Punishment of a crime according to the law of conscience in FM Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment. School of Russian philology and culture - competition dedicated to Dostoevsky The problem of conscience in crime and punishment
Rodion longs for revenge for the outraged and disadvantaged people, for the humiliation and suffering of Sonya Marmeladova, for all those who have been brought to the limit of poverty and moral torment. Raskolnikov felt and saw the world, its history, its victories and defeats. It seemed to this man that he understood people and got to the essence of life. Raskolnikov decided to take everything into his own hands, to direct the course of events along the path outlined by him. Rodion's protest and indignation against the social system is combined with his theory of a "strong personality". Contempt for society and its moral laws leads the hero to the conviction of the inevitability of a strong, domineering personality, for whom "everything is permitted." The hero decided to make a deal with his own conscience. The crime should prove to Raskolnikov himself that he is not a "trembling creature", but "a real ruler who is allowed to do everything."
The problem of conscience in the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky's "crime and punishment"
Another example A student may use arguments from literature that is not part of the school curriculum in his Problem of Conscience essay. He could read these books on his own. For example, M.
Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita" also covers this problem. For the writer, the question of conscience reaches enormous, all-human proportions.
Pontius Pilate, one of the main actors works, did not sacrifice his career to save the innocent Yeshua. For this, the prosecutor must be tormented by conscience for two millennia.
Important
However, Pilate is subsequently forgiven, since he realizes his guilt and repents. Everything falls into place, the "harmony of the world" is restored.
On the topic "The problem of conscience", the arguments on the exam can be convincing only if the student has worked on the topic on his own.
The problem of conscience: arguments
The reviewing teachers give points according to several criteria:
- K1 - Statement of the problem (maximum 1 point).
- K2 - Formulated commentary on the problem (3 points).
- K3 - Displays the position of the author (1 point).
- К4 - Given arguments (3 points).
- K5 - Meaning, coherence, consistency (2 points).
- K6 - Expressiveness written speech, accuracy (2 points).
- K7 - Spelling (3 points).
- K8 - Punctuation (3 points).
- K9 - Language norms (2 points).
- K10 - Speech norms(2 points).
- K11 - Ethical standards (1 point)
- K12 - Compliance with factual accuracy (1 point).
- Total - 24 points for part C.
Essay plan in the Russian language (USE) For the logic and meaning in the essay, the examining teachers give a certain number of points.
The problem of conscience: arguments. examples from fiction
Info
All this time Sonya is nearby, she cannot leave a suffering person even in hard labor. She insists that Rodion take a cypress cross from her.
This means that this girl, which Raskolnikov, is undoubtedly. thought the saint would go along with him to the end. Rodion Raskolnikov suffers, and suffering, according to Dostoevsky, is the path to happiness.
Attention
Having recognized himself as a murderer, the hero has not yet repented morally, before the face of the Great Lord God, before people and before his conscience. "He is ashamed of the fact that he, Raskolnikov, died so blindly, hopelessly and deafly and stupidly, by some kind of judgment of blind fate." Even in hard labor, he does not repent of his crime, asking himself: “What does an atrocity mean? My conscience is calm. "
In the finale of the novel, Rodion Raskolnikov picks up the Gospel. Did his Resurrection take place? But that.
The problem of conscience. exam composition
Raskolnikov will repent morally. Dostoevsky himself also hopes for this. Semyon Marmeladov understands that you cannot change your life.
honestly earn money in order to adequately support his family, therefore he drowns out pain and torment with wine, takes the last pennies from the family and Sonya, his daughter, whom he loves and regrets. on a glass of wine; but he can’t help himself. The owner of life, Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin, who dreams of becoming the husband of Dunechka, Raskolnikov's sister, is a dishonest person. He is sure that Dunechka's poverty will allow him to rule over her and she will consider him a savior all her life. An intelligent, educated, beautiful wife would have helped Luzhin move up the career ladder. But he did not calculate that Rodion would never accept his sister as a sacrifice. Dostoevsky, in my opinion, hoped that God would punish this man, i.e.
e.
Are you really human?
Sonya Marmeladova, with her ideal of Christ, is trying to convince Raskolnikov of the need to appear before the court, to repent. But, even going to hard labor, Rodion did not lose faith in his own idea.
For a long time he was worried only because he was not a superman, because his conscience tormented him. In fact, there was no evidence, and Rodion could have avoided punishment.
But the final impetus for recognition was Svidrigailov's suicide. Svidrigailov is a criminal, in fact, he has several ruined lives on his account.
He believes that everything is permissible for him, that he is above others, and in this his position coincides with Raskolnikov's theory. Svidrigailov is capable of lying, blackmail, even murder, not for the sake of a great goal, but simply out of boredom, out of the emptiness of life.
Awareness of the impasse and hopelessness of such a life leads Svidrigailov to commit suicide. This is not only a reckoning for many sins, but also a moral collapse.
Crime and punishment problem of conscience argument
But Raskolnikov began to implement it practically! He decided that the old woman-pawnbroker was "an abscess that must be removed," because she does not benefit anyone. Therefore, Alena Ivanovna must die, she is the same "trembling creature."
But why, in this case, does innocent Lizaveta die? So Raskolnikov's theory begins to gradually collapse. You cannot divide people only into "bad" and "good", and it is not a person's business to judge others.
