“Man is not born for happiness. Man earns his happiness, and always by suffering,” (qtd. in Muchnic 82) wrote Dostoevsky in his notebook under the title of “The Idea of the Novel” while working on one of his world masterpieces, Crime and Punishment. The novel has been discussed for a century and a half and Raskolnikoff has become one of the most famous fictional characters. Noted for his in-depth psychological analysis, first of the master writer’s five large novels, Crime and Punishment shows that great suffering is necessary and inevitable for redemption, happiness, and spiritual growth through the hero, Raskolnikoff, who’s regenerated after he undergoes tormenting guilt, his entrapment in the tentacles of his own conscience, and two other major characters, Catherine Ivanovna, who lives a life of poverty, and her daughter Sonia, who sacrifices herself by being a prostitute to support her family.
By claiming that through suffering, Raskolnikoff regenerates himself and he’s redeemed. We take for granted that what he does at first is wrong and he is previously ill-minded. As yet, the narrator depicts him so sympathetically that the reader associates oneself with him and may argue with the idea that he is really guilty. Therefore, we should first understand what the matter is with the hero and what he does wrong.
Once a university student (he has had to leave university out of poverty), Raskolnikoff, at the beginning of the novel, believes himself superior to the rest of humanity so much so that he has the right to commit a murder if he finds it necessary. He feels humiliated by poverty; and consequent helplessness to protect his mother and sister develops an enormous pride (Westbrook 65). To prepare himself for his Napoleonic role (Crime and Punishment 304), all he needs is money. To get this money, he has only to murder a pawnbroker, a parasite who has done nothing but harm to her fellow mortals. Raskolnikoff rationalizes that he can use the money of Alena Ivanovna, the pawnbroker, to help his mother and sister who are extremely poor. Thus, he initially convinces himself that he is willing to perform this act in order to support his family.
Yet, this motivation is secondary to a darker one. He believes that he is an extraordinary man whose deeds should be permitted for the sake of the greater good. According to this “superhuman” theory, certain all-powerful people, like Napoleon, have the right to commit crimes for the sake of the future. Oxford’s brilliant scholar of Russian Literature, Rzhevsky says, “Raskolnikoff sees men as units in a purely mechanistic formula, and the very same mind which is capable of regarding the mass of humanity as mere material, is also capable of disregarding the human being within a money lender” (20). He repeatedly refers to the moneylender as a “lose”, an annoyance, an obstacle to his freedom in that he must murder her in order to liberate himself. By this act, he believes he will prove himself to be a Napoleon and convince himself that he is different from the others. After all, Dostoevsky writes in his notes about the hero, “in his [Raskolnikoff] portrait the thought of immeasurable pride, arrogance, and contempt for society is expressed in the novel. His idea: assure power over society. . . Despotism, his characteristic trait.” (qtd. in Muchnic 182).
With these ideas in mind, he performs the act with extreme cold-bloodedness: “He pulled out the hatchet, raised it with both hands, and let it descend without force, almost mechanically, on the old woman’s head” (C. and P. 60). This first blow is followed by two more and when unexpectedly the half-sister also appears in the house, Raskolnikoff kills her with several strokes, as well.
As I said above, some readers will object to the idea that Raskolnikoff is guilty and he needs salvation as he is narrated with utmost affection, as yet, it will not last long for the same readers to see that Raskolnikoff himself will regret what he has done gradually and a redemption period will start and go on by the very last page because to be redeemed requires one important, inevitable and necessary thing: suffering.
After the murder, Raskolnikoff wanders around the streets confused and tortured with uncertainty and doubt. He cannot relate to the rest of humanity. He is alone, separated by his actions and believes, and unable to care for anyone else, unable to care even about living any more. The punishment starts much earlier than he expects: “Is this punishment already beginning? Indeed, indeed it is!” (C. and P. 72). Helen Muchnic, professor of Russian Language and Literature explains:
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His inhumanity is punished by such suffering as a lesser man would not encounter, the torment of sensing himself cut off from people, of having to live entirely alone, of never being able to speak to anyone again, even though he thinks he hates people and refuses to acknowledge that he is guilty. (183) |
Being left alone is just one aspect of his punishment. There is another thing with which he must struggle and from which he can never escape wherever he goes; a power which always follows and torments him: his own conscience. At this point, I think, it is high time that we talked about Dostoevsky’s most famous ability; his in-depth psychological analysis. Raskolnikoff’s inner world, with all its doubts, deliria, fear and despair is exhibited with great success. He has persuaded himself that for an intelligent man to kill a parasite and make use of her wealth is no crime but a virtue. Yet, now, “it turns out that the subconscious moral sense can be stronger than the intellect, far after the murder he has to fight to suppress his horrible manner as than he has previously fought to justify his project” (Hare 129). He is overwhelmed by a confused crowd of feelings, the most galling of which is the shame of discovering himself to be so weak and so easy a prey to inward approaches.
