It's enough to think about yourself alone,
live for yourself alone, look around,
won't you see something for your worries?
more noble than your boots.
F. M. Dostoevsky “Poor People”
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky is a humanist writer, psychologist of human souls, a patriot of his homeland. Yes, yes, a patriot, and his patriotism rested on a deep faith in the spiritual strength of the people. “I don’t want a society where I couldn’t do evil, but one where I could do all sorts of evil, but didn’t want to do it myself...” the writer himself said.
All the great novels of Fyodor Mikhailovich from Crime and Punishment to The Brothers Karamazov are filled with faith, compassion and mercy.
Main goodies his novels, starting with Sonya Marmeladova and Prince Myshkin and ending with Elder Zosima and Alyosha Karamazov, preach these Christian commandments to one's neighbor, be it friend or enemy.
We see human tragedy, moral and physical death of people in the novel “Crime and Punishment.” And only one single force can change the order of things - mercy and compassion. The main character Raskolnikov himself, his family, as well as the Marmeladov family, revealed by the author with amazing depth and psychoanalysis, expect understanding and compassion from society. The poverty of these people threatens to ultimately turn into a thing that can be exchanged, sold, or simply thrown away, like throwing away an old sofa whose springs have already come out over time. Each of them needs moral support, a drop of mercy in a sea filled with tears of loneliness and sadness, a simple, but at the same time, such an important feeling of closeness of a stranger. And in the cruel world of the novel we see that not everything is lost; there are enough examples of not only human indifference, but also active sympathy. Rodion Raskolnikov himself helps the Marmeladov family, leaving his last money on the window, while visitors to the tavern, who heard the confession of the poor official, greet him with ridicule. A policeman helps a girl on the boulevard, but random passers-by didn’t even stop nearby (and they looked with obvious disgust and contempt, where can there be mercy?!). The repentant Svidrigailov could not look at Katerina Ivanovna’s needy children. So what is compassion? To co-suffer means to “suffer together,” and Svidrigailov’s suffering was not directed exclusively into himself. Even Lebezyatnikov can’t stand the sight human humiliation and helps out Sonya, who was falsely accused of theft. And all these are not isolated, random scenes. We see that the feeling of mercy is inherent in a person, the relationships of almost all heroes are built on it, it determines beauty human soul, saves the world from complete collapse and is main faith to the best.
Dostoevsky himself said: “The human heart has become clouded...” - these reflections pushed him to the consciousness of a completely new image of a hero, different from everyone, not similar to those who preceded him. The image of Prince Lev Myshkin is the center of the entire novel and is truly “positively wonderful person", the embodiment of kindness, naivety and honesty. This hero, having once said, “Now I’m going to people,” was preparing himself for a certain mission and was ready to “do his job honestly and firmly” - he had to suffer, because suffering, in his own words, “is the most important and perhaps to be the only law of existence of all mankind.” He had to walk the earthly path with all people together, accept them all into his soul with all their melancholy and sins, and become everyone’s brother. His activity and participation in human destinies should awaken in people the dormant desire to “do” good. He fulfilled his mission: he loved everyone and suffered for everyone. Let us remember the episode with the slap in the face from the proud Ganya Ivolgin. “Oh, how ashamed you will be of your action!” - the hero says to a person who tramples on his own dignity; such a person exposes himself to humiliation. Isn't this mercy? Lev Myshkin can calmly, on an equal footing, talk with a footman, not paying attention to his unequal origin and position in society; he is filled with “purity of moral feeling,” which is why his conversation is courteous, reverent and polite. The hero put aside all conventions and principles. Can't this be called mercy? The prince wants to help all people - kind words, compassion, participation, he forgives human selfishness, realizing that its causes are misunderstanding and loneliness.
With his love and suffering, the prince awakens in each of those he meets the highest, purest and noblest. He inspires people, yes, yes! people accustomed to falsehood, selfishness and cruelty, self-interest and greed are being reborn. These are the miracles that mercy can create.