Only the Lord God can decide who is right and who is wrong. You cannot kill a person, even for the sake of great and good goals. Life is the most valuable thing we have, and no one has the right to pass judgment on it just like that, on their own whim. The climactic scene, where the killer himself lists, revises and, ultimately, rejects all the motives for the crime - the scene of Raskolnikov's confession to Sonya. All the arguments of reason, which seemed so true to him, fall away one after another.
Upon learning of the death of Svidrigailov, Raskolnikov confesses to his own crime. He gradually realizes that every idea of a superman turns into a spiritual emptiness, an abyss.
And this is the worst price to pay for his idea. Material from the site //iEssay.ru Once in hard labor, Raskolnikov faced the alienation of other criminals, who saw in him only an inept murderer, a master. And this was another exposure of his theory - inhuman, cruel, not aimed at good.
For Raskolnikov, the true payment for his crime was not prison, hard labor, not parting with his usual life, but pangs of conscience and a spiritual crisis associated with the collapse of the idea of a superman. Only after recovering from illness and suffering, Raskolnikov repented completely, for real, and found new, Christian ideals.
Are coming to an end school years... Grade 11 students take final exams in May and June. But in order for them to be awarded a certificate, they must successfully pass the obligatory exams, including those in the Russian language.
Our article is addressed to those who need arguments on the issue of conscience. Features of the essay on the exam in the Russian language In order to get the maximum possible number of points for part C, you need to write the essay correctly.
In this section of the Russian language exam, there are many topics for essays. Most often, graduates write about friendship, duty, honor, love, science, motherhood, and so on.
The most difficult thing is to write an essay-reasoning on the problem of conscience. We will give the arguments for you later in our article. But that's not all useful information for the reader. We bring to your attention a compositional plan for the final essay in the Russian language.
Calm came to him only when Yeshua himself forgave him and said that there was no execution. M.A. Sholokhov. The epic novel "Quiet Don" The problem of conscience was considered by the author in this immortal work.
The protagonist of the epic, Grigory Melekhov, led the Cossack army during the Civil War. Lost this position, because he forbade the Cossacks to engage in robbery and violence.
If he took someone else's, it was only to eat and feed the horses. Conclusion The problem of conscience has been considered by many authors throughout the existence of Russian literature.
If these arguments seemed unconvincing to you, then you can independently disassemble works of fiction where writers touched on the problem of conscience:
- M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. Fairy tale "Conscience Gone".
- V.V.
Bykov. The story "Sotnikov".
- A.S. Pushkin. The novel "The Captain's Daughter".
How to write an essay on the topic - Human responsibility for their actions?
Such a load of unexpected consequences is borne by Raskolnikov's theory. In his article, written six months before the crime, he spoke about the division of humanity into two categories: ordinary, capable of being only material for history, and extraordinary, which can, in the name of a great goal, step over the moral laws of society. And not just overstep, and not be tormented by pangs of conscience and not bear any responsibility.Problems of conscience in “Crime and punishment” Text scientific article in the specialty "Literature. Literary criticism.
Thompson DO Problems of conscience in “crime and punishment” // Problems of historical poetics. 1998. No. 5.
Thompson D. O. “Problems of Conscience in“ Crime and Punishment ”” Problems of Historical Poetics (1998).
Thompson D.O. (1998). Problems of conscience in "crime and punishment".
Crime and punishment problem of conscience essay
“I wanted to become Napoleon, that's why I killed,” he briefly and clearly says to Sonya.
From poverty and despair, Raskolnikov came to the idea of the "right of the strong" and immediately supplements it with the idea of eradicating injustice from life with the help of his strength, proven in the "Napoleonic" test. So the murder of the old usurer became a "test" for which Raskolnikov carefully prepared, having calculated everything to the smallest detail, but without taking into account the person's personality, his "nature." Having committed a crime, he experiences a painful mental crisis.
What the novel makes you think - Crime and Punishment
But conscience begins to torment, because, having violated the moral law, a person condemns himself to complete destruction. By killing the "trembling creature" Raskolnikov removes an "abscess" that is not useful, but at the same time an innocent person suffers. However, at the end of the piece, in the scene of Sonia's confession, the main character understands that the arguments of reason are useless here. Reading this novel, you understand that you cannot come to good through death and violence.The pangs of conscience of Grigory Melekhov
Thanks to the strength of his spirit, the Cossack manages to get back on the right path, but he will be rewarded for his misdeeds. He loses his wife, unborn child, father and mother, and then his beloved Aksinya. Gregory realizes that in his attempts to find justice, he forgot about his native land and his own family. The hero wants to start all over again, so at the end of the novel he returns to his house, to the grown-up(14) Finally, they ordered (!) To bury him in Sestroretsk, where he sometimes lived in his dacha. (15) A civil funeral service was held at the Writer's House.
(16) Aleksandr Prokofiev, the first secretary of the Writers' Union, was assigned to lead it. (17) They were obliged to conduct briefly, not allowing any policy, strictly adhering to the regulations, not to allow any attacks, they caught up with a lot of police and employees of the Big House. (18) Everyone who wished to enter the House could not, people filled the stairs leading to the hall.
The problem of a person's personal responsibility for their actions (based on the novel by F
Sonya Marmeladova, with her ideal of Christ, is trying to convince Raskolnikov of the need to appear before the court, to repent. But, even going to hard labor, Rodion did not lose faith in his own idea. For a long time he was worried only because he was not a superman, because his conscience tormented him. In fact, there was no evidence, and Rodion could have avoided punishment. But the final impetus for recognition was Svidrigailov's suicide. Svidrigailov is a criminal, in fact, he has several ruined lives on his account.3. Unfortunately, modern society strives more for the material than for the spiritual. Is everything repeating itself? I remember the lines of V.V. Mayakovsky, who complained that "beautiful people have disappeared from Petrograd", that many do not care about someone else's misfortune, they think "it's better to get drunk," are hidden, like the lady from the poem "Here!" into the "shell of things".
