What is Raskolnikov's tragic mistake? Raskolnikov's crime, its causes and meaning.
According to many critics, Dostoevsky is a master of describing “sick souls.” One of the most interesting characters writer - Rodion Raskolnikov. "Crime and Punishment" - the novel in which he became a character, is full of conflicting feelings, human torment and the eternal search for oneself.
The philosophy of the hero of Dostoevsky's work
What crime did Raskolnikov commit? As the story progresses main character becomes more and more embittered because of his powerlessness to help the people close to him. Depressed by his poverty, he decides to kill the old pawnbroker, who was benefiting from the misfortune of people. The reasons that prompted Raskolnikov to commit a crime lie not only in his poverty and helplessness. The main character seeks revenge for all the disadvantaged and abused, for the suffering and humiliation of Marmeladova, for every person who was brought to the brink of moral torment and poverty. Passionately believing in his theory, Rodion is outraged by the philosophy of the successful entrepreneur Luzhin, who sought to marry Raskolnikov's sister. Luzhin stands on the side of “reasonable egoism.” Petr Petrovich believes that first of all, everyone needs to take care of themselves and their own well-being. And the more rich people there are in a society, the richer the whole society will become. According to Luzhin’s philosophy, you only need to take care of yourself, without thinking about your neighbors. Speaking about why Raskolnikov committed a crime, it should be said precisely that Rodion, unlike Peter, “cared” about all people, striving for the universal good. And in in this case considered the murder he committed as a way to confirm his theory.
The meaning of the murder of the moneylender
Analyzing why Raskolnikov committed a crime, it should be said that he is not an ordinary criminal. He commits the murder of the pawnbroker under the influence of the philosophy he created. That is, hunger and poverty are not the main reasons for Raskolnikov’s crime. After committing the murder, he himself confirms this conclusion in his own words, saying that if he had killed only because of hunger, he would have been happy about it. However, the main character reflects on the reasons for the existing injustice and inequality. He comes to the conclusion that there is a rather sharp difference between the two categories of people. And while some obediently and silently submit to everything that life presents to them, others - a few - “extraordinary” - are the true mover human history. At the same time, the latter can quite boldly and freely violate moral principles and generally accepted norms, without stopping before the law to show humanity a different path. Contemporaries hate such people, but descendants take them for heroes. Raskolnikov thought about this whole idea very carefully and even outlined his idea a year before the murder in a newspaper article.
Crime as a challenge to society
Speaking about why Raskolnikov committed a crime, it should be noted his constant desire to contrast himself with “ordinary” people, who, in his opinion, are the majority in society. Through his actions, Rodion challenges the conditions under which suppression occurs human personality and is clearly felt. But at the same time, after committing the crime, the hero understands that his philosophy only contributes to the strengthening of inhumanity. His protest is contradictory - speaking against inequality and subordination, Raskolnikov in his idea assumes, again, the right of some people to dictate their will to others. And here again it turns out that the majority becomes a “passive object.” It is this contradiction that constitutes the tragic mistake that underlies the hero’s behavior. As events unfold, the character becomes convinced of his own experience that his rebellion, directed against inhumanity, is itself inhuman in nature, leading to the moral death of the individual.
The hero's attitude to life after the crime
Raskolnikov manages to commit a crime. But the murder leads to a different result from the one he expected. When discussing why Raskolnikov committed a crime, it should be remembered that he was driven primarily by the desire to bring his idea to life. But the morality of “unusual” people turned out to be incomprehensible to Rodion. And after the murder of the pawnbroker, the main character begins to see true morality and beauty not in those who are higher, but in people like Sonechka Marmeladova, who are capable of maintaining morality in unbearable conditions. Such people, enduring humiliation and hunger, still retain faith in life and love.
Reasons for Raskolnikov's crime
At first, Rodion is calm about his successful murder. He believed that he was doing the only right thing. The hero is confident in his exclusivity and originality. He believes that there is nothing “sort of” about the murder of a moneylender. After all, in his opinion, he managed to destroy only one “louse of all, the most useless.” But gradually, analyzing his actions, he gives various explanations. So, for example, he says that he “wanted to become Napoleon,” was embittered, insane, sought to help his mother, longed to establish his own personality, rebelled against everything and everyone. As a result, the hero suffers from remorse. He understands that he has violated the moral law. Raskolnikov sees the cause of evil in the very human nature. At the same time, the law allowing " strong of the world“to commit inhumane acts, considers it eternal.
