"Crime and Punishment": the history of the creation of the novel. "Crime and Punishment" history of creation How the novel Crime and Punishment was written
For six years, F. M. Dostoevsky developed the concept of the novel "Crime and Punishment", just during his penal servitude. That is why the first thought was to write about the ordeals of Raskolnikov. The story was not supposed to be long, but nevertheless a whole novel arose.
In 1865, Dostoevsky told the idea of his novel with the title "Drunk" to the publisher of the journal "Domestic Notes" A. A. Kraevsky, demanding three thousand rubles in advance for this. To which Fedor Mikhailovich was refused.
Not having a penny in his pocket, Dostoevsky concludes a slave agreement with the publishing house of F. T. Stellovsky. According to the contract, the poor writer undertakes to transfer the right to publish the complete collections of his work in three volumes, as well as to provide a new novel on ten sheets within a year. For this, Dostoevsky received three thousand rubles and, having distributed his debts, leaves for Germany.
Being a gambler, Fedor Mikhailovich is left without money, and subsequently without food and light. It was this state of his that helped to give birth to a work that became known to the whole world.
The new idea of the novel was the story of repentance for the crime of one poor student who killed a greedy old money-lender. Three people became the prototypes for creating the plot: G. Chistov, A. T. Neofitov and P. F. Lasener. All of them were young criminals of that time. In the same 1865, Dostoevsky did not find a balance between his thoughts, and as a result, he burned the first draft of the work.
Already at the beginning of 1866, the first part of "Crime and Punishment" was published. Inspired by the success, in the same year all six parts of the novel appear in the Russian Messenger. In parallel with this, Dostoevsky creates the novel The Gambler, which was promised to Stellovsky.
When creating the novel "Crime and Punishment", three draft notebooks were created that describe all the author's working stages.
"Crime and Punishment" reveals two main themes: the commission of a crime itself and the consequences of this action on the offender. From this came the name of the work.
The main purpose of the novel is to reveal the feelings for the life of the protagonist Raskolnikov, for what purpose he went to the murder. Dostoevsky was able to show how feelings of love and hatred for people resist in one person. And in the end, to receive forgiveness from the whole people.
F. M. Dostoevsky's novel "Crime and Punishment" teaches its reader to find human sincerity, love and compassion under all the gloomy masks of the surrounding society.
Option 2
Fedor Mikhailovich is a famous Russian writer of the 19th century. He created a greater number of novels, stories, in which he concluded all his life experience. Now his works are read with special trepidation. The most famous creation of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky is the novel Crime and Punishment. It is included in the school curriculum. Of course, because every person who thinks about morality and ethics must study it.
This article presents the history of the creation of the most famous work of Dostoevsky.
In the autumn of 1859, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky wrote to his brother that he was ready to start writing a novel in the winter. He had a plan in his head for a long time. He emphasized that it would be the confession of a criminal. In it, he is ready to accommodate all his life experience, acquired during his stay in hard labor. He thought about many things, lying on the bunk, when he was freezing in a damp cell. It was in the place of hard labor that the writer met a large number of people strong in spirit and morale. These people helped change Fyodor Mikhailovich's beliefs.
Six years later, Dostoevsky set to work. During this period, many other novels were written, but not the main one. The main theme of all those works was the idea of poverty, the humiliation of people who were forced to face all these difficulties in order to repent. In 1865 the work was written. It bore a name different from the current one - "Drunken". Dostoevsky brought it to the editorial office, where his creations were usually printed, but there Kraevsky said that there was no money for publication. Dostoevsky was saddened, but then turned to another editor. The novel was published, Dostoevsky received the money, distributed all the debts and went to travel. But the novel was not finished.
Initially, the emphasis was on the lives of poor people, who are called "drunk". Dostoevsky showed the life of the Marmeladov family, black Petersburg, showed all the cruel reality, after all, he was a realist after all. Dostoevsky is sure that all the poverty and beggary of people is purely their fault.
Then the writer went to Dresden and there he thought that it would be better for him to edit his work. And he brought the story of Raskolnikov into the novel, or rather, he revealed it many times in more detail. This means that the author wanted to pay attention to the criminal part of the work.
Despite the time, the work is still relevant today.
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Dostoevsky nurtured the idea of his new novel for six years. During this time, "Humiliated and Insulted", "Notes from the House of the Dead" and "Notes from the Underground" were written, the main theme of which was the history of poor people and their rebellion against the existing reality.
The origins of the work
The origins of the novel date back to the time of F. M. Dostoevsky's hard labor. Initially, Dostoevsky conceived the idea of writing Crime and Punishment in the form of Raskolnikov's confession. The writer intended to transfer the entire spiritual experience of hard labor to the pages of the novel. It was here that Dostoevsky first encountered strong personalities, under the influence of which a change in his former convictions began.
“In December, I will start a novel ... Do you remember, I told you about one confession-novel that I wanted to write after everyone else, saying that I still have to go through it myself. The other day I made up my mind to write it at once. All my heart with blood will rely on this novel. I conceived it in hard labor, lying on the bunk, in a difficult moment of sadness and self-destruction ... "
As can be seen from the letter, we are talking about a work of a small volume - a story. How then did the novel come about? Before the work appeared in the final edition that we are reading, the author's intention changed several times.
Early summer of 1865. In dire need of money, Fyodor Mikhailovich offered a novel that had not yet been written, but in fact, just an idea for a novel, to the Otechestvennye Zapiski magazine. Dostoevsky asked for an advance payment of three thousand rubles for this idea from the publisher of the magazine A. A. Kraevsky, who refused.
