F. M. Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment” is one of the most complex works of Russian classical literature. There are many heroes in it, each of whom has their own destiny, their own philosophy, their own point of view on the world. But the uniqueness of the author’s position in this novel lies in the fact that the writer finds points of intersection between different heroes. Such heroes, of course, are Sonechka Marmeladova and Raskolnikov.
From the very beginning of the novel, we see that the girl’s fate somehow touched Raskolnikov’s heart. This happened at the moment when Marmeladov, in the tavern, spoke about her sacrificial act: she went out into the street to save her family from hunger.
In the most difficult, difficult days for him, Raskolnikov, having broken all ties with his loved ones, carries his pain in deep loneliness. And when she becomes unbearable, he goes to Sonya. It is in her soul, humiliated by circumstances and inherently beautiful, that he seeks peace.
Despite the complete dissimilarity of these two people, they have something in common. Sonya, like Raskolnikov, broke and trampled herself. Raskolnikov, denying the idea of sacrifice, tells Sonya that she, too, “overstepped, was able to overstep.” This is about moral ruin personalities, in this sense both heroes are equally tragic. Raskolnikov is attracted to Sonya not only by the understanding of the commonality of their destinies (“a murderer and a harlot”), but also by the realization that a person cannot be alone. Even the drunkard Marmeladov, who brought a lot of grief to the family, believes: “After all, it is necessary that every person has at least one place where they would feel sorry for him.” In this sense, Raskolnikov sees salvation in Sonya’s mercy. Thanks to this attitude of Sonya, a very important turn from suffering to compassion takes place in Raskolnikov’s soul.
Sonya, with her characteristic kindness, not understanding Raskolnikov’s complex philosophical constructions, feels the main thing: “he is terribly, infinitely unhappy,” and he needs her. For Raskolnikov, Sonya is the embodiment of endless moral torment. But at the same time, Rodion knows: Sonya will never leave him, will follow him to prison, will share his fate, and this gives him strength, clarifying the future.
And although Raskolnikov internally resists accepting Sonya’s sacrifice, in hard labor he soon realizes that Sonya, with her religiosity, kindness and mercy, with a heart open to people, becomes part of his existence. As the completion of this discovery sounds like a request to bring him the Gospel. “Can her beliefs not now also be my beliefs,” he thinks. Raskolnikov sees that religion, faith is the only refuge for Sonya. Raskolnikov wants to accept her faith not out of conviction (he never opened the Gospel that she gave him), but out of trust and gratitude to her, which force him to look at the world through her eyes.
If Sonya adheres to the traditional faith, then for Raskolnikov God is the embodiment of humanity, the ability to serve the unfortunate, the fallen. Raskolnikov understood in essence what Sonya did. And then he turned his gaze to the convicts and felt that they needed him. Convicted, rejected, they expect help from him, just as he himself once expected it from Sonya. They are waiting for help. The feeling of alienation from people in Raskolnikov’s soul gives way to a sense of community, unity with them, which leads to the spiritual purification of the hero. At this point the story of crime and punishment is interrupted, and life continues.
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In the novel "Crime and Punishment" Sonya and Raskolnikov are the main actors. Through the images of these heroes, Fyodor Mikhailovich is trying to convey to us main idea works, find answers to vital important questions being.
At first glance, there is nothing in common between Sonya Marmeladova and Rodion Raskolnikov. Their life paths intertwine unexpectedly and merge into one.
Raskolnikov is a poor student who abandoned his studies at the Faculty of Law, created a terrible theory about the right of a strong personality and plotted a brutal murder. An educated man, proud and vain, he is closed and uncommunicative. His dream is to become Napoleon.
Sofya Semyonovna Marmeladova is a timid, downtrodden creature who, by the will of fate, finds herself at the very bottom. An eighteen-year-old girl is uneducated, poor and unhappy. Having no other way to earn money, she sells her body. She was forced to lead such a lifestyle by pity and love for her loved ones.