Conclusion
Dostoevsky himself opposed violence. With his work, the author argues with revolutionaries who are committed to the only way to achieve happiness for the Russian people - violating moral principles. It seems to the main character that he is responsible for his actions only to himself, and the judgment of others is indifferent to him. As the story progresses, the author leads the character to an understanding of the most important truths. They are that pride is evil, the laws of life should not be subject to the idea of one person, and people should not be judged, and even more so, their lives should not be taken away.
Raskolnikov's tragic mistake lies in the contradiction between the hero's subjective humanistic motives and the objective anti-humanistic form of their manifestation.
11. What is the uniqueness of F.M.’s psychologism? Dostoevsky in the novel “Crime and Punishment”?
Psychologism F.M. Dostoevsky differs from the psychologism of I.S. Turgenev or L.N. Tolstoy. Revealing inner world heroes, F.M. Dostoevsky shows the clash of contradictory impulses, the struggle between consciousness and subconsciousness, desire and its implementation. His characters don’t just think, they suffer painfully, analyze their actions, and reflect.
F. M. Dostoevsky
Crime and Punishment
Poor district of St. Petersburg in the 60s. XIX century, adjacent to Sennaya Square and the Catherine Canal. Summer evening. Former student Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov leaves his closet in the attic and takes the last valuable thing as a pawn to the old pawnbroker Alena Ivanovna, whom she is preparing to kill. On the way back, he goes into one of the cheap drinking establishments, where he accidentally meets the official Marmeladov, who has drunk himself and lost his job. He tells how consumption, poverty and her husband’s drunkenness pushed his wife, Katerina Ivanovna, to a cruel act - to send his daughter from her first marriage, Sonya, to work at the panel to earn money.
The next morning, Raskolnikov receives a letter from his mother from the provinces describing the troubles he has suffered. younger sister Dunya in the house of the depraved landowner Svidrigailov. He learns about the imminent arrival of his mother and sister in St. Petersburg in connection with Dunya's upcoming marriage. The groom is a calculating businessman Luzhin, who wants to build a marriage not on love, but on the poverty and dependence of the bride. The mother hopes that Luzhin will financially help her son complete his course at the university. Reflecting on the sacrifices that Sonya and Dunya make for the sake of their loved ones, Raskolnikov strengthens his intention to kill the pawnbroker - a worthless evil “louse”. After all, thanks to her money, “hundreds, thousands” of girls and boys will be spared from undeserved suffering. However, disgust for bloody violence rises again in the hero’s soul after a dream he saw, a memory of his childhood: the boy’s heart breaks with pity for the nag being beaten to death.
And yet, Raskolnikov kills with an ax not only the “ugly old woman,” but also her kind, meek sister Lizaveta, who unexpectedly returned to the apartment. Miraculously leaving unnoticed, he hides the stolen goods in a random place, without even assessing its value.
Soon Raskolnikov discovers with horror the alienation between himself and other people. Sick from his experience, he is, however, unable to reject the burdensome concerns of his university friend Razumikhin. From the latter’s conversation with the doctor, Raskolnikov learns that the painter Mikolka, a simple village guy, has been arrested on suspicion of murdering the old woman. Reacting painfully to conversations about crime, he himself also arouses suspicion among others.
Luzhin, who came for a visit, is shocked by the squalor of the hero’s closet; their conversation develops into a quarrel and ends in a breakup. Raskolnikov is especially offended by the closeness of practical conclusions from Luzhin’s “reasonable egoism” (which seems vulgar to him) and his own “theory”: “people can be cut…”
Wandering around St. Petersburg, a sick young man suffers from his alienation from the world and is ready to confess to a crime to the authorities when he sees a man crushed by a carriage. This is Marmeladov. Out of compassion, Raskolnikov spends his last money on the dying man: he is carried into the house, the doctor is called. Rodion meets Katerina Ivanovna and Sonya, who is saying goodbye to her father in an inappropriately bright outfit of a prostitute. Thanks to good deed the hero briefly felt a community with people. However, having met his mother and sister who had arrived at his apartment, he suddenly realizes that he is “dead” to their love and rudely drives them away. He is lonely again, but he has hope of getting closer to Sonya, who, like him, “transgressed” the absolute commandment.