Despite the fact that the work itself did not exist, the name “Drunken” had already been invented for it. Unfortunately, little is known about the intention of the Drunks. Only a few scattered sketches dated 1864 have survived. Also preserved is a letter from Dostoevsky to the publisher, which contains a description of the future work. She gives serious reason to believe that the entire storyline of the Marmeladov family entered Crime and Punishment precisely from the unfulfilled plan of the Drunks. Along with them, the wide social Petersburg background, as well as the breath of a large epic form, entered the work. In this work, the author initially wanted to reveal the problem of drunkenness. As the writer emphasized, “not only the question is analyzed, but all its ramifications are presented, mainly pictures of families, the upbringing of children in this environment, and so on. etc."
In connection with the refusal of A. A. Kraevsky, who was in dire need, Dostoevsky was forced to conclude an enslaving contract with the publisher F. T. Stellovsky, according to which he sold the right to publish a complete collection of his works in three volumes for three thousand rubles and undertook to write for his new novel of at least ten sheets by November 1, 1866.
Germany, Wiesbaden (late July 1865)
Having received the money, Dostoevsky distributed the debts, and at the end of July 1865 he went abroad. But the monetary drama did not end there. During five days in Wiesbaden, Dostoevsky lost everything he had at roulette, including his pocket watch. The consequences were not long in coming. Soon the owners of the hotel where he stayed ordered not to serve him dinner, and after a couple of days they also deprived him of the light. In a tiny room, without food and without light, "in the most painful position", "burned by some kind of internal fever", the writer began work on the novel Crime and Punishment, which was destined to become one of the most significant works of world literature.
In early August, Dostoevsky abandoned the plan for The Drunk Ones and now wants to write a story with a criminal plot - "a psychological report of one crime." Her idea is this: a poor student decides to kill an old pawnbroker, stupid, greedy, nasty, whom no one will regret. A student could finish his education, give money to his mother and sister. Then he would go abroad, become an honest man and "make amends for the crime." Usually such crimes, according to Dostoevsky, are committed ineptly, and therefore there is a lot of evidence, and the criminals are quickly exposed. But according to his plan, “quite randomly” the crime succeeds and the killer spends almost a month at large. But “here,” writes Dostoevsky, “the whole psychological process of the crime unfolds. Unresolvable questions arise before the murderer, unsuspected and unexpected feelings torment his heart ... and he ends up being forced to report on himself. Dostoevsky wrote in his letters that a lot of crimes in recent times are being committed by developed, educated young people. This was written about in contemporary newspapers.
Prototypes of Rodion Raskolnikov
Dostoevsky was aware of the case Gerasim Chistova. This man, 27 years old, a schismatic, was accused of killing two old women - a cook and a laundress. This crime took place in Moscow in 1865. Chistov killed the old women in order to rob their mistress, the petty bourgeois Dubrovina. The bodies were found in different rooms in pools of blood. Money, silver and gold things were stolen from the iron chest. (newspaper "Voice" 1865, September 7-13). Criminal chronicles wrote that Chistov killed them with an axe. Dostoevsky also knew about other similar crimes.
Another prototype is A. T. Neofitov, Moscow professor of world history, maternal relative of Dostoevsky's aunt merchant A.F. Kumanina and, along with Dostoevsky, one of her heirs. Neofitov was involved in the case of forgers of tickets for a 5% internal loan (here Dostoevsky could draw the motive of instant enrichment in the mind of Raskolnikov).
The third prototype is a French criminal Pierre Francois Lacener, for whom killing a person was the same as "drinking a glass of wine"; justifying his crimes, Lacener wrote poems and memoirs, proving in them that he was a “victim of society”, an avenger, a fighter against social injustice in the name of a revolutionary idea allegedly suggested to him by utopian socialists (an account of the Lacener trial of the 1830s can be found on the pages Dostoevsky's magazine "Time", 1861, No. 2).
"Creative Explosion", September 1865
So, in Wiesbaden, Dostoevsky decided to write a story in the form of a confession of a criminal. However, in the second half of September, a "creative explosion" occurs in his work. An avalanche-like series of sketches appears in the writer's workbook, thanks to which we see that two independent ideas clashed in Dostoevsky's imagination: he decided to combine the storyline of The Drunk Ones and the form of the killer's confession. Dostoevsky preferred a new form - a story on behalf of the author - and in November 1865 burned the original version of the work. Here is what he writes to his friend A.E. Wrangel:
“... It would be difficult for me now to describe to you my whole present life and all the circumstances in order to give you a clear understanding of all the reasons for my long silence ... Firstly, I am sitting at work like a convict. It's that... big novel in 6 parts. At the end of November much was written and ready; I burned everything; now you can admit it. I didn't like it myself. The new form, the new plan carried me away, and I started again. I work day and night… The novel is a poetic thing, it requires peace of mind and imagination to be fulfilled. But creditors torment me, that is, they threaten to put me in jail. I still haven't settled with them and I still don't know for sure - will I settle it? … Understand what my concern is. It breaks the spirit and heart, ... and then sit down and write. Sometimes it's impossible."
"Russian Messenger", 1866
In mid-December 1865, Dostoevsky sent the chapters of the new novel to Russkiy Vestnik. The first part of Crime and Punishment appeared in the January 1866 issue of the magazine, but work on the novel was in full swing. The writer worked hard and selflessly on his work throughout 1866. The success of the first two parts of the novel inspired and inspired Dostoevsky, and he set to work with even greater zeal.
In the spring of 1866, Dostoevsky planned to leave for Dresden, stay there for three months and finish the novel. But numerous creditors did not allow the writer to go abroad, and in the summer of 1866 he worked in the village of Lublin near Moscow, with his sister Vera Ivanovna Ivanova. At this time, Dostoevsky was forced to think about another novel, which was promised to Stellovsky when concluding an agreement with him in 1865.
