Good bye.

I write my final response to thing novel in somewhat disbelief at how this book ended. I have been waiting, essentially since Raskolnikov committed the murder, for some sort of “punishment to occur.” This reading began with Svidrigailov and his strange dreams. His dreams of the city flooding seemed to me to be a representation of how he was feeling inside, like he was drowning. The part about the young “seductive” girl did not make a whole lot of sense to me other than the fact that he must be harboring some guilt for having done something so heinous to lead to a dream like this. All of these thoughts seem to have been proved in Svidrigailov’s suicide, he was obviously incapable of dealing with the guilt that he possessed as well as Raskolnikov was. I was incredibly surprised with how the book ended in terms of Raskolnikov’s situation. At the beginning of this book, I assumed that Raskolnikov would go to prison, and that part of the story would make up the “punishment” portion of the story. We are left completely out of the loop in terms of Raskolnikov’s fait. We know that he has decided to admit to the guilt, but in a fashion that is only suiting Raskolnikov, he debates whether or not to do in for several pages. In the end, Raskolnikov admits his guilt to Ilya. This final action in the story solidifies my growing opinion about the “Punishment” that followed the “Crime” in this novel. This is the theme that I plan on discussing in my term paper. I think that the entire novel was a discussion on the various ways that people deal with guilt. At some points, Raskolnikov is driven mad by his guilt, at some points he seems to have no remorse at all, and throughout the book, he is torn in his decision between owning up to the crime, and staying in the hell that he has created for himself from this guilt. I thought the author has communicating to us that this book is a demonstration of the various ways that people deal with feeling culpable for a crime they know they committed, but that, in the end, the only method that is truly relieving, is admitting to the crime. Overall, I thought that this book had an interesting premise with strange, but provoking ideas. I thought that the story moved, for the most part, far slower than it needed to in order to convey the message it seemed to have been trying to convey. I also recognize that there are an insane amount of side parts to this story, like the story of Marmeladov, that can be dissected and studied by themselves, and that it is almost impossible to detect all of the meanings that this story discusses. I am happy to have finished this book, but somewhat bothered that there was no judicial punishment for Raskolnikov, just his mental anguish. 

St. Petersburg: A city of false reality

            The book started out confusing and hard to follow. It seemed as if this could all just be Raskolnikov’s imagination. When I reached Parts 3-5, everything started to piece together slowly. I started to understand what was making Raskolnikov tick and what made him calm down.

            In Part 5, we start to see more of Luzhin and why he is in St. Petersburg. It is nice to read from another character’s point of view instead of just Raskolnikov’s. It makes the story a little easier to follow. As Luzhin goes into detail about his ideas of what St. Petersburg is suppose to be like, I kept thinking about our class discussion with NFTU. St. Petersburg was suppose to be this marvelous city where everyone was able to make it and be on top, at least that was what it was designed to do. In both stories you start to see the reality of what became of St. Petersburg in the 19^th century. It was basically a city of unreachable dreams. The elite were those who did not want to help anyone else but themselves and then there were those who had no choice but give up everything they had in order to help themselves or their family. Raskolnikov moved to St. Petersburg to enhance his writing abilities and make a name for himself like many of the others who now live in one-bedroom apartments and struggle to meet their rent. Luzhin on the other hand moved to St. Petersburg to see what all the fuss was about and how people actually lived here. He also wanted to set up his family. He wanted to marry and settle down.

            Andrei, Luzhin’s roommate, has some strange principles that are address in the start of Part 5. Luzhin continues to rant about how Raskolnikov ruined his relationship with Dunya and is constantly putting down Andrei. This does not seem to bother Andrei whatsoever. Andrei actually agrees with Luzhin and tells him that it was better for him not to have married Dunya at all. I found it interesting that Andrei has his eyes on Sonya and deliberately tries to project his beliefs onto her as if he were some sort of priest or teacher. Luzhin immediately takes advantage of Andrei’s interest in Sonya and invites her into his loggings to have a chat. When Luzhin notices Raskolnikov in the hallway he quickly has Andrei stay in the room in order to not draw attention to himself and Sonya. It was strange that Luzhin was now willing to part with his money to help Sonya and her stepmother when he would not even give his wife to be and his soon to be mother-in-law money for their trip to St. Petersburg or offer them any services.