At the heroes different tempers, different social circles, level of education, but the same unfortunate fate of the “humiliated and insulted.” They are united by the crime committed. Both crossed the moral line and found themselves outcasts. Raskolnikov kills people for the sake of an idea and glory, Sonya violates the laws of morality, saving her family from starvation. Sonya suffers under the weight of sin, but Raskolnikov does not feel guilty. But they are irresistibly drawn to each other...
Relationship stages
Acquaintance
A strange coincidence of circumstances, a chance meeting, brings the heroes of the novel together. Their relationship develops in stages.
Rodion Raskolnikov learns about Sonya's existence from the confusing story of the drunken Marmeladov. The fate of the girl interested the hero. Their acquaintance occurred much later and with sufficient tragic circumstances. Young people meet in the room of the Marmeladov family. A cramped corner, a dying official, unhappy Katerina Ivanovna, frightened children - this is the setting for the heroes’ first date. Rodion Raskolnikov unceremoniously looks at the girl who entered, “timidly looking around.” She is ready to die of shame for her obscene and inappropriate outfit.
Dating
The roads of Sonya and Raskolnikov in the novel Crime and Punishment often intersect as if completely by accident. First, Rodion Raskolnikov helps the girl. He gives her the last money for his father’s funeral, exposes Luzhin’s vile plan, who tried to accuse Sonya of theft. In heart young man There is still no room for great love, but he wants to communicate more and more with Sonya Marmeladova. His behavior seems strange. Avoiding communication with people, having parted with his family, he goes to Sonya and only to her confesses his terrible crime. Raskolnikov feels inner strength, which the heroine herself did not suspect.
Pity for the criminal
Rodion Raskolnikov and Sonya Marmeladova in Crime and Punishment are two outcasts. Their salvation is in each other. This is probably why the hero’s soul, tormented by doubts, is drawn to the destitute Sonya. He goes to her to feel sorry for her, although he himself needs compassion no less. “We are cursed together, we will go together,” thinks Raskolnikov. Unexpectedly, Sonya opens up to Rodion from the other side. She is not afraid of his confession, does not fall into hysterics. The girl reads aloud the Bible “The Story of the Resurrection of Lazarus” and cries with pity for her loved one: “What are you doing, that you did this to yourself!
There is no one more unhappy than you in the whole world now!” Sonya's power of persuasion is such that it makes her submit. Rodion Raskolnikov, on the advice of a friend, goes to the police station and does sincere confession. Throughout the journey, he feels Sonya's presence, her invisible support and love.
Love and devotion
Sonya is a deep and strong person. Having fallen in love with a person, she is ready to do anything for him. Without hesitation, the girl follows the convicted Raskolnikov to Siberia, deciding to stay nearby for eight long years of hard labor. Her sacrifice amazes the reader, but leaves the main character indifferent. Sonya's kindness resonates in the souls of the most brutal criminals. They rejoice at her appearance, turning to her and saying: “You are our mother, tender, sick.” Rodion Raskolnikov is still cold and rude when dating. His feelings awakened only after Sonya became seriously ill and fell ill. Raskolnikov suddenly realizes that she has become necessary and desirable to him. The love and devotion of a weak girl managed to melt the frozen heart of a criminal and awaken in him the good sides of his soul. F. M. Dostoevsky shows us how, having survived crime and punishment, they were resurrected by love.
Victory of good
The book of the great writer makes you think about the eternal questions of existence, believe in the power true love. She teaches us goodness, faith and mercy. The kindness of the weak Sonya turned out to be much stronger than that the evil that settled in Raskolnikov’s soul. She is omnipotent. “The soft and weak conquers the hard and strong,” said Lao Tzu.
Work test
Sofya Semyonovna Marmeladova (Sonya) is a character in Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment. For the first time we meet her in absentia, during a conversation between the girl’s father and Raskolnikov.