In Lublin, Dostoevsky drew up the plan for his new novel, The Gambler, and continued to work on Crime and Punishment. In November and December, the last, sixth, part of the novel and the epilogue were completed, and the Russian Messenger at the end of 1866 completed the publication of Crime and Punishment.
Three notebooks with drafts and notes to the novel have been preserved, in fact, three handwritten editions of the novel, which characterize the three stages of the author's work. Subsequently, all of them were published and made it possible to present the writer's creative laboratory, his hard work on every word.
Of course, work on the novel was also carried out in St. Petersburg. Dostoevsky rented an apartment in a large apartment building in Stolyarny Lane. Small officials, artisans, merchants, and students mainly settled here.
From the very beginning of its inception, the idea of a "ideological killer" fell into two unequal parts: the first - the crime and its causes, and the second, the main one - the effect of the crime on the soul of the criminal. The idea of a two-part concept was reflected both in the title of the work, Crime and Punishment, and in the features of its structure: of the six parts of the novel, one is devoted to the crime and five to the influence of the committed crime on Raskolnikov’s soul.
The draft notebooks of "Crime and Punishment" allow us to trace how long Dostoevsky tried to find an answer to the main question of the novel: why did Raskolnikov decide to kill? The answer to this question was not unambiguous for the author himself.
In the original intention of the story it is a simple idea: to kill one insignificant harmful and rich creature in order to make many beautiful but poor people happy with his money.
In the second edition of the novel Raskolnikov is depicted as a humanist, burning with the desire to stand up for the “humiliated and insulted”: “I am not the kind of person to allow defenseless weakness to a scoundrel. I will intervene. I want to step in." But the idea of killing because of love for other people, killing a person because of love for humanity, is gradually “overgrown” with Raskolnikov’s desire for power, but he is not yet driven by vanity. He seeks to gain power in order to fully devote himself to serving people, he longs to use power only to perform good deeds: “I take power, I get power - whether money, power or not for evil. I bring happiness." But in the course of his work, Dostoevsky penetrated deeper and deeper into the soul of his hero, discovering behind the idea of killing for the sake of love for people, power for the sake of good deeds, a strange and incomprehensible “Napoleon’s idea” - the idea of power for the sake of power, dividing humanity into two unequal parts: the majority is “a creature trembling" and the minority are "rulers" who are called to govern the minority, standing outside the law and having the right, like Napoleon, to overstep the law in the name of necessary goals.
In the third, final, edition Dostoevsky expressed the “ripened”, finished “idea of Napoleon”: “Can one love them? Can you suffer for them? Hatred for humanity...
Thus, in the creative process, in comprehending the concept of Crime and Punishment, two opposing ideas collided: the idea of love for people and the idea of contempt for them. Judging by the draft notebooks, Dostoevsky faced a choice: either keep one of the ideas, or keep both. But realizing that the disappearance of one of these ideas would impoverish the idea of the novel, Dostoevsky decided to combine both ideas, to portray a man in whom, as Razumikhin says about Raskolnikov in the final text of the novel, "two opposite characters alternate in turn."
The finale of the novel was also created as a result of intense creative efforts. One of the draft notebooks contains the following entry: “The finale of the novel. Raskolnikov is going to shoot himself. But this was the finale only for Napoleon's idea. Dostoevsky, on the other hand, sought to create an ending for the “idea of love,” when Christ saves a repentant sinner: “The vision of Christ. He asks for forgiveness from the people. At the same time, Dostoevsky understood perfectly well that such a person as Raskolnikov, who combined two opposite principles in himself, would not accept either the court of his own conscience, or the court of the author, or the court of law. Only one court will be authoritative for Raskolnikov - the "highest court", the court of Sonechka Marmeladova.
That is why in the third, final, edition of the novel, the following entry appeared: “The idea of the novel. Orthodox view, in which there is Orthodoxy. There is no happiness in comfort, happiness is bought by suffering. This is the law of our planet, but this direct consciousness, felt by the life process, is such a great joy that you can pay for years of suffering. Man is not born to be happy. Man deserves happiness, and always suffering. There is no injustice here, because the knowledge of life and consciousness is acquired by the experience of "for" and "against", which must be dragged on oneself. In the drafts, the last line of the novel looked like: "Inscrutable are the ways in which God finds man." But Dostoevsky ended the novel with other lines that can serve as an expression of the doubts that tormented the writer.
The history of the creation of the novel "Crime and Punishment" by F. M. Dostoevsky
The idea of the novel
Objective reality, the living conditions of people living in the first half of the nineteenth century, are closely connected with the history of the creation of Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. In the work, the writer tried to express his thoughts on the pressing problems of contemporary society. He calls the book a novel - a confession. “My whole heart will rely with blood on this novel,” the author dreams.
The desire to write a work of this kind appeared in Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky in hard labor in Omsk. The hard life of a convict, physical fatigue did not prevent him from observing life and analyzing what was happening. Being convicted, he decided to create a novel about a crime, but he did not dare to start work on a book. A serious illness did not allow making plans and took away all the moral and physical strength. The writer managed to bring his idea to life only a few years later. Over the years, several other famous works were created: “Humiliated and Insulted”, “Notes from the Underground”, “Notes from the House of the Dead”.
The issues raised in these novels will be reflected in Crime and Punishment.
Dreams and harsh reality
Life unceremoniously intervened in Dostoevsky's plans. The creation of a great novel took time, and the financial situation worsened every day. In order to earn money, the writer suggested that the journal Otechestvennye Zapiski publish a short novel, The Drunk Ones. In this book, he planned to draw public attention to the problem of drunkenness. The storyline of the story was supposed to be connected with the stories of the Marmeladov family. The main character is an unfortunate drunkard, dismissed official. The editor of the magazine put forward other conditions. The hopeless situation forced the writer to agree for a negligible price to sell the rights to publish the complete collection of his works and, at the request of the editors, write a new novel in a short time. So suddenly began hasty work on the novel "Crime and Punishment".
