continues to lead an immoral lifestyle there. The vicious and immoral Svidrigailov causes the suicide of a poor fifteen-year-old peasant girl, whom he seduces and abandons. With particular sophistication and cruelty, he also drives the poor servant Philip to suicide. Moreover, having caused the death of two people, Svidrigailov feels absolutely no remorse, does not repent and calmly continues to lead his depraved life.
(Svidrigailov shamelessly flirts with Dunya)
Unlike Raskolnikov, who also committed a crime and was now tormented and tormented by the question of whether he had the right to do so or not, Svidrigailov is absolutely calm and confident in his actions. He does everything to satisfy his base desires, and he absolutely does not care whether other people suffer from this or not. His soul is no longer at the crossroads of good and evil, he is consciously on the side of evil and does not repent of any of his crimes, because he does not even consider them to be such. He lives, striving to further satisfy his lust, and the evil in him continues to grow and expand.
(Dunya shoots Svidrigailov, in the role of Victoria Fedorova, film by L. Kulidzhanova “Crime and Punishment”, USSR 1969)
Having met Raskolnikov's sister Dunya in his house, who appeared there as a servant, the libertine Svidrigailov falls in love with her and begins to harass her. A pure and chaste girl angrily rejects his advances, and he, in order to achieve what he wants, drives his wife to the terrible sin of suicide. Trying to persuade the girl to have a relationship with him, Svidrigailov resorts to various tricks, blackmailing him with revealing the secret of her murderer brother, but Dunya, driven to despair, shoots him with a revolver to stop this cruel and unprincipled man. Only then does he understand how disgusted he is with her, and having truly fallen in love with this brave and pure girl, he lets her go.
The image of the hero in the work
(Svidrigailov to Raskolnikov:)
The image of Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigailov, a man without conscience and honor, was specially created by Dostoevsky as a warning to the main character, Raskolnikov, what he could become if he drowns out the voice of conscience and is able to live on without fully atoning for the crime he committed.
Svidrigailov worries and torments Rodion with his mystery and power over him, with the words that they are “birds of a feather.” In fact, this terrible man is the embodiment of his dark half, that part of Raskolnikov’s soul with which he is constantly trying to fight, because it can lead him to a complete moral decline and transition to the side of evil.
(Petrenko Alexey Vasilievich in the role of Svidrigailov, Lensoveta Theater, St. Petersburg)
Shattered by the actions of his beloved woman, Svidrigailov realizes how empty and meaningless his life is. His conscience begins to torment him, and in the last hours of his life he tries to somehow make amends for his guilt before God and people: he transfers money to Dunya, helps Sonya Marmeladova and her family. Belated repentance overtakes him and he, unable to bear this burden, commits suicide. He turned out to be too weak and cowardly, and could not, like Raskolnikov, repent and suffer the deserved punishment.
To penetrate into the essence of the human soul, regardless of who it belongs to, a righteous man or a murderer, was the main goal of Mikhail Dostoevsky’s work. Most of his characters live in St. Petersburg in the 19th century. Nevertheless, the books of the great Russian classic are still interesting today. And not only in Russia, but also abroad. The image of Svidrigailov is one of the most interesting images of Dostoevsky. Only at first glance it may seem that this character is unambiguous. He is opposed to the main character of the novel “Crime and Punishment”, but at the same time has much in common with him.
The image of Svidrigailov in the novel “Crime and Punishment”
So what do we know about this hero? Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigailov is an acquaintance of Dunya Raskolnikova. Moreover, he is her admirer, passionate, unstoppable. The image of Svidrigailov emerges even before his appearance. Raskolnikov will one day learn of him as a low man, ready to do anything for profit and pleasure. The mysterious story of Arkady Ivanovich is of considerable interest. He, like the main character of the novel, once committed a murder. However, unlike Raskolnikov, he was not brought to trial.
Arkady Ivanovich is fifty years old. He is a man of average height, portly, with steep and broad shoulders. An important part of Svidrigailov’s image is smart, comfortable clothing. He always carries an exquisite cane in his hands, which he taps every now and then. Svidrigailov's broad face is quite pleasant. A healthy complexion indicates that he spends most of his time not in dusty St. Petersburg. The hair is blond with graying.