Part 5

        Although Raskolnikov was always against Luzhin becoming part of the family, I always thought that Luzhin was a normal man who fell in love with Raskolnikovs sister, Dunya. Since Raskolnikov is not the most mentally stable person and usually over reacts and thinks any situation, I thought that he could have been doing the same about Luzhin and Dunya's marriage. In the beginning of Part 5 we are finally exposed to Luzhins true character. He is extremely upset at Raskolnikov for ruining the marriage, and is even more upset about all the money he lost in the house and furniture that he purchased for Dunya. At the end of the day, all Luzhin did care about was money. Luzhin even results to think that money could have saved the relationship. Once the marriage is ruined he thinks to himself that he could have saved the relationship if he had bought Dunya and her mother more gifts, which is probably not the case. Luzhin seeks to get his revenge, and slips money into Sonyas pocket in efforts to embarrass her along with Raskolnikov. He is immediately caught and his plans are ruined. He decides to leave the funeral, which I think is the last that we will see of Luzhin.
           I was not at all surprised when Raskolnikov decided to tell Sonya that he was the murderer; I was surprised at her reaction. In the previous chapter she acted so afraid and awkward whenever she was around him, so I thought that once she knew the truth she would possibly freak out and go tell the police. Instead, she decides to assure him of her support. She tells Raskolnikov that once he confesses the truth he will feel a lot better about himself and will finally be able to have a clear conscious. Raskolnikov obviously wants to return to his normal life, but he is too much of a coward to tell the truth. She tries to make him feel better by telling him that she will visit him in prison whenever she can, but Raskolnikov seems to get upset by her plans. Raskolnikov still believes that he is superior everyone else around him and hopes to find a way to prove it to everyone around him. This attitude Raskolnikov has reminds me of the underground man and his stories. They both have he same belief that they are superior to those in their society, yet the feel that they can not prove it because they do not act the same as those who are considered the "intellectual" man.

Part 5 Chapter 2, 3, 4

Wendell Pfeffer

1/9/14

Crime and Punishment

            Luzhins continues to think about the break he and Dunia just recently had with each other. He continues to ask himself why this ever happened and if he had been a little bit more generous by giving a few more gifts then the break would have never happened. The problem with Luzhin about this break is not love but the fact that he needs her more than she needs him. He thought that the innumerable amounts of money he has would let him get away with anything. He thought that he could command Dunia while making her feel indebted towards him, but that didn’t seem to be the case. Another thing that bothers Luzhin about the marriage is the money that he lost in the process. He bought furniture and even gave money to Dunia’s family, which bothers him because his money is more important to him than anything else. Even after the break he continues to show how much of a bad person he is. When Luzhin invited Sonia to his room he had more money than Dunia could even think of having on his table. Out of sorrow he gave her ten rubles and managed to slip one hundred rubles into her pocket without her noticing. However, Mr. Lebezyatnikov noticed but at the time he thought he was doing it out of kindness and thus saluted him for it. Well it turned out that Luzhin was just planning on tormenting the poor girl by accusing her of stealing the one hundred rubles off the table full of money. Thankfully Mr. Lebezyatnikov showed up to the funeral to aid Sonia from the accusation. He said that he would take an oath at court and do everything possible to prevent Sonia from being thrown in jail. Then Raskolnikov comes into the argument and aids Sonia by stating what had recently happened with him and his sister. He said that the reason he was doing this was to get back with his sister. It just boggles my mind why any man would ever do such a thing. I mean accusing a girl that has absolutely nothing and has gone through so much in the past just get to by is terrible. After though the incident at the funeral Raskolnikov goes and enters the room of Sonia and confesses to her that he was the one that committed the murder. Surprisingly, she was not angry and came to his aid. She thought that the reason he committed the murders was because he abandoned religion, which I think is wrong. I believe that Raskolnikov thought that it was okay to kill her at the time because she did not support the greater good. She only thought about herself like Luzhin does and thus thought that she deserved to die. Why would he even tell her that he killed the pawn lady and Lizaveta, I mean he could be a free man. The other man confessed to the killings why should he then if he knows now that he will not get into trouble with the law.