Starting work on a piece
Having signed the contract with the publishing house, F. M. Dostoevsky managed to improve his affairs at the expense of the fee, relaxed and succumbed to temptation. A keen player, he did not manage to cope with his illness this time either. The result was disastrous. The rest of the money is lost. Living in a hotel in Wiesbaden, he could not pay for light and meals, he did not end up on the street only at the mercy of the owners of the hotel. To finish the novel on time, Dostoevsky had to hurry. The author decided to briefly tell the story of one crime. The main character is a poor student who decided to kill and rob. The writer is interested in the psychological state of a person, “the process of crime”.
The plot was moving towards a denouement when, for some unknown reason, the manuscript was destroyed.
creative process
The feverish work began anew. And in 1866 the first part was published in the journal "Russian Messenger". The time allotted for the creation of the novel was coming to an end, and the writer's plan only expanded. The life story of the protagonist is harmoniously intertwined with the story of Marmeladov. To meet the requirements of the customer and avoid creative bondage, F. M. Dostoevsky interrupts work for 21 days. During this time, he creates a new work called "The Player", gives it to the publisher and returns to the creation of "Crime and Punishment". The study of the criminal chronicle convinces the reader of the relevance of the problem. “I am convinced that my story partly justifies the present,” wrote Dostoevsky. Newspapers told that cases when young educated people like Rodion Raskolnikov became murderers became more frequent. The printed parts of the novel were a great success. This inspired Dostoevsky, charged him with creative energy. He is finishing his book in Lublin, on his sister's estate. By the end of 1866, the novel was completed and published in Russkiy Vestnik.
diary of painstaking work
Studying the history of the creation of the novel "Crime and Punishment" is impossible without the writer's draft notes. They make it possible to understand how much work and painstaking work on the word was invested in the work. The creative idea changed, the range of problems expanded, the composition was rebuilt. In order to better understand the character of the hero, Dostoevsky changes the form of the narrative in the motives of his actions. In the final third edition, the story is told in the third person. The writer preferred "a story from himself, and not from him." It seems that the main character lives his own independent life and does not obey his creator. The workbooks tell how painfully long the writer himself is trying to understand the motives for Raskolnikov's crime. Unable to find an answer, the author decided to create a character in which "two opposite characters alternate in turn." In Raskolnikov, two principles are constantly fighting: love for people and contempt for them. It was not easy for Dostoevsky to write the finale of his work. “Inscrutable are the ways in which God finds man,” we read in the writer’s draft, but the novel itself ends differently. It keeps us thinking, even after the last page has been read.
"Crime and Punishment", the history of which lasted almost 7 years, is one of the most famous novels by Fyodor Dostoevsky both in Russia and abroad. In this creation of the classic of Russian literature, his talent as a psychologist and connoisseur of human souls was revealed more than ever. What prompted Dostoevsky to write a work about a murderer, and this topic was not characteristic of the literature of that time?
Fyodor Dostoevsky - master of the psychological novel
The writer was born on November 11, 1821 in the city of Moscow. His father - Mikhail Andreevich - was a nobleman, a court adviser, and his mother - Maria Fedorovna - came from a merchant family.
There was everything in the life of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky: loud fame and poverty, dark days in the Peter and Paul Fortress and many years of hard labor, addiction to gambling and conversion to the Christian faith. Even during the life of the writer, such an epithet as “brilliant” was applied to his work.
Dostoevsky died at the age of 59 from emphysema. He left behind a huge legacy - novels, poems, diaries, letters, etc. In Russian literature, Fyodor Mikhailovich is given the place of the main psychologist and expert on human souls. Some literary critics (for example, Maxim Gorky), especially of the Soviet period, called Dostoevsky an "evil genius", because they believed that the writer in his works defended "incorrect" political views - conservative and at some point in his life even monarchist. However, one can argue with this: Dostoevsky's novels are not political, but always deeply psychological, their goal is to show the human soul and life itself as it is. And the work "Crime and Punishment" is the most striking confirmation of this.
The history of the creation of the novel "Crime and Punishment"
Fyodor Dostoevsky was sent to hard labor in Omsk in 1850. "Crime and Punishment", the history of which began there, was first published in 1866, and before that the writer had to endure not the best days in his life.
In 1854 the writer received his freedom. Dostoevsky wrote in 1859 in a letter to his brother that the idea of a certain confessional novel came to him when he was still in the 50s lying on dirty bunk beds and going through the most difficult moments in his life. But he was in no hurry to start this work, because he was not even sure that he would survive.
And so, in 1865, Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich, in dire need of money, signs an agreement with a publisher, under which he undertakes to provide a new novel by November 1866. Having received a fee, the writer corrected his affairs, but addiction to roulette played a cruel joke on him: he lost all the remaining money in Wiesbaden, the hotel owners did not evict him, but they stopped feeding him and even turned off the light in the room. It was under such conditions that Dostoevsky began Crime and Punishment.
The history of the creation of the novel was nearing completion: the deadlines were running out - the author worked in a hotel, on a ship, on his way home to St. Petersburg. He practically finished the novel, and then ... he took and burned the manuscript.
Dostoevsky began work anew, and while the first two parts of the work were being published and all of St. Petersburg was reading them, he was rapidly creating the remaining three, including the epilogue.
"Crime and Punishment" - the theme of the novel is clearly visible already in the very title of the work.
The main character - Rodion Raskolnikov - decides to kill and rob an old usurer. On the one hand, the young man justifies his act by saying that he and his family are in need. Rodion feels responsible for the fate of loved ones, but in order to help his sister and mother in any way, he needs a large amount of money. On the other hand, killing remains an immoral and sinful act.