What is the most important thing in the image of Svidrigailov, as, indeed, in any other? Of course, the eyes. Arkady Ivanovich's are blue, they look coldly, intently, and a little thoughtfully. Svidrigailov is a nobleman, a retired officer. He is a desperate man, as one of the characters said, “forlorn behavior.” Briefly, the image of Svidrigailov can be described as follows: a villain, a voluptuous person, a scoundrel.
The story of Arkady Ivanovich
Svidrigailov’s characterization is very unattractive. Nevertheless, in the scene that depicts his death, he is able to evoke pity in the reader. The image of Svidrigailov in Dostoevsky’s novel is considered to be the most striking negative. Still, this is a rather controversial character. Yes, he is a scoundrel, a libertine, an adventurer, a tyrant. But he is an unhappy man.
One day he says to Raskolnikov: “My children need me. But what kind of father am I?” He seems to be trying to denigrate himself, trying to seem more unpleasant and disgusting than he is. Perhaps the whole point is that Svidrigailov once committed a murder. He did not confess, did not repent. He believes in his impunity. Svidrigailov is cruelly mistaken. There is no crime without punishment.
Svidrigailov was once a card sharper. He went to prison for debt. From there he was bought by Marfa Petrovna, an elderly woman, but very rich. After his release, Arkady Ivanovich married her. True, a few months after the wedding he declared that he could not be faithful to her.
Marfa Petrovna forgave her husband's infidelity. Moreover, she once did everything to hide the dirty story that led to the death of a fifteen-year-old girl. But then Svidrigailov had every chance to go to Siberia. If it weren’t for his wife, who, by the way, later died under very strange circumstances. Dunya Raskolnikova believes that Arkady Ivanovich poisoned her with poison.
Let us consider in more detail the characteristic features of Svidrigailov. What kind of story happened to him several years before he met Raskolnikov? What does this scoundrel have in common with the main character?
Extravagance
Svidrigailov is a rather eccentric person. He is not at all interested in the opinions of others. As already mentioned, he is called “a man of bad behavior.” He says strange things and takes his interlocutor by surprise with his shameless speeches. Perhaps he really is indifferent to public opinion. But we can also assume another option: Svidrigailov takes pleasure in surprising and shocking those around him.
Depravity
This is the most depraved hero in the novel Crime and Punishment. Once upon a time he cheated on his wife with peasant women. Later, having met Dunya, he became inflamed with passion for her. This destroyed the libertine. The girl will never reciprocate his feelings. She despises him, and once almost kills him. Arkady Ivanovich is used to getting his way. When he realizes that he will never achieve his goal in the person of Dunya Raskolnikova, he commits suicide.
Adventurism
Svidrigailov is an empty man. He is accustomed to idleness and lives in grand style. Svidrigailov's marriage itself is nothing more than an adventure. He connected his life with a woman he did not love. Perhaps Svidrigailov is not at all capable of deep feeling. He lives for momentary pleasure, for which he is ready to pay with someone else's life. The time has come to tell the story, after which Arkady Ivanovich’s reputation as a scoundrel was forever established.
Cruelty
Marfa Petrovna entered into a strange agreement with her husband. Its essence was as follows: he would never leave her, never have a permanent mistress, and at the same time he would satisfy his lust with hay girls. One of the peasant women - a girl 14-15 years old - was once found hanged in the attic. It turned out that Svidrigailov’s cruel insult pushed her to suicide. This man had another death on his conscience. He drove Philip, a peasant who could not stand the constant persecution, to suicide.
Svidrigailov and Luzhin
The images of these characters are contrasted with the main character. They are considered to be Raskolnikov's doubles. However, Luzhin, unlike Svidrigailov, and even more so the student who killed the old woman, is a rather simple character.
Luzhin causes nothing but rejection. This is a sleek, middle-aged gentleman, in whose expensive, dandy clothes there is something unnatural, sham. Unlike Svidrigailov, he rose from the bottom. Luzhin was not used to idleness. He serves in two places and values every minute. Finally, the main thing that distinguishes him from Arkady Ivanovich is rationality and prudence. This man will never lose his head because of passion. He wants to marry Duna not because he loves her. Raskolnikov's sister is poor, which means she will be an obedient wife. She is well educated, which means she will help him take a higher place in society.