Razumikhin, who almost at first sight fell in love with the beautiful Dunya, takes care of Raskolnikov’s relatives. Meanwhile, the offended Luzhin confronts his bride with a choice: either he or his brother.
In order to find out about the fate of the things pawned by the murdered woman, and in fact to dispel the suspicions of some acquaintances, Rodion himself asks for a meeting with Porfiry Petrovich, the investigator in the case of the murder of the old pawnbroker. The latter recalls Raskolnikov’s recently published article “On Crime,” inviting the author to explain his “theory” about “two classes of people.” It turns out that the “ordinary” (“lower”) majority is just material for the reproduction of their own kind; it is they who need a strict moral law and must be obedient. These are “trembling creatures.” “People themselves” (“higher ones”) have a different nature, possessing the gift of a “new word”, they destroy the present in the name of the better, even if it is necessary to “step over” the moral norms previously established for the “lower” majority, for example, by shedding someone else’s blood. These “criminals” then become “new legislators.” Thus, not recognizing the biblical commandments (“thou shalt not kill,” “thou shalt not steal,” etc.), Raskolnikov “allows” “those who have the right” - “blood according to conscience.” The intelligent and insightful Porfiry discerns in the hero an ideological murderer who claims to be the new Napoleon. However, the investigator has no evidence against Rodion - and he releases the young man in the hope that his good nature will overcome the delusions of his mind and will itself lead him to confess to his crime.
Indeed, the hero is increasingly convinced that he has made a mistake in himself: “the real ruler […] destroys Toulon, commits massacres in Paris, forgets the army in Egypt, wastes half a million people in the Moscow campaign,” and he, Raskolnikov, suffers because of “vulgarity "and the "meanness" of a single murder. It is clear that he is a “trembling creature”: even after killing, he “did not step over” the moral law. The very motives of the crime are twofold in the hero’s consciousness: this is both a test of oneself for the “highest level”, and an act of “justice”, according to revolutionary socialist teachings, transferring the property of “predators” to their victims.
Svidrigailov, who came after Dunya to St. Petersburg, apparently guilty of the recent death of his wife, meets Raskolnikov and notes that they are “birds of a feather,” although the latter has not completely conquered the “Schiller” within himself. Despite all the disgust for the offender, Rodion’s sister is attracted by his apparent ability to enjoy life, despite the crimes he has committed.
During lunch in the cheap rooms where Luzhin, out of economy, settled Dunya and his mother, a decisive explanation takes place. Luzhin is accused of slandering Raskolnikov and Sonya, to whom he allegedly gave for base services the money selflessly collected by his poor mother for his studies. The relatives are convinced of the purity and nobility of the young man and sympathize with Sonya’s fate. Expelled in disgrace, Luzhin is looking for a way to discredit Raskolnikov in the eyes of his sister and mother.
The latter, meanwhile, again feeling a painful alienation from his loved ones, comes to Sonya. From her, who “transgressed” the commandment “thou shalt not commit adultery,” he seeks salvation from unbearable loneliness. But Sonya herself is not alone. She sacrificed herself for the sake of others (hungry brothers and sisters), and not others for herself, like her interlocutor. Love and compassion for loved ones, faith in the mercy of God never left her. She reads the gospel lines to Rodion about Christ’s resurrection of Lazarus, hoping for a miracle in her life. The hero fails to captivate the girl with the “Napoleonic” plan for power over “the entire anthill.”
Tormented by both fear and the desire to be exposed, Raskolnikov again comes to Porfiry, as if worried about his mortgage. A seemingly abstract conversation about the psychology of criminals ultimately drives the young man to the point of nervous breakdown, and he almost gives himself away to the investigator. What saves him is his unexpected confession of murdering the pawnbroker Mikolka.
