In Dostoevsky's work "Crime and Punishment" there are many female images. There is a whole gallery of them. These are Sonechka Marmeladova, Katerina Ivanovna killed by circumstances, Alena Ivanovna and her sister Lizaveta. In the work, these images play an important role.
Sonya Marmeladova - the main character
One of the main female images in the novel "Crime and Punishment" is Sonya Marmeladova. The girl was the daughter of an official who drank himself and subsequently could no longer support his family. Due to the constant abuse of alcohol, he is fired from his job. In addition to his own daughter, he has a second wife and three children. The stepmother was not angry, but poverty affected her depressingly, and sometimes she blamed her stepdaughter for her troubles.
And Raskolnikov decides to dwell on this thought. He likes this explanation more than any other. If the protagonist had not seen such a crazy woman in Sonya, then perhaps he would not have told her about his secret. At first, he simply cynically challenged her humility, saying that he killed only for his own sake. Sonya does not answer his words until Raskolnikov directly asks her the question: “What should I do?”.
Combination of the Low Way and Christian Faith
The role of female characters in Crime and Punishment, especially Sonechka, cannot be underestimated. After all, gradually the main character begins to adopt Sonya's way of thinking, to understand that she is in fact not a prostitute - she does not spend the money earned in a shameful way on herself. Sonya sincerely believes that as long as the life of her family depends on her earnings, the Lord will not allow her illness or insanity. Paradoxically, F. M. Dostoevsky was able to show how it combines the Christian faith with a completely unacceptable, terrible way of life. And the faith of Sonya Marmeladova is deep, and does not, like many, represent only formal religiosity.
A school homework assignment in literature might sound like this: “Analyze the female images of the novel“ Crime and Punishment ”. When preparing information about Sonya, it must be said that she is a hostage to the circumstances in which life has placed her. She had little choice. She could remain hungry while watching her family suffer from hunger, or she could start selling her own body. Of course, her act was reprehensible, but she could not do otherwise. Looking at Sonya from the other side, you can see a heroine who is ready to sacrifice herself for the sake of her loved ones.
Katerina Ivanova
Katerina Ivanovna is also one of the important female characters in the novel Crime and Punishment. She is a widow, left alone with three children. She has a proud and hot disposition. Due to hunger, she was forced to marry an official - a widower who has a daughter, Sonya. He takes her as his wife only out of compassion. She spends her whole life trying to find ways to feed her children.
The environment seems to Katerina Ivanovna a real hell. She is very painfully hurt by human meanness, which comes across at almost every step. She does not know how to be silent and endure, as her stepdaughter Sonya does. Katerina Ivanovna has a well-developed sense of justice, and it is this that pushes her to take decisive action.
What is the hard part of the heroine
Katerina Ivanovna is of noble origin. She comes from a bankrupt noble family. And for this reason, it is much harder for her than for her husband and stepdaughter. And this is not only due to everyday difficulties - Katerina Ivanovna does not have the same outlet as Semyon and his daughter. Sonya has consolation - this is prayer and the Bible; her father may forget himself in a tavern for some time. Katerina Ivanovna differs from them in the passion of her nature.
The Ineradicability of Katerina Ivanovna's Self-Respect
Her behavior suggests that love cannot be eradicated from the human soul by any difficulties. When an official dies, Katerina Ivanovna says that this is for the best: "There is less loss." But at the same time, she takes care of the sick, adjusts the pillows. Also, love connects her with Sonya. At the same time, the girl herself does not condemn her stepmother, who once pushed her to such unseemly actions. Rather, on the contrary - Sonya seeks to protect Katerina Ivanovna in front of Raskolnikov. Later, when Luzhin accuses Sonya of stealing money, Raskolnikov has the opportunity to observe with what zeal Katerina Ivanovna Sonya defends.
How did her life end?
The female images of "Crime and Punishment", despite the diversity of characters, are distinguished by a deeply dramatic fate. Poverty brings Katerina Ivanovna to consumption. However, self-esteem does not die in her. F. M. Dostoevsky emphasizes that Katerina Ivanovna was not one of those downtrodden. Despite the circumstances, it was impossible to break the moral principle in her. The desire to feel like a full-fledged person made Katerina Ivanovna arrange an expensive commemoration.
Katerina Ivanovna is one of Dostoyevsky's proudest female characters in Crime and Punishment. The great Russian writer is constantly striving to emphasize this quality of hers: “she did not deign to answer”, “she examined her guests with dignity”. And along with the ability to respect herself, another quality lives in Katerina Ivanovna - kindness. She realizes that after the death of her husband, she is doomed with her children to starvation. Contradicting himself, Dostoevsky refutes the concept of consolation, which can lead humanity to well-being. The end of Katerina Ivanovna is tragic. She runs to the general to beg for his help, but the doors are closed in front of her. There is no hope for salvation. Katerina Ivanovna goes to beg. Her image is deeply tragic.
Female images in the novel "Crime and Punishment": an old pawnbroker
Alena Ivanovna is a dry old woman about 60 years old. She has evil eyes and a sharp nose. Hair, which has turned gray very little, is richly oiled. On a thin and long neck, which can be compared with a chicken leg, some rags are hung. The image of Alena Ivanovna in the work is a symbol of a completely worthless existence. After all, she takes someone else's property at interest. Alena Ivanovna takes advantage of the plight of other people. By assigning a high percentage, she is literally robbing others.
The image of this heroine should evoke a feeling of disgust in the reader and serve as a mitigating circumstance in assessing the murder committed by Raskolnikov. However, according to the great Russian writer, this woman also has the right to be called a man. And violence against her, as well as over any living being, is a crime against morality.
Lizaveta Ivanovna
Analyzing the female images in the novel "Crime and Punishment", one should also mention Lizaveta Ivanovna. This is the younger half-sister of the old pawnbroker - they were from different mothers. The old woman constantly kept Lizaveta in "perfect enslavement." This heroine is 35 years old, by her origin she is of a petty-bourgeois family. Lizaveta is a clumsy girl of rather high stature. Her character is quiet and meek. She works around the clock for her sister. Lizaveta suffers from mental retardation, and due to her dementia she is almost constantly pregnant (it can be concluded that people of low morality use Lizaveta for their own purposes). Together with her sister, the heroine dies at the hands of Raskolnikov. Although she is ugly, many people like her image.
Plan
1. The system of characters in the novel "Crime and Punishment"
2. Description of the appearance and character of Avdotya Romanovna
3. Description of Pulcheria Alexandrovna
4. Description of the appearance and character of Lizaveta Ivanovna
5. Description of the appearance and character of Alena Ivanovna
6. Description of the appearance and character of Sonya Marmeladova
7. Conclusion
A small number of main characters in the novel "Crime and Punishment" allows Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky to carefully draw each character. The reader knows little about the past of most of the characters (with the exception of some representatives of the Marmeladov and Raskolnikov families), but the images of the characters do not look incomplete. This is because the characters really look like real people. Let us consider in more detail the female part of the character system of the novel "Crime and Punishment".
Let's start with Avdotya Romanovna - the sister of the protagonist. She was a tall, slender twenty-two-year-old girl. The girl resembled her brother in appearance: a thoughtful, serious face, pale skin, the same black shiny eyes, dark blond hair. The only thing that slightly spoiled her beauty was the scarlet sponge that protruded forward. Dunya is strong in character. She is ready to endure any humiliation, just to help her family. Along with great strength, she also had softness and tenderness. The prototype of this heroine was one of Dostoevsky's favorite women - A.Ya. Panaev.
Pulcheria Alexandrovna is the killer's mother. She did not fully believe in her son's involvement in the death of the old pawnbroker, despite all the guesses and arguments. The forty-three-year-old woman had to go through a lot, including the death of her husband. She is shown as a real loving mother who is ready for anything for the sake of her family.
The image of Lizaveta Ivanovna in the novel is unusual: the reader learns everything about her only from the words of other characters. First, in a tavern, where young people characterize the sister of an old pawnbroker as a hardworking, kind, modest, very pretty girl. Then on the street, where Raskolnikov witnesses Lisa's conversation about extra work. Despite the fact that the girl worked day and night, and gave all the money to Alena Ivanovna, her sister does not allow Lisa to make decisions about the place of work on her own.
Alena Ivanovna disgusts the reader. She is a tiny old woman in her sixties, with a thin neck and sharp eyes. The pawnbroker is careful, thrifty, takes the last money from her sister, and bequeathed all her fortune to the monastery. Almost none of the heroes of the novel is sorry that such a disgusting person became a victim of a killer. The prototype of this heroine was a relative of the author - A.F. Kumanina.
Sonechka Marmeladova is a character who has remained forever in the history of Russian literature. Its prototype was the wife of the author A. G. Snitkin. An eighteen-year-old heroine with a thin, pale face, blue eyes, and blond hair. Despite the fragile physique, the girl has spiritual strength. A meek, kind, living according to the laws of God, a girl, due to the plight of the Marmeladov family, began to work as a prostitute. In Sonechka, holiness is mixed with mortal sin. But she, despite her depravity, continues to believe in the victory of justice and remain a Christian.
In the novel "Crime and Punishment" the author introduced girls of different ages, with different appearance and character. But they all have one thing in common - similarity with real people.