Moreover, Raskolnikoff feels a great desire for confession even before twenty four hours after the murder: “If they ask me, I should confess” (C. and P. 74). A more dramatic monologue comes after some minutes: “I will go and fall on my knees and confess all.” He feels an “overwhelming desire to confess and to rid of the guilt” (Sauder). He is caught up in the tentacles of his conscience and tormenting guilt, like in his dream he feels whipped: “He was brought to his senses in a very extraordinary manner. He felt the lashes of a whip across his back. . . . ” (C. and P. 85). He begins to faint and sleep, faint and sleep and repeat the same cycle for days. He cannot bear the burden of the murder and wants to share it with somebody. He thinks he will either confess or go mad!
As a result of this unbearable suffering, he satisfies his desire to confess by revealing all the truth to Sonia and accepts that he has been wrong in his thoughts and Napoleonic dreams: “How did I dare, knowing what I am, anticipating what would happen, how did I dare take an axe and shed blood? . . . People of that cast are not constituted like that. . . . Would Napoleon have crept under an old woman’s bed?” (C. and P. 193).
Here Raskolnikoff accepts that he is an ordinary man, not a superhuman just because he has tried to test himself; his superiority by such a ridiculous act. He now sees that he’s like any other man; weak and utterly human. Yet, he still does not accept that his killing the pawnbroker is of importance and is a fault: “As for the old woman, she is of no account. . . . She has always been an accident.” (C. and P. 193).
As seen, he is not totally brought back to humanity yet. He does not feel guilty for lives he has taken away; but for his testing himself thinking that a Napoleon would not do such a thing. He thinks he has failed when he has thought of testing himself whether or not that he is an extraordinary man. Therefore, on the path to his absolute regeneration, the woman to whom he has confessed his crime plays an enormous role. She is Sonia Marmeladov.
Before going on the story of Raskolnikoff, we should at first know Sonia closer, as she is another main character through whom the narrator gets the message across. She is quiet, timid and easily embarrassed but also extremely devoted to her family. “She is the personification of purity and innocence, despite the fact that she has had to defile herself physically by becoming a prostitute to support her destitute family” (Sauder). Initially scared of the half-delirious Raskolnikoff, she, in her infinite capacity for understanding, begins to care deeply about him. She is not horrified by his crimes; rather, concerns for his soul and mental well-being, urges him to confess.
Raskolnikoff thinks of her at first as a fellow transgressor, someone who has stepped over the line between morality and immorality, just as he has. But there is a crucial difference between their transgressions that Raskolnikoff is unwilling to acknowledge: she sins for the sake of the other whereas he sins for no one but himself.
Sonia has very important roles in the novel and Dostoevsky portrays her as a Christ-like figure, suffering for all of humanity as she prostitutes in order to support a family even though her father, Marmeladov spends the money to quench his alcoholism. This is how Sonia copes with her life; she accepts suffering, she repents her sins and spreads her message. “. . . [Sonia] is chosen for the purpose of teaching Raskolnikoff the virtue of expiation” (Waliszewski). With these characteristics, she possesses the ultimate wisdom and the key to happiness. Dostoevsky’s proposal seems most obvious in Sonia: “accept your suffering and get ready for the hope.” In his notes, he wrote, “Sonia is hope, the most unrealizable” (qtd. in Muchnic 182). Sonia most probably keeps this idea always in mind: “Jesus: Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted.” (qtd. in Westbrook 76).
