The image of the little man in Crime and Punishment is constructed somewhat differently, but basically in the same manner. His embodiment there is Marmeladov, a petty official who was expelled from service for drunkenness. His image is internally deeply dramatic. In this seemingly completely worthless person, capable of drinking away the last of his family's money and going to Sonya to ask for a hangover, Dostoevsky, true to his creative principles, finds a living human soul. From Marmeladov’s monologues it is very noticeable that he was once not devoid of pride and consciousness of his own human dignity. Now all that remains of this pride is shame. Marmeladov is no longer able to cope with his destructive passion, is not able to rise, but he is able to punish himself for this with the most severe moral punishment. If he were alone, he would not suffer. But the consciousness that Katerina Ivanovna and the children are suffering because of him is what torments Marmeladov, forcing him to turn with his heartbreaking and desperate confession to the regulars of the tavern, to Raskolnikov. He, once a proud and conscientious person, is not afraid to expose himself to shame and ridicule; on the contrary, he strives for this, because this is how he punishes himself. It is amazing the depth with which this degraded person is able to feel the moral suffering of Katerina Ivanovna, to constantly think about her and the children, about his guilt and his sin. And, what is very important for Dostoevsky, this man continues to trust in God - this is the meaning of the parable he told Raskolnikov. And - another important point for Dostoevsky - hope in divine mercy is combined in Marmeladov with humility and self-abasement, which replaced the former pride. Such a person, according to Dostoevsky, is not lost to God.
An extremely touching detail that completes the image of Marmeladov is the gingerbread that is found in his pocket after death - evidence of his last thought about children. This detail finally sets the evaluative emphasis: the author is far from despising or at least condemning Marmeladov; he is a sinner, but deserves forgiveness. Continuing the tradition of his predecessors, Dostoevsky brings to the fore in his interpretation of the theme of the little man the principle of humanism, the need not to condemn and throw a stone, but to understand and forgive.
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The theme of the “little man” is one of the central themes in Russian literature. Pushkin (“The Bronze Horseman”), Tolstoy, and Chekhov touched on it in their works. Continuing the traditions of Russian literature, especially Gogol, Dostoevsky writes with pain and love about the “little man” living in a cold and cruel world. The writer himself noted: “We all came out of Gogol’s “The Overcoat.”
The theme of the “little man”, “humiliated and insulted” was especially strong in Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment”. One after another, the writer reveals to us pictures of hopeless poverty.
Here is a woman throwing herself off a bridge, “with a yellow, elongated, wasted face and sunken eyes.” Here is a drunken, dishonored girl walking down the street, followed by a fat dandy who is clearly hunting for her. Former official Marmeladov, who has “nowhere to go” in life, drinks himself into alcohol and commits suicide. Exhausted by poverty, his wife, Ekaterina Ivanovna, dies of consumption. Sonya goes out onto the street to sell her body.
Dostoevsky emphasizes the power of the environment over man. Everyday little things become a whole system of characteristics for the writer. One has only to remember the conditions in which the “little people” have to live, and it becomes clear why they are so downtrodden and humiliated. Raskolnikov lives in a room with five corners, similar to a coffin. Sonya's home is a lonely room with a strange sharp corner. The taverns are dirty and terrible, in which, amid the screams of drunken people, you can hear the terrible confessions of destitute people.
In addition, Dostoevsky not only depicts the misfortunes of the “little man,” but also reveals the inconsistency of his inner world. Dostoevsky was the first to evoke such pity for the “humiliated and insulted” and who mercilessly showed the combination of good and evil in these people. The image of Marmeladov is very characteristic in this regard. On the one hand, one cannot help but feel sympathy for this poor and exhausted man, crushed by need. But Dostoevsky does not limit himself to touching sympathy for the “little man.” Marmeladov himself admits that his drunkenness completely ruined his family, that his eldest daughter was forced to go to the panel and that the family feeds, and he drinks with this “dirty” money.
The figure of his wife Ekaterina Ivanovna is also contradictory. She diligently preserves memories of a prosperous childhood, of her studies at the gymnasium, where she danced at the ball. She completely devoted herself to the desire to prevent her final fall, but she still sent her stepdaughter into prostitution and also accepts this money. Ekaterina Ivanovna, with her pride, strives to hide from the obvious truth: her house is ruined, and her younger children may repeat Sonechka’s fate.