Introduction
The search for the ideal is present in all Russian writers. In this regard, in the 19th century, the attitude towards a woman becomes especially significant, not only as a continuer of the family, but also as a being capable of thinking and feeling much more subtle and deeper than male heroes. As a rule, the idea of salvation, rebirth, the sphere of feelings is associated with a woman.
No novel is complete without a heroine. In world literature, we find a colossal number of female images, a wide variety of characters, with all sorts of shades. Naive children, so charming in their ignorance of life, which they adorn like lovely flowers. Practical women who understand the value of the blessings of the world and know how to achieve them in the only form accessible to them - a profitable party. Meek, gentle creatures, whose purpose is love, are ready-made toys for the first person they meet, who will say the word of love to them. Insidious coquettes, in turn mercilessly playing with someone else's happiness. Unrequited sufferers, meekly fading away under oppression, and strong, richly gifted natures, all the wealth and strength of which is spent fruitlessly; and, in spite of this variety of types and the countless number of volumes in which the Russian woman has been portrayed, we are involuntarily struck by the monotony and poverty of the content.
When they talk about “Dostoevsky’s women”, first of all, meek sufferers are remembered, victims of great love for loved ones, and through them for all of humanity (Sonya), passionate sinners with a pure base, a bright soul (Nastasya Filippovna), finally crafty, forever changeable, cold and fiery Grushenka, through all her shameless predation carried a spark of the same humility and repentance (the scene with Alyosha in the chapter "Onion"). In a word, we recall Christian women, in their last, deep sense of life, Russian and "Orthodox" characters. “The human soul is by nature a Christian”, “the Russian people are all in Orthodoxy” - he deeply believed in this, Dostoevsky passionately affirmed this all his life.
The purpose of this work is to consider female images in the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment". This goal allowed us to formulate the following objectives of this study:
Consider the features of the construction of female images in the novels of F.M. Dostoevsky.
Analyze the image of Sonya Marmeladova.
Show the features of the construction of secondary female images in the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment".
Interest in gender issues in literary criticism is not a tribute to fashion, but a completely natural process, due to the specifics of the development of Russian literature and culture. In the works of Russian writers, women are associated with the emotional beginning, they save, harmonize. Therefore, the study of female images in the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment" is relevant for modern literary criticism.
Dostoevsky's work is widely studied in domestic and foreign literary criticism.
In a brilliant galaxy of critics and interpreters of F.M. Dostoevsky in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. one of the deepest and most subtle was I.F. Annensky. However, his critical heritage, related to the work of Dostoevsky, at one time did not receive such fame as the work of Vyach. Ivanov, D. Merezhkovsky, V. Rozanov, L. Shestov. The point is not only that what Annensky wrote about Dostoevsky is small in volume, but also in the peculiarities of Annensky's most critical manner. Annensky's articles are not philosophical, ideological constructions, he did not seek to terminologically define the essence of Dostoevsky's novel compositions (for example, Vyach. Ivanov's "tragedy novel") or, through contrasting comparisons, isolate some basic idea where all the threads would converge at one point.
Not much has been written about Dostoevsky by Annensky, his articles and individual remarks, at first glance, seem somewhat fragmentary, not united by a common idea, construction, and even style. However, almost all articles related to the comprehension of both Russian classical and modern literature are full of reminiscences from Dostoevsky and discussions about him and his aesthetics. Articles in the "Books of Reflections" are specially devoted to Dostoevsky (two under the general title "Dostoevsky before the catastrophe" in the first and two - "Dreamers and the Chosen One" and "The Art of Thought" - in the second). Annensky also spoke about the spiritual significance of Dostoevsky, addressing a youthful audience.
Striving for the ideal brings Annensky's spiritual world closer to Dostoevsky. In the article “Symbols of Beauty in Russian Writers,” Annensky writes about Dostoevsky’s beauty as “a lyrically uplifted, remorsefully enhanced confession of sin.” Beauty is considered by him not in an abstract, philosophical plane, but in its embodiment in the female images of Dostoevsky's novels, and above all, it is characterized by suffering, "a deep wound in the heart." Not all critics agreed with such an interpretation of Dostoevsky's female images, according to which spirituality and suffering determined their appearance. A. Volynsky in his book about Dostoevsky, characterizing Nastasya Filippovna, spoke of her "inclination to Bacchic revelry", of her "dissoluteness". Volynsky's point of view was very common in critical literature, where Nastasya Filippovna was given the title of "camellia", "Aspasia". In 1922 - 1923 A.P. Skaftymov criticized this view: “Her burden is not the burden of sensuality. Spiritualized and subtle, she is not for a moment the embodiment of sex. Her passion is in the inflamed spiritual aggravations...”. But even Skaftymov did not note that Annensky was the first to write about the suffering, predominantly spiritual beauty of women in Dostoevsky.
In critical and scientific literature, the notion of Sonia has been established as one of the most pale and even unsuccessful images of the novel. N. Akhsharumov, Dostoevsky's comrade in the Petrashevist movement, wrote immediately after the publication of Crime and Punishment: “What can be said about Sonya? .. This face is deeply ideal, and the author's task was inexpressibly difficult; therefore, perhaps, its execution seems weak to us. She is well conceived, but she lacks a body - despite the fact that she is constantly before our eyes, we somehow do not see her. The role assigned to her is "full of meaning", and the relationship of this person to Raskolnikov is quite clear. “All this, however, in the novel comes out sluggish and pale, not so much in comparison with the energetic coloring of other places in the story, but in itself. The ideal did not enter into flesh and blood, but remained for us in an ideal fog. In short, it all came out liquid, intangible.
A hundred years later, Ya.O. Zundelovich in his book about Dostoevsky went even further: he believes that the artistic weakness of the image of Sonya violated the compositional harmony of the novel and damaged the integrity of the overall impression, "... the question naturally arises," he says, "is not Sonya's place in the novel as religious" wandered" exaggerated? Did the wide disclosure of her image of the compositional harmony of the novel, which would have been more complete and closed, if not for the author’s desire to outline the path of redemption already in the novel about the dialectic of crime, violated?
Ya.O. Zundelovich brings the point of view of his predecessors to its logical end: he considers the image of Sonya superfluous. She is only a mouthpiece of ideas that did not find an adequate artistic embodiment for themselves, which Dostoevsky needed as a religious preacher, and not as a writer. Sonya shows Raskolnikov the path of salvation in words devoid of aesthetic power.
The image of Sonya is a didactic image, and most researchers of Dostoevsky agree on this. F.I. Evnin sums up. The turning point in Dostoevsky's worldview occurred in the sixties; "Crime and Punishment" is the first novel in which Dostoevsky tried to express his new religious and ethical views. “In the third notebook to Crime and Punishment, it is unequivocally stated that the “idea of the novel” is “an Orthodox view, in which there is Orthodoxy.” In Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky first appears a character whose main function is to serve as the embodiment of the "Orthodox view" (Sonya Marmeladova)."
F.I. Evnin conducts very persistently. "That in the figure of Sonya the religious-protective tendency of the novel finds expression does not need proof." Nevertheless, he argues his thesis and brings it to the sharpest definition: "In the image of Dostoevsky, Sonya Marmeladova ... first of all, the bearer and militant preacher of the Christian ideology."
Recently, the topic "Dostoevsky and Christianity" has begun to be widely studied. Although there is a long tradition of considering Christian allusions in his work. We should point to the works of such researchers as L.P. Grossman, G.M. Friedlander, R.G. Nazirov, L.I. Saraskina, G.K. Shchennikov, G.S. Pomerants, A.P. Skaftymov. It must be said that the consideration of this topic was laid down in the works of M.M. Bakhtin, but for censorship reasons he could not develop this topic and only outlines it with a dotted line. Much has been written about the connection between F.M. Dostoevsky with the Christian tradition, Russian religious philosophers (N. Berdyaev, S. Bulgakov, V. Solovyov, L. Shestov and others), whose work was undeservedly forgotten for many years. Petrozavodsk State University, headed by V.N. Zakharov. In his article “On the Christian Significance of the Main Idea of Dostoevsky’s Creativity,” he writes: “This idea became the “super-idea” of Dostoevsky’s creativity - the idea of the Christian transformation of man, Russia, and the world. And this is the path of Raskolnikov, Sonya Marmeladova, Prince Myshkin, the chronicler in Possessed, Arkady Dolgoruky, the elder Zosima, Alyosha and Mitya Karamazov. And further: "Dostoevsky gave a Christian meaning to Pushkin's idea of the "independence" of man, and this is the eternal relevance of his work."
Very interesting works on the same topic are written by T.A. Kasatkina, which examines the works of F.M. Dostoevsky as some kind of sacred texts built according to Christian canons.
Of the modern researchers of this issue, one can name such names as L.A. Levina, I.L. Almi, I.R. Akhundova, K.A. Stepanyan, A.B. Galkin, R.N. Poddubnaya, E. Mestergazi, A. Manovtsev.
Many foreign researchers, whose works have become widely available to us in recent years, are also turning to this topic. Among them are M. Jones, G.S. Morson, S. Young, O. Meyerson, D. Martinsen, D. Orwin. We can note the major work of the Italian researcher S. Salvestroni "Biblical and patristic sources of Dostoevsky's novels."