The action takes place in a tavern. Then, a few days later, Rodion meets her drunk. Not knowing that this is Sonya, he already wants to help her. What kind of spiritual appearance can we talk about? As in other works of the author, not everything is so simple. Her life is confused and full of tragedy. But, before moving on to the topic of Sonya Marmeladova’s spiritual feat, it is worth paying attention to her family.
Family of Sonya Marmeladova
Sonya was left without a mother early. Perhaps this played a role main role in her destiny. At the time of their acquaintance, she lives with her father (Semyon Zakharovich), stepmother (Katerina Ivanovna) and her three children left over from her first marriage.
Father of Sonya Marmeladova
Sonya's father, Semyon Zakharovich Marmeladov, was once a respected man, a titular adviser. Now he is an ordinary alcoholic who is unable to provide for his family. The Marmeladovs are on the verge. From day to day they risk being left not only without a piece of bread, but also without a roof over their heads. The landlady of the room the family rents continually threatens to throw them out onto the street. Sonya feels responsible for her father, because he took out all the valuables, even his wife’s clothes. Unable to watch what is happening, she decides to take care of the family herself. And he chooses not the most worthy profession for this. But the word “chooses” does not quite fit this situation. Did she have a choice? Most likely no! This is what spirituality is all about. feat of Sonya Marmeladova. Having a merciful character, she takes pity on her father. In my own way. Not realizing that he is the cause of all her troubles, she gives him money for vodka.
Stepmother Katerina Ivanovna
Sonya's stepmother is only 30 years old. What made her marry fifty-year-old Marmeladov? Nothing more than a miserable situation. Marmeladov himself admits that he is not a match for such a proud and educated woman. He found her in such distress that he simply could not help but feel sorry for her. Being an officer's daughter, she also did spiritual feat, agreeing to marry Marmeladov in the name of saving their children. Her relatives abandoned her and did not provide any help. described in the best possible way the life of the poorest segments of the Russian population of those times: what difficulties they faced, what they had to endure, etc. Katerina Ivanovna – a woman with higher education. She has extreme intelligence and a lively character. There are traces of pride in her. It was she who pushed Sonya to become a girl of easy virtue. But Dostoevsky finds justification for this too. Like any other mother, she is unable to bear the cries of her hungry children. One phrase spoken in the heat of the moment becomes fatal in the fate of her stepdaughter. Katerina Ivanovna herself could not even think that Sonya would take her words seriously. But when the girl returned home with the money and lay down on the bed, covering herself with a scarf, Katerina Ivanovna kneels in front of her and kisses her feet. She cries bitterly, asking forgiveness for her stepdaughter's fall. Of course, the reader may wonder: why didn’t she take this path herself? Not so simple. Katerina Ivanovna is sick with tuberculosis. Consumption, as they called him at that time. Every day she gets worse and worse. But she continues to carry out her duties around the house - cooking, cleaning and washing all members of her family. At that time, her stepdaughter was 18 years old. Katerina Ivanovna understood the sacrifice she had to make for the sake of people completely strangers to her. Can this act be called a spiritual feat of Sonya Marmeladova? Of course yes. The stepmother did not allow anyone to speak badly about her; she appreciated her help.
Children of Katerina Ivanovna
As for Katerina Ivanovna’s children, there were three of them. The first is Polya, 10 years old, the second is Kolya, 7 years old, and the third is Lida, 6 years old. Katerina Ivanovna is a woman with a difficult character. She is lively and emotional. Sonya has suffered from her more than once, but she continues to respect her. Sonya perceives Katerina Ivanovna’s children not as step-brothers, but as her own, blood-related brothers and sisters. They love her no less. And this can also be called the spiritual feat of Sonya Marmeladova. Katerina Ivanovna treats everyone with great severity. She cannot stand crying, even if the children cry from hunger. In a conversation with Raskolnikov, Marmeladov mentions that they, poor children, also suffer greatly from their mother. Raskolnikov himself becomes convinced of this when he accidentally ends up in their house. A frightened girl stands in the corner a little boy crying his eyes out, as if he had just been severely beaten, and the third child is sleeping right on the floor.