The fate of Raskolnikov’s family is also difficult. His sister Dunya, wanting to help her brother, serves as a governess to the cynic Svidrigailov and is ready to marry the rich man Luzhin, for whom she feels disgust.
Dostoevsky's hero Raskolnikov rushes around the crazy city and sees only dirt, grief and tears. This city is so inhuman that it even seems like the delirium of a madman, and not the real capital of Russia. Therefore, Raskolnikov’s dream before the crime is not accidental: a drunk guy beats to death a small, skinny nag to the laughter of the crowd. This world is terrible and cruel, poverty and vice reign in it. It is this nag that becomes the symbol of all the “humiliated and insulted”, all the “little people” on the pages at whom the powers that be - Svidrigailov, Luzhin and the like - mock and make fun of them.
But Dostoevsky is not limited to this statement. He notes that it is in the heads of the humiliated and insulted that painful thoughts about their situation are born. Among these “poor people” Dostoevsky finds contradictory, deep and strong personalities who, due to certain life circumstances, are confused in themselves and in people. Of course, the most developed of them is the character of Raskolnikov himself, whose inflamed consciousness created a theory contrary to Christian laws.
It is characteristic that one of the most “humiliated and insulted” - Sonya Marmeladova - finds a way out of the seemingly absolute dead end of life. Without studying books on philosophy, but simply following the call of her heart, she finds the answer to the questions that torment the student philosopher Raskolnikov.
F. M. Dostoevsky created a bright canvas of immeasurable human torment, suffering and grief. Peering closely into the soul of the “little man,” he discovered in it deposits of spiritual generosity and beauty, not broken by the most difficult living conditions. And this was a new word not only in Russian, but also in world literature.
We all pity and love the clean, washed dead, but you should love the living, dirty ones.
V. M. Shukshin
F. M. Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment” describes an unusual crime committed by a poor student to test his terrible theory; in the novel it is called “blood according to conscience.” Raskolnikov divides all people into ordinary and extraordinary. The former must live in obedience, the latter “have the right, that is, not the official right, but they themselves have the right to allow their conscience to step over... other obstacles only if the fulfillment of their idea requires it” (3, V). Raskolnikov, having seen enough of the grief and the broken destinies of ordinary (“little”) people - the inhabitants of the St. Petersburg slums, decides to act, since he is no longer able to humbly observe the ugly life around him. Decisiveness, a deep and original mind, the desire to correct an imperfect world, and not to obey its unjust laws - these are the features that do not allow Raskolnikov’s image to be classified as a “little people”.
To believe in himself, the hero needs to make sure whether he is a “trembling creature” (that is, an ordinary person) or “has the right” (that is, an outstanding personality), whether he can afford “blood according to his conscience”, like successful historical heroes, or not can. If the test shows that he is one of the chosen ones, then one should boldly set about correcting the unjust world; for Raskolnikov this means making the life of “little people” easier. Thus, in Raskolnikov’s theory, the happiness of “little people” seems to be the main and ultimate goal. This conclusion is not contradicted even by the confession that the hero made to Sonya: he killed not to help his mother and sister Dunya, but “for himself” (5, IV).
From the above reasoning it follows that the theme of the “little man” is one of the main ones in the novel, as it is connected with both social and philosophical content. Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” sounded this theme even stronger and more tragic than Pushkin’s “The Station Agent” and Gogol’s “The Overcoat”. Dostoevsky chose the poorest and dirtiest part of St. Petersburg as the setting for his novel—the area of Sennaya Square and the Kuznechny Market. One after another, the writer unfolds pictures of the hopeless need of “little people”, insulted and humiliated by the unscrupulous “masters of life”. The novel describes in more or less detail several characters who can certainly be classified as the traditional type of “little people”: the sister of the old pawnbroker Lizaveta, who in Dostoevsky becomes a symbol of the “little man”, Raskolnikova’s mother Pulcheria Alexandrovna, Marmeladov’s wife Katerina Ivanovna. However, the most striking image in this series is, of course, Semyon Zakharovich Marmeladov himself, telling his story to Raskolnikov in a tavern.