Chapter 1. Women's images in the works of F.M. Dostoevsky
1.1 Features of creating female images
In Dostoyevsky's novels we see many women. These women are different. WITH poor people The theme of the fate of a woman begins in Dostoevsky's work. Most often unsecured financially, and therefore defenseless. Many of Dostoevsky's women are humiliated (Alexandra Mikhailovna, with whom Netochka Nezvanova lived, Netochka's mother). And the women themselves are not always sensitive towards others: Varya is somewhat selfish, the heroine is unconsciously selfish. white nights , there are simply predatory, evil, heartless women (the princess from Netochki Nezvanova ). He does not ground them and does not idealize them. Dostoevsky does not have only women - happy ones. But there are no happy men either. There are no happy families. Dostoevsky's works expose the difficult life of all those who are honest, kind, cordial.
In the works of Dostoevsky, all women are divided into two groups: women of calculation and women of feeling. IN Crime and punishment before us is a whole gallery of Russian women: the prostitute Sonya, Katerina Ivanovna and Alena Ivanovna killed by life, Lizaveta Ivanovna killed with an ax.
The image of Sonya has two interpretations: traditional and new, given by V.Ya. Kirpotin. According to the first, Christian ideas are embodied in the heroine, according to the second, she is the bearer of folk morality. Sona embodies the folk character in its undeveloped children's stages, and the path of suffering makes her evolve according to the traditional religious scheme - towards the holy fool - it is not for nothing that she is so often compared with Lizaveta.
Sonya, who in her short life has already endured all conceivable and unthinkable suffering and humiliation, managed to maintain moral purity, unclouded mind and heart. No wonder Raskolnikov bows to Sonya, saying that he bows to all human grief and suffering. Her image absorbed all world injustice, world sorrow. Sonechka speaks on behalf of everyone humiliated and offended . It was such a girl, with such a life story, with such an understanding of the world, that Dostoevsky chose to save and purify Raskolnikov.
Her inner spiritual core, which helps to preserve moral beauty, boundless faith in goodness and in God, strikes Raskolnikov and makes him think for the first time about the moral side of his thoughts and actions.
But along with her saving mission, Sonya is also punishment rebel, constantly reminding him with all his existence of what he had done. Is it possible that a person is a louse ?! - these words of Marmeladova planted the first seeds of doubt in Raskolnikov. It was Sonya, who, according to the writer, contained the Christian ideal of goodness, could withstand and win in the confrontation with the anti-human idea of Rodion. She fought with all her heart to save his soul. Even when at first Raskolnikov avoided her in exile, Sonya remained true to her duty, her faith in purification through suffering. Faith in God was her only support; it is possible that the spiritual quest of Dostoevsky himself was embodied in this image.
IN idiot the woman of calculation is Varya Ivolgina. But the focus here is on two women: Aglaya and Nastasya Filippovna. They have something in common, and at the same time they are different from each other. Myshkin thinks Aglaya is good extremely , almost like Nastasya Filippovna, although her face is completely different . In general, they are beautiful, each has its own face. Aglaya is beautiful, smart, proud, pays little attention to the opinions of others, and is dissatisfied with the way of life in her family. Nastasya Filippovna is different. Of course, this is also a restless, rushing woman. But in her throwing, humility to fate prevails, which is unfair to her. The heroine, following the others, convinced herself that she was a fallen, low woman. Being a prisoner of conventional morality, she even calls herself a street person, wants to seem worse than she is, behaves eccentrically. Nastasya Filippovna is a woman of feelings. But she is no longer able to love. Feelings burned out in her, and she loves one of your shame . Nastasya Filippovna has a beauty with which you can turn the world upside down . Hearing this, she says: But I gave up on the world . She could, but she doesn't want to. Around her goes mess in the houses of the Ivolgins, Epanchins, Trotsky, she is pursued by Rogozhin, who competes with Prince Myshkin. But she's had enough. She knows the value of this world and therefore refuses it. For in the world she meets people either above her or below her. And with those and with others, she does not want to be. According to her understanding, she is unworthy of the first, and the second is unworthy of her. She refuses Myshkin and goes with Rogozhin. This is not the end yet. She will rush between Myshkin and Rogozhin until she dies under the latter's knife. Her beauty did not turn the world upside down. The world has lost beauty.
Sofia Andreevna Dolgorukaya, common-law wife of Versilov, mother teenager , - a highly positive female image created by Dostoevsky. The main property of her character is feminine meekness and therefore insecurity against the requirements placed on it. In the family, she devotes all her strength to caring for her husband, Versilov, and for the children. It never occurs to her to defend herself against the exactingness of her husband and children, from their injustice, from their ungrateful inattention to her concerns about their comforts. Complete self-forgetfulness is characteristic of her. In contrast to the proud, proud and vindictive Nastasya Filippovna, Grushenka, Ekaterina Ivanovna, Aglaya, Sofia Andreevna is humility incarnate. Versilov says that she is peculiar humility, indifference and even humiliation , referring to the origin of Sophia Andreevna from the common people.
What was for Sophia Andreevna a shrine for which she would be ready to endure and suffer? For her, that highest thing that the Church recognizes as holy was holy, without the ability to express church faith in judgments, but having it in her soul, holistically embodied in the image of Christ. She expresses her convictions, as is typical of the common people, in brief concrete statements.
Firm faith in the all-encompassing love of God and in Providence, thanks to which there are no meaningless accidents in life - this is the source of Sophia Andreevna's strength. Her strength is not Stavrogin's proud self-affirmation, but a disinterested unchanging attachment to what is really valuable. Therefore her eyes quite large and open, they always shone with a quiet and calm light ; facial expression it would even be fun if she didn't worry often . The face is very attractive. In the life of Sophia Andreevna, so close to holiness, there was a heavy guilt: six months after her marriage to Makar Ivanovich Dolgoruky, she became interested in Versilov, gave herself to him and became his common-law wife. Guilt always remains guilt, but when judging it, one must take into account extenuating circumstances. Marrying an eighteen-year-old girl, she did not know what love was, fulfilling her father's will, and walked down the aisle so calmly that Tatyana Pavlovna I called her a fish.
In life, each of us meets with holy people, whose modest asceticism is imperceptible to prying eyes and is not appreciated by us sufficiently; however, without them, the bonds between people would fall apart and life would become unbearable. Sophia Andreevna belongs precisely to the number of such non-canonized saints. Using the example of Sophia Andreevna Dolgoruky, we found out what a woman of feelings was in Dostoevsky.
IN Besakh the image of Dasha Shatova, ready for self-sacrifice, as well as the proud, but somewhat cold Lisa Tushina, is displayed. In fact, there is nothing new in these images. This has already happened. The image of Maria Lebyadkina is not new either. Quiet, affectionate dreamer, half-or completely crazy woman. New in others. Dostoevsky for the first time with such completeness brought out here the image of anti-woman. Here comes Marie Shatova from the west. She knows how to juggle words from the dictionary of deniers, but she has forgotten that the first role of a woman is to be a mother. The following stroke is characteristic. Before giving birth, Marie says to Shatov: Began . Not understanding, he clarifies: What started? Mary's answer: How do I know? Do I know anything here? A woman knows what she could not know, and does not know what she simply cannot not know. She forgot her job and is doing someone else's. Before childbirth, with the great mystery of the appearance of a new being, this woman cries out: Oh, be damned all in advance!.
Another anti-woman is not a woman in labor, but a midwife, Arina Virginskaya. For her, the birth of a person is the further development of the organism. In Virginia, however, the feminine has not entirely died out. So, after a year of living with her husband, she is given to Captain Lebyadkin. Has the feminine won? No. I gave myself up because of a principle read from books. This is how the narrator says about her, Virginsky's wife: his wife, and all the ladies, were of the latest convictions, but all this came out of them somewhat rudely, it was here an idea that hit the street , as Stepan Trofimovich once put it in a different way. They all took books and, according to the first rumor, from our progressive corners of the capital, they were ready to throw anything they wanted out of the window, if only they were advised to throw it away. And here, at the birth of Marie, this anti-woman, apparently having learned from the book that anyone should raise children, but not the mother, says to her: Yes, and even tomorrow I’ll send the child to an orphanage, and then to the village for education, and that’s the end of it. And there you recover, take up reasonable work.
These were women who were sharply opposed to Sofia Andreevna and Sonechka Marmeladova.
All the women of Dostoevsky are somewhat similar to each other. But in each subsequent work, Dostoevsky adds new features to the images already known to us.
1.2 Two female types in the works of F.M. Dostoevsky
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky is a writer of a special kind. He did not adjoin either liberals or democrats, but led his own theme in literature, embodying the idea of forgiveness in the images of offended and insulted, broken destinies of people. His heroes do not live, but survive, suffer and seek a way out of unbearable conditions, suffer justice and peace, but never find them. There is an interesting trend in the depiction of female characters by the writer. There are two types of heroines in his novels: soft and docile, all-forgiving - Natasha Ikhmeneva, Sonechka Marmeladova - and rebels who passionately intervene in this unfair and hostile environment: Nelly, Katerina Ivanovna. And later - Nastasya Filippovna.