Let's take the passage "Boys". Here, as in other works, the world of the human soul is revealed, in particular the theme of childhood, childhood suffering and views on the world. We hear the author's pain and despair in these lines that he is trying to convey to us, the readers. The main characters - Alyosha, Snegirev, Ilyusha, Kostya Krasotkin - undergo changes in their souls, develop, go on their own life paths. They discover joy, bright feelings, empathy, sympathy, the ability to forgive and love. Alyosha Karamazov goes through a real path to compassion, mercy, kindness, and the ability to appreciate not only external beauty- the shell, but also true beauty the souls of people through suffering, pain and loss. We can say that he is a ray from heaven, foreshadowing a bright future, even if he himself is a “small-grown-up” child at heart. The hero personifies peace, goodness, mercy, for example, protecting Ilya from flying stones. This man played his role in the lives of each of the boys, uniting them and guiding them on the path of goodness, justice and happiness.
Speaking of mercy, one cannot help but recall the story “Poor People,” the originality of which lies in the fact that the work consists of letters. This allows the author to expand on the topic “ little man", sympathize with his grief, rejoice in his little joys. The hero of the story, Makar Devushkin, is a semi-impoverished official who lives on his own inner life. His letters are the only opportunity to open up to the girl Varenka. In them he writes about his modest way of life, thoughts and inner feelings. His money is barely enough to live on, but this poor but big-hearted man begins to help Varya, who has become a victim of social ill-being. Makar realized how difficult it must be for her to be completely alone in St. Petersburg. It turns out that the poor will help the even poorer, this is the heroism of the hero’s mercy. He cut all his expenses to the minimum in order to buy her geraniums or grapes, not thinking at all about the fact that he had taken his salary in advance and now had nothing to live on. And the hero does not at all expect any reward for good; on the contrary, he believes that the world is not perfect. In the person of this noble man, Dostoevsky shows us how much beauty, pure and good lies even in the most limited human nature. Sometimes a person who has absolutely nothing himself gives this very “nothing” without a trace, knows how to compassion and love.
In depicting human suffering and injustice reigning in the world, F.M. Dostoevsky expresses his own pain and suffering. The author is looking for his own ways to save humanity, he longs for happiness for people humiliated and insulted by fate, he reverently and compassionately treats anyone, even the most humiliated person. This is the humanity of all his works. This is the greatness of the task that the writer set for himself: “restoration dead person, crushed unjustly by the pressure of circumstances... justification for the humiliated and rejected parties of society"
1. General susceptibility to compassion.
2. Test through suffering.
3. Responsibility for people suffering.
At all times, Russian people have had this spiritual quality like compassion. That is why people over the centuries have developed a special attitude towards people who suffer, especially those offended by nature, with physical defects. Those around them treated them with a certain amount of pity, sympathy and at the same time condescension. From here and almost loving relationship to holy fools, dwarfs, “God’s” old women. Offending such a person was considered a great sin. Moreover, they used to believe that helping the suffering in itself entailed atonement for even the most serious sins. Perhaps this is why in the 19th century many wealthy families kept so-called hangers-on and hangers-on.
The desire to free oneself from sins could even prompt such a stingy soul as the heroine of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin’s novel “The Golovlevs,” Arina Petrovna, to feed such an unfortunate soul. The attitude of the Russian person towards suffering itself, which is perceived as a test on the path to spiritual purification, is also surprising. Of course, such a character trait of the Russian people could not go unnoticed by writers, since human feelings and spiritual impulses have interested writers at all times. This problem is addressed differently in works of art. Writers had far different understandings and perceptions of the significance of experiences, spiritual torments and torments for the formation of a certain worldview of a person. However, the majority still came to the conclusion that without a certain amount of suffering and the emergence of compassion for living beings, the formation of a normally harmonious personality is generally impossible.
Of course, one of the first researchers of this Russian phenomenon was great writer F. M. Dostoevsky, who in his literary works I tried to draw the attention of readers not to the physical, but to the spiritual suffering of the common man.