Birds of a feather
Svidrigailov learns about Raskolnikov's crime after overhearing his conversation with Sonya. He, of course, will not make Rodion Romanovich’s secret public. However, she excites and excites him. “You and I are birds of a feather,” he once says to Raskolnikov. But suddenly he notices incomprehensible tragic movements in the student. A person with such a fine organization has no reason to commit a crime - this is what Svidrigailov believes, contemptuously calling Rodion’s suffering “Shillerism.”
Arkady Ivanovich suffered pangs of conscience only in the last days of his life. And they were too weak to lead to repentance. He, unlike Raskolnikov, could not admit his guilt.
The image of Svidrigailov in the novel “Crime and Punishment” is important for understanding the theory of Rodion Raskolnikov. Svidrigailov, being a kind of double of the main character, demonstrates the theoretical principles of Raskolnikov’s worldview in practice.
Actions
The image of Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigailov is ambiguous in assessment. Despite the fact that the hero’s life can be called vulgar and “voluptuous”, and the attitude of other characters towards Svidrigailov is negative, many researchers of the work of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky note that this character cannot be called completely negative. It is not one-sided, as it might seem at first glance.
Yes, Svidrigailov is a kind of villain who commits many moral and physical crimes. He was accused of murdering a girl, was involved in the suicide of a footman, and brought Marfa Petrovna, who loved him dearly, to death. This and much more characterizes the hero as a negative character.
However, Svidrigailov does even more good deeds than other characters in the novel Crime and Punishment. He helps pay for Marmeladova’s funeral and also places her children in an orphanage. Svidrigailov is worried about Duna and offers Rodion 10 thousand rubles to save the heroine from marrying Luzhin.
The theory by which Svidrigailov lives prevents him from living according to his conscience, which is nevertheless embodied in his dreams and otherworldly images. A conscience that has not yet fallen asleep speaks of a contradiction between the hero’s actions and his worldview.
Theory
Svidrigailov’s theory is called the theory of permissiveness, which states that the end justifies any means. The hero is confident that he is allowed absolutely everything, so he is not afraid to commit vile and criminal acts. On the contrary, he sees nothing wrong with them.
Although Svidrigailov does not have a clear theory, he expresses his arguments like this: “what difference does it make whether you were a righteous person in this world or indulged in all sorts of pleasures.”
Svidrigailov's theory shows the impossibility of its existence. The hero's story proves that a person without convictions simply cannot truly live. The hero becomes disillusioned with his life and commits suicide.
Double
Arkady Ivanovich is a double of Rodion Raskolnikov. Moreover, he notices this himself and tells the main character that they are “birds of a feather.” The similarities of the heroes can be seen in their theories. Raskolnikov's worldview has a theoretical embodiment, while Svidrigailov's life is a practical application of the protagonist's theory. Arkady Ivanovich lives by the principle of “those who have the right,” without thinking about the fact that he might be a “trembling creature.” If Raskolnikov's theory is analyzed by him, then Svidrigailov's life is the result of this theory in real life.
The image of Svidrigailov is placed in the narrative in order to most clearly and exaggeratedly show Raskolnikov’s theory and demonstrate its incapacity. This is confirmed by the suicide of Svidrigailov, who is trying to cross out all the principles that helped him exist in the world. He realized that the theory of permissiveness did not live up to his hopes. He did not become like Napoleon, although he “crossed” the line of what was permitted more than once.
Raskolnikov’s acquaintance with Svidrigailov is not accidental. It is necessary for the plan, so that Rodion independently understands the inconsistency of his theory. Raskolnikov understands that a person of the same “berry field” as him is an empty villain, which means that this is his theory.
This article will help to consider the theory of Svidrigailov and his similarity with the main character, show the ambiguity of the image, and also write an essay “The Image of Svidrigailov in the novel Crime and Punishment.”
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Being a card sharper and having been in debtor's prison, Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigailov finds himself in a hopeless situation in St. Petersburg, but he is picked up by the landowner Marfa Petrovna, with whom he lives on her estate as her husband. He is about fifty years old and is a voluptuous man. On the estate, he meets Raskolnikov’s young and beautiful younger sister, Dunya, who serves in the house as a home teacher, and, despite the age difference, falls passionately in love with her. Marfa Petrovna, who had warmed him, suffers a sudden death, but there are rumors that Svidrigailov poisoned her. Following Dunya, this old libertine moves to St. Petersburg, but she irrevocably rejects him. And then Svidrigailov, this dirty libertine, shoots himself.