4. The problem of morality is raised by A. Voznesensky in his poem "The Moat".
Analysis of the novel F
He took up not his own business. By "stepping over", he rapes himself. And when he commits sincere and kind deeds that delight his mother, sister and Sonya, he acts freely and uninhibited. The split, contradictory character of Raskolnikov is caused by the fact that in his soul there is a struggle of motives for the crime and against it. This struggle, duality is felt in him constantly - both in consciousness and in subconsciousness, in dreams and in reality.Prose 1906-1921
But a theology of a certain kind elevates this last particular case to a principle and artificially brings all other possible relations under this last category. She always imagines punishment as a consequence of a crime, and not something else, and looks at a crime as a cause, in which the embryo of punishment invariably lies. In such a teaching, crime is always logically connected with punishment through the mediation of God.This point of view is especially repulsive and repulsive of all the most when it is taken under the protection of a poet or artist.Sonya Marmeladova and Rodion Raskolnikov in the novel "Crime and Punishment"
Sonya Marmeladova and Rodion Raskolnikov exist in a completely different worlds... They are like two opposite poles, but they cannot exist without each other. In the image of Raskolnikov, the idea of rebellion is embodied, in the image of Sonya, the idea of humility.The novel Crime and Punishment made a very strong impression on me. F.M. Dostoevsky is a profound philosopher and a subtle psychologist. He went down in the history of Russian literature as a master of the description of the "sick soul". One of the most interesting heroes of Dostoevsky is Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, a murderer, philosopher, thinker.
Crushed by poverty, embittered by his powerlessness to help loved ones, Raskolnikov decides to commit a crime - to murder a disgusting old woman who is a usurer who benefits from human suffering. Rodion longs for revenge for the outraged and disadvantaged people, for the humiliation and suffering of Sonya Marmeladova, for all those who have been brought to the limit of poverty and moral torment.
Raskolnikov felt and saw the world, its history, its victories and defeats. It seemed to this man that he understood people and got to the essence of life. Raskolnikov decided to take everything into his own hands, to direct the course of events along the path outlined by him.
Rodion's protest and indignation against the social system is combined with his theory of a "strong personality". Contempt for society and its moral laws leads the hero to the conviction of the inevitability of a strong, domineering personality, for whom "everything is permitted." The hero decided to make a deal with his own conscience. The crime should prove to Raskolnikov himself that he is not a "trembling creature", but "a real ruler who is allowed to do everything."
It seems to me that the main character's mistake lies in the fact that he sees the cause of evil in the very nature of man, and considers the law, which gives the right to the powerful of this world to do evil, to be eternal. Instead of fighting against the immoral order and its laws, he follows them. Raskolnikov thinks that he is responsible for his actions only to himself, and the judgment of others is indifferent to him.
At first, Rodion is not at all moved by the crime he committed. He is too confident in the correctness of his ideas, confident in his originality and exclusivity. What's wrong with it if he killed? He killed only one "louse, the most useless of all lice." When Rodion hears the word "crime," he shouts back: "Crime! What crime? .. that I killed a nasty, malicious louse, an old woman-pawnbroker, no one needed, who to kill - forty sins will be forgiven, who sucked juice from the poor, and this is a crime? I don’t think about it, and I don’t think about washing it off! "
Gradually, Raskolnikov begins to analyze the reasons and give various explanations for his action: “he wanted to become Napoleon,” he longed to help his mother, was mad and angry, rebelled against everyone and everything, and sought to assert his personality. The hero's conscience begins to torment. In my opinion, this is natural. Raskolnikov violated the moral law that exists in the soul of a person from the moment of his birth. This law is immutable. The one who violates him is in for the strongest moral torment, spiritual and physical destruction.
In my opinion, in Raskolnikov's theory there are thoughts that can arise only in an abnormal person. Perhaps, if the hero's theory had remained on paper, it would have seemed only a figment of the imagination of a sick person. But Raskolnikov began to implement it practically! He decided that the old woman-pawnbroker was "an abscess that must be removed," because she does not benefit anyone. Therefore, Alena Ivanovna must die, she is the same "trembling creature." But why, in this case, does innocent Lizaveta die?
So Raskolnikov's theory begins to gradually collapse. You cannot divide people only into "bad" and "good", and it is not a person's business to judge others. Only the Lord God can decide who is right and who is wrong. You cannot kill a person, even for the sake of great and good goals. Life is the most valuable thing we have, and no one has the right to pass judgment on it just like that, on their own whim.
The climactic scene, where the killer himself lists, revises and, ultimately, rejects all the motives for the crime - the scene of Raskolnikov's confession to Sonya. All the arguments of reason, which seemed so true to him, fall away one after another. Thus, the novel "Crime and Punishment" helped me understand: you cannot come to good through murder, even if good is many times greater than evil. And you will never escape your conscience for anything. This is the worst and fairest judge in the world.
In my opinion, inhuman thoughts and deeds cannot serve for the good of mankind, no evil can be justified by the happiness of millions of others. Happiness cannot be built on blood, cruelty and violence.