In the novel “Crime and Punishment,” the image of Sonechka Marmeladova was wonderfully created. A girl who suffers and at the same time has a pronounced inclination towards compassion is forced to sell her body, live in the dirt, for the sake of a certain well-being of her family. However, despite the physical dirt, she is able to retain the purest thing in herself - her bright soul. Sonya perceives her life as a test that must be passed with humility and with God's word on her lips. Almost all the heroes of Dostoevsky's works are subjected to this great test through suffering. Sometimes one gets the impression that Mikhail Fedorovich simply does not understand and does not notice people who do not know how to suffer and do not themselves feel a craving for compassion, since these two interconnected feelings are a kind of measure of human holiness and meanness. Dostoevsky's heroes, suffering and tormented, each reveal themselves to the reader in their own way. Moreover, not everyone is able to withstand this test. Suffering pushes Raskolnikov to commit a serious crime - the murder of an old money-lender; Marmeladov, unable to bear it, becomes addicted to alcohol. However, more often than not, suffering actually purifies and somehow elevates a person. So, for example, the oppressor and furious admirer of Dunya Svidrigailov, under the influence of suffering from unrequited love, on the contrary, begins to perform kind, seemingly unusual actions. He deliberately refuses to marry a very young girl, leaving her money and stopping her mother’s desire to “sell” her daughter for a profit. He is actively concerned about the placement of Katerina Ivanovna’s children in decent conditions after the death of their mother. educational institutions and leaves them his money.
As a result, Raskolnikov, through suffering, as well as sympathy and love for Sonya, reconsiders his life attitudes and abandons his destructive theory. Thus, suffering people simply need the compassion of others. Dostoevsky showed in the best possible way that many, falling into difficult situation, are no longer able to correctly assess the situation and protect themselves from the vicissitudes of reality. That's why they're still in to a greater extent must count on the support and understanding of family and friends. Only in this case is their revival and return to normal life. Katerina Ivanovna understands this well when, without hesitation, she rushes to defend Sonya, accused of theft by Luzhin. Her personal tragedy only sharpens her sense of justice and compassion. The stepmother does not believe in Sonya’s guilt, even at the moment when money is found in the girl’s pocket. According to the writer, suffering atones for any guilt and at the same time can touch even the toughest person. This is perfectly demonstrated by the heroes of another Russian writer A.S. Pushkin. Masha's plight, main character novel " Captain's daughter“, even such an embittered and hardened heart as Pugachev’s could not help but touch. He, feeling a sense of compassion for the girl who had lost her parents and was imprisoned by her former admirer, managed to forgive the deception. The chieftain lets her and Grinev go in peace. Compassion and reverent attitude towards the suffering of others can often cool even the most irreconcilable rage and evoke sympathy for the enemy. So this feeling prompted General Mironov to stop the torture of the Bashkir envoy Pugachev. The messenger's plight evokes sympathy among those around him: a pitiful, hunched figure, lack of ears, nose and tongue. On Grineva appearance The Bashkir made a depressing impression. He concludes that whatever crime this man committed, he should not be punished in such a barbaric manner. Often suffering is not only a test for the person in distress, but also for the people around him. At the same time, everyone is able to respond differently to a similar situation of a loved one or acquaintance: someone will try to restore justice, someone will prefer to stay on the sidelines, and someone will not take advantage of the current situation and will derive some benefit for themselves.
Luzhin, for example, knows very well that Dunya does not love him, she is marrying only out of a hopeless situation, and even he is guided in his choice not by feelings, but by a certain calculation. However, this does not stop him at all; until the last moment he makes plans to reunite with the girl. Shvabrin, who took advantage troubled times, and the defenselessness of his beloved, locks Masha in the room, forcing her to marry him.
And Porfiry Golovlev, the main character of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin’s novel “The Golovlev Gentlemen,” does not feel guilty at all when he takes the money of his brothers and mother. Thus, each of the heroes, taking advantage of someone else’s grief, manifests himself and is far from being the best side. Luzhin is driven by selfishness and the desire for power over the weaker. Shvabrin is trying to take revenge for his wounded pride. Golovlev is overcome by a feeling of greed and money-grubbing. However, no matter how the plot turns, everyone bears a certain responsibility for those who are nearby and experience suffering. Lack of sympathy for such people is certainly punished according to deserts. None of the offenders listed above finds either happiness or peace in their lives. The heaviness of what they have done settles like a heavy burden in their souls. Luzhin is rejected. Shvabrin is brought to justice, and his slander against Grinev is successfully refuted. Porfiry Golovlev is forced to spend the rest of his life alone. Feeling guilty, he tries to get to his mother’s grave at night and freezes on the road.