These two female characters interested Dostoevsky, forced him to turn to them again and again in his works. The writer, of course, is on the side of meek heroines, with their sacrifice in the name of a loved one. The author preaches Christian humility. He prefers the meekness and generosity of Natasha and Sonya. Sometimes Fyodor Mikhailovich sins against common sense, describing Natasha's self-denial, but in love, probably, there is no cleverness, but everything is based on emotions. Natasha does not want to talk, she lives with feelings, seeing all the shortcomings of her lover, she tries to turn them into virtues. “They said,” she (Natasha) interrupted, “and you, however, said that he was without character and ... and with a mind not far off, like a child. Well, that's what I loved about him the most... do you believe that?" You are amazed at the all-forgiving love of a Russian woman. She is capable of completely forgetting herself in her feeling, throwing everything at the feet of her beloved. And the more insignificant it is, the stronger and more irresistible this passion. “-I want ... I have to ... well, I’ll just ask you: do you love Alyosha very much? - Yes very. - And if so ... if you love Alyosha very much ... then ... you must love his happiness too ... will I make his happiness? Do I have the right to say so, because I take it away from you. If it seems to you and we decide now that he will be happier with you, then ... then ... ".
This is almost a fantastic dialogue - two women decide the fate of a weak-willed lover, sacrificing their precious souls to him. F.M. Dostoevsky was able to see the main feature of the Russian female character and reveal it in his work.
And rebels - most often immensely proud, in a fit of offended feelings go against common sense, put on the altar of passion not only their own lives, but, even worse, the well-being of their children. Such is the mother of Nelly from the novel "The Humiliated and Insulted", Katerina Ivanovna from "Crime and Punishment". These are still “borderline” characters from Christian humility to open rebellion.
Depicting the fate of Natasha Ikhmeneva and Nelli, Katerina Ivanovna and Sonya Marmeladova, Dostoevsky gives, as it were, two answers to the question about the behavior of a suffering person: on the one hand, passive, enlightened humility, and on the other, an irreconcilable curse to the whole unjust world. These two answers left their mark on the artistic structure of the novels: the entire line of the Ikhmenevs - Sonechka Marmeladova is painted in lyrical, sometimes sentimental and conciliatory tones; in the description of the history of Nelly, the atrocities of Prince Valkovsky, the misadventures of Katerina Ivanovna, accusatory intonations predominate.
All types were presented by the writer in his stories and novels, but he himself remained on the side of the meek and weak outwardly, but strong and not broken spiritually. This is probably why his “rebels” Nelly and Katerina Ivanovna perish, and the quiet and meek Sonechka Marmeladova not only survives in this terrible world, but also helps Raskolnikov, who has stumbled and lost his support in life, to escape. This has always been the case in Rus': a man is a leader, but his support, support, adviser was a woman. Dostoevsky not only continues the traditions of classical literature, he brilliantly sees the realities of life and knows how to reflect them in his work. Decades pass, centuries follow each other, but the truth of the female character, captured by the author, continues to live, excite the minds of new generations, invites to enter into polemics or agree with the writer.
Chapter 2. Female images in the novel "Crime and Punishment"
2.1 The image of Sonya Marmeladova
Sonya Marmeladova is a kind of antipode of Raskolnikov. Her “solution” consists in self-sacrifice, in the fact that she “transcended” herself, and her main idea is the idea of the “impregnability” of another person. To transgress another means for her to destroy herself. In this, she opposes Raskolnikov, who all the time, from the very beginning of the novel (when he only learned about Sonya's existence from her father's confession), measures his crime by her "crime", trying to justify himself. He constantly strives to prove that since Sonya's "decision" is not a genuine decision, it means that he, Raskolnikov, is right. It is in front of Sonya that from the very beginning he wants to confess to the murder, it is her fate that he takes as an argument in favor of his theory of the criminality of everything. Raskolnikov's attitude to Sonya is intertwined with his relationship with his mother and sister, who are also close to the idea of self-sacrifice.
Raskolnikov's idea reaches its climax in chapter IV, the fourth part, in the scene of Raskolnikov's visit to Sonya and reading the Gospel together with her. At the same time, the novel reaches its turning point here.
Raskolnikov himself understands the significance of his coming to Sonya. “I came to you for the last time,” he says, he came, because everything will be decided tomorrow, and he must say “one word” to her, obviously decisive, if he considers it necessary to say it before the fateful tomorrow.
Sonya hopes for God, for a miracle. Raskolnikov, with his evil, polished skepticism, knows that there is no God and there will be no miracle. Raskolnikov mercilessly reveals to his interlocutor the vanity of all her illusions. Moreover, in a kind of ecstasy, Raskolnikov tells Sonya about the uselessness of her compassion, about the futility of her victims.
It is not a shameful profession that makes Sonya a great sinner - Sonya was brought to her profession by the greatest compassion, the greatest exertion of moral will - but the vainness of her sacrifice and her feat. “And that you are a great sinner, that is so,” he added almost enthusiastically, “and above all, you are a sinner because you needlessly killed and betrayed yourself. It wouldn't be terrible! Still, it wouldn’t be terrible that you live in this filth that you hate so much, and at the same time you yourself know (as soon as you open your eyes) that you are not helping anyone and saving anyone from anything! (6, 273).
Raskolnikov judges Sonya with other scales in his hands than the prevailing morality, he judges her from a different point of view than she herself. Raskolnikov's heart is pierced by the same pain as Sonya's heart, only he is a thinking person, he generalizes.
He bows to Sonya and kisses her feet. “I didn’t bow to you, I bowed to all human suffering,” he said wildly and went to the window. He sees the Gospel, he asks to read the scene of the resurrection of Lazarus. Both dig into the same text, but both understand it differently. Raskolnikov thinks, perhaps, about the resurrection of all mankind, perhaps, the final phrase emphasized by Dostoevsky - "Then many of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what Jesus did, believed in him" - he also understands in his own way: after all and he is waiting for the hour when people will believe in him, as the Jews believed in Jesus as the Messiah.
Dostoevsky understood the iron force of the vice of need and the circumstances that squeezed Sonya. With the accuracy of a sociologist, he outlined the narrow "open spaces" that fate had left for her for her own "manoeuvre". But, nevertheless, Dostoevsky also found in Sonya, in a defenseless teenager thrown onto the sidewalk, in the most downtrodden, the very last person in a large metropolitan city, the source of his own beliefs, his own decisions, his own actions dictated by his conscience and his will. Therefore, she could become a heroine in a novel where everything is based on confrontation with the world and on the choice of means for such confrontation.
The profession of a prostitute plunges Sonya into shame and baseness, but the motives and goals due to which she embarked on her path are selfless, lofty, holy. Sonia "chose" her profession involuntarily, she had no other choice, but the goals that she pursues in her profession are set by herself, set freely. D. Merezhkovsky turned the real, life-defined dialectics of Sonya's image into an immobile psycho-metaphysical scheme. Using the terminology taken from The Brothers Karamazov, he finds in her "two abysses", a sinner and a saint, two ideals that simultaneously exist - Sodom and Madonna.
Christ, according to the Gospel, saved the harlot from hypocrites who were about to stone her. Dostoevsky, undoubtedly, remembered the attitude of Christ towards the gospel prostitute when he created the image of Sonya. But the gospel harlot, having regained her sight, left her sinful craft and became a saint, while Sonya was always sighted, but she could not stop “sinning”, she could not but embark on her own path - the only possible way for her to save the little Marmeladovs from starvation.
Dostoevsky himself does not equate Sonya with Raskolnikov. He puts them in a contradictory relationship of sympathy, love and struggle, which, according to his plan, should end with the assertion of Sonya's rightness, Sonya's victory. The word "in vain" does not belong to Dostoevsky, but to Raskolnikov. It was uttered last to convince Sonya to put her on her path. It does not correspond to Sonya's self-awareness, which, from the point of view of Raskolnikov, "did not open her eyes" either to her position or to the results of her asceticism.
Thus, we see that the image of Sonya Marmeladova can be considered as a religious and mythological image associated with Mary Magdalene. But the meaning of this image in the novel does not end there: it can also be correlated with the image of the Virgin. Preparation for the image to be seen by the hero and the reader begins gradually, but frankly and clearly - from the moment where the view of the convicts on Sonya is described. For Raskolnikov, their attitude towards her is incomprehensible and discouraging: “Another question was unsolvable for him: why did they all love Sonya so much? She did not curry favor with them; they rarely met her, sometimes only at work, when she came for one minute to to see him. And yet everyone already knew her, knew that she followed him, knew how she lived, where she lived. She did not give them money, she did not render special services. but little by little some closer relations developed between them and Sonya: she wrote them letters to their relatives and sent them to the post office. in Sonya's hands things for them and even money. Their wives and mistresses knew her and went to her. And when she appeared at work, coming to Raskolnikov, or met with a party of prisoners going to work, everyone took off their hats, everyone bowed: "Mother Sofya Semyonovna, you are our mother, tender, sick!" - these rude branded convicts said to this small and thin creature. She smiled and bowed, and they all loved it when she smiled at them. They even loved her walk, turned to look after her as she walked, and praised her; they even praised her for being so small, they didn't even know what to praise her for. They even went to her for treatment" (6; 419).
After reading this passage, it is impossible not to notice that the convicts perceive Sonya as an image of the Virgin, which is especially clear from its second part. What is described in the first part, with inattentive reading, can be understood as the formation of a relationship between convicts and Sonya. But, obviously, this is not the case, because on the one hand the relationship is established before any relationship: the prisoners immediately "fell in love with Sonya." They immediately saw her - and the dynamics of the description only testifies to the fact that Sonya becomes the patroness and helper, comforter and intercessor of the entire prison, which accepted her as such even before any of its external manifestations.