Raskolnikov in the novel comes to a rethinking of moral values: “Did I kill an old woman? I killed myself. " Yes, indeed, the hero killed himself because he tried to go against his conscience. It is also noteworthy that it is through the terrible torments of conscience that Raskolnikov nevertheless comes to spiritual rebirth.
Of all the works of Dostoevsky, the novel Crime and Punishment poses the problem of conscience most acutely. Only he makes it possible to feel the state of mind of the hero-killer before, during and after the murder. Raskolnikov, “developed and even good<их>tilt<онностей>m<олодой>man "," succumbing to some strange "unfinished" ideas that are in the air ", performs the most serious crime- Intentional murder (28, 137, 136) 1. However, his intention to kill the old woman-pawnbroker runs into unexpected complications, and in a panic he also kills her sister Lizaveta. This second murder raises the problem of conscience to a completely different level.
Of the "unfinished" ideas of the hero, several main ones can be distinguished, two of which are based on a revision of the Old and New Testament understanding of conscience. The first idea is a mixture of utilitarian and false humanistic ideas. The old usurer is sick, angry, “seizes someone else's age”, tortures her younger sister and “is no good for anything” (28, 136). Such a harmful old woman can be robbed and killed “without any qualms of conscience” because it is “not a crime” (6, 54, 59). The hero will then help the family, fulfill his "humane duty to humanity," and this, he reckons, "will ameliorate the crime." Although this idea is born of a perversion of conscience, it retains at least some idea of the atonement. However, after the second murder, this “justification” disappears at once and is subsequently discarded by the hero himself.
The second idea is psychologically more complicated and ideologically more radical. Based on the "axiom" that "everything is in the hands of man",
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Thompson D.O., 1998
1 From a draft letter to M. N. Katkov. All references to the novel and letters are given by edition: Dostoevsky F. M... Complete works: In 30 volumes. L., 1972-1990 (in brackets, the first number indicates the volume, the second and subsequent ones - the page).
Raskolnikov comes up with a new morality, according to which extraordinary people who bring to humanity “ new word”, Have not only the right, but also the obligation to eliminate conscientiously anyone who hinders their new ideas. Raskolnikov kills, hoping to prove that he is one of the chosen ones. He begins to reject this idea only at the very end of the novel.
Dostoevsky created a situation that inevitably focuses the entire novel on the issue of conscience. “There are no suspicions about them [Raskolnikov] and cannot be,” but the hero voluntarily informs himself. What makes him confess?
Unsolvable questions rise before the murderer, unsuspecting and unexpected feelings torment his heart. God's truth, the earthly law takes its toll, and he ends up compelled to convey to yourself. Compelled, though to perish in hard labor, but to join the people again; the feeling of being disconnected and disconnected from humanity, which he felt immediately after committing the crime, tortured him. The law of truth and human nature took their toll ...<ик>he himself decides to accept torture in order to atone for his work ”(28/2, 137).
So, the purpose of the story is to lead the hero to redemption due to the requirements of "earthly law", "human nature" and "God's truth." The last motivation concerns exclusively the sphere of conscience.
If the mental anguish forces Raskolnikov to confess to the crime, then the image of his inner life, his consciousness should be considered. As Bakhtin showed, the depiction of self-consciousness in its dialogical development is an artistic dominant in Dostoevsky's work. But consciousness, as such, is neutral in relation to conscience. It is not consciousness that makes Raskolnikov accept torment and atone for the crime. The atonement required that he judge himself, take over full responsibility for his crimes, in short, so that he realizes his conscience.
Conscience is a feeling of moral responsibility for our actions in front of others, it is the ability to recognize the moral nature of our behavior in the secret place of the soul. Thus, conscience presupposes an absolute moral law by which one can distinguish good from evil. Consciousness is a historical phenomenon, its content changes from epoch to epoch, and conscience is a constant category and testifies to eternal truths. Dostoevsky's consciousness of conscience depends on a dialogical attitude to his own actions, which
entails the consciousness of another, higher voice. In fact, the word itself conscience implies two voices (dialogue) that share the message. Where does the “message” about eternal moral values come from in Dostoevsky's poetic system?
In the Christian tradition, every person has a conscience, which contains an inner witness and accuser, who are thought of as "the eye and voice of God." And since God is omniscient and omnipresent, the judgment of conscience cannot be avoided. For Dostoevsky, Christ is not an abstract ideal, not an inborn idea of idealistic philosophy, but a historical fact. Conscience is understood as the purest way of life of Christ on earth. In Dostoevsky's dramatic art, Raskolnikov's consciousness becomes a scene of intense internal struggle, where his mind and will strive to suppress the voice of conscience, the voice of Christ in his heart. When and how does Raskolnikov enter into a dialogical clash with “God's truth”?
If what is really important, what determines all human behavior, occurs almost imperceptibly in "slightly" changes in consciousness, as Tolstoy said, then one can see the awakening of conscience in the smallest internal changes that happen unexpectedly when the subject does not even think about good and bad 2. Important role the storyteller plays in this process.
Conscience is understood as a kind of spectator, an eyewitness who lives inside a person. It is this inner position that is the sphere in which the voice of the invisible narrator generates the text. When Dostoevsky refused to narrate in the form of a confession in the first person, he defined new form: “The story is on behalf of the author, as it were, an invisible, but omniscient being, but not leaving him for a minute ...” (7, 146).