That is, the lack of compassion for other people makes a person spiritually poorer, destroys his personality and brings all sorts of troubles to him.
Mercy and compassion in the novel "Crime and Punishment"
Charity consists not so much in material help, but in spiritual support of one's neighbor.
L.N. Tolstoy
Mercy and compassion.
I want swans to live
And from the white flocks
The world has become kinder...
A. Dementyev
Songs and epics, fairy tales and stories, stories and novels of Russian writers teach us kindness, mercy and compassion. And how many proverbs and sayings have been created! “Remember good and forget evil,” “A good deed lives for two centuries,” “While you live, you do good, only the path of good is the salvation of the soul,” says folk wisdom. So what are mercy and compassion? And why today does a person sometimes bring more evil to another person than good? Probably because kindness is a state of mind when a person is able to come to the aid of others, give good advice, and sometimes just feel sorry. Not everyone is able to feel someone else's grief as their own, to sacrifice something for people, and without this there is no mercy or compassion. kind man attracts to himself like a magnet, he gives a piece of his heart, his warmth to the people around him. That is why each of us needs a lot of love, justice, sensitivity, so that we have something to give to others. We understand all this thanks to the great Russian writers and their wonderful works.
The heroes of the novel by F.M. are truly merciful and compassionate people. Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment". The appearance of the novel “Crime and Punishment” was the result of the writer’s generalization of the most important contradictions of the 60s. Dostoevsky pondered his work for 15 years. Even at engineering school, the future writer was interested in the topic of a strong personality and his rights. In 1865, when Dostoevsky was abroad, the plan for the future novel took shape. Based on the original plot - dramatic story Marmeladov family, then the crime story came to the fore, and central theme became the topic of moral responsibility. “Crime and Punishment” is an ideological novel, social and philosophical in theme, tragic in the nature of the problems posed, adventurous in its plot. The writer's focus is on the terrible reality of Russia at the end of the 19th century, with its poverty, lack of rights, corruption and disunity of the individual, suffocating from the consciousness of his own powerlessness.
Main character novel, dropout student Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, goes to terrible crime- taking the life of another person - under the influence of theories popular among young people of the 60s of the 19th century. Rodion is a dreamer, a romantic, a proud and strong, noble personality, completely absorbed in the idea. The thought of murder evokes in him not only moral, but also aesthetic disgust: “The main thing: dirty, dirty, disgusting, disgusting!..”. the hero asks the questions: is it permissible to commit small evil for the sake of great good, does a noble goal justify a criminal means? Raskolnikov has a kind and compassionate heart, wounded by the spectacle of human suffering. The reader is convinced of this by reading the episode in which Raskolnikov wanders around St. Petersburg. The hero sees terrible pictures big city and the suffering of the people in it. He is convinced that people cannot find a way out of the social impasse. The unbearably hard life of poor workers, doomed to poverty, humiliation, drunkenness, prostitution and death, shocks him. Raskolnikov perceives other people's pain more acutely than his own. Risking his life, he saves children from the fire; shares the latter with the father of a deceased comrade; a beggar himself, he gives money for the funeral of Mameladov, whom he barely knew. But the hero understands that he cannot help everyone, being a simple student. Raskolnikov comes to the realization of his own powerlessness in the face of evil. And in despair, the hero decides to “transgress” the moral law - to kill out of love for humanity, to commit evil for the sake of good. Raskolnikov seeks power not out of vanity, but in order to really help people dying in poverty and lawlessness. Mercy and compassion are the moral laws that prompted Raskolnikov to commit a crime. The hero feels sorry for everyone: his mother, his sister, the Marmeladov family. For their sake, he committed a crime. The hero wanted to make his mother happy. She helped her children all her life, sending her son the last money, trying to make her daughter’s life easier. Raskolnikov wanted to save his sister, who lived as a companion to the landowners, from the voluptuous claims of the head of the landowner family. WITH Marmeladov Rodion meets in a tavern, where Semyon Zakharovich talks about himself. A drunken official appears before Raskolnikov, the destroyer of his own family, who deserves sympathy, but not condescension. His unfortunate wife evokes burning compassion in Raskolnikov, but she is also guilty of the fact that, even though “the children were sick and crying, they didn’t eat,” she sent her stepdaughter to the panel... and the whole family lives in her shame, in her suffering. Raskolnikov's conclusion about the meanness of people seems inevitable. Only one thing stuck as a thorn in the hero’s mind: what is Sonya’s fault for sacrificing herself to save her sisters and brother? What are they themselves to blame for - this boy and two girls? For the sake of these children and all others, Raskolnikov decides to commit a crime. He says that children "cannot remain children." The hero explains to the frightened Sonya: “What to do? Break what is needed, once for all, and that’s all: and take on the suffering! What? Don’t you understand? Later you will understand... Freedom and power, and most importantly - power! With all the trembling creatures, we must all over the anthill!..” What kind of suffering is Raskolnikov talking about? Probably about murder. He is ready to step over himself by killing a person so that subsequent generations can live in harmony with their conscience.