In the passage room of the Marmeladovs, a wake was held for her husband and father, during which Katerina Ivanovna, in a fit of morbid pride, insults the owner of the apartment. She tells her and the children to move out immediately. Suddenly Luzhin, who lives in the same house, enters and accuses Sonya of stealing a hundred-ruble banknote. The girl’s “guilt” is proven: money is found in her apron pocket. Now in the eyes of others she is also a thief. But unexpectedly there is a witness that Luzhin himself quietly slipped Sonya a piece of paper. The slanderer is put to shame, and Raskolnikov explains to those present the reasons for his action: having humiliated his brother and Sonya in the eyes of Dunya, he hoped to regain the favor of the bride.
Rodion and Sonya go to her apartment, where the hero confesses to the girl about the murder of the old woman and Lizaveta. She pities him for the moral torment to which he has doomed himself, and offers to atone for his guilt with voluntary confession and hard labor. Raskolnikov only laments that he turned out to be a “trembling creature”, with a conscience and a need for human love. “I’ll still fight,” he disagrees with Sonya.
Meanwhile, Katerina Ivanovna and her children find themselves on the street. She begins to bleed from the throat and dies, refusing the services of a priest. Svidrigailov, who is present here, undertakes to pay for the funeral and provide for the children and Sonya.
At his home, Raskolnikov finds Porfiry, who convinces the young man to confess: the “theory”, which denies the absoluteness of the moral law, tears away from the only source of life - God, the creator of humanity, united by nature - and thereby dooms its captive to death. “Now you […] need air, air, air!” Porfiry does not believe in the guilt of Mikolka, who “accepted suffering” out of an primordial popular need: to atone for the sin of not conforming to the ideal - Christ.
But Raskolnikov still hopes to “transcend” morality. Before him is the example of Svidrigailov. Their meeting in the tavern reveals to the hero a sad truth: the life of this “insignificant villain” is empty and painful for him.
Dunya's reciprocity is the only hope for Svidrigailov to return to the source of being. Having become convinced of her irrevocable dislike for himself during a heated conversation in his apartment, he shoots himself a few hours later.
Meanwhile, Raskolnikov, driven by the lack of “air,” says goodbye to his family and Sonya before confessing. He is still convinced of the “theory” and is full of self-contempt. However, at Sonya’s insistence, in front of the people, he repentantly kisses the land against which he “sinned.” At the police office, he learns about Svidrigailov’s suicide and makes an official confession.
Raskolnikov finds himself in Siberia, in a convict prison. The mother died of grief, Dunya married Razumikhin. Sonya settled near Raskolnikov and visits the hero, patiently enduring his gloom and indifference. The nightmare of alienation continues here: the common convicts hate him as an “atheist.” On the contrary, Sonya is treated with tenderness and love. Once in the prison hospital, Rodion sees a dream reminiscent of pictures from the Apocalypse: mysterious “trichinas”, moving into people, give rise to a fanatical conviction in everyone’s own rightness and intolerance to the “truths” of others. “People killed each other in […] senseless rage” until the entire human race was exterminated, except for a few “pure and chosen.” It is finally revealed to him that the pride of the mind leads to discord and destruction, and the humility of the heart leads to unity in love and to the fullness of life. “Endless love” for Sonya awakens in him. On the threshold of "resurrection in new life"Raskolnikov picks up the Gospel.
Final essay
in the direction of "Victory and defeat"
It is impossible for a person to pass life path no mistakes. In the piggy bank folk wisdom There are many sayings, proverbs and sayings that reflect the problem of experience and mistakes in our lives. Everyone knows the existing phrase: “Only those who do nothing make no mistakes.” A person, trying to achieve certain successes, makes many mistakes along the way. And these mistakes are very different. Some mistakes cause a person to become depressed. Others force you to start all over again. And in the third situation, a person sets new goals for himself, taking into account the bitter previous experience, and moves on. Life path is eternal search your place in life. Any difficulties and failures are our own mistakes. Every person has the right to make mistakes.