The second part, even with the lexical nuances of the author's speech, indicates that something very special is happening. This part begins with an amazing phrase: "And when she appeared ..." The greeting of the convicts is quite consistent with the "phenomenon": "Everyone took off their hats, everyone bowed ...". They call her "mother", "mother", they love it when she smiles at them - a kind of blessing. Well, and - the end crowns the case - the revealed image of the Mother of God turns out to be miraculous: "They even went to her for treatment."
Thus, Sonya does not need any intermediate links, she directly implements her moral and social goals. Sonya, the eternal Sonechka, marks not only the passive beginning of sacrifice, but also the active beginning of practical love - for the perishing, for loved ones, for their own kind. Sonya sacrifices herself not for the sake of the sweetness of the victim, not for the sake of the goodness of suffering, not even for the afterlife bliss of her soul, but in order to save her family, friends, offended, destitute and oppressed from the role of the victim. The basis of Sonya's sacrifice is the beginning of disinterested devotion, social solidarity, human mutual assistance, and philanthropic activity.
However, Sonya herself is not an incorporeal spirit, but a person, a woman, and between her and Raskolnikov a special relationship of mutual sympathy and mutual rapprochement arises, giving a special personal coloring to her craving for Raskolnikov and her difficult struggle for Raskolnikov's soul.
2.2 The image of Dunya Raskolnikova
Another important character in the novel is Dunya Raskolnikova. Let us recall the words of Svidrigailov about Dun: “You know, I was always sorry, from the very beginning, that fate did not allow your sister to be born in the second or third century of our era, somewhere the daughter of a sovereign prince, or some ruler there, or a proconsul in Malaya Asia. She would no doubt be one of those who suffered martyrdom, and certainly would have smiled when they burned her chest with red-hot tongs. She would have done this on purpose herself, and in the fourth and fifth centuries she would have gone to the Egyptian desert and would live there for thirty years, feeding on roots, delights and visions.She herself only thirsts for this, and demands that she quickly accept some kind of flour for someone, and don’t give her this flour, so she, perhaps, and jumps out the window "(6; 365).
Merezhkovsky morally identifies Sonya with Dunya: “In a pure and holy girl, in Dunya, the possibility of evil and crime opens up - she is ready to sell herself, like Sonya ... Here is the same main motive of the novel, the eternal mystery of life, a mixture of good and evil.”
Dunya, like Sonya, internally stands outside money, outside the laws of the world that torments her. Just as she herself, of her own free will, went to the panel, so, by her own firm and invincible will, she did not lay hands on herself.
For her brother, for her mother, she was ready to accept any torment, but for Svidrigailov she could not and did not want to go too far. She did not love him enough to break with her family for him, to overstep the laws, civil and church, to run away with him to save him from Russia.
Dunya was interested in Svidrigailov, she even felt sorry for him, she wanted to reason and resurrect him and call him to more noble goals. She demanded "with sparkling eyes" that he leave Parasha alone, another and forced victim of his sensuality. “Relations began, mysterious conversations,” Svidrigailov confesses, “moralizing, teaching, begging, begging, even tears, believe it, even tears! That's how strong the passion for propaganda reaches in other girls! I, of course, blamed everything on my fate, pretended to be hungry and thirsty for light, and finally set in motion the greatest and unshakable means to conquer a woman's heart, a means that will never deceive anyone and that acts decisively on everyone to a single, without any exceptions."
It was Svidrigailov's impatient unbridled passion, in which Dunya unmistakably sensed a readiness to step over other unshakable norms for her, that frightened her. “Avdotya Romanovna is terribly chaste,” Svidrigailov explains, “unheard of and unseen ... maybe to the point of illness, despite all her broad mind ...”.
Dunya could not accept Svidrigailov's proposals, Svidrigailov's wife interfered, gossip began, Luzhin appeared, found by the same Marfa Petrovna. Dunya left for Petersburg, followed by Svidrigailov. In St. Petersburg, Svidrigailov learned the secret of Raskolnikov, and in his inflamed brain the idea of blackmail arose: to break Dunya's pride with the threat of betraying his brother, to persuade her to himself with a promise to save him.
Svidrigailov circles around Dunya, driven by dual motives, he bows before her moral greatness, he reveres her as a purifying and saving ideal, and he lusts like a dirty animal. “NB,” we read in draft notes, “it occurred to him, among other things, that how could he just now, speaking with Raskolnikov, really speak of Dunechka with a real enthusiastic flame, comparing her with the great martyr of the first centuries and advising her brother to take care of her in St. Petersburg - and at the same time he knew for sure that in no more than an hour he was going to rape Dunya, trample on all this divine purity with his feet and ignite with voluptuousness from the same divinely indignant look of the great martyr. What a strange, almost unbelievable split. And yet, yes, he was capable of it.
Dunya knows that Svidrigailov is not just a villain, and at the same time understands that everything can be expected from him. In the name of his brother, Svidrigailov lures her into an empty apartment, into his rooms, from which no one will hear anything: “Although I know that you are a man ... without honor, I am not at all afraid of you. Go ahead,” she said, apparently calmly, but her face was very pale.
Svidrigailov psychologically stuns Dunya: Rodion is a killer! She suffered for her brother, she was already prepared by all the behavior of her beloved Rodi for something monstrous, but still she could not believe: “... it cannot be ... This is a lie! Lie!".
Svidrigailov, in control of himself, as in other cases a maniac who goes through obstacles and obstacles to his immovable goal, calmly and convincingly explains to Duna the motives and philosophy of the double murder committed by Raskolnikov.
Dunya is shocked, she is half-conscious, she wants to leave, but she is in captivity, Svidrigailov stops her: Rodion can be saved. And he names the price: “... the fate of your brother and your mother is in your hands. I will be your slave ... all my life ... ".
Both are in a semi-delusional state, but even in a semi-delirious state, both understand the word "salvation" in different ways. Svidrigailov talks about a passport, about money, about flight, about a prosperous, "Luzhin's" life in America. In the mind of Dunya, the question of the mechanical salvation of his brother and of his inner state, of his conscience, of the atonement for a crime, arises indistinctly.
The prospect of her brother's mechanical salvation cannot paralyze her will, her pride. "Take it if you want! Don `t move! Don't go! I'll shoot!.." At the very first movement of Svidrigailov, she fired. The bullet slipped through Svidrigailov's hair and hit the wall. In the rapist, in the beast, human traits slipped through: unreasoning courage, a kind of masculine nobility that forced him to give Duna one more and one more chance to kill him. He tells her to shoot again, after a misfire he instructs her how to carefully load the revolver. And there was an unexpected, unexpected movement in the souls of both: Dunya surrendered, but Svidrigailov did not accept the sacrifice.
He stood two paces before her, waited, and looked at her with wild determination, with an inflamed, passionate, heavy look. Dunya realized that he would rather die than let her go. "And ... and, of course, she will kill him now, two steps away! ..".
Suddenly she dropped the revolver.
"- Dropped it! - Svidrigailov said with surprise and took a deep breath. Something, as it were, suddenly left his heart, and perhaps not only the burden of mortal fear; Yes, he hardly felt it at that moment. It was a deliverance from another, more mournful and gloomy feeling, which he himself could not in all his strength define.
He approached Dunya and quietly put his arm around her waist. She did not resist, but, all trembling like a leaf, looked at him with imploring eyes. He wanted to say something, but only his lips were twisted, and he could not pronounce.
Let me go! Dunya said pleadingly.
Svidrigailov shuddered...
So you don't love? he asked quietly.
Dunya shook her head negatively.
And... you can't?... Never? he whispered desperately.
Never! Dunya whispered.
A moment of terrible, mute struggle passed in Svidrigailov's soul. He looked at her with an indescribable look. Suddenly he withdrew his hand, turned away, quickly went to the window and stood in front of it.
Another moment passed.
Here is the key!.. Take it; leave quickly!..”
For a writer of the Xu or Dumas school, this scene would not have gone beyond the bounds of melodrama, and its “virtuous” conclusion would have looked stilted. Dostoevsky filled it with amazing psychological and moral content. In Dun, in this possible great martyr, somewhere latently lurked a female attraction to Svidrigailov - and it was not so easy for her to shoot a third time, knowing for sure that she would kill him. The hidden, subconscious impulses read by Dostoevsky in his heroine do not humiliate her, they give her appearance an organic authenticity. And here is a new twist: in Svidrigailovo man defeated the beast. Not trusting himself, hurrying her, Svidrigailov released Dunya. The beast had already achieved its goal, Dunya found herself in his full power, but the man came to his senses and gave freedom to his victim. It turned out that under the shaggy animal skin of Svidrigailov, a longing heart was beating, longing for love. In draft notes, Dostoevsky wrote down a phrase in order to attach it "somewhere": "Just like every person responds to a ray of sunshine." “Cattle,” Dunya throws to Svidrigailov, who overtakes her. "Cattle? - Svidrigailov repeats. “To love, you know, you can and can recreate me into a person.” “But, perhaps, she would grind me somehow ... Eh! to hell! Again these thoughts, all this must be abandoned, abandoned!..” Despite the striking contrast of feelings and desires, despite dirty thoughts and intentions, a yearning person won in Svidrigailov.
And here the tragedy of Svidrigailov is finally determined. The man won, but the man was devastated, having lost everything human. Everything human was alien to him. This man had nothing to offer Dunya, he himself had nothing and nothing to live for. The ray of the sun flashed and went out, the night came - and death.