Raskolnikov’s tragedy is that, according to his theory, he wants to act according to the principle “everything is permitted,” but at the same time, the fire of sacrificial love for people lives in him.
In the novel, almost every character is capable of empathy, compassion and be merciful. Sonechka transgresses through herself for others. To save the family, he goes to the panel. Sonecha finds love and compassion, a willingness to share his fate, Raskolnikov. It is to Sonechka that the hero confesses his crime. She does not judge Raskolnikov for his sin, but painfully sympathizes with him and calls on him to “suffer” and atone for his guilt before God and people. Thanks to his love for the heroine and her love for him, Rodion is resurrected to a new life. "Sonechka, Sonechka
Marmeladova, eternal Sonechka, while the world stands!” - a symbol of self-sacrifice in the name of one’s neighbor and endless “insatiable” compassion.
Raskolnikov’s sister, Avdotya Romanovna, who, according to Rodion, “would rather become a Negro to a planter or a Latvian to a Baltic German than to fuel her spirit and her moral sense by a connection with a person she does not respect,” is going to marry Luzhin. Avdotya Romanovna does not love this man, but with this marriage she hopes to improve the situation not so much for herself, but for her brother and mother.
In this work, Dostoevsky showed that it is impossible to do good relying on evil. That compassion and mercy cannot coexist in a person along with hatred of individual people. Here either hatred displaces compassion, or vice versa. A struggle of these feelings takes place in Raskolnikov’s soul, and, in the end, mercy and compassion win. The hero understands that he cannot live with this black spot, the murder of the old woman, on his conscience. He understands that he is a “trembling creature” and had no right to kill. Every person has the right to life. Who are we to deprive him of this right?
Mercy and compassion play a significant role in the novel. The relationships of almost all the characters are built on them: Raskolnikov and Sonechka, Raskolnikov and Dunya, Raskolnikov and the Marmeladov family, Pulkhiriya Alexandrovna and Raskolnikov, Sonya and the Marmeladovs, Sonya and Dunya. Moreover, mercy and compassion in these relationships were manifested on both sides in contact.
Yes, life is harsh. Many human qualities heroes were tested. During these trials, some became lost among vices and evil. But the main thing is that, among the vulgarity, dirt and depravity, the heroes were able to preserve, perhaps, the most important human qualities - mercy and compassion.
I want swans to live
And from the white flocks
The world has become kinder...
A. Dementyev
Songs and epics, fairy tales and stories, stories and novels of Russian writers teach us kindness, mercy and compassion. And how many proverbs and sayings have been created! “Remember good and forget evil,” “A good deed lives for two centuries,” “While you live, you do good, only the path of good is the salvation of the soul,” says popular wisdom. So what are mercy and compassion? And why today does a person sometimes bring more evil to another person than good? Probably because kindness is a state of mind when a person is able to come to the aid of others, give good advice, and sometimes just feel sorry. Not everyone is able to feel someone else's grief as their own, to sacrifice something for people, and without this there is no mercy or compassion. A kind person attracts people to himself like a magnet; he gives a piece of his heart, his warmth to the people around him. That is why each of us needs a lot of love, justice, sensitivity, so that we have something to give to others. We understand all this thanks to the great Russian writers and their wonderful works.