Sonya Marmeladova has a cute appearance. She is thin, blonde-haired and blue-eyed. Raskolnikov finds her completely transparent. Sonya wore two types of clothes. For an unworthy profession, she always wore her indecent dress. However, these were the same rags. It was a multi-colored dress with a long and ridiculous tail. A huge crinoline blocked the entire passage. The straw hat was decorated with a brightly fiery feather. There were light-colored shoes on his feet. It's hard to imagine a more ridiculous image. She was humiliated and broken and ashamed of her appearance. IN ordinary life Sonya dressed modestly, in clothes that did not attract attention to herself.
Sonya Marmeladova's room
In order to evaluate spiritual feat Sonya Marmeladova, it’s worth checking out her room. Room... This word is too majestic for the room in which she lived. It was a barn, a wretched barn with crooked walls. Three windows overlooked the ditch. There was almost no furniture in it. The few interior items include a bed, a chair and a table covered with a blue tablecloth. Two wicker chairs, a simple chest of drawers... That's all there was in the room. The yellowed wallpaper indicated that in winter the room became damp and uncomfortable. The author emphasizes that the beds did not even have curtains. Sonya was forced to move here after taking an unrighteous path. It was indecent to live with the family, since everyone shamed them for it and demanded that the owner of the house immediately evict the Marmeladovs.
What unites Sonya Marmeladova and Raskolnikov
Rodion Raskolnikov and Sonya Marmeladova are the two main characters of the work “Crime and Punishment”. They have one thing in common - violation of God's laws. These are two soul mates. She cannot leave him alone and goes to hard labor after him. This is another spiritual feat of Sonya Marmeladova. Raskolnikov himself involuntarily associates Sonya with his sister, who decides to marry an elderly gentleman in the name of saving her brother. Throughout the work, women's readiness to sacrifice themselves can be traced. At the same time, the author tries to emphasize the spiritual failure of men. One is a drunkard, the other is a criminal, the third is overly greedy.
What exactly is the spiritual feat of Sonya Marmeladova?
Compared to the other characters in Dostoevsky's work, Sonya is the embodiment of self-sacrifice. Raskolnikov, in the name of justice, does not notice anything happening around him. Luzhin is trying to embody the idea of capitalist predation.
Why did Sonya Marmeladova decide on a spiritual feat and engage in prostitution? There are many answers. First of all, in order to save Katerina Ivanovna’s children dying of hunger. Just think about it! What a sense of responsibility a person must have towards complete strangers in order to decide on this! The second is a feeling of guilt for one’s own father. Could she have done things differently? Hardly. Throughout history, no one has heard words of condemnation from her. She never asks for more. Every day, watching how children suffer from hunger, seeing that they do not have the most necessary clothes, Sonya understands that this is a common dead end.
Spiritual feat Marmeladova's dream lies in her willingness to sacrifice herself. Her image and moral considerations are close to the people, so the author does not condemn her in the eyes of the reader, but tries to evoke sympathy and compassion. She is endowed with such traits as humility and forgiveness. But exactly main character saves the soul of that same Raskolnikov and those who were in hard labor with him.
Sonya Marmeladova is a wonderful combination of Faith, Hope and Love. She does not condemn anyone for their sins and does not call on them to atone for them. This is the brightest image! The spiritual feat of Sonya Marmeladova lies in the fact that she managed to preserve a pure soul. Despite the prosperity of shame, meanness, deception and malice.
She deserves the highest human appreciation. He himself calls the couple Sonya and Raskolnikov nothing other than a harlot and a murderer. After all, this is exactly what they look like in the eyes of rich people. He awakens them to new life. They are resurrected by eternal love.
© Vsevolod Sakharov. All rights reserved.
Impoverished and degraded student Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov - central character Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky's epoch-making novel Crime and Punishment. The author needs the image of Sonya Marmeladova to create a moral counterbalance to Raskolnikov’s theory. Young heroes are in critical life situation when it is necessary to make a decision on how to live further.