In wakefulness and oblivion, in moments of enlightenment and among the nightmares and delirium of the night before his death, the image of Dunechka began to appear before Svidrigailov as a symbol of unfulfilled hopes, like a lost star.
Sonya's sacrifice illuminated with a new light the sacrifice of Raskolnikov's mother and sister, switching its meaning from the mainstream of narrow family relationships into the sphere of the universal, concerning the fate of the entire human race: in this unrighteous world, such as it is, it is possible to save one, but only at the expense of the body and the souls of others; yes, Raskolnikov can go out into the world, but for this his mother must destroy her eyesight and sacrifice her daughter, his sister, who will have to repeat, in some variation, Sonechka's life path.
This law causes contempt and indignation, pity and bitterness, compassion and a thirst for revenge in Raskolnikov, but it also has another side that Raskolnikov's theory did not take into account, did not foresee and was not able to understand. The mother is voluntarily ready to give her daughter to the slaughter, the sister is voluntarily ready to ascend Golgotha in the name of love for him, invaluable and incomparable to anyone, Rod. And here again, it is Sonechka Marmeladova who translates the whole problem from the boundaries of family love, from the realm of private life, into the realm of the universal.
2.3 Secondary female portrayals
In addition to the image of Sonya and Dunya, there are other female images in the novel. Among them are the old pawnbroker, and her sister Lizaveta, and Sonya's stepmother Katerina Ivanovna. Let us dwell on the analysis of the last image.
According to the direct meaning of the remarks, it turns out that Sonya entered the shameful path under duress, under pressure from her stepmother. Meanwhile, this is not so. Seventeen-year-old Sonya does not shift responsibility onto other people's shoulders, she herself decided, she chose the road herself, she went to the panel herself, feeling neither resentment nor evil towards Katerina Ivanovna. No worse than the contemplative Marmeladov, she understands: “But don’t blame, don’t blame, dear sir, don’t blame! This was not said in common sense, but with agitated feelings, in illness and with the crying of children who did not eat, and it was said more for the sake of insult than in the exact sense ... For Katerina Ivanovna is of such a character, and how children will cry, even if and from hunger, immediately begins to beat them. Just as Katerina Ivanovna beat hungry children out of helpless pity, so she sent Sonya out into the street: from a hopeless situation, not knowing what to do, she blurted out the most offensive and most impossible, the most contrary to the justice in which she so vainly, so vainly believed. And Sonya went, not obedient to someone else's will, but out of insatiable pity. Sonya did not blame Katerina Ivanovna and even calmed and consoled her.
Katerina Ivanovna Marmeladova, like Raskolnikov, “stepped over” Sonya, demanding that she “go to the panel”.
Here, for example, is the scene of the "rebellion" of Katerina Ivanovna Marmeladova, brought to the extreme by the misfortunes that befell her. “Yes, where will I go! yelled, sobbing and panting, the poor woman. - God! she suddenly shouted, her eyes flashing, “is there really no justice! .. But we’ll see!” There is a court and truth in the world, there is, I will find ... Let's see if there is truth in the world? ”...
Katerina Ivanovna ... with a cry and with tears ran out into the street - with an indefinite purpose somewhere now, immediately and at all costs to find justice.
For after all, the matter is about her, personal and at the same time about universal, universal justice.
This immediate, "practical" closeness of the personal and the universal in the behavior of the heroes of the novel (precisely in behavior, and not only in consciousness) is extraordinarily significant.
Of course, Katerina Ivanovna will not find "justice". The very purpose of her passionate movement is "uncertain". But this direct and practical correlation with the whole world, this real, embodied in an act (albeit not reaching the goal) appeal to the universal still represents a “permission”. If it were not for this, the “line” of Katerina Ivanovna - this woman who has suffered to the limit, on whom an incessant hail of disasters and humiliations falls - would be only a gloomy, hopeless image of the horrors of life, a naturalistic picture of suffering.
But this downtrodden, desperate woman constantly measures her life by the whole world. And, living in correlation with the whole world, the heroine feels and really is equal to every person and all of humanity.
This cannot be convincingly proved by syllogisms; but this is proved in the novel, for Katerina Ivanovna was created, she lives in it just like that - she lives in substantive and psychological details, in the complex movement of artistic speech, in the tense rhythm of the narrative. And all this applies, of course, not only to the image of Katerina Ivanovna, but also to other main images of the novel.
This is where the crux of the matter lies. You can talk as much as you want on the topic that each person is inseparably connected with all of humanity, that there is mutual responsibility between them. But in the artistic world of Dostoevsky, all this appears as an irrefutable reality. Anyone who is able to fully perceive the novel is aware with his whole being that all this is true, that it cannot be otherwise.
And this is precisely the basis of the solution of tragic contradictions that Dostoevsky's art provides.
Conclusion
Women in men's literature are always abstract, romanticized - they are often generally avoided to talk about. In the end, it turns out that female images are only a formal carrier of some qualities or ideas that are by no means feminine, and female psychology is reduced at most to idle platitudes. Of course, a man is characterized by a romantic attitude towards a woman, admiration for her beauty, amazement at her impulses, tenderness with her tears. However, the secrets of the female soul, the notorious female logic - have always remained above male understanding, causing either arrogant contempt for female imperfection - or outright confusion in front of the aliens of other worlds.
Women's images in Dostoevsky's novel "Crime and Punishment" are very diverse. This is the mother (Pulcheria Alexandrovna), and the sister (Dunya), and Sonya Marmeladova, and Elizaveta. There is, of course, Alena Ivanovna. But we do not consider her candidacy here. Firstly, she dies almost at the very beginning, and secondly, she is a bunch of evil, not feminine qualities.
The simplest and most unambiguous image is Elizabeth. A bit stupid, simple-minded, not related to her sister at all. In principle, Raskolnikov's remorse can only be about Elizabeth. He killed her by accident.
Pulcheria Alexandrovna and Dunya are a loving mother, a caring sister, a suffering but smart wife. By the way, the same image includes and. Sonya Marmeladova is the most controversial character. It is very difficult to deal with him.
From some side, Sonya is an ideal wife. She doesn't get too sentimental. She understands what she wants, although she does not know how to achieve it. And much more. The current writer has yet to say a word about Sonya. And we hope that this word will be stronger than all previous classics of the past.
And it seems to us that the union of Marmeladova Sonya and Raskolnikov Rodion will be strong and durable. And they will live happily ever after, and they will die in one day.
Thus, in the novel Crime and Punishment the author assigns one of the main places to the image of Sonechka Marmeladova, who embodies both worldly sorrow and divine, unshakable faith in the power of good. Dostoevsky on behalf eternal Sonya preaches the ideas of kindness and compassion, which are the unshakable foundations of human existence.
female image of Dostoevsky
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In "Crime and Punishment" we have before us a whole gallery of Russian women: Sonya Marmeladova, Rodion's mother Pulcheria Alexandrovna, sister Dunya, Katerina Ivanovna and Alena Ivanovna killed by life, Lizaveta Ivanovna killed with an ax.
F.M. Dostoevsky was able to see the main feature of the Russian female character and reveal it in his work. There are two types of heroines in his novel: soft and docile, all-forgiving - Sonechka Marmeladova - and rebels, passionately intervening in this unfair and hostile environment - Katerina Ivanovna. These two female characters interested Dostoevsky, forced him to turn to them again and again in his works. The writer, of course, is on the side of meek heroines, with their sacrifice in the name of a loved one. The author preaches Christian humility. He prefers the meekness and generosity of Sonya.
And rebels - most often immensely proud, in a fit of offended feelings go against common sense, put on the altar of passion not only their own lives, but, even worse, the well-being of their children. Such is Katerina Ivanovna.
Depicting the fate of Katerina Ivanovna and Sonya Marmeladova, Dostoevsky gives, as it were, two answers to the question about the behavior of a suffering person: on the one hand, passive, enlightened humility, and on the other, an irreconcilable curse on the whole unjust world. These two answers left their mark on the artistic structure of the novel: the entire line of Sonechka Marmeladova is painted in lyrical, sometimes sentimental and conciliatory tones; accusatory intonations predominate in the description of Katerina Ivanovna's misadventures.
All types were presented by the writer in his novels, but he himself remained on the side of the meek and weak outwardly, but strong and not broken spiritually. This is probably why his "rebel" Katerina Ivanovna dies, and the quiet and meek Sonechka Marmeladova not only survives in this terrible world, but also helps Raskolnikov, who has stumbled and lost his support in life, to escape. This has always been the case in Rus': a man is a leader, but his support, support, adviser was a woman. Dostoevsky not only continues the traditions of classical literature, he brilliantly sees the realities of life and knows how to reflect them in his work. Decades pass, centuries follow each other, but the truth of the female character, captured by the author, continues to live, excite the minds of new generations, invites to enter into polemics or agree with the writer.
Dostoevsky was probably the first Russian writer to make the art of psychoanalysis accessible to a wide range of readers. If someone does not understand, does not realize what the author showed him, then he will feel for sure that he will nevertheless bring him closer to seeing the true meaning of the picture of reality depicted in the work. Dostoevsky's heroes actually do not go beyond everyday everyday life and solve their purely personal problems. However, at the same time, these heroes are constantly acting and aware of themselves in the face of the whole world, and their problems are ultimately universal. To achieve this effect, the writer must do extremely painstaking work, with no room for error. In a psychological work there cannot be a single superfluous word, hero, or event. Therefore, when analyzing female images in a novel, one should pay attention to everything, down to the smallest details.