Rodion successfully commits the intended crime. But in the second part of the novel, he is faced with a problem more serious than poverty - his conscience begins to torment him. He becomes nervous, it seems to him that everyone around knows about his act. As a result, Rodion begins to get seriously ill. After recovery, the young man seriously thinks about surrendering to the authorities. But acquaintance with Sonya Marmeladova, as well as the arrival of his mother and sister in the city for a while, force him to abandon this undertaking.
Three suitors immediately claim for the hand of Rodion's sister - Dunya: court adviser Pyotr Luzhin, landowner Svidrigailov and Rodion's friend - Razumikhin. Rodion and Razumikhin manage to upset the planned wedding of Dunya and Luzhin, but the latter leaves angry and thinks about
Rodion Raskolnikov is becoming more and more attached to Sonya Marmeladova, the daughter of his late friend. They talk with the girl about life, spend time together.
But a black cloud hangs over Rodion - there were witnesses who confirmed at the police station that recently Raskolnikov often went to the murdered usurer. The young man has so far been released from the police station, but he remains the prime suspect.
The most important events of the novel "Crime and Punishment" by chapters fall on the 5th part of the work and the epilogue.
The offended Luzhin tries to set up Sonya Marmeladova, passing her off as a thief and thereby quarreling with Raskolnikov. However, his plan fails, but Rodion cannot stand it and confesses to Sonya that he has committed a murder.
An outsider takes the blame for Raskolnikov's crime, but the investigator is sure that it was Rodion who committed the crime, so he visits the young man and tries once again to convince him to confess.
At this time, Svidrigailov is trying to win Dunya's favor by force, a frightened girl shoots him with a revolver. When the weapon misfires, and Dunya convinces the landowner that he does not love him, Svidrigailov lets the girl go. Having donated 15 thousand to Sonya Marmeladova and 3 thousand to Raskolnikov's family, the landowner commits suicide.
Rodion confesses to the murder of a usurer and receives 8 years of hard labor in Siberia. Sonya goes into exile after him. The old life for the former student is over, but thanks to the love of the girl, he feels how a new stage in his destiny begins.
Image of Rodion Raskolnikov
In the novel "Crime and Punishment", the characterization of Rodion Raskolnikov and the assessment of his actions by the author himself are ambiguous.
The young man is good-looking, smart enough, one might say, ambitious. But the life situation in which he found himself, or rather the social situation, does not allow him not only to realize his talents, but even finish his studies at the university, find a decent job. His sister is about to "sell out" to an unloved person (to marry Luzhin for the sake of his fortune). Raskolnikov's mother is in poverty, and the girl she loves is forced into prostitution. And Rodion does not see any way to help them and himself, except to get a large amount of money. But to realize the idea of instant enrichment is possible only with the help of robbery (in this case, it also entailed murder).
According to morality, Raskolnikov did not have the right to take the life of another person, and the reasoning that the old woman did not have long to live, or that she had no right to “wait” on the grief of other people, is not an excuse and not a reason for murder. But Raskolnikov, although he is tormented by his act, considers himself innocent to the last: he explains his actions by the fact that at that moment he thought only about how to help his loved ones.
Sonya Marmeladova
In the novel Crime and Punishment, the description of Sonya's image is as contradictory as Raskolnikov's: the reader will immediately recognize in them
Sonya is kind and selfless in a sense, this can be seen from her actions towards other people. The girl reads the "Gospel", but at the same time is a prostitute. A devout prostitute - what could be more paradoxical?
However, Sonya is engaged in this craft not because she has a craving for debauchery - this is the only way for an uneducated attractive girl to earn a living, not only for herself, but also for her large family: her stepmother Katerina Ivanovna and three half-brothers and sisters. As a result, Sonya is the only one who went to Siberia after Rodion to support him in difficult times.
Such paradoxical images are the basis of Dostoevsky's realism, because in the real world things cannot be only black or only white, just like people. Therefore, a pure-hearted girl in certain life circumstances can engage in such a dirty craft, and a noble-minded young man can decide to kill.
Arkady Svidrigailov
Arkady Svidrigailov is another character in the novel (a 50-year-old landowner) who literally duplicates Raskolnikov in many aspects. This is not an accident, but a technique chosen by the author. What is its essence?
“Crime and Punishment” is filled with dual images, perhaps to show that many people have equally positive and negative traits, can walk along the same paths in life, but always choose the outcome of their life.
Arkady Svidrigailov is a widower. Even when his wife was alive, he harassed Raskolnikov's sister, who was in their service. When his wife - Marfa Petrovna - died, the landowner came to ask for the hand of Avdotya Raskolnikova.
Svidrigailov has many sins behind him: he is suspected of murder, violence and debauchery. But this does not prevent the man from becoming the only person who took care of the family of the late Marmeladov, not only financially, but even placed the children in an orphanage after the death of their mother. Svidrigailov is trying in a barbaric way to win over Dunya, but at the same time he is deeply hurt by the girl’s dislike and he commits suicide, leaving Raskolnikov’s sister an impressive amount as an inheritance. Nobility and cruelty in this man are combined in their bizarre patterns, as in Raskolnikov.
P.P. Luzhin in the system of images of the novel
Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin ("Crime and Punishment") is another "double" of Raskolnikov. Raskolnikov, before committing a crime, compares himself with Napoleon, and so Luzhin is the Napoleon of his time in its purest form: unscrupulous, caring only about himself, striving to make capital at any cost. Maybe that's why Raskolnikov hates the lucky fellow: after all, Rodion himself believed that for the sake of his own prosperity he had the right to kill a person whose fate seemed to him less important.