The heroes of the novel by F.M. are truly merciful and compassionate people. Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment". The appearance of the novel “Crime and Punishment” was the result of the writer’s generalization of the most important contradictions of the 60s. Dostoevsky pondered his work for 15 years. Even at engineering school, the future writer was interested in the topic of a strong personality and his rights. In 1865, when Dostoevsky was abroad, the plan for the future novel took shape. The initial plot was based on the dramatic story of the Marmeladov family, then the story of the crime came to the fore, and the theme of moral responsibility became the central theme.
“Crime and Punishment” is an ideological novel, social and philosophical in theme, tragic in the nature of the problems posed, adventurous in its plot. The writer’s focus is on the terrible reality of Russia at the end of the 19th century, with its poverty, lack of rights, corruption and disunity of the individual, suffocating from the consciousness of his own powerlessness.
The main character of the novel, a dropout student Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, commits a terrible crime - taking the life of another person - under the influence of theories popular among young people of the 60s of the 19th century. Rodion is a dreamer, a romantic, a proud and strong, noble personality, completely absorbed in the idea. The thought of murder evokes in him not only moral, but also aesthetic disgust: “The main thing: dirty, dirty, disgusting, disgusting!..”. the hero asks the questions: is it permissible to commit small evil for the sake of great good, does a noble goal justify a criminal means? Raskolnikov has a kind and compassionate heart, wounded by the spectacle of human suffering. The reader is convinced of this by reading the episode in which Raskolnikov wanders around St. Petersburg. The hero sees terrible pictures of the big city and the suffering of the people in it. He is convinced that people cannot find a way out of the social impasse. The unbearably hard life of poor workers, doomed to poverty, humiliation, drunkenness, prostitution and death, shocks him. Raskolnikov perceives other people's pain more acutely than his own. Risking his life, he saves children from the fire; shares the latter with the father of a deceased comrade; a beggar himself, he gives money for the funeral of Mameladov, whom he barely knew. But the hero understands that he cannot help everyone, being a simple student. Raskolnikov comes to the realization of his own powerlessness in the face of evil. And in despair, the hero decides to “transgress” the moral law - to kill out of love for humanity, to commit evil for the sake of good. Raskolnikov seeks power not out of vanity, but in order to really help people dying in poverty and lawlessness. Mercy and compassion are the moral laws that prompted Raskolnikov to commit a crime. The hero feels sorry for everyone: his mother, his sister, the Marmeladov family. For their sake, he committed a crime. The hero wanted to make his mother happy. She helped her children all her life, sending her son the last money, trying to make her daughter’s life easier. Raskolnikov wanted to save his sister, who lived as a companion to the landowners, from the voluptuous claims of the head of the landowner family. Rodion meets Mareladov in a tavern, where Semyon Zakharovich talks about himself. A drunken official appears before Raskolnikov, the destroyer of his own family, who deserves sympathy, but not condescension. His unfortunate wife evokes burning compassion in Raskolnikov, but she is also guilty of the fact that, even though “the children were sick and crying, they did not eat,” she sent her stepdaughter to the panel... and the whole family lives in her shame, in her suffering. Raskolnikov's conclusion about the meanness of people seems inevitable. Only one thing stuck as a thorn in the hero’s mind: what is Sonya’s fault for sacrificing herself to save her sisters and brother? What are they themselves to blame for - this boy and two girls? For the sake of these children and all others, Raskolnikov decides to commit a crime. He says that children "cannot remain children." The hero explains to the frightened Sonya: “What should I do? Break what is needed once and for all, and that’s all: and take the suffering upon yourself! What? Don't you understand? Afterwards you will understand... Freedom and power, and most importantly - power! Over the entire trembling creature, over the entire anthill!..” What kind of suffering is Raskolnikov talking about? Probably about murder. He is ready to step over himself by killing a person so that subsequent generations can live in harmony with their conscience.
Raskolnikov’s tragedy is that, according to his theory, he wants to act according to the principle “everything is permitted,” but at the same time, the fire of sacrificial love for people lives in him.