On the first pages we get acquainted with the usurer Alena Ivanovna. “She was a tiny, dry old woman, about sixty years old, with sharp and evil eyes, with a small pointed nose and simple hair. Her blond, slightly graying hair was oiled with grease. - a flannel rag, and on the shoulders, despite the heat, all the frayed and yellowed fur katsaveyka dangled Dostoevsky F. M. Crime and punishment: A novel. - Kuibyshev: Book of publishing house, 1983, p.33. Raskolnikov is disgusted by the pawnbroker, but, in fact, why? Because of the look? No, I specifically cited her full portrait, but this is the usual description of an old person. For her wealth? In a tavern, one student said to an officer: "She's rich as a Jew, she can give out five thousand at once, and she doesn't disdain a ruble mortgage. She's had a lot of ours. Only a terrible bitch ...". But there is no malice in these words. The same young man said: "She's nice, you can always get money from her." In essence, Alena Ivanovna does not deceive anyone, because she names the price of the mortgage before the conclusion of the transaction. The old woman earns her living as best she can, which does her honor, unlike Rodion Romanovich, who admitted in a conversation with another heroine: “Mother would send to bring what is needed, but for boots, dress and bread I would and he earned it himself; probably! Lessons were coming out; fifty kopecks were offered. Razumikhin is working! Yes, I got angry and didn’t want to. This is who deserves blame: a person who does not want to work, who is ready to continue living on the money of a poor mother and justifies himself with some philosophical ideas. We must not forget that Napoleon paved his way from the bottom to the top with his own hands, and it is this, and not the murders he committed, that makes him a great man. To discredit the hero, it would be enough to kill a usurer, but Fyodor Mikhailovich introduces another character and makes him the second victim of a young student. This is Alena Ivanovna's sister, Lizaveta. "She has such a kind face and eyes. Very even. Proof - many people like it. Quiet, meek, unresponsive, agreeable, agreeing to everything." Her complexion and health allowed her not to be offended, but she preferred the existing order of things. In the novel, she is considered almost a saint. But for some reason, everyone forgets about "what the student was surprised and laughed at." It "was that Lizaveta was pregnant every minute ...". What happened to her children, because only two sisters lived in the apartment? Don't turn a blind eye to this. Lizaveta does not refuse students in her "kindness". This is rather weak-willedness, not kindness, the younger sister does not feel reality, she does not watch her from the side. She does not live in general, she is a plant, not a person. Perhaps only the simple and hard-working Nastasya looks at Raskolnikov soberly, namely "with disgust." Accustomed to conscientious work, she cannot understand the owner lying idly on the couch, complaining about poverty and not wanting to try to earn money, given to idle thoughts, instead of studying with students. "She came in again at two o'clock, with soup. It lay as if it had been yesterday. The tea stood untouched. Nastasya was even offended and angrily began to push him." A person who is not fond of psychology is unlikely to attach importance to this episode. For him, the further action of the novel will develop according to the generally accepted scenario. Someone, thanks to this character, may doubt the correctness of some of the heroines with whom the author introduces us later. They say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Who so spoiled Rodion? Any psychotherapist looks for the roots of the patient's illness in the latter's childhood. So, the author introduces us to Pulcheria Raskolnikova, the mother of the protagonist. “You are the only one with us, you are our everything, all our hope, our hope. What happened to me when I found out that you had already left the university for several months, for lack of something to support yourself, and that your lessons and other means had stopped! Can I help you with my one hundred and twenty rubles a year of pension?” “Dostoevsky, ibid., p.56. The mother is ready to do anything for the sake of her son, even to marry her daughter to a man who "seems to be kind", but who and Rode "can be very useful even in everything, and we have already assumed that you, even from now on, could definitely start your future career and consider your fate already clearly defined. Oh, if only this were realized! ". It is the last phrase of Pulcheria Raskolnikova that is most important. Not about the happiness of a daughter going down the aisle without love and already suffering, the mother dreams, but about how, with the help of the groom, to better accommodate the loafer of her son. Spoiled children then have a very difficult time in life, which is proved by the further development of events in the novel.
The reader knows Marfa Petrovna only from the stories of other heroes of the work who are familiar with the Svidrigailov family. There is nothing remarkable about her, she is just the unloved wife of her husband, who convicted him of treason, who received a spouse only because of her condition. At the end of the book we find the following phrase, addressed to the future suicide: "Not your revolver, but Marfa Petrovna, whom you killed, villain! You didn't have anything of your own in her house." It seems that this woman appeared among the characters in order to convict a cruel player in life with her help.
Further, Raskolnikov meets the Marmeladov family. "Katerina Ivanovna, with a cry and with tears, ran out into the street - with an indefinite purpose somewhere now, immediately and at all costs to find justice." She is like Fernanda from Marquez's novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, who "wandered around the house, lamenting loudly - in order, they say, she was brought up like a queen, to become her servant in a madhouse, to live with her husband - a quitter, an atheist, and she works, strains, carries the household ... ". It is significant that neither one nor the other woman does any of this. Just as Marquez found Petra Cotes, who actually kept Fernanda, so Dostoevsky brought Sonya out in order not to let the Marmeladovs go to waste. Sonya's kindness is dead and imaginary, like the holiness of the late Lizaveta. Why did Sofya Semyonovna become a prostitute? Out of pity for your stepbrother and sisters? Why then did she not go to the monastery, taking them with her, because there they would obviously live better than with an alcoholic father and a mother who beats them? Suppose that she did not want to leave Marmeladov and his wife to the mercy of fate. But why then give his father money for a drink, because this is what ruined him? She probably feels sorry for him, he won't get drunk, he will suffer. It's time to remember the phrase: "To love everyone means not to love anyone." Sonechka sees only her good deeds, but she does not see, does not want to see how they manifest themselves on those whom she helps. She, like Lizaveta, does everything she is asked to do, without understanding why it is, what will come of it. Like a robot, Sonya does what the Bible prescribes. This is how an electric bulb shines: because the button is pressed and the current flows.
Now let's look at the end of the novel. In fact, Svidrigailov offers Avdotya Romanovna the same thing that Katerina Ivanovna demanded from Sonechka. But Dunya knows the price of many actions in life, she is smarter, stronger and, most importantly, unlike Sofya Semyonovna, in addition to her nobility, she is able to see someone else's dignity. If her brother had not accepted salvation from her at such a price, he would rather have committed suicide.
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, as a great master psychologist, described people, their thoughts and experiences in a "vortex" flow; his characters are constantly in dynamic development. He chose the most tragic, the most significant moments. Hence the universal, universal problem of love, which his heroes are trying to solve.
According to Sonechka, this holy and righteous sinner, it is precisely the lack of love for one's neighbor (Raskolnikov calls humanity an "anthill", "a trembling creature") that is the fundamental cause of Rodion's sin. This is the difference between them: his sin is a confirmation of his "exclusivity", his greatness, his power over every louse (whether it be his mother, Dunya, Sonya), her sin is a sacrifice in the name of love for her relatives: for her father - to a drunkard, to a consumptive stepmother, to her children, whom Sonya loves more than her pride, more than her pride, more than life, finally. His sin is the destruction of life, hers is the salvation of life.
At first, Raskolnikov hates Sonya, since he sees that he, the Lord and the "god", loves this little downtrodden creature, in spite of everything, loves and regrets (things are interconnected) - this fact deals a severe blow to his fictitious theory. Moreover, his mother's love for him, his son, also, in spite of everything, "torments him", Pulcheria Alexandrovna constantly makes sacrifices for the sake of "beloved Rodenka".
Dunya's sacrifice is painful for him, her love for her brother is another step towards refutation, towards the collapse of his theory.
The author believes that love is self-sacrifice, embodied in the image of Sonya, Dunya, mother - after all, it is important for the author to show not only the love of a woman and a man, but also the love of a mother for her son, brother for sister (sister for brother).
Dunya agrees to marry Luzhin for the sake of her brother, and the mother is well aware that she is sacrificing her daughter for her firstborn. Dunya hesitated for a long time before making a decision, but, in the end, she nevertheless decided: "... before deciding, Dunya did not sleep all night, and, believing that I was already sleeping, she got out of bed and all night walked up and down the room, finally knelt down and prayed long and fervently before the image, and in the morning she announced to me that she had made up her mind. Dunya Raskolnikova is going to marry a completely alien person only because she does not want to let her mother and brother descend to a beggarly existence in order to improve the material condition of her family. She also sells herself, but, unlike Sonya, she still has the opportunity to choose a "buyer".
Sonya immediately, without hesitation, agrees to give all of herself, all her love to Raskolnikov, to sacrifice herself for the well-being of her beloved: "Come to me, I will put a cross on you, let's pray and go." Sonya happily agrees to follow Raskolnikov anywhere, to accompany him everywhere. "He met her restless and tormentingly caring gaze on him ..." - here is Sonin's love, all her selflessness.
The author of the novel "Crime and Punishment" introduces us to many human destinies, faced with the most difficult conditions of existence. As a result, some of them found themselves at the very bottom of society, unable to withstand what fell to their lot.
Marmeladov tacitly agrees to his own daughter going to the panel in order to be able to pay for housing and buy food. An old money-lender who, although she has nothing left to live, continues her activities, humiliating, insulting people who bring the last thing they have in order to get pennies that are hardly enough to live on.