Indeed, the narrator seems to follow Raskolnikov, passing through large segments of the novel. His interest in the hero is heightened to the limit; he observes him from the inside, carefully observing the slightest changes in his inner state. Following the hero like a shadow, the narrator shows how obsessions and emotional conflicts torment Raskolnikov, not giving him rest "for a minute." Moreover, the presence of the narrator is not neutral to the general idea and
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2 See Tolstoy's remarks about Raskolnikov in the article: “Why do people get stupefied” ( Tolstoy L. H... Complete Works / Ed. V.G. Chertkov. M., 1936.T. 27.S. 269-286, especially 279-282).
composition of the novel. Although for the most part the voice of the narrator conveys the thoughts of the hero, sometimes the narrator inserts “from himself” his evaluative remarks about conscience or suggests ideas that contain indirect accusations of the hero. For example, in the episode where Raskolnikov tortures Sonya with his doubts about God and the hopelessness of her situation, the narrator notes: “... but he was already a skeptic, he was young, distracted and, therefore, cruel ...” (6, 247). Describing Raskolnikov's thoughts before the crime, the narrator inserts his remark: “his casuistry had been sharpened like a razor, and in himself he no longer found conscious objections” (6, 58). Later, confessing to Sonya, Raskolnikov characterizes himself with this very word of the narrator: "... I wanted, Sonya, to kill without casuistry ..." (6, 321). The hero, as it were, is quoting an invisible narrator. In this sense, Raskolnikov is not alone. He is immersed in intense, internal dialogues with himself and with others in his world. The reader constantly feels “an invisible but omniscient being,” this inner-positioned voice of another viewer and judge, which could not have been in the novel if Dostoevsky had settled on the form of a first-person narrative.
The narrator is an intermediary between the reader and Raskolnikov; like a voice of conscience, disembodied, invisible, but vigilant, he watches the hero in his agony. This invisible storyteller thus embodies conscience itself. In other words, it reveals the process of the regenerating influence of conscience on the consciousness of Raskolnikov.
If Raskolnikov is forced to inform himself in the name of “God's truth,” then we could find in the text those moments when the presence of God's truth penetrates the hero's mind and awakens his conscience.
Another function of conscience is to warn against evil deeds. The dream in which Raskolnikov sees how a horse is beaten to death symbolically fulfills this function. This cruel torture of a dumb, defenseless, innocent creature is the prototype of the murder of Lizaveta, a crime that he ultimately cannot bear. Having woken up, Raskolnikov for the first and last time in the novel prays to God, asks to show him the “way”, to save him from the “damned dream” (6, 50). It is clear that at that moment he was aware, no matter how fleetingly, "God's truth."
After the crime, in accordance with the Christian concept of conscience, Raskolnikov's mental anguish becomes almost unbearable.
Here the function of conscience is to lead the hero to repentance, partly through fear, in order to save him. Among the “unexpected feelings” tormenting the hero's heart, Dostoevsky singled out the feeling of separation from people. In the nightmare scene (the beating of the mistress of Raskolnikov), we find a vivid example of this spiritual torment.
The nightmare begins with a “terrible scream. God, what a cry! Such unnatural sounds, such howling, screaming, grinding, tears, beatings and curses, he had never heard or seen.<…>What is it, the light turned over, or what? (6, 90-91). Indeed, the “light turned over” in his soul and the acoustic image of hell is transmitted in the nightmare vision. For these “unnatural sounds” are reminiscent of Christ's prediction about “the end of this world,” when His Angels “will gather from His Kingdom ... those who practice iniquity, and cast them into the furnace of fire; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth ”(Matt. 13: 41-42).
In dreams, people sometimes appear, whom we seem to know and do not know, to teach or warn us. They are from our world and at the same time they are messengers of another, perhaps, a higher world. They have a symbolic meaning. The owner of Raskolnikov, to whom he owes the rent, is a symbol of his conscience, reminding him of his spiritual duty 3. It is significant that the name of the person beating her is Ilya Petrovich (the lieutenant whom Raskolnikov chooses to make his confession at the end of the novel). Ilya, the Russian version of the biblical Elijah, is a figurative embodiment of God's judgment and retribution. In the logic of sleep, Ilya Petrovich, a modern representative of the “earthly law”, turns into a representative of “God's truth”, becomes the voice of conscience, forcing the hero to confess his crimes. Beating the hostess by Ilya Petrovich is literally remorse of the hero's conscience, scourging of the hero for his evasions. The nightmare expresses a bad conscience and reflects his subconscious self-condemnation.
Raskolnikov understands this: “But why ...<…>... they will come to him now ... all this from the same ... because of yesterday ... Lord! " (6, 91). He wants to put a locking noose, "but the hand did not rise ... and it’s useless!" (6, 91). Raskolnikov's conscience in a nightmare does not allow him to repeat the escape again.
Waking up, Raskolnikov lay motionless “in such suffering, in such an intolerable sensation of boundless
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3 G. Meyer connects the hostess with Raskolnikov's “immortal soul”, “devoted to ordeals”. ( Meyer G... Light in the Night: An Experience of Slow Reading, Frankfurt am Main, 1967, p. 44.)
horror such as I have never experienced before ”(6, 91). “Unlimited Horror” comes in handy here. In Christianity, an unclean conscience, causing the boundless torments of hell, insistently, “not leaving him for a minute,” reminds the sinner of his evil deed in order to make him repent. After the nightmare, Raskolnikov, as it were, goes through the torments of hell: for several days “he suffered ... moaned ... fell into a rage or into a terrible, unbearable fear ... wanted to run away” (6, 92). But the hidden meaning of sleep is that you cannot run away from conscience.