So affected by her submissiveness to suffering and her ability to still love, Raskolnikoff turns to her and opens himself. Of course, Sonia’s reaction and her sole answer are to confess his wrong doing and reveal it to everybody:
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Go forthwith, go this very moment to the nearest public, prostrate yourself, kiss the earth you have stained, bow down in every direction and proclaim at the top of your voice to the passers-by, ‘I am a murderer!’ and God will give you peace again. (C. and P. 308) |
Then she explains that he should take atonement so that he could be redeemed. While they are departing, Sonia gives him a cross and once more Dostoevsky emphasizes the sprit of Christianity: “The sprit of Christianity is always more important to Dostoevsky than its forms.” (Westbrook 87). This quality is again the same reason why Rzhevsky subtitles Dostoevsky’s part in his Russian Literature as “the Christian Ego” (67).
About a hundred pages later, we encounter one of the most famous fictional scenes in literature: Raskolnikoff kisses the ground but cannot utter the words, “I have killed her!” yet. This shows us that he is on the right path to his redemption and so close to it, but he has not arrived at the final point yet. After all, we have a couple of pages ahead!
Through the realization that he is not an extraordinary man and Sonia’s love for him, he finds the strength to confess his crime and accept responsibility for it; this allows him to slowly rejoin the world around him. Sonia’s patience and profound understanding finally help him to reintegrate into the ordinary human society.
Thus, the prison years start and the final episode of suffering (both for Raskolnikoff and Sonia) commences. Although the prison plays a big role in the reformation process, by giving so little place (just several pages) to it, Dostoevsky seems to say that the actual punishment occurs in oneself and it is the tormenting power of the conscience. He thinks that prisons work as long as the individual accepts his sins and asks for regeneration. Sonia goes to Siberia after him and this time, she sacrifices herself for not his family but for Raskolnikoff because she has now lost her dear mother, Catherine Ivanovna Marmeladov.
Before continuing on the final stage of our pair of sufferers, we now turn to this character, Catherine Ivanovna, as she takes the third biggest slice out of the suffering pie. She can be counted as some kind of foil character to Raskolnikoff and Sonia in that she suffers all her life terribly but is not happy at the end. She dies after years of unseen poverty and after years with an alcoholic husband. She gets nothing at the end. The readers of Crime and Punishment and this paper can question Dostoevsky’s theory in suffering, and they may claim, “She suffers a lot but doesn’t gain anything out of this suffering. Does she suffer for nothing?” The answer, however, lies in the sentences this poor woman utters just before she dies. She is proposed to call a priest just like they do for any other person who is about to die and she says, “What say you? -a priest? I am not in need of one. Do any of you happen to have a rouble to spare? My conscience is free from sin, and even were it not, God must forgive me. He knows how I have suffered!” (C. and P. 320).
In this case, we see that the woman doesn’t gain happiness in life (after all, we even cannot claim this as she can feel happy for her confidence in the redemption) but one other important thing: salvation. Her exclaim to the world gives the message that suffering leads to salvation and one’s clearance of his/her sins. In the last masterpiece of Dostoevsky’s, Brothers Karamazov, a character called Father Zossima teaches, “suffering is holy in its purpose and origin,” and continues, “thank the creator who gave you a lofty heart capable of such suffering.” (qtd. in Westbrook 75). To Dostoevsky, “suffering, even of the apparently undeserved, is spiritually healthy for the sufferer.” (Westbrook 77). To him, there is no wholly undeserved suffering for there are no wholly innocent people. Each of us shares in the world’s guilt and each must share in its pain.
Once again, we now turn back to the living sufferers, Raskolnikoff and Sonia for one last time to see the prison years and the conclusion of both the novel and, perhaps, their suffering. At first, Raskolnikoff isn’t liked by anybody in prison. With some, he goes to church but even there, they threaten to kill him: « ‘You don’t believe in God’ they cried. ‘We must kill you.’” (C. and P. 398). Dostoevsky tries to show us that our hero is still not welcomed by the people and he is still alienated from the society. On the other hand, Sonia visits him often and the people in the prison think of her as an angel. She herself gets so ill at some point, even to the point of death but she recovers later on. In one of the following visits, we see a Raskolnikoff who at last loves her with all his heart and she sees the sparkling in his eyes: “She clearly saw, and did not doubt, that he loved her -loved her- at last!” (C. and P. 401).
