An author's descriptions of space can illuminate more about a story than just the setting and tone. In Crime and Punishment (1866), Fyodor Dostoevsky fills St. Petersburg with richly described buildings, streets, weather, and people which lend to the dark, melancholy tone of the novel and help the reader visualize the setting. As Figes writes, “Petersburg defied the natural order,” its artificiality morphing the Russian people toward a more European way of life. However, “even the Nevsky, the most European of [Tsar Peter’s] avenues, was undone by a ‘Russian’ crookedness,” an organic dent in the armor of the purposefully streamlined, inorganic design of the city. Thus, Dostoevsky’s descriptions of setting and character reveal a use of space
He refuses to see the old pawnbroker as a human and keeps his same mindset. Even though he no longer believes in his theory, Raskolnikov still fails to see what he did as a crime. Raskolnikov retains this belief up through his first year and a half in Siberia. It is only then that he is able to see what he did as a
Just through a fantasy, however, does he discover his spirit edified with the capacity to use his spiritual knowledge in helping society. Dostoevsky presents the last character, Smerdyakov, as the child of a mentally-unsettled laborer, stinking Lizaveta, who had a baby with an unknown man. Since the general population views the senior Karamazov as the town boozer, they interface the baby as his bastard child. Dostoevsky 's belief that spirituality can be accomplished outside of an ascetic, segregated life get to be clearer upon close examination of Alyosha 's character. Through the fantasy, Alyosha discovered motivation to live and an approach to extend his spirituality outside of the cloister.
Speak, Memory presents a twisted one. In his autobiography, Nabokov talks about the love he has for his parents and his wife, but he also writes about his “reckless romance” (234) with a girl when he was very young. This romance was innocent, however, unlike the romance presented in Lolita. It is so twisted, in fact, that when a psychiatrist tells Humbert that the girl is sexually immature, the man can not help but laugh, considering the relationship he has created with her. Love, to Humbert Humbert, is a “localized lust for every passing nymphet (girl-child)” (18).
Raskolnikov’s crime results in the death of Alyona Ivanovna and Lizaveta Ivanovna – one of which Raskolnikov did not mean to cause. Raskolnikov rationalizes that with the death of Alyona Ivanovna; he may take the money and help “to bring to pass my neighbour’s getting a little more than a torn coat” (151) – implying that he had the intention of using the money for something good. Along with the improvement of people’s lives, Raskolnikov rationalized that with the money he will take, he can help out his family and in turn secure himself a good life. Though his justification can be seen as admirable, the outcomes were not. Instead of his actions leading to some good, his actions only resulted in death and his justification allows him to clear his guilt and calm his morality.
Jennifer Brooks associates Heart of Darkness with dreams and dream-like imagery through Marlow, Kurtz, and the Congo. The underlying truths for Marlow are repressed by him as his realization of Kurtz’ “Horror” is he is part of it himself. Brooks’ article is filled with associations of Sigmund Freud to the Conrad’s novella in which Marlow’s abstract narrative portrays dream-thoughts as it does in Interpretation of Dreams. Marlow is unable to grasp what he see’s in Africa and describes it in hazy-like imagery to the reader. Though, there is meaning to this dream-like presentation in that it is the truth of the Congo.
The life and literary career of the author makes for as much fascinating reading as that of any of his great novels. Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment is a novel that embodied both the writer’s personal dilemma and the dilemma facing his country in its attempts to liberalize or modernize itself and to liberate the common people from the tyranny of the Tsars and their autocratic supporters. The theme of the extraordinary versus the ordinary man relies on this sort of calculated logic. Raskolnikov uses to commit the murders, symbolizes the two halves of Raskolnikov’s nature these opposing sides are in conflict throughout the novel and are reflected in his victims. _____________________________________________________________________________
Fyodor Dostoevsky's 19th century novel Crime and Punishment explores the psychological torture and moral dilemmas that the main character Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov faces after he murders a pawnbroker and her sister. All of the characters in the novel face troubles and suffer as a result of them, however all characters do not respond to their difficulties in the same manner. Through the use of foils, which is a literary device in which one character is contrasted with another in order to emphasis particular qualities in the other, Dostoevsky explores character's various responses to difficult situations. Both Katerina Ivanovna and Pulcheria Alexandrovna Raskolnikov are mothers living in poverty and are struggling to support their family; each has an unique approaches to coping with their financial position. The foil of Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigailov and Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov demonstrates the importance attaining forgiveness in order to overcome prior
The function of religion is a very important yet subtle theme in Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, and is presented through the novel’s characters and their various associations with religious allusions. The presence of religion in the novel offers a unique paradox; on one hand, the text circulates around a godless person who committed a reprehensible and sinful crime, while on the other hand the importance of religion and how each individual understands it is emphasized. Due to this, the idea of ‘Holy Sinners’ arises, in which there are characters that take part in appalling actions, but symbolize purity as well. The most prominent characters to demonstrate this paradoxical take on religion are Sonya, for her being praised for her purity but shunned for her occupation, and Raskolnikov, for committing a terrible crime but coming to terms with it in the end. First and foremost, a character that displays this paradoxical view of necessary wrongdoing is the saintly prostitute, Sonya Marmeladov.
Yevgeny Vassilievitch Bazarov “Beliefs” Yevgeny Vassilievitch Bazarov, who is in the book Fathers and Sons, is a nihilist and a medical student that Arkady Kirsanoff, a young man in college, viewed as his mentor. Since Bazarov is a nihilist it means that he doesn’t believe in anything and that he accepts nothing.Bazarov, being a medical student, believes that he is always right when it comes to facts but in reality he doesn’t know as much as he thought he did. In Fathers and Sons Bazarov is someone that believes that he knows everything but when it comes to love he doesn’t know as much as he thought he did. Bazarov was in a lot of arguments throughout the book due to the fact that he thought he knew everything and thought he was right