Luzhin (“Crime and Punishment”) is very straightforward as a character, caricatured and devoid of the inconsistency inherent in Dostoevsky's heroes. It can be assumed that the writer deliberately made Peter just like that, so that he would become a clear personification of that bourgeois permissiveness that played such a cruel joke on Raskolnikov himself.
Publications of the novel abroad
"Crime and Punishment", the history of which took more than 6 years, was highly appreciated by foreign publications. In 1866 several chapters from the novel were translated into French and published in Courrier russe.
In Germany, the work was published under the title "Raskolnikov" and by 1895 its published circulation was 2 times larger than any other work by Dostoevsky.
At the beginning of the XX century. the novel "Crime and Punishment" was translated into Polish, Czech, Italian, Serbian, Catalan, Lithuanian, etc.
Film adaptations of the novel
The heroes of the novel "Crime and Punishment" are so colorful and interesting that the film adaptation of the novel was taken more than once both in Russia and abroad. The first film - "Crime and Punishment" - appeared in Russia as early as 1909 (dir. Vasily Goncharov). This was followed by film adaptations in 1911, 1913, 1915.
In 1917, the world saw the picture of the American director Lawrence McGill, in 1923 the film "Raskolnikov" was released by the German director Robert Wiene.
After that, about 14 more adaptations were filmed in different countries. Of the Russian works, the most recent was the serial film Crime and Punishment in 2007 (dir. Dmitry Svetozarov).
Novel in popular culture
In films, Dostoevsky's novel often flashes in the hands of imprisoned heroes: in the film "The Incredible Adventures of Wallace and Gromit: Haircut" to zero "", TV series "She-Wolf", "Desperate Housewives", etc.
In the computer game Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments, in one of the episodes, the book with the title of Dostoevsky's novel is clearly visible in Sherlock Holmes's hands, and in GTA IV, Crime and Punishment is the name of one of the missions.
Raskolnikov's house in St. Petersburg
There is an assumption that Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich settled his hero in a house that really exists in St. Petersburg. The researchers made such conclusions, since Dostoevsky mentions in the novel: he is in the "S-m" lane, next to the "K-m" bridge. There is indeed a house at Stolyarny Lane-5, which could well serve as a prototype for the novel. Today this building is one of the most visited tourist spots in St. Petersburg.
The history of the creation of the novel "Crime and Punishment"
Abeltin E.A., Litvinova V.I., Khakass State University. N.F. Katanov
Abakan, 1999
In 1866, the journal "Russian Messenger", published by M.N. Katkov, published a manuscript of Dostoevsky's novel, which has not survived to our time. The surviving notebooks of Dostoevsky give grounds to assume that the idea of the novel, its theme, plot, and ideological orientation did not take shape immediately, most likely, two different creative ideas united later:
1. On June 8, 1865, before leaving abroad, Dostoevsky suggested to A.A. Kraevsky - the editor of the journal "Domestic Notes" - the novel "Drunken": "it will be connected with the current question of drunkenness. Not only the question is analyzed, but all its ramifications are also presented, mainly pictures of families, the upbringing of children in this environment, and so on. There will be at least twenty sheets, but maybe more.
The problem of drunkenness in Russia worried Dostoevsky throughout his career. The soft and unhappy Snegirev says: “... in Russia, drunk people are among us and the kindest. The kindest people among us are also the most drunk. People become kind in an abnormal state. What is a normal person? The good people are forgotten by society, the evil ones rule life. If drunkenness flourishes in a society, this means that the best human qualities are not valued in it. "
In the Writer's Diary, the author draws attention to the drunkenness of the factory workers after the abolition of serfdom: "The people got drunk and drank - first with joy, and then out of habit." Dostoevsky shows that even with a "huge and extraordinary change" not all problems are solved by themselves. And after the "break" the correct orientation of people is necessary. Much here depends on the state. However, the state actually encourages drunkenness and an increase in the number of taverns: “Almost half of our current budget is paid for by vodka, i.e. in today's fashion, people's drunkenness and people's debauchery - therefore, the whole people's future. We, so to speak, are paying with our future for our majestic budget of a European power. We cut the tree at the very root in order to get the fruit as soon as possible.
Dostoevsky shows that this comes from the inability to manage the economy of the country. If a miracle happened - people all at once stop drinking - the state would have to choose: either force them to drink by force, or - financial collapse. According to Dostoyevsky, the cause of drunkenness is social. If the state refuses to take care of the future of the people, the artist will think about him: “Drunkenness. Let those rejoice in him who say: the worse, the better. There are many of these now. But we cannot see the roots of people's strength poisoned without grief. This entry was made by Dostoevsky in drafts, but in essence this idea is stated in the "Diary of a Writer": "After all, the people's strength is drying up, the source of future wealth is fading, the mind and development are turning pale - and what will the modern children of the people endure in their minds and in their hearts? grown up in the filth of their fathers."
Dostoevsky saw the state as a hotbed of alcoholism and, in the version presented to Kraevsky, wanted to tell that a society where drunkenness flourishes and the attitude towards it is condescending is doomed to degeneration.
Unfortunately, the editor of Otechestvennye Zapiski was not as far-sighted as Dostoevsky in determining the reasons for the degradation of the Russian mentality and refused the writer's proposal. The idea of "Drunk" remained unfulfilled.
2. In the second half of 1865, Dostoevsky set to work on a “psychological report of one crime”: “The action is modern, this year. A young man expelled from university students, a bourgeois by birth and living in extreme poverty ... decided to kill an old woman, a titular adviser who gives money for interest. The old woman is stupid, deaf, sick, greedy ... evil and seizes someone else's eyelids, torturing her little sister in her housekeepers. In this version, the essence of the plot of the novel "Crime and Punishment" is clearly stated. Dostoevsky's letter to Katkov confirms this: “Insoluble questions confront the killer, unsuspected and unexpected feelings torment his heart. God's truth, earthly law take their toll, and he ends up being forced to denounce himself. Forced to die in penal servitude, but to join the people again. The laws of truth and human nature have taken their toll."