From the very beginning of the story, Raskolnikov behaves strangely: he is suspicious and anxious. The reader gradually penetrates into the sinister plan of Rodion Romanovich. It turns out that Raskolnikov is a “monomaniac,” that is, a person obsessed with a single idea. His thoughts boil down to one thing: at all costs, he must test his theory of dividing people into two “categories” - into “higher” and “trembling creatures”. Raskolnikov describes this theory in the newspaper article “On Crime.” According to the article, the “higher ones” are given the right to step over moral laws and, in the name of a great goal, sacrifice any number of “trembling creatures.” Raskolnikov considers the latter merely material for reproducing his own kind. It is these “simple” people who, according to Rodion Romanovich, need biblical commandments and morality. The “higher ones” are the “new legislators” for the gray masses. For Raskolnikov, the main example of such a “legislator” is Napoleon Bonaparte. Rodion Romanovich himself is forced to begin his “higher” path with actions of a completely different scale.
We first learn about Sonya and her life circumstances from the story of Marmeladov’s former titular adviser, her father, addressed to Raskolnikov. Alcoholic Semyon Zakharovich Marmeladov vegetates with his wife Katerina Ivanovna and three small children - his wife and children are starving, Marmeladov drinks. Sonya, his daughter from his first marriage, lives in a rented apartment “by yellow ticket" Marmeladov explains to Raskolnikov that she decided to make such a living, unable to withstand the constant reproaches of her consumptive stepmother, who called Sonya a parasite who “eats and drinks and uses warmth.” In fact, she is a meek and unrequited girl. She tries with all her might to help the seriously ill Katerina Ivanovna, her starving stepsisters and brother, and even her unlucky father. Marmeladov tells how he gained and lost his job, drank away the new uniform he bought with his daughter’s money, and then went to ask her “for a hangover.” Sonya did not reproach him for anything: “I took out thirty kopecks with my own hands, the last ones, everything that happened, I saw myself... She didn’t say anything, she just looked at me silently.”
Raskolnikov and Sonya are at the same disastrous level of life. “The future Napoleon” lives in the attic in a wretched closet, which the author describes in the following words: “It was a tiny cell, about six steps long, which had the most pitiful appearance with its yellow, dusty wallpaper, which was peeling off from the walls everywhere, and was so ugly that a little tall man it felt creepy in there, and it seemed like you were about to hit your head on the ceiling.” Rodion Romanovich has reached the extreme line of poverty, but in this situation he feels a strange greatness: “It was difficult to sink and become shabby; but for Raskolnikov it was even pleasant in his current state of mind.”
Rodion Romanovich considers murder to be a simple way out of a difficult financial situation. However, in this decision to turn into a bloody criminal, it is not money that plays the main role, but Raskolnikov’s crazy idea. First of all, he seeks to test his theory and make sure that he is not a “trembling creature.” To do this, you need to “step over” the corpse and reject universal moral laws.
The evil old money-lender Alena Ivanovna was chosen as the victim of this moral experiment. Raskolnikov considers her a “louse” that, according to his theory, he can crush without any pity. But, having hacked to death Alena Ivanovna and her half-sister Lizaveta, Rodion Romanovich suddenly discovers that he can no longer communicate normally with people. It begins to seem to him that everyone around him knows about his actions and is mocking him in a sophisticated way. The novel, with subtle psychologism, shows how, under the influence of this erroneous belief, Raskolnikov begins to play along with his “accusers.” For example, he deliberately starts a conversation about the murder of an old pawnbroker with Zametov, the clerk of the police office.