In this hero, Dostoevsky combined Pushkin and Gogol traditions in the depiction of “little people.” Marmeladov, like Bashmachkin, is pitiful and insignificant, powerless to change his life (to end drunkenness), but he retains, like Samson Vyrin, a living feeling - love for Sonya and Katerina Ivanovna. He is unhappy and, realizing his hopeless situation, exclaims: “Do you know what it means when there is nowhere to go?” (1,II). Just like Vyrin, Marmeladov begins to drink out of grief, misfortune (he lost his job), fear of life and powerlessness to do anything for his family. Like Vyrin, Semyon Zakharovich is worried about the bitter fate of his daughter Sonya, who is forced to “step over” and go to the panel in order to feed Katerina Ivanovna’s starving children. The difference, however, is that the stationmaster's daughter was happy (with her love for Minsky), and Sonya is unhappy.
Dostoevsky built the storyline of the Marmeladov family in the novel in such a way as to emphasize the tragic character of Semyon Zakharovich. Drunken Marmeladov falls under the wheels of a smart carriage through his own fault and dies, leaving his large family without a livelihood. He understands this well, so his last words are addressed to Sonya, the only support for Katerina Ivanovna and the children: “Sonya! Daughter! Forgive me!” - he shouted and wanted to stretch out his hand to her, but, losing support, he fell off the sofa...” (2, VII).
Katerina Ivanovna does not outwardly resemble the traditional “little person” who meekly accepts suffering. She, according to Marmeladov, is “a hot-tempered, proud and unyielding lady” (1, II), she fusses over the general for her husband, arranges “educational” scandals for her drunken husband, and brings Sonya to the point of reproaches that the girl goes to the panel to earn money for bread for the family. But in essence, Katerina Ivanovna, like all “little people,” is broken by life’s failures. She cannot resist the blows of fate. Her helpless despair is manifested in her last insane act: she runs out into the street with her small children to beg and dies, refusing her final confession. When she is asked to invite a priest, she replies: “What? A priest?.. No need... Where do you have an extra ruble?.., I have no sins!... God must forgive anyway... He himself knows how I suffered!.. But if he doesn’t forgive, he won’t necessary!..” (5,V). This scene indicates that Dostoevsky’s “little man” even reaches the point of rebellion against God.
Sonya Marmeladova, the main character of the novel, looks very similar to the traditional “little man” who humbly submits to circumstances and meekly goes to death. To save people like Sonya, Raskolnikov came up with his theory, but it turns out that Sonya is only at first glance a weak character, but in fact she is a strong person: seeing that her family had reached extreme poverty, she made a difficult decision and saved, at least temporarily, her relatives from starvation. Despite her shameful profession, Sonya maintains spiritual purity. She endures with dignity the bullying of others about her position in society. Moreover, thanks to her mental fortitude, it was she who was able to support the murderer Raskolnikov, it was she who helps him find the right way out of the moral impasse, from Dostoevsky’s point of view: through sincere repentance and suffering, to return to normal human life. She herself atones for her involuntary sins, and supports Raskolnikov in hard labor. This is how the theme of the “little man” unexpectedly turns in the novel “Crime and Punishment.”
Raskolnikov’s friend Razumikhin, completely unlike the traditional “little man,” is a very attractive, complete hero. Courage, common sense, and love of life help Razumikhin to withstand all adversity: “He was also remarkable because no failures ever embarrassed him and no bad circumstances seemed to be able to crush him” (1, IV). Thus, Razumikhin cannot be classified as a “little people” because he constantly resists misfortunes and does not bend under the blows of fate. A faithful comrade, Razumikhin takes care of the sick Raskolnikov, invites Doctor Zosimov to see him; Knowing about Porfiry Petrovich’s suspicions about Raskolnikov, he tries to shield the main character by explaining his friend’s strange actions with illness. A poor student himself, he takes care of Raskolnikov's mother and sister, and sincerely falls in love with the dowry-free Dunya. She, however, unexpectedly and very opportunely receives a dowry inheritance from Marfa Petrovna Svidrigailova.
So, in the literary type “little man” we can identify common features: low rank, poverty, and most importantly, the inability to withstand life’s failures and rich offenders.