Raskolnikov's conscience speaks the symbolic language of dreams. However, the hero needs to realize his conscience in reality. This happens for the first time when he comes to his senses.
Raskolnikov lies on the bed while Razumikhin and Zosimov talk about the crime. Nastasya, the servant, standing at the door, addressing Raskolnikov, suddenly blurts out:
- Lizaveta - they also killed! ..
- Lizaveta? - muttered Raskolnikov in a barely audible voice.
- And Lizaveta, the tradeswoman, don't you know? She went down here. I also repaired your shirt.
Raskolnikov turned to the wall, where, on the dirty yellow wallpaper with white flowers, he chose one awkward white flower with some brown lines, and began to consider: how many leaves are in it, what are the notches on the leaves and how many lines? He felt that his arms and legs were numb, as if they were taken away, but he did not try to move and stared at the flower (6, 105).
This is a brilliant place. “Clumsy” is a more appropriate word to describe a person rather than a flower. The reader, remembering that the author used the same word in describing Lizaveta, will immediately understand that the “awkward white flower” is a symbol of the awkward, innocent Lizaveta, and the dirty, yellow wallpaper, against which “she” mercilessly appears before Raskolnikov's eyes, symbolize his crime 4. And how artistically appropriate is the fact that Nastasya, another simple, kind woman, turning to Raskolnikov, tells him about the murder of Lizaveta. And it is equally appropriate that we learn from her that Lizaveta once mending Raskolnikov's shirt, while he cut her skull “almost to the crown” (6, 65). This contrast between a modest service (she fixes, fixes) and his murderous pay (he chops,
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4 Kozhinov, V... "Crime and Punishment" by FM Dostoevsky // Three Masterpieces of Russian Classics. M., 1971.S. 122-124.
cuts) emphasizes with dramatic clarity the horrific inhumanity of his crime.
It is interesting how this message and its symbolic meaning affect Raskolnikov. He loses the gift of speech, grows dumb with vague horror. The author does not give us any access to the inner thoughts of the hero. Raskolnikov mechanically, persistently counts the flower petals exactly as he counted the steps from his closet to the old woman's apartment. But here he thinks so as not to think, not to feel, in order to focus his thoughts on something, so as not to go crazy.
In a state of mental shock and paralysis, Raskolnikov is faced with the undisguised reality of his crime. The moment of feeling the truth is shown as the manifestation of the mind in complete isolation from the body. And the truth flickers dimly in the symbol of innocence, Raskolnikov's consciousness permeates another world - a world beyond the limits of reason and numbers. All the evasions of theory, all rational calculations and justifications abandoned him, for the murder of Lizaveta was unintentional. Unlike the calculated murder of the old woman, the murder of Lizaveta has no ideological justification. And it cannot be found. What ideology can the “white, clumsy flower” rely on? In fact, killing Lizaveta is the hero's worst act. For if Raskolnikov had killed only an evil old woman, one of Dostoevsky's most unsympathetic characters, then the reader could justify the hero extenuating circumstances, or worse, agree with his ideas. Moreover, if Raskolnikov had killed only the old woman, he probably would not have reported on himself and the path to redemption would have been closed to him. He killed the old woman with the butt of an ax, from behind, when she bent over the mortgage. She probably never found out what happened to her. But the meek "holy fool" he hacked to death with the edge of an ax, looking straight into her face, distorted by a childish expression of fear. This is unrelenting cruelty, comparable to the biblical massacre of infants. It is significant that after the murder of the old woman, Raskolnikov still retains his mind in order to fulfill his plan and rob her. But after the murder of Lizaveta, he is seized by a wild panic and an irresistible desire to escape from there as soon as possible. Here the narrator inserts one of his most significant remarks:
And if at that moment he was able to see and reason more correctly; if only I could figure out all the difficulties of my position, all the despair, all the ugliness and all the absurdity of it, understand
at the same time, how many difficulties, and maybe even villainy, still remains for him to overcome and commit in order to escape from here and get home, then it is very possible that he would have thrown everything and immediately went to declare himself, and not even out of fear for himself, but from only one horror and disgust at what he did (6, 65).
So, by the murder of Lizaveta, Dostoevsky shows that one crime leads to another, perhaps to the worst "villainy"; killing Lizaveta, Raskolnikov committed sacrilege, stepped over “God's truth”.
This is hinted at by the expression on Raskolnikov's face. Having conveyed a long conversation between Razumikhin and Zosimov, during which Raskolnikov does not show any reaction to Razumikhin's correct presentation of his crimes, the narrator returns to Raskolnikov:
Raskolnikov himself lay all the time in silence, supine, and stubbornly, although without any thought, looked at the newcomer. His face, now turning away from the curious flower on the wallpaper, was extremely pale and expressed extraordinary suffering, as if he had just undergone a painful operation or had now been released from torture (6, 112).
There is no mention of remorse here, let alone remorse. The author allows the reader to connect the symbolic image of Lizaveta with the mental anguish of Raskolnikov. The author makes the reader understand what a serious, vague, significant change has taken place in the consciousness of the hero, in whom his conscience has awakened.