Sonya Marmeladova - the main female character of the novel - is the bearer of Christian ideas that collide with Raskolnikov's inhuman theory. It is thanks to her that the protagonist gradually realizes how much he was mistaken, what a monstrous deed he committed by killing an old woman who seemed to be senselessly living out her days; it is Sonya who helps Raskolnikov to return to people, to God. The girl's love resurrects his soul, tormented by doubts.
The image of Sonya is one of the most important in the novel; Dostoevsky embodied his idea of "God's man" in it. Sonya lives according to Christian commandments. Placed in the same difficult conditions of existence as Raskolnikov, she retained a living soul and that necessary connection with the world, which was broken by the main character, who committed the worst sin - murder. Sonechka refuses to judge anyone, accepts the world as it is. Her credo: "And who put me here as a judge: who will live, who will not live?".
The image of Sonya has two interpretations: traditional and new, given by V.Ya. Kirpotin. According to the first, Christian ideas are embodied in the heroine, according to the second, she is the bearer of folk morality.
Sona embodies the national character in its undeveloped childhood stage, and the path of suffering makes her evolve according to the traditional religious scheme towards the holy fool, it is not for nothing that she is so often compared with Lizaveta. Dostoevsky, on behalf of Sonya, preaches the ideas of kindness and compassion, which are the unshakable foundations of human existence.
All the female images of the novel evoke sympathy from the reader, make them empathize with their destinies and admire the talent of the writer who created them.
Sonya Marmeladova is a kind of antipode of Raskolnikov. Her "solution" consists in self-sacrifice, in the fact that she "crossed" herself, and her main idea is the idea of the "impregnability" of another person. To transgress another means for her to destroy herself. In this, she opposes Raskolnikov, who all the time, from the very beginning of the novel (when he had just learned about Sonya's existence from her father's confession), measures his crime by her "crime", trying to justify himself. He constantly strives to prove that since Sonya's "decision" is not a genuine solution, it means that he, Raskolnikov, is right. It is in front of Sonya that from the very beginning he wants to confess to the murder, it is her fate that he takes as an argument in favor of his theory of the criminality of everything. Raskolnikov's attitude to Sonya is intertwined with his relationship with his mother and sister, who are also close to the idea of self-sacrifice.
Raskolnikov's idea reaches its climax in chapter IV, the fourth part, in the scene of Raskolnikov's visit to Sonya and reading the Gospel together with her. At the same time, the novel reaches its turning point here.
Raskolnikov himself understands the significance of his coming to Sonya. “I came to you for the last time,” he says, he came, because everything will be decided tomorrow, and he must say “one word” to her, obviously decisive, if he considers it necessary to say it before the fateful tomorrow.
Sonya hopes for God, for a miracle. Raskolnikov, with his evil, polished skepticism, knows that there is no God and there will be no miracle. Raskolnikov mercilessly reveals to his interlocutor the vanity of all her illusions. Moreover, in a kind of ecstasy, Raskolnikov tells Sonya about the uselessness of her compassion, about the futility of her victims.
It is not a shameful profession that makes Sonya a great sinner - Sonya was brought to her profession by the greatest compassion, the greatest exertion of moral will - but the vainness of her sacrifice and her feat. “And that you are a great sinner, it’s so,” he added almost enthusiastically, “and above all, you are a sinner because you needlessly killed and betrayed yourself. , which you hate so much, and at the same time you know yourself (you only have to open your eyes) that you are not helping anyone with this and you are not saving anyone from anything! (6, 273).
Raskolnikov judges Sonya with other scales in his hands than the prevailing morality, he judges her from a different point of view than she herself. Raskolnikov's heart is pierced by the same pain as Sonya's heart, only he is a thinking person, he generalizes.
He bows to Sonya and kisses her feet. “I didn’t bow to you, I bowed to all human suffering,” he said wildly and went to the window. He sees the Gospel, he asks to read the scene of the resurrection of Lazarus. Both dig into the same text, but both understand it differently. Raskolnikov thinks, perhaps, about the resurrection of all mankind, perhaps, the final phrase emphasized by Dostoevsky - "Then many of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what Jesus did, believed in him" - he also understands in his own way: after all and he is waiting for the hour when people will believe in him, as the Jews believed in Jesus as the Messiah.
Dostoevsky understood the iron force of the vice of need and the circumstances that squeezed Sonya. With the accuracy of a sociologist, he outlined the narrow "open spaces" that fate left her for her own "maneuver". But, nevertheless, Dostoevsky also found in Sonya, in a defenseless teenager thrown onto the sidewalk, in the most downtrodden, the very last person in a large metropolitan city, the source of his own beliefs, his own decisions, his own actions dictated by his conscience and his will. Therefore, she could become a heroine in a novel where everything is based on confrontation with the world and on the choice of means for such confrontation.
The profession of a prostitute plunges Sonya into shame and baseness, but the motives and goals due to which she embarked on her path are selfless, lofty, holy. Sonia "chose" her profession involuntarily, she had no other choice, but the goals that she pursues in her profession are set by herself, set freely. D. Merezhkovsky turned the real, life-defined dialectics of Sonya's image into an immobile psycho-metaphysical scheme. Using the terminology taken from The Brothers Karamazov, he finds in her "two abysses", a sinner and a saint, two ideals simultaneously existing - Sodom and Madonna.
Christ, according to the Gospel, saved the harlot from hypocrites who were about to stone her. Dostoevsky, undoubtedly, remembered the attitude of Christ towards the gospel prostitute when he created the image of Sonya. But the gospel harlot, having regained her sight, left her sinful craft and became a saint, while Sonya was always sighted, but she could not stop “sinning”, could not but embark on her own path - the only possible way for her to save the little Marmeladovs from starvation.
Dostoevsky himself does not equate Sonya with Raskolnikov. He puts them in a contradictory relationship of sympathy, love and struggle, which, according to his plan, should end with the assertion of Sonya's rightness, Sonya's victory. The word "in vain" does not belong to Dostoevsky, but to Raskolnikov. It was uttered last to convince Sonya to put her on her path. It does not correspond to Sonya's self-awareness, which, from the point of view of Raskolnikov, "did not open her eyes" either to her position or to the results of her asceticism.
Thus, we see that the image of Sonya Marmeladova can be considered as a religious and mythological image associated with Mary Magdalene. But the meaning of this image in the novel does not end there: it can also be correlated with the image of the Virgin. Preparation for the image to be seen by the hero and the reader begins gradually, but frankly and clearly - from the moment where the view of the convicts on Sonya is described. For Raskolnikov, their attitude towards her is incomprehensible and discouraging: “Another question was unsolvable for him: why did they all love Sonya so much? She did not curry favor with them; they rarely met her, sometimes only at work, when she came for one minute to to see him. And yet everyone already knew her, knew that she followed him, knew how she lived, where she lived. She did not give them money, she did not render special services. but little by little some closer relations developed between them and Sonya: she wrote them letters to their relatives and sent them to the post office. in Sonya's hands things for them and even money. Their wives and mistresses knew her and went to her. And when she appeared at work, coming to Raskolnikov, or met with a party of prisoners going to work, everyone took off their hats, everyone bowed: "Mother Sofya Semyonovna, you are our mother, tender, sick!" - these rude branded convicts said to this small and thin creature. She smiled and bowed, and they all loved it when she smiled at them. They even loved her walk, turned to look after her as she walked, and praised her; they even praised her for being so small, they didn't even know what to praise her for. They even went to her for treatment" (6; 419).
After reading this passage, it is impossible not to notice that the convicts perceive Sonya as an image of the Virgin, which is especially clear from its second part. What is described in the first part, with inattentive reading, can be understood as the formation of a relationship between convicts and Sonya. But, obviously, this is not the case, because on the one hand the relationship is established before any relationship: the prisoners immediately "fell in love with Sonya." They immediately saw her - and the dynamics of the description only testifies to the fact that Sonya becomes the patroness and helper, comforter and intercessor of the entire prison, which accepted her as such even before any of its external manifestations.
The second part, even with the lexical nuances of the author's speech, indicates that something very special is happening. This part begins with an amazing phrase: "And when she appeared ..." The greeting of the convicts is quite consistent with the "phenomenon": "Everyone took off their hats, everyone bowed ...". They call her "mother", "mother", they love it when she smiles at them - a kind of blessing. Well, and - the end crowns the case - the revealed image of the Mother of God turns out to be miraculous: "They even went to her for treatment."
Thus, Sonya does not need any intermediate links, she directly implements her moral and social goals. Sonya, the eternal Sonechka, marks not only the passive beginning of sacrifice, but also the active beginning of practical love - for the perishing, for loved ones, for their own kind. Sonya sacrifices herself not for the sake of the sweetness of the victim, not for the sake of the goodness of suffering, not even for the afterlife bliss of her soul, but in order to save her family, friends, offended, destitute and oppressed from the role of the victim. The basis of Sonya's sacrifice is the beginning of disinterested devotion, social solidarity, human mutual assistance, and philanthropic activity.
However, Sonya herself is not an incorporeal spirit, but a person, a woman, and between her and Raskolnikov a special relationship of mutual sympathy and mutual rapprochement arises, giving a special personal coloring to her craving for Raskolnikov and her difficult struggle for Raskolnikov's soul.