What did Dostoevsky want to say when introducing this character to the reader? It is difficult to answer this question unambiguously—too much about his character remains unclear. His suicide itself is so unexpected that it leaves the reader bewildered. Some generally argue that Svidrigailov in the novel “Crime and Punishment” is an unnecessary image, and there is some truth in this statement.
Nevertheless, there is some kind of magnetism in Svidrigailov that forces us to follow his fate. Agreeing with the statement that the image of this hero is unclear, one can at the same time assert that he makes many empathize with him.
It happens that a nightmare haunts us. It's terrible, dense and sticky. You instinctively want to get rid of him and escape. When you awaken from this dark obsession, you feel relief, accompanied by bodily impotence and inexpressible joy.
When encountering Svidrigailov in the novel Crime and Punishment, the reader also experiences an oppressive, nightmarish feeling. From the words, gestures and experiences of this hero comes some kind of terrible and invisible threat. Svidrigailov’s speech randomly rushes from one subject to another: here he beat a woman, here he talks about his clothes, here he talks about the boredom of life, about anthropology, his cheating... He speaks then to talk, and the reader ceases to understand what what, strictly speaking, is what we are talking about. Having started with one thing, Svidrigailov suddenly turns to something completely different, something dark is hidden in the depths of his soul, he is full of unhappy forebodings that he cannot cope with, he cannot calm down, as if he were under constant surveillance. Therefore, his speeches are a stream of consciousness, it is a disordered and chaotic monologue. But if this monologue is interrupted, then Svidrigailov’s terrible pursuer will overtake him and drag him into a terrible and dark pit. When the hero tells how the late Marfa Petrovna “deigned to visit” him, appearing from the other world, his eyes become unusually serious. Or here is the famous episode when he, without listening to his interlocutor Raskolnikov, says that eternity for him is “like a village bathhouse, smoky, and there are spiders in the corners.” Svidrigailov in the novel “Crime and Punishment” is afraid of ghosts and the other world. He knows the feeling of deathly cold, and it frightens him.
Dostoevsky suffered from epilepsy, and the fear of death constantly haunted him. The same can be said about Svidrigailov, and this was not some abstract, but completely living fear. As the writer’s wife Anna Grigorievna testifies in her diaries, her husband experienced horror with every seizure. And each time his mind became clouded, his body grew cold and became as if dead. After the end of the attack, the fear of death overcame Dostoevsky, and he begged not to be left alone. Because of epilepsy, Dostoevsky was haunted by the fear of death even in happy moments of his life, and this fear never left him. Death was his constant companion. He always clearly sensed the possibility of death and feared it.
Probably, Svidrigailov owes his appearance on the pages of the novel to the fact that through him Dostoevsky wanted to convey his fears in the face of death. In this case, it becomes clear why this hero talks so much about the other world, ghosts and his feelings of mortal cold. Hence his endless conversations, which leave the feeling that Svidrigailov is fearfully awaiting the unexpected appearance of someone in black. There is no doubt that through this “inappropriate” character Dostoevsky conveyed his immediate bodily sensations concerning the problem of death that worried him so much.
Svidrigailov in the novel “Crime and Punishment” is not worried about the moral problem - how best to live his life in this world. This sensualist is indifferent to the problems of good and evil, justice and injustice, virtue and sin. He, despite his will, is concerned about the problem of the disappearance of life and immortality. Does immortality exist? What is it like - bright, warm and joyful? Or is it dark, cold and sorrowful? He wants someone to give a firm answer to these questions. Perhaps it would be correct to say that these questions are addressed to the physician and not to the philosopher or theologian.
The fear of death is manifested everywhere in Dostoevsky; the writer, in his various works, performs an operation to visualize death. Varenka’s evening “pale sky” from “Poor People”, the huge spiders that Ippolit sees in his dreams from “The Idiot”, Rogozhin’s favorite painting depicting the dead Christ. In Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky “transferred” his fears to Svidrigailov. And in this respect, Svidrigailov can be called Dostoevsky’s “double”.