Upon returning to St. Petersburg at the end of November 1855, the author destroyed the almost completely written work: “I burned everything. A new form (a novel-confession of a hero. - VL), a new plan carried me away, and I started again. I work day and night, and yet I work little.” From that time on, Dostoevsky decided in the form of a novel, replacing the first-person narrative with a narrative from the author, his ideological and artistic structure.
The writer liked to say about himself: "I am a child of the century." He really was never a passive contemplator of life. "Crime and Punishment" was created on the basis of Russian reality in the 50s of the XIX century, magazine and newspaper disputes on philosophical, political, legal and ethical topics, disputes between materialists and idealists, followers of Chernyshevsky and his enemies.
The year of the publication of the novel was special: on April 4, Dmitry Vladimirovich Karakozov made an unsuccessful attempt on the life of Tsar Alexander II. Massive repressions began. A.I. Herzen spoke about this time in his Bell in the following way: “Petersburg, followed by Moscow, and to some extent all of Russia are almost in a state of war; arrests, searches and torture go on unceasingly: no one is sure that tomorrow he will not fall under the terrible Muravyov court ... ”The government oppressed student youth, censorship forced the closure of the Sovremennik and Russkoye Slovo magazines.
Dostoevsky's novel, published in Katkov's magazine, turned out to be an ideological opponent of the novel What Is To Be Done? Chernyshevsky. Arguing with the leader of revolutionary democracy, opposing the struggle for socialism, Dostoevsky, nevertheless, with sincere sympathy treated the participants in the "split of Russia", who, in his opinion, being mistaken, "selflessly turned into nihilism in the name of honor, truth and true good while revealing the kindness and purity of their hearts.
Criticism immediately responded to the release of Crime and Punishment. Critic N. Strakhov noted that "the author took nihilism in its most extreme development, at that point, beyond which there is almost nowhere to go."
M. Katkov defined Raskolnikov's theory as "an expression of socialist ideas."
DI. Pisarev condemned Raskolnikov's division of people into "obedient" and "rebels", reproached Dostoevsky for calling for humility and humility. And at the same time, in the article “The Struggle for Life,” Pisarev stated:
“Dostoevsky's novel made a profoundly amazing impression on readers thanks to the correct mental analysis that distinguishes the works of this writer. I radically disagree with his convictions, but I cannot but recognize in him a strong talent capable of reproducing the most subtle and elusive features of everyday human life and its internal process. Especially aptly, he notices painful phenomena, subjects them to the most rigorous assessment and seems to experience them on himself.
What was the first step in writing the novel? Its outcome? The story "Drunk", issues of raising children in families of alcoholics, the tragedy of poverty, lack of spirituality, and so on. The story remained unfinished because Kraevsky refused to publish Dostoevsky.
What fundamentally new did the new version of the novel include? The earliest drafts of the work date back to July 1855, the latest - to January 1866. Analysis of drafts allows us to state:
first-person narration replaced by author's narration;
not a drunkard is brought to the fore, but a student, driven by the environment and time to the point of murder;
the form of the new novel is defined as the protagonist's confession;
the number of characters has been significantly expanded: the investigator, Dunya, Luzhin and Svidrigailov are represented by psychological twins of Raskolnikov;
developed various episodes and scenes from the life of St. Petersburg.
What elements and images of "Drunk" found artistic expression in the 2nd version of the novel?
the image of a drunken Marmeladov;
tragic pictures of the life of his family;
description of the fate of his children;
In what direction did Raskolnikov's character develop?
In the original version of the novel, the narration is in the first person and is a confession of a criminal, recorded a few days after the murder.
The form of the first person made it possible to explain some of the "oddities" in Raskolnikov's behavior. For example, in the scene with Zametov: “I was not afraid that Zametov would see that I was reading this. On the contrary, I even wanted him to notice that I was reading about it ... I don’t understand why I was drawn to risk this bravado, but I was drawn to take a risk. With anger, perhaps with animal anger that does not reason. Rejoicing at the fortunate coincidence, the “early Raskolnikov” reasoned: “It was an evil spirit: how else could I overcome all these difficulties.”
In the final text, the hero says the same words to Sonya after his confession. There is a noticeable difference in the characterization of the hero. In the second version, where the narration is already in the third person, the humanity of his intentions is more clearly traced: thoughts of repentance come immediately after the commission of the crime: “And then, when I become a noble, benefactor of all, a citizen, I will repent. I prayed to Christ, lay down and slept.
Dostoevsky did not include an episode in the final text - Raskolnikov's reflection after a conversation with Polenka: “Yes, this is a complete resurrection,” he thought to himself. He felt that life was broken at once, hell ended and another life began ... he was not alone, not cut off from people, but with everyone. Resurrected from the dead. What happened? The fact that he gave his last money - is that it? What nonsense. Is this girl? Sonya? - Not that, but all together.
He was weak, he was tired, he almost fell. But his soul was too full.
Such thoughts are premature for the hero, he has not yet drunk the cup of suffering in order to be healed, so Dostoevsky transfers the description of such feelings to the epilogue.
The first manuscript describes the meeting with the sister and mother differently:
“Nature has mysterious and wonderful outcomes. In a minute he was squeezing them both in his hands and he had never experienced a more impetuous and enthusiastic sensation, and in another minute he was already proudly aware that he was the master of his mind and will, that he was no one's slave and that consciousness again justified his. The disease ended - the panic fear ended.