This love bond again reminds us, “man’s destiny is to find through love; and love we have seen released through confession, penance or suffering and forgiveness” (Westbrook 88). Sonia’s forgiveness towards Raskolnikoff and his confession in turn, and suffering a great deal of both of them lead to their power of love, and this in return makes Raskolnikoff voluntarily and with all his heart make the total confession waited for hundreds of pages, and the narrator explains the situation, “He was saved! He knew it and was conscious fully of his renewed being. And she-she was part of his life!” (C. and P. 401).
Of course, this confession does not totally clear Raskolnikoff of his sins and regenerate himself at one night, rather, it will occur gradually through seven more years of much more pain and much more suffering. Yet, he has already started to pick the fruits of his suffering. The more he accepts his sins and wrong-doings, the more renewed he feels: “All-even his sin, and sentence, and exile-appeared to him . . . as if they had not occurred, or swept away.” (C. and P. 401). He finally understands what his theory could lead to. If everyone thought as he did, the world would dissolve into anarchy and chaos. His wrongness is best expressed by a wise lawyer, Porhyrius Petrovitch, who has been sure since the beginning that Raskolnikoff has been guilty: “Let us, if you like, attribute the whole of this to a disease of a semi-delirious condition-by all means; but there is yet another point to be considered: he has committed a murder, and yet continues to look upon himself as a righteous man!” (C. and P. 336). Moreover, his prison fellows begin to develop good relationships with him: “His fellow convicts seemed to have looked kindly upon him during the day. He spoke to them and they replied cheerfully.” (C. and P. 401). This instance shows us that he begins to be integrated into the human society. We are also given the information that he keeps the “New Testament” given by Sonia under his pillow and gets ready to read it, which is another sign of his spiritual upheaval.
Finally, Dostoevsky, once more makes clear the point that happiness is bought with suffering in the ending paragraphs: “A new life is not given for nothing; that it has to be paid for, and only acquired by much patience and suffering, and great future efforts” (C. and P. 402). Thus, we understand that the happiness is coming, at last, to our hero and heroine, but there is still a little time of suffering. This suffering will also provide Raskolnikoff with the perfect reformation: “. . . a history of the gradual renewing of a man, of his slow progressive regeneration, and change from one world into another . . . a new history commences” (C. and P. 402).
In conclusion, suffering is a unifying element in Crime and Punishment and there is a reason behind Dostoevsky’s filling the pages with men and women suffering from the pains of guilt as in the case of Raskolnikoff-the hero, suffering by sacrificing oneself as in the case of Sonia-the Christ like figure, and suffering from great poverty as seen in that of Catherine Ivanovna: this suffering leads to redemption, salvation and spiritual growth. Dostoevsky shows “the role of suffering in the transformation of human character” for the better (Westbrook 78) all through his novel. The international and the interhistorical novelist’s premise, the inevitability and the necessity of suffering, is of the highest importance in an age when the discrepancy between the rich and the poor is at its peak, the fight between religions develops, and the wars between cultures have started. This may form the subject of a new paper and just as Dostoevsky writes at the end of his epic of suffering, “the one we wished to offer the reader is ended” (C. and P. 402).
WORKS CITED
Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Crime and Punishment. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth, 1993.
Hare, Richard. Russian Literature: From Pushkin to the Present Day. New York: Methuen & Co.Ltd.,1947
Muchnic, Helen. Russian Writers: Notes and Essays. New York: Random House, 1971.
Rzyhevsky, Nicholas. Russian Literature and Ideology: Herzen, Dostoevsky, Leontiev, Tolstoy, Fadeyev. London: University of Illinois Press, 1983.
Sauder, Dian. (No date). Crime and Punishment Themes [online]. Available: http://pinkmonkey.com/booknotes/monkeynotes/pmCrime11.asp [2002, April 20]
Waliszewski, Kazimierz. (No date). Criticism and Interpretations on Crime and Punishment [online]. Available: http://www.bartleby.com/318/1002.html [2002, April 13]
Westbrook, Perry D. The Greatness of Man: An Essay on Dostoevsky and Whitman. New Jersey: Associated Press, 1973.