The influence of Fyodor Mikhailovich’s personality on this character is visible not only in relation to death.
When Svidrigailov is already planning suicide, and, having wandered through the streets of St. Petersburg, stops for the night in a cheap hotel, he has a dream: the corpse of a prostitute girl who threw herself into the river. "She was only fourteen years old." He thinks he knows her. Her dying “last cry of despair” rings in his ears, and it shakes him to the core. Svidrigailov in the novel “Crime and Punishment” is tormented by a feeling of sinfulness and guilt.
In the works of Dostoevsky one can see that in his world it is not the crime itself that is of great importance, but the feeling of guilt, which is a reflection of the complex of the writer himself, who did not commit any crime, but for some unknown reason felt a sense of guilt for this uncommitted crime.
If we take into account these “additional” circumstances, it becomes clearer why Svidrigailov commits an unexpected suicide, which in no way follows from the logic of the story. Svidrigailov carries within himself the complexes of Dostoevsky himself - the fear of death and a sense of guilt. Strakhov wrote: “Dostoevsky is the most subjective of novelists, almost always creating faces in his own image and likeness.” And Svidrigailov’s death is an expression of this subjectivity.
As for Dostoevsky, he tried to transform his sense of sinfulness and guilt into universal sympathy. Fyodor Mikhailovich’s feeling of guilt did not have a practical dimension, it was “head”, and therefore did not lead to a discussion of the problem of social responsibility. Dostoevsky set the following task for his characters: to get rid of the feeling of guilt and merge in a single impulse with others.
Although you are tormented by the feeling of your own guilt, everyone is sinful, and this provides the basis for the solidarity of sinners. Hence the need for universal sympathy. The path from this mentality leads to the affirmation of life and the joy of being together. This is Dostoevsky's train of thought. The realization that all people are equally sinful relieves stress, hostility and hatred; this gives a reason to feel like a member of a community, leads to the joy of sympathy, empathy and mutual acceptance. Many of Dostoevsky's characters are prone to self-deprecation and antics. Through this they seek a way to the hearts of other people. And this behavior has something in common with ideas about the “community of sinners.”
According to M. Gorky, L. N. Tolstoy spoke of Dostoevsky like this: “He is sure that if he himself is sick, the whole world is sick” (M. Gorky. “Leo Tolstoy”). And, indeed, Dostoevsky extends his painful sense of guilt and sinfulness to all other people through his characters.
Thus, behind the facade of Dostoevsky’s artistic world there is a deeply hidden feeling of one’s sinfulness. It also lurks in his characters, it serves as the basis for their behavior and actions. Dostoevsky directly conveys the energy of his fears of death and feelings of guilt to Svidrngailov in the novel Crime and Punishment. Therefore, this image captivates the reader and has existential persuasiveness for him - and this despite the fact that there is a lot that is unclear in him, and his words and actions are not always justified logically.
It is interesting to trace how Dostoevsky created the image of Svidrigailov. In the draft notes of “Crime and Punishment” this hero is called A-ov, after the name of one of the convicts of the Omsk prison Aristov, who in “Notes from the House of the Dead” is characterized as the limit of “moral decline ... decisive depravity and ... arrogant baseness” . “This was an example of what one physical side of a person could reach, not internally restrained by any norm, any legality... It was a monster, a moral Quasimodo. Add to the fact that he was cunning and intelligent, handsome, even somewhat educated, and had abilities. No, better is fire, better is pestilence and famine than such a person in society!”
Svidrigailov was supposed to be the embodiment of such complete moral ugliness. However, this very image and the author’s attitude towards it turned out to be incomparably more complex: along with cheating, dirty debauchery and cruelty that led his victim to suicide, he turns out to be unexpectedly capable of good deeds, philanthropy and generosity. Svidrigailov is a man of enormous inner strength who has lost the sense of boundaries between good and evil.