Dostoevsky does not include this passage in the final text, as it destroys the ideological direction. Raskolnikov should be completely different: a meeting with loved ones, as well as a conversation in the office, are the cause of his fainting. This is a confirmation that human nature is unable to endure the severity of the crime and reacts to external influences in its own way. She no longer obeys reason and will.
How does the relationship between Raskolnikov and Sonya develop in different versions of the novel?
Dostoevsky carefully developed the nature of the relationship between the characters. According to an early plan, they fell in love with each other: “He is on his knees in front of her:“ I love you. She says: "Surrender yourself to the court." In the final version, the heroes were united by compassion: “I didn’t bow to you, I bowed to all human suffering.” Psychologically, this is more deeply and artistically justified.
The scene of Raskolnikov's confession to Sonya originally sounded in a different tone: “She wanted to say something, but kept silent. Tears burst from her heart and broke her soul. “And how could he not come?” she added suddenly, as if illumined ... “Oh, blasphemer! God, what is he saying! You departed from God, and God struck you with deafness and dumbness, betrayed you to the devil! Then God will send you life again and resurrect you. He resurrected Lazarus by a miracle! and you will be resurrected ... Dear! I will love you... Honey! rise! Go! repent, tell them... I will love you forever and ever, you unfortunate one! We are together... together... together we will rise again... And God bless... Will you go? Will you go?
Sobs stopped her frantic speech. She embraced him and, as it were, froze in this embrace, she did not remember herself.
In the final text, the feelings of the characters are just as deep and sincere, but more restrained. They don't talk about love. The image of Sonya now sometimes merges for him with the image of Lizaveta killed by him, causing a feeling of compassion. He sees her future tragically: "throw into a ditch, fall into a lunatic asylum ... or go into debauchery, intoxicating the mind and petrifying the heart." Dostoevsky knows more and sees beyond his hero. At the end of the novel, Sonya is saved by faith, deep, capable of working miracles.
Why is the image of Sonya and Svidrigailov more fully revealed in the final version of Crime and Punishment?
As a result of his experiment, Raskolnikov came to the conclusion that the path of a "strong personality" who seeks power through "blood in conscience" is erroneous. He is looking for a way out and stops at Sonya: she also stepped over, but found the strength to live. Sonya trusts in God and waits for deliverance and wishes the same for Raskolnikov. She correctly understood what happened to Rodion: “What are you, that you did this to yourself!” Suddenly the word “hard labor” flies from her lips, and Raskolnikov feels that the struggle with the investigator has not ended in his soul. His suffering reaches the highest strength, "some kind of eternity was foreseen on a yard of space." Svidrigailov also spoke of such eternity.
He, too, stepped "over the obstacles", but seemed calm.
In the drafts, Dostoevsky decided the fate of Svidrigailov differently: “A gloomy demon from whom he cannot get rid of. Suddenly, the determination to expose oneself, all the intrigue, repentance, humility, leaves, becomes a great ascetic, humility, a thirst to endure suffering. He betrays himself. Link. Asceticism".
In the final version, the outcome is different, more psychologically justified. Svidrigailov departed from God, lost his faith, lost the possibility of "resurrection", but he could not live without it.
In what did Dostoevsky's contemporaries see the relevance of Crime and Punishment?
Since the end of the 1950s, newspapers in St. Petersburg reported with alarm about the increase in crime. Dostoevsky to some extent used some facts from the criminal chronicle of those years. Thus, “the case of student Danilov” became widely known in its time. V. for profit, he killed the usurer Popov and his maid. The peasant M. Glazkov wanted to take his guilt upon himself, but was exposed.
In 1865, the newspapers reported on the trial of the merchant's son G. Chistov, who had hacked to death two women and seized their wealth in the amount of 11,260 rubles.
Dostoevsky was greatly impressed by the trial of Pierre Lacener (France), a professional murderer who tried to present himself as a victim of an unjust society, and his crimes as a form of struggle against evil. At trials, Lacener calmly stated that the idea of becoming a murderer in the name of revenge was born in him under the influence of socialist teachings. Dostoevsky spoke of Lacener as “a phenomenal, mysterious, terrible and interesting personality. Low sources and cowardice in the face of need made him a criminal, and he dared to present himself as a victim of his age.
The scene of the murder committed by Raskolnikov is reminiscent of the murder of an old woman and her son who happened to be in the apartment by Lacener.
Dostoevsky took a fact from life, but tested it with his life. He triumphed when, while working on Crime and Punishment, he learned from the newspapers about a murder similar to Raskolnikov's crime. “At the same time,” recalls N. Strakhov, “when the book “Russian Messenger” was published with a description of Raskolnikov’s misconduct, news appeared in the newspapers about a completely similar crime that had occurred in Moscow. A student murdered and robbed a moneylender, and apparently did so out of a nihilistic conviction that all means were permitted to correct an unreasonable state of affairs. I don’t know if the readers were amazed by this, but Fyodor Mikhailovich was proud of such a feat of artistic divination.
Subsequently, Dostoevsky more than once put in one line the names of Raskolnikov and the murderers approaching him from the newspaper chronicle. He made sure that "Gorsky or Raskolnikov" did not grow out of Pasha Isaev. Gorsky is an eighteen-year-old high school student, out of poverty, who slaughtered a family of six for the purpose of robbery, although according to reviews "he was a remarkably mentally developed young man who loved reading and literary pursuits."
With extraordinary sensitivity, Dostoevsky was able to single out individual, personal facts, but testifying to the fact that the "primordial" forces had changed the direction of their movement.
Bibliography
Kirpotin V.Ya. Selected works in 3 volumes. M., 1978. T.Z, pp. 308-328.
Fridlender G.M. Dostoevsky realism. M.-L. 1980.
Basina M.Ya. Through the dusk of white nights. L. 1971.
Kuleshov V.I. Life and work of Dostoevsky. M. 1984.