In the novel, almost every character is capable of empathy, compassion and be merciful.
Sonechka transgresses through herself for others. To save the family, he goes to the panel. Sonecha finds love and compassion, a willingness to share his fate, Raskolnikov. It is to Sonechka that the hero confesses his crime. She does not judge Raskolnikov for his sin, but painfully sympathizes with him and calls on him to “suffer” and atone for his guilt before God and people. Thanks to his love for the heroine and her love for him, Rodion is resurrected to a new life. “Sonechka, Sonechka Marmelladova, eternal Sonechka, as long as the world stands!” - a symbol of self-sacrifice in the name of one’s neighbor and endless “insatiable” compassion.
Raskolnikov’s sister, Avdotya Romanovna, who, according to Rodion, “would rather become a Negro to a planter or a Latvian to a Baltic German than to fuel her spirit and her moral sense by a connection with a person she does not respect,” is going to marry Luzhin. Avdotya Romanovna does not love this man, but with this marriage she hopes to improve the situation not so much for herself, but for her brother and mother.
In this work, Dostoevsky showed that it is impossible to do good relying on evil. That compassion and mercy cannot coexist in a person along with hatred of individual people. Here either hatred displaces compassion, or vice versa. A struggle of these feelings takes place in Raskolnikov’s soul, and, in the end, mercy and compassion win.
The hero understands that he cannot live with this black spot, the murder of the old woman, on his conscience. He understands that he is a “trembling creature” and had no right to kill. Every person has the right to life. Who are we to deprive him of this right?
Mercy and compassion play a significant role in the novel. The relationships of almost all the characters are built on them: Raskolnikov and Sonechka, Raskolnikov and Dunya, Raskolnikov and the Marmeladov family, Pulkhiriya Alexandrovna and Raskolnikov, Sonya and the Marmeladovs, Sonya and Dunya. Moreover, mercy and compassion in these relationships were manifested on both sides in contact.
Yes, life is harsh. Many of the heroes' human qualities were tested. During these trials, some became lost among vices and evil. But the main thing is that, among the vulgarity, dirt and depravity, the heroes were able to preserve, perhaps, the most important human qualities - mercy and compassion.
In my opinion, compassion is the ability to provide support, to share the sorrows and sorrows of a person in need. It helps you get through difficult moments, and sometimes even saves your life. It is important to be able to use this quality, because it contains humanity and humanism, without which a person’s life would be at risk.
Many writers have addressed this problem in their works. Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment” was no exception.
Rodion Raskolnikov is a poor student who is dissatisfied with his position in society.
He is depressed by the inequality between rich and poor. Under pressure from constant problems, Rodion suffers. He wishes better life, therefore creates a theory that, in his opinion, gives him the right to take people's lives. He is unable to accept money from his sister, because for this Dunyasha wants to enter into a marriage of convenience. For Raskolnikov, the only way out is crime. The main character brutally kills an old pawnbroker and her sister Lizaveta, with an unborn child.
Let's imagine if there was a person capable of understanding and sharing the hardships of Raskolnikov's fate, would a crime be committed? I think not.
Support and compassion can remove the shackles of hopelessness from a person. Rodion needed this, but, alas, no one was able to help him before the murder.
After the crime, Raskolnikov realizes the inconsistency of his theory. Torment and remorse become worse than any punishment. It is almost impossible to live normally with such a burden on the soul. Sonechka Marmeladova, a girl with a “yellow” ticket, but with an incredibly pure, unspoiled soul, helps the hero to be reborn spiritually. She wants to help Rodion with all her heart. In the episode where Raskolnikov confesses to her that he has committed a crime, Sonya does not condemn him for his sin, but sympathizes with him and calls for nationwide repentance. She forces the student to pray to cleanse himself before God. Recognition by the people gives Raskolnikov a chance to new life. He is relieved and ready to be punished.
Sonya saw in Rodion, first of all, a person, and only then a criminal. She really knew how to sympathize and thus saved the student.
I believe that being compassionate is being human and treating others the way you would like to be treated. And this is so important in our world.
Updated: 2015-04-06
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