Svidrigailov. Fragments from the film “Crime and Punishment”
Preparatory notes have been preserved in Dostoevsky's notebooks, which reflect the gradual formation of the characteristics of this image and variations of its essence in the writer's imagination. “Passionate and stormy impulses, bubbling up and down; it’s hard to bear oneself (strong nature, uncontrollable, to the point of feeling voluptuous, gusts of lies (Ivan the Terrible), many meannesses and dark deeds, a child (NB killed), wanted to shoot himself. For three days he decided. He tormented the poor man who depended on him and on whom he kept. Instead of shooting himself, get married. Jealousy. (Charged 100,000.) Slander of wife. Kicked out or killed the hanger-on. A gloomy demon from which he cannot get rid of. Suddenly the determination to expose himself, the whole intrigue; repentance, humility, leaves, becomes a great ascetic, humility, thirst to endure suffering. Betrays oneself. Link. Asceticism.
“I don’t want to imitate the people in a vile way.” Still, there is no humility, a struggle with pride.”
Further, this characteristic is further modified, and it is obvious that the complex image that floats before the creative imagination of the novelist contains features not only of Svidrigailov, but also of a number of his later characters - the Great Sinner, the hero of the planned novels “Atheism” (1868–1869) and “The Life of the Great sinner" (1869–1870), Stavrogin ("Demons") and Versilov ("Teenager"):
“Passionate and stormy impulses. No coldness and disappointment, nothing used by Byron. An exorbitant and insatiable thirst for pleasure. The thirst for life is unquenchable. A variety of pleasures and satisfactions. Perfect consciousness and analysis of every pleasure, without fear that it will weaken because it is based on the needs of nature itself, the physique. Pleasures are artistic to the point of refinement and next to them are rude, but precisely because excessive rudeness comes into contact with refinement (a severed head). Psychological pleasures. Pleasures are criminal violations of all laws. Mystical pleasures (fear at night). Enjoyment of repentance, monastery (fasting and prayer). Beggarly pleasures (begging for alms). The Delights of Raphael's Madonna. The pleasures of theft, the pleasures of robbery, the pleasures of suicide. (Having received an inheritance for 35 years, until then he was a teacher or official, and was afraid of his superiors). (Widower). Enjoying education (learning for this). Enjoyment of good deeds."
As a result, Crime and Punishment portrays Svidrigailov as a man who violated the sacred mother earth and severed his connection with the human family. He kills his personality and falls into the power of faceless cosmic forces. The last night before his suicide, Svidrigailov wanders through deserted streets under thunderstorms and pouring rain. The spirit of non-existence, embodied in him, recognizes in the revolt of the elements a “fateful inheritance.” Mental chaos merges with natural chaos. The description of this stormy night is the pinnacle of Dostoevsky’s “mystical realism”. (See the full text of the passage "The Death of Svidrigailov".)
Until ten o'clock in the evening, Svidrigailov visits “various taverns and sewers”, listens to the barrel organ in some kind of pleasure garden. “The evening was stuffy and gloomy. By ten o'clock in the evening terrible clouds came from all sides - thunder struck and the rain poured down like a waterfall. The water did not fall in drops, but gushed onto the ground in whole streams. The lightning flashed every minute, and one could count up to five times during each glow.” At midnight he goes to the St. Petersburg side, rents a room in a dirty wooden hotel, but even this tiny cell does not save him from the raging elements. They are chasing him. “This must be some kind of garden under the window,” he thought, “the trees are rustling; how I don’t like the noise of trees, at night, in a storm and in the dark, it’s a bad feeling! Rain, dampness, water cause unbearable disgust in him. “Never in my life have I loved water, even in landscapes”; he is tormented by a nightmare: the girl he insulted - a drowned woman - lies in a coffin among flowers. He opens the window: “The wind poured violently into his cramped closet and, as if with frosty frost, covered his face... In the midst of the darkness and night, a cannon shot was heard, followed by another... Ah, a signal! The water is rising, he thought.”
The image of a drowned woman (a girl whom Svidrigailov once abused) approaches him like a flood. Water takes revenge on the defiler. Svidrigailov kills himself in a damp fog, on a dirty street, among wet trees: “A milky, thick fog lay over the city. Svidrigailov walked along the slippery, dirty wooden pavement towards the Malaya Neva. He imagined the water of the Malaya Neva rising high during the night, Petrovsky Island, wet paths, wet grass, wet trees and bushes.” He stops in front of a house with a watchtower and pulls the trigger in front of the Jewish fireman.