This is confirmed by the thoughts of Raskolnikov on the eve of his third nightmare, right after an unknown tradesman accuses him: “ You killer ”(6, 209). Discussing his situation, in a state of fear and rage, Raskolnikov blames the old woman for his torment. Only a sudden thought momentarily softens his anger and hatred:
Poor Lizaveta! Why did she turn up here! .. It’s strange, but why do I hardly think of her, as if I didn’t kill her? .. Lizaveta! Sonya! Poor, meek, with meek eyes ... Dear! .. Why don't they cry? Why don't they moan? .. They give everything ... they look meekly and quietly ... Sonya, Sonya! Quiet Sonya! .. (6, 212)
He does not regret the old woman. In a nightmare, Raskolnikov tries to recreate only his first crime - he tries to kill the old woman again. Lizaveta does not "turn up", "surely" he "did not kill" her. And indeed, if it had not been for the old woman, that is, if it had not been for his idea, he would not have killed Lizaveta.
For Dostoevsky, the awakening of conscience entails a special kind of necessity: his hero must certainly enter into a confidential dialogue with a person who embodies God's truth. That is why Raskolnikova pulls Sonya.
By the time Raskolnikov appeared in her life, Sonya had deeply learned New Testament, acquired Christlike features. She is a “fallen woman,” but because she considers herself a sinner, she has a clear conscience. It is her clear conscience that Raskolnikov needs.
On the first date with Sonya, Raskolnikov first of all wants to find out what supports her in an unhappy life. He learns this in the closest connection with the next appearance of Lizaveta in the text. The fact that Lizaveta gave Sonya the New Testament and they read it together amazes Raskolnikov: “His nerves were irritated more and more.<…>"Were you friends with Lizaveta?" (6, 249). And when he learns that Sonya served a requiem for Lizaveta, his head begins to “spin” (6, 249). Sonya says about Lizaveta: “She was fair ...<…>She will see God ”(6, 249). Raskolnikov demands that Sonya read him about the miracle of Lazarus, and insisting he adds: "I read to Lizaveta!" (6, 250).
Leaving Sonya, Raskolnikov promises to tell her next time who killed Lizaveta. He does not even mention the old woman. Now he no longer thinks that he “definitely didn’t kill Lizaveta”. In his voluntary decision to confess to Sonya, one can see the first manifestations of a sense of responsibility and the first step towards redemption. For he should have known in advance that Sonya would not doubt that, having killed two people, he sinned against God's truth, that she would demand that he not only denounce himself, but also atone for his sins before God. This means that the dialogue with Sonya gradually becomes a dialogue with your own conscience.
Raskolnikov begins his confession with the murder of Lizaveta, speaks of himself in the third person (“he didn’t want to kill this Lizaveta…”), with hesitation and pauses (6, 315). It is clear that it is most difficult for him to confess to this crime, which means that
it is this crime that is hard on his conscience. For the murder of an old woman, although this is also a violation of morality, lies at the level of an ideologically motivated criminal case, and the murder of Lizaveta belongs to the spiritual sphere of God's truth. A crime against an old woman must be confessed to representatives of the earthly law, and a crime against an innocent "holy fool" must be confessed to whom something to the Highest.
When the truth dawns on Sonya, Raskolnikov sees Lizaveta's face in her face at the very moment when he rushed at her with an ax. Sonya, as it were, embodies his victim, reacting with the same gestures, the same expression of childish fright on her face. And at that moment, thanks to this transformation, it was "as if he did not kill her." As Kozhinov notes: “Killing Lizaveta is like the same thing as killing Sonya ...” 5. Before he leaves, Sonya asks him to take his cross: “I have another one left, a copper one, Lizavetin.<…>Now I will begin to wear Lizavetin ... ”(6, 324). Raskolnikov is not yet ready to accept the cross, but Sonya's proposal remains in his soul.
So, when Raskolnikov says that “as if he did not kill” Lizaveta, then in the artistic world of Dostoevsky he is right. If it were not for Lizaveta, Sonya could not have shown Raskolnikov the path to rebirth. Lizaveta became one of the sources of the hero's potential redemption, the involuntary savior of Raskolnikov, who shed her innocent blood, and her death can be called a modest variation of the sacrifice of Christ. This murder, even if not yet completely, penetrates Raskolnikov's conscience, that is, it awakens the image of Christ in his mind. This explains his wild panic, similar to sacred fear, immediately after the murder of Lizaveta, and his acceptance of the cross from Sonya, and his request that Sonya wear Lizaveta's cross: “... this is Lizavetin, you take it for yourself”, and, finally, his interest in the cross , who was on Lizaveta when he killed her: “… show me? So he was wearing it ... at that moment? " (6, 403).
At the very end of the novel, when Raskolnikov picks up Sonya's New Testament, which she brought at his request, the narrator reminds the reader that “this book ... was the one from which she read to him about the resurrection of Lazarus” (6, 422) ... And the reader can guess that this is the same book that Lizaveta brought Sonya at her request. Great evil is conquered by good. This very thought reveals a deep Christian root in the art of Dostoevsky.
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5 Kozhinov V... "Crime and Punishment" by FM Dostoevsky. P. 127.
True, in his poetic world, complete victory will become possible only when Raskolnikov realizes that by killing the old woman, he also overstepped God's truth, and this, in turn, will become possible when Raskolnikov opens the Gospel, when he opens his soul to Christ. Having not yet revealed the New Testament, Raskolnikov asks himself - and these are his last words in the novel: “Can her convictions not now be my convictions? Her feelings, her aspirations, at least ... ”(6, 422). This is only a question so far, but this is Raskolnikov's question - he found the words to pose this question to himself. The author brought the consciousness of the hero to the storehouse of God's truth, to the source of conscience. This was the plot of Dostoevsky, and the novel accordingly ends on the threshold “ new history”,“ New story ”.