After Gogol’s “The Overcoat” (1842), Russian writers began to often turn to the image of the “little man” in their works. N.A. Nekrasov, acting as an editor, published in 1845 a two-volume collection “Physiology of St. Petersburg”, which included essays about people from the city slums and back streets of the capital: V.I. Dal portrayed a St. Petersburg janitor, I.I. Panaev - feuilletonist, D.V. Grigorovich - an organ grinder, E.P. Grebenok - residents of the provincial outskirts of St. Petersburg. These essays were mainly descriptive, that is, they contained portrait, psychological and speech characteristics of “little people.” Dostoevsky, in his stories and novels, offered a deep understanding of the social status and character of the “little man,” which fundamentally distinguished his works from the stories and essays of the above-mentioned authors.
If Pushkin and Gogol’s main feelings towards the “little man” were pity and compassion, then Dostoevsky expressed a different approach to such heroes: he evaluates them more critically. “Little people” before Dostoevsky were predominantly deeply and innocently suffering, and Dostoevsky portrayed them as people who were largely to blame for their plight. For example, Marmeladov, with his drunkenness, pushes his beloved family to death, blaming all worries about young children on Sonya and the half-crazy Katerina Ivanovna. In other words, Dostoevsky’s image of the “little man” becomes more complex, deepens, and enriched with new ideas. This is expressed in the fact that Dostoevsky’s heroes (Marmeladov, Katerina Ivanovna, Sonya and others) not only suffer, but they themselves declare their suffering, they themselves explain their lives. Neither Samson Vyrin nor Akakiy Akakievich Bashmachkin formulated the reasons for their misfortunes, but only meekly endured them, obediently submitting to the blows of fate.
In the formula “little man,” Dostoevsky places the emphasis not on the small, like his literary predecessors, but on the person. For the humiliated and insulted heroes of Crime and Punishment, the worst thing is to lose self-respect and human dignity. Marmeladov discusses this in confession, and Katerina Ivanovna screams before her death. That is, Dostoevsky’s “little people” themselves refute the theory of Raskolnikov, who considered them only “trembling creatures”, material for the experiments of “extraordinary” people.
Who did the writers mean by calling some generalized image of their hero this way? This is a person who is not small in size or height; in Russian literature this is the name for a person who may not be dressed sparsely, but most importantly, he is quiet and downtrodden, intimidated by higher officials.
Before Fyodor Dostoevsky, such heroes were described by such writers as Alexander Pushkin in his work “The Station Warden”, Nikolai Gogol in the story “The Overcoat”. But it was Dostoevsky who penetrated most deeply into this topic and showed the “little man” in his deeply psychological novel “Crime and Punishment.”
The main character tried to at least change something, to break out of poverty, he fought when others simply folded their hands. But, unfortunately, he is also a “little man.” Sonechka also belongs to such people, but she fights and, together with Raskolnikov, wins. She had a hard time: going through hunger, ending up on the panel in order to survive and at the same time remain a gentle and sweet creature. Throughout the entire novel, Sonya submits to her fate, but she cannot fully come to terms with this state of affairs. That's why she is looking for her own world, where she can find salvation.
Sonya Marmeladova finds her own world, which supports her in life, cannot break her, as her parents did - this is the world of God. And despite the fact that both Sonya and Rodion are “little people,” they were able to prove themselves, were able to fight for their existence, and not vegetate insignificantly and drag out their miserable existence. They were born in families where they were doomed to become “little” people, and therefore they followed the path of these very “little people”, submitting, as life taught them to do. But at some point they decided not to submit and to rise above this terrible reality.
Sonya not only tried to find a new life and believe in it, but also helped Rodion in this. He finally acquired faith in a new life, in the fact that the future ahead will be better than the present. And a new story begins in the lives of these people, where renewal and rebirth await them. So Dostoevsky showed how a “little man” can be morally reborn. And this salvation, according to the author, can only be found by having faith in God, because this is the fairest judgment.
F. M. Dostoevsky in his work showed the immensity of the suffering of humiliated and insulted people and expressed enormous pain for this suffering. The writer himself was humiliated and insulted by the terrible reality that broke the fate of his heroes. Each of his works looks like a personal bitter confession. This is exactly how the novel “Crime and Punishment” is perceived. It reflects a desperate protest against the cruel reality that crushed millions of people, just as the unfortunate Marmeladov was crushed to death.