At the same time, Raskolnikov is still able to be distracted from his rich life from time to time. inner life and pay attention to what is happening around him. So, he witnesses an accident with Semyon Marmeladov - a drunken official gets run over by a horse. In the confession scene of Marmeladov, crushed and living his last minutes, the author gives the first description of Sofia Semyonovna: “Sonya was small, about eighteen years old, thin, but quite pretty blonde, with wonderful blue eyes.” Having learned about the incident, she runs to her father in her “work clothes”: “her outfit was a penny, but decorated in a street style, according to the taste and rules that have developed in her special world, with a brightly and shamefully outstanding purpose.” Marmeladov dies in her arms. But even after this, Sonya sends her younger sister Polenka to catch up with Raskolnikov, who donated his last money for the funeral, in order to find out his name and address. Later, she visits the “benefactor” and invites him to her father’s wake.
This peaceful event is not without a scandal: Sonya is unfairly accused of theft. Despite successful outcome business, Katerina Ivanovna and her children are deprived of shelter - they are kicked out of their rented apartment. Now all four are doomed to imminent death. Realizing this, Raskolnikov invites Sonya to tell her what she would do if she had the power to take the life of Luzhin, who slandered her, in advance. But Sofya Semyonovna does not want to answer this question - she chooses submission to fate: “But I can’t know God’s providence... And why are you asking what you can’t ask? Why such empty questions? How can it happen that this depends on my decision? And who made me the judge here: who should live and who should not live?”
Despite his alien beliefs, Raskolnikov feels a kindred spirit in Sonya, because they are both outcasts. He seeks her sympathy because he realizes that his theory was untenable. Now Rodion Romanovich indulges in the perverted pleasure of self-abasement. However, unlike the ideological killer, Sonya is “a daughter who was evil and consumptive to her stepmother, who betrayed herself to strangers and minors.” She has a clear moral guideline - the biblical wisdom of cleansing suffering. When Raskolnikov tells Marmeladova about his crime, she takes pity on him and, focusing on the biblical parable of the resurrection of Lazarus, convinces him to repent of his crime. Sonya intends to share with Raskolnikov the vicissitudes of hard labor: she considers herself guilty of violating the biblical commandments and is willing to “suffer” in order to cleanse herself.
An important feature for characterizing both characters: the convicts who served their sentences with Raskolnikov feel a burning hatred for him and at the same time very much love Sonya, who visits him. Rodion Romanovich is told that “walking with an ax” is not a noble thing; they call him an atheist and even want to kill him. Sonya, following her once and for all established concepts, does not look down on anyone, she treats all people with respect - and the convicts reciprocate her feelings.
A logical conclusion from the relationship between this pair of central characters in the novel: without life ideals For Sonya, Raskolnikov's path could only end in suicide. Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky offers the reader not only the crime and punishment embodied in the main character. Sonya's life leads to repentance and purification. Thanks to this “continuation of the path,” the writer managed to create a holistic, logically complete system of images. Looking at what is happening from two significantly different points of view gives the action additional volume and credibility. The great Russian writer managed not only to breathe life into his heroes, but also to lead them to a successful resolution of the most difficult conflicts. This artistic completeness puts the novel “Crime and Punishment” on a par with greatest novels world literature.
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Many Russian writers, when creating their works, examined in them the pressing problems of our time, exposing the vices of their time. Each era was marked by a new galaxy of questions to the thinking of which more than one generation of poets and writers devoted their work. With the development of society, literature also developed, topical topics changed, creative people new tasks arose, but one theme remained unchanged, perhaps in all centuries and times - exposing social injustice, protecting dignity " little man" This question was raised in the works of Gogol, Pushkin, Nekrasov. This theme also occupies one of the leading places in the works of Dostoevsky. A striking example This is the novel “Crime and Punishment”, where the protest against the social and moral humiliation of the individual is associated with the search for a force that could lead a person out of the spiritual and social crisis, from the calculating world of profit into the opposing world of kindness and truth.