Part 6: Chapter 1 - 5

The beginning of this section demonstrated a new, strange side to Raskolnikov. Before this part in the story, Raskolnikov always seemed to be extremely active in his plot to ensure that he would not get caught. It almost seems that he has given up as Raskolnikov appears in a strange “haze” of sorts walking around town in an almost zombie-like state. Not only this, but everyone seems to start to be turning on Raskolnikov. Starting with Razumikhin, the epitome of an open-heart in this story, decides that he can no longer handle Raskolnikov’s selfishness and tells him that he is hurting everybody around him, not that Raskolnikov really cares. Porfrify’s visit, in my opinion, planted the idea in Raskolnikov’s head of suicide. After telling him that he knew it was him, but could not yet prove it, he told him that if he should decide to die, he should leave a note of where the stole goods were. This obviously shows how little the detective knows about Raskolnikov as he did not keep one single thing from the old land lady. Instead, he claims that the murder helped all of society. Raskolnikov showed that he still has some moral character when he expressed his disgust toward Svidrigailov’s affair with a fifteen year old girl. I thought, maybe, that this was the girl that he saw in the park. The entire affair with Svidrigailov and Duny confused me. There are so many characters with such long names, that I start to confuse them with each other. This part was no deviation from this trend. I knew immediately that Raskolnikov was right about Svidrigailov’s attraction to Dunya, even though he denied it. He was right, though, that he will never be able to get her, because she seems to hold herself to higher standards. He goes as far as to try to guilt her in to marrying him so that he can help Raskolnikov “avoid punishment.” The ironic part of it is that there is no avoiding punishment for Raskolnikov. Whether he be locked in a cell or wandering through the streets of St. Petersburg, Raskolnikov suffers the same state of mental delusion ensuing from his crime. I can feel that the end is eminent for Raskolnikov, but I am more on his side now that I was at the beginning of the story as he seems to have developed more into a dynamic character capable of some rational, compassionate thoughts. 

More Thoughts on Raskolnikov’s Personality

Perhaps the reason why Raskolnikov dropped out of college was connected to the reasons in NFTU. Despite his diagnosed mental illness, he is still an intelligent man, we know this from when he comments on Luzhin’s style of writing. One of my earlier blogs  I commented about how there must’ve been a switch that made Raskolnikov who he is now. The expensive top hat that was now old and rugged, and the fact he used to be in college and being what we would call productive, and his mom distress about his new characteristics  shows that there was an extreme change in his personality. The thing that we discussed form NFTU was that only a fool can become successful because an intelligent man sees all sides to any situation, and therefore cannot choose one path. A fool can weigh the pros and cons and choose, but an intelligent man will know there’s not simply one good choice and will not choose anything. Raskolnikov even denied Raskolnikov’s offer to make some money helping copying documents, and that seems like a pretty obvious thing to accept when you’re broke and owe people money.

The narrator in NFTU used to be more social, or tried to be more social, as it was spoken about in Part 2. Raskolnikov is somewhat social now, but it is because everyone is so worried about him, which is something that was not the case in NFTU, he is forced to be involved with people despite his mental condition. I’m still trying to figure out if he feels guilty for the murder, and I can’t tell. Maybe he feels guilty for not feeling guilty, or he is just scared of getting caught. It seems like the way he is acting is the only reason for making him a suspect. If he had just acted normally after and not freaked out with every discussion of the murder, not all of this attention would be placed on him. If we want to connect this for Freudian ideas, which I think is connected to NFTUs, one could possibly argue that nothing Raskolnikov’s doing is a mistake and everything he does, even if it may lead him closer to getting caught, is his unconscious way of wanting to be caught. I am not sure if that’s a proper way to interpret it, but maybe its possible. 

End of Part 4

         Everyone knows or will know someone who has suffered more than the average person but still keeps going without letting his or her suffering get in the way. In Crime and Punishment, Sonya is that person. Even though she had suffered day in and day out she never lets that get to her. It’s interesting how Raskolnikov can manage to tell her everything he would not tell anyone else. There is something about her that makes her so easy to speak to. Raskolnikov constantly compares her to his sister Dunya by saying that Sonya had a more acceptable reason for giving up her freedom while Dunya solely gave up her freedom to benefit herself not really her family. Any time Raskolnikov decides to clear his conscious he plans to go tell Sonya. Sonya manages to calm Raskolnikov down to the point where his delirum is controllable.

            When Raskolnikov and Porfiry are speaking at the police station I automatically knew Porfiry had some knowledge to what Raskolnikov had done. If Profiry did not know, then he would not have been pacing around the room in a frantic. The way Porfiry led the discussion was different that I would have thought it would have started off. It really surprised me that Raksolnikov had gotten away with yelling at Porfiry and acting like a madman at the police station. The last few chapters of Part 4 were not what I was expecting.

            In Raskolnikov’s reality, he tends to run away from his problems than just facing them. He never truly acts with reason and blames others. The one moment where I thought Raskolnikov had some control over himself was when he spoke to Svidrigailov and stood up for his Dunya and when he lashed out against Luzhin. Besides those two incedents, I really believe Raskolnikov is a coward. He needs to confess to someone before he leaves town or his guilt will finally get the better of him and he will end up going completely mad or he will end up killing himself.