The story of the moral struggle of the novel's protagonist, Rodion Raskolnikov, unfolds against the backdrop of everyday life in the city. The description of St. Petersburg in the novel makes a depressing impression. Everywhere there is dirt, stench, stuffiness. Drunken cries are heard from the taverns, poorly dressed people crowd the boulevards and squares: “Near the taverns on the lower floors, in the dirty and smelly courtyards of Sennaya Square, and most of all near the taverns, there were crowds of many different and every kind of industrialists and rags... There are no rags here. attracted no one’s arrogant attention, and one could walk around in any form without scandalizing anyone.” Raskolnikov is one of this crowd: “He was so poorly dressed that another, even an ordinary person, would be ashamed to go out into the street in such rags during the day.”
The life of the other heroes of the novel is also terrible - the drunken official Marmeladov, his wife Katerina Ivanovna, who is dying of consumption, Raskolnikov’s mother and sister, who are experiencing the bullying of landowners and rich people.
Dostoevsky depicts various shades of the psychological experiences of a poor man who has nothing to pay his landlord’s rent. The writer shows the torment of children growing up in a dirty corner next to a drunken father and a dying mother, amid constant abuse and quarrels; the tragedy of a young and pure girl, forced due to the desperate situation of her family to start selling herself and dooming herself to constant humiliation.
However, Dostoevsky is not limited to describing everyday phenomena and facts of terrifying reality. He seems to connect them with the depiction of the complex characters of the novel's heroes. The writer strives to show that the everyday everyday life of the city gives rise not only to material poverty and lack of rights, but also cripples the psychology of people. The “little people” driven to despair begin to have various fantastic “ideas” that are no less nightmarish than the reality around them.
This is Raskolnikov’s “idea” about Napoleons and “trembling creatures,” “ordinary” and “extraordinary” people. Dostoevsky shows how this philosophy is born from life itself, under the influence of the terrifying existence of “little people.”
But not only Raskolnikov’s fate consists of tragic trials and painful searches for a way out of the current situation. The lives of the other heroes of the novel - Marmeladov, Sonya, and Dunya - are also deeply tragic.
The heroes of the novel are painfully aware of the hopelessness of their situation and the cruelty of reality. “After all, it is necessary that every person can at least go somewhere. For there comes a time when you definitely need to go somewhere!.., after all, it is necessary that every person has at least one such place where they would be pitied!.. Do you understand, do you understand... what does it mean, when there is nowhere else to go?..” - from these words of Marmeladov, sounding like a cry for salvation, the heart of every reader contracts. They, in fact, express the main idea of the novel. This is the cry of the soul of a man, exhausted, crushed by his inevitable fate.
The main character of the novel feels a close connection with all humiliated and suffering people, feels a moral responsibility towards them. The fates of Sonya Marmeladova and Dunya are connected in his mind into one knot of social and moral problems. After committing the crime, Raskolnikov is overcome by despair and anxiety. He experiences fear, hatred of his persecutors, horror of a committed and irreparable act. And then he begins to look more closely than before at other people, to compare his fate with theirs.
Raskolnikov brings Sonya's fate closer to his own; in her behavior and attitude to life, he begins to look for a solution to the issues that torment him.
Sonya Marmeladova appears in the novel as the bearer of the moral ideals of millions of “humiliated and insulted.” Like Raskolnikov, Sonya is a victim of the existing unjust order of things. Her father's drunkenness, the suffering of her stepmother, brother and sisters, doomed to hunger and poverty, forced her, like Raskolnikov, to cross the line of morality. She begins to sell her body, giving herself over to the vile and depraved world. But, unlike Raskolnikov, she is firmly convinced that no hardships in life can justify violence and crime. Sonya calls on Raskolnikov to abandon the morality of the “superman” in order to steadfastly unite his fate with the fate of suffering and oppressed humanity and thereby atone for his guilt before him.
“Little people” in Dostoevsky’s novel, despite the severity of their situation, prefer to be victims rather than executioners. It's better to be crushed than to crush others! The main character gradually comes to this conclusion. At the end of the novel, we see him on the threshold of a “new life,” “a gradual transition from one world to another, acquaintance with a new, hitherto completely unknown reality.”