Human suffering and injustice reigning in the world prompted the writer to search for various ways to save humanity, but Dostoevsky clearly rejects violent and revolutionary methods of influence, he does not accept the right of one person to interfere in the destinies of other people, to decide them at his own discretion, for a good purpose justify illicit means. Universal happiness, which is based on the sacrifices of individual people, according to the great writer, is the same evil, ennobled by lofty words. The idea of the inadmissibility of this “good” is fully revealed by the great writer in the novel about the “poor” student Raskolnikov. After all, the main character of the novel justifies his crime - murder, with compassion for all the “humiliated and offended”, allowing him to “bleed according to his conscience.” But is it? What is compassion? Co-suffer means “to suffer together.” And Raskolnikov’s suffering is directed exclusively deep into himself. What he experiences can be called rather sympathy. The thought of murder matured in his head gradually. Half a year before the events described in the novel, Raskolnikov writes an article “On Crime,” where he “examined psychological condition criminal during the entire course of the crime,” and at the same time raised the question of such a crime, which is resolved according to conscience, and therefore is not a crime as such. Subsequently, he creates a theory about two categories of people: “trembling creatures” and “those who have the right.” And, naturally, he wonders about his own membership in one category or another. This is the motive for the murder. But no one recognizes himself as a criminal. Everyone is a fighter and sufferer for the truth. Raskolnikov follows the same path. At first, he hides the wrongness of his goals from himself, convincing himself that he kills only in order to “later dedicate himself to the service of all humanity and the common cause.” But from the very beginning he anticipates his self-deception. “We are inventing our own casuistry, we will learn from the Jesuits... we will convince ourselves that this is necessary, really necessary for a good purpose,” this is what he says about his sister’s decision to marry Luzhin, but these words can also be applied to his own internal state. The words heard in the tavern that “dozens of families saved from poverty, from decay, from death” are worth killing and robbing “an insignificant, evil old woman” are perceived by him as salvation, as a justification for his terrible plan. “I didn’t even want to lie to myself about this...”, but still he “lies.” He is trying to replace one goal - “self-affirmation” with another - “universal happiness”. “I myself wanted good for people,” Raskolnikov says to Dunya. “I killed for myself, one thing for myself,” he admits to Sonya. And this self-deception only intensifies the hero’s subsequent suffering. “To suffer together,” but Raskolnikov “as if with scissors, cut himself off from everything and everyone,” opposing everyone else. And his suffering is greater because he could not get over himself, that “he is a trembling creature.” Although he convinces himself that the suffering of a criminal is an indispensable sign of his rightness and greatness.
The complete opposite of Raskolnikov is Sonya Marmeladova. It is she, according to the author’s plan, who is the embodiment of true mercy and compassion. Trying to save her family from starvation, she goes out onto the street to sell her own body. Raised according to Christian commandments, she realizes that by committing such a sin, she dooms her soul to eternal torment. But compassion for hungry children, a sick stepmother, and an unhappy father turns out to be stronger than the desire to save one’s soul. At the same time, Sonechka remains true to her convictions, maintaining endless love for humanity, faith in herself and in people. “You also overstepped... You laid hands on yourself, you ruined your life... yours (it’s all the same!)...,” Raskolnikov tells her. But he himself feels that it’s not “all the same.” She is for the sake of others, and he is for the sake of himself. Her “crime” did not touch her soul. In essence, Sonino’s “crime” is a feat, while Raskolnikov wants to pass off his crime as a “feat”. Sonya is having a hard time experiencing her fall, and she is also visited by thoughts of suicide, which could save her from shame. But the images of hungry, helpless children make you forget about your suffering.
Sonechka also selflessly rushes to save Raskolnikov’s soul. There is no condemnation of his evil deed; boundless mercy is manifested in her in relation to his moral suffering. And here it is just appropriate to remember that compassion means “suffering together.” Sonya sincerely suffers along with Raskolnikov, trying to find a way to save his soul. And only thanks to her efforts Raskolnikov comes to the conclusion that his theory is untenable. It is Sonya who awakens him to life and leads him to the salvation of his soul. In the epilogue, Raskolnikov kneels before the girl: “... he was resurrected, and he knew it, felt it with his entire renewed being, and she - after all, she lived only his life!” Not a single theory in