World literature, including Russian, has always been interested in this topic. In Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace,” the author’s favorite characters go through a difficult life path. And each of them has their own path of spiritual quest. But they are all united by the desire for happiness. On the path to happiness, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, Pierre Bezukhov, Natasha Rostova make many mistakes. Enchanted by Lisa, Prince Andrei did not marry for love. Pierre, seriously not understanding life situation, married Helen Kuragina, a soulless and cold beauty. Soon after marriage, he realized that he had been deceived. And Natasha Rostova, having become a bride and future wife Prince Andrey, in his absence became interested in the frivolous Anatol Kuragin. Kuragin's sensual gaze overshadowed the restraint and chastity of Prince Andrei. The heroine behaves completely differently when communicating with Kuragin: Natasha’s shyness, bashfulness and timidity are gone. It seemed to her that this was love. Natasha, young and inexperienced in matters of the heart, nevertheless realized that she had betrayed her loved one. She took her irreparable mistake very hard. Surrounded by the attention of her family and friends, the girl managed to get out of this mental crisis. Happiness is a great sensual and moral strength. And L.N. Tolstoy shows that Natasha became truly happy when she married Pierre.
The hero of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment,” Rodion Raskolnikov, having committed a bloody crime and confessed to what he had done, does not fully realize the tragedy of what he committed. He did not admit that his theory was wrong. Raskolnikov regrets that he could not transgress, that he would not be able to classify himself as one of the chosen ones. The hero suffers, suffers, is tormented. And only in Siberia, in hard labor, Raskolnikov, tormented and exhausted, not only repents of what he has done, but takes the most difficult path - the path of repentance. And, reading the pages of the novel, we understand that the writer draws our attention to the fact that a person who has admitted his mistakes is able to change. Such a person needs help and compassion. Sonya Marmeladova is precisely F. M. Dostoevsky’s person who is capable of supporting Raskolnikov and helping him.
What conclusion did my reasoning on this problem lead me to? I would like to note that personal experience teaches each of us about life. Sad or virtuous, this experience is one's own, lived. And the lessons life has taught us are a real school, it is she who shapes character and educates personality.
Raskolnikov's crime, its causes and meaning
The main character of the novel, Rodion Raskolnikov, is an unusual criminal. He commits his crime - the murder of the moneylender Alena Ivanovna - under the influence of the philosophy he created. This philosophy was hard-won by Raskolnikov, and by his crime he wanted to confirm its correctness in his own eyes and in the eyes of other people. Therefore, the psychological analysis of the state of the criminal before and after committing a crime in the novel is closely related to the analysis of Raskolnikov’s theory, which appears to Dostoevsky as a “sign of the times.”
Rodion Raskolnikov is a student forced to leave his studies due to lack of funds. His mother tries her best to help him, but she herself lives very poorly. Raskolnikov's sister, Dunya, gets a job as a governess in a family of wealthy landowners who humiliate her in every possible way. Raskolnikov suffers deeply from hunger and poverty. He realizes that not only he himself, but also thousands of other people are doomed to poverty, lawlessness and early death. This understanding gives rise to constant and intense work of thought in him, aimed at finding a way out of the current unjust state of affairs.
However main reason his crimes were not grief and poverty. “If only I had killed because I was hungry... then I would now... be happy,” he says after fulfilling his terrible plan. The main reason was the theory he created. Reflecting on the causes of existing inequality and injustice, Raskolnikov comes to the conclusion that there is a sharp difference between the two categories of people. While great amount people silently and obediently submit to everything that life presents to them, few - “extraordinary” people - are the true engines of human history. At the same time, they boldly violate generally accepted moral norms and do not hesitate to commit a crime in order to impose their will on humanity. Contemporaries curse these people, but descendants recognize them as heroes. Raskolnikov not only thought about this idea, but even outlined it in a newspaper article a year before the murder. Questions arise, which Raskolnikov formulates as follows: “Am I a louse like everyone else, or a man?”, “Am I a trembling creature or do I have the right?”