How is the problem of conscience revealed in the novel "Crime and Punishment"?
The main character, Rodion Raskolnikov, is a poor student with a difficult character, but at the same time he is quite smart. He is constantly haunted by the thought that: why do some people consider themselves better than others, why they are allowed more than others, why they are stronger, why they can do something and not ask anyone for an opinion. Raskolnikov eventually comes to the conclusion that it is just that these some people are simply more courageous, so they use all the possibilities of this world. And he decided that such supermen can kill other useless people (weak, worthless, cowardly). And this idea gnawed at him for a long time. As a result, Raskolnikov decided to commit a crime - to murder an old money-lender. As a result, he hacked to death with an ax, and Alna, the old woman's sister, also came under the arm.
Having committed the murder, he disappeared. But afterwards conscience leaped in nm. He couldn't sleep well, he couldn't even rest because of obsessive thoughts. His idea of a supermanquot ;, became a torment for him. Raskolnikov began to be tormented by terrible doubts about the correctness of his act: he began to understand that he should not have done all this. Later, he meets Sonya - a sweet, kind and merciful girl, who also suffers from remorse from the fact that she works as a prostitute. Raskolnikov told her everything about his terrible act and she pushed him to the fact that he must confess and then it will become easier. As a result, Raskolnikov surrendered to the police, he was sent to hard labor, but in his heart it really became easier. Raskolnikov realized everything, he realized that superman Is a story he invented that people shouldn't kill. A person must always remain a person. He repented and, at least by exile, decided to atone for his guilt.
Dostoevsky presented us with the greatest novel of the time Offense and punishment... This is a novel in which the vices of a person, his torments and moral laws are intertwined.
Raskolnikov, the protagonist of the novel, commits a grave crime, kills an old woman pawnbroker. But he, as he believes, does it from high motives. So he wanted to kill the evil that corrupts people. But he was wrong. By killing a person, you cannot kill everything evil on earth. He went the wrong way.
Later Raskolnikov realizes this, he feels the reproaches of his conscience. As a result, he takes the right path of repentance at the end of the novel.
This is how I see the problem of conscience in the novel Crime and Punishment.
In one of his letters, Dostoevsky described his novel as “a psychological account of a crime”. Why, having killed two people, Raskolnikov is no longer able to live his usual life, why cannot he calm down, what oppresses and torments him every day and, in the end, makes him confess. The answer is simple - conscience. It was her that he did not take into account in his calculations. The main character suddenly quite consciously realizes that he cannot live like this, that reconciliation with himself is impossible without reconciliation with God. That, having crossed the line, he cut himself off from everything that he loved so painfully, with such anguish. Having killed the old woman-pawnbroker and her sister, he killed something in himself, something so valuable and necessary, without which his life lost all meaning.
And here we are faced with such a phenomenon as Dostoevsky's humanism. The writer makes it clear: the hero is not lost to society, drawing a parallel with the biblical plot of the resurrection of Lazarus, he makes us understand that the revival of Raskolnikov is also possible, but it will happen only when the hero finds the strength to come to terms with God and with people ...
The protagonist of this work, Rodion Raskolnikov, decided to kill a harmful and greedy old woman-pawnbroker, from whom everyone around was only grief. Raskolnikov kills e not out of greed, but guided by such a thought that the world will be better without not. That is, he decided to create the fate of people himself, and as a result came to the conclusion that a strong and powerful person is allowed everything for the sake of a noble idea.
Then Raskolnikov realized that he himself had violated the moral law with this murder, which is in every person from the very moment of his birth. As a result, he began to experience strong moral torment.
In the end, the main character came to the conclusion that he had killed not only the old woman, but himself, as he went against himself, against his conscience, and finally comes to spiritual rebirth.
Initially, the main character does not think about conscience at all - he creates a plan. After some time, the hero's conscience awakens in the form of his ailment. Later and in the form of dreams.
He committed the murder according to plan, but feeling confused, he became even more ill and even delirious. When he thought about everything a little, it became better. But he saw the suspicion of others in his direction in everything - with this Raskolnikov brought himself to a devastating depression. From all this, I believed in God.
But then the guy realized that these torments could not be avoided until the moment you recognize them - he admitted.
It was hard for Rodion in prison, but there he was already able to open his heart to love and even planned how at 32 he would start a different life.
In Dostoevsky's novel, the usual human rejection of crime, the murder of a living being, is revealed. The writer deliberately portrays a small and insignificant creature in the role of a victim, but as if to facilitate the moral insight of the hero he adds an accidental victim to the plot - Alena Ivanovna's sister. Who knows, Rodion would have suffered in the same way if there had not been a second victim? But not only murder reveals the problems of a person's relationship with his conscience. Rodion's whole life is a continuous torment of conscience, for the crime he committed, for the crimes that others commit, for his powerlessness before the cruelty and vices of the world. Remember Raskolnikov's dreams of an ideal society, an Egyptian oasis of kindness. This is also conscience, its manifestations. Raskolnikov has not forgotten how to sympathize, his crime looks accidental, but also natural, an attempt to resist world evil, which the hero decides to undertake by unsuitable means. I would like to hope that love at the end of the novel will direct Raskolnikov on the right path, reconcile his conscience with his inner world, teach him happiness.