He seeks to contrast himself with “ordinary”, ordinary people. Raskolnikov does not want, like most people, to silently obey and endure. But from here, in his opinion, only one conclusion is possible - he must prove to himself and those around him that he is not a “trembling creature”, but a born “lord of fate” who has the right to transgress moral laws. This conclusion leads Raskolnikov to his crime, which he views as a test necessary to determine whether he belongs to the breed of “extraordinary” people or whether he must obey and endure, like other weak natures.
With his crime, Raskolnikov challenges the world of social inequality and suppression of the human personality. However, he does not realize that his “idea” only reinforces the inhumanity of the existing order of things. His protest contradicts itself, since it assumes the right of some people to dictate their will to others. The latter are forced to be passive objects of their actions. This contradiction constitutes the tragic error underlying Raskolnikov’s philosophy. As events unfolded, he personal experience becomes convinced that his rebellion against existing inhumanity is itself inhuman in nature and leads to the moral death of the individual. Raskolnikov manages to carry out the planned murder. But this action leads to a different result than the one he expected. He becomes convinced that the morality of “extraordinary” people, which so attracted him before committing the crime, turned out to be beyond his ability. True beauty and Raskolnikov now sees morality not in those people who place themselves above ordinary people, ordinary people, and in those who, like Sonya Marmeladova, amid hunger and humiliation, retain in their souls faith in life and a deep aversion to evil and violence.
Thus, Dostoevsky leads his hero to understand very important truths, namely that pride is sinful, that the laws of life do not obey the laws of arithmetic, and that people should not be judged, but loved, accepting them as God created them.
Final essay on the topic “Experience and mistakes.”
Works used in argumentation: “War and Peace”, “Crime and Punishment”
Introduction: Life develops in such a way that everything in it is intertwined with each other: love and hate, ups and downs, experience and mistakes... One is impossible without the other and, it seems, every person has once stumbled, realized the wrongness of their actions and learned important lessons for themselves .
The expression has been known since ancient times: clever man A fool learns from the mistakes of others, but a fool learns from his own. Most likely, this is indeed the case, because it is not in vain that many generations of ancestors sought to pass on their conclusions to their descendants, tried useful tips teach children to live correctly and write down the wisdom of bygone centuries in books.
Huge literary heritage, left by great writers and poets - a priceless treasure life experience, capable of preventing us from many mistakes. Let's look at just a few examples of how works of art The authors, through the actions of their characters, warn the reader about the danger of committing the wrong actions.
Arguments: In the epic novel L.N. Tolstoy's "War and Peace" Natasha Rostova, already being the bride of Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, succumbs to temptation and becomes interested in Andrei Kuragin. The girl is still young, naive and pure in her thoughts, her heart is ready to love and give in to impulses, but the lack of life experience inclines her to a fatal mistake - running away with an immoral person, for whom all life consists of passions. An experienced seducer, who, moreover, was formally married, did not think about marriage, about the fact that he could simply disgrace the girl, Natasha’s feelings were not important to him. And she was sincere in her illusory love. Only by miracle the escape did not take place: Marya Dmitrievna prevented the girl from leaving her family. Later, realizing her mistake, Natasha repents and cries, but the past cannot be returned back. Prince Andrei will not be able to forgive his ex-fiancée for such betrayal. This story teaches us a lot: first of all, it follows that we cannot be naive, we must be more attentive to people, not create illusions and try to be able to distinguish lies from the truth.
Another example of the fact that the experience of other people is important for avoiding one’s own mistakes can be the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky "". The title itself hints at the moral of the entire work: there will be retribution for misdeeds. This is what happens: Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, a poor student, comes up with a theory according to which people can be divided into “trembling creatures” and “those with the right.” People of the second category, in his opinion, should not be afraid to step over corpses in order to achieve great things. In order to test his own theory and instantly get rich, he commits a cruel crime - he kills an old pawnbroker and her pregnant sister with an ax. However, what is perfect does not bring what he wants: as a result of long reflections, which circumstances push him into, the main character of the novel repents and accepts a well-deserved punishment, serving it in hard labor. The story presented is instructive in that it warns readers against fatal mistakes that could have been avoided.
Conclusion: Thus, it is safe to say that experience and mistakes in people's lives are inextricably linked. And in order to avoid fatal false steps, it is worth relying on the wisdom of the past, including the instructive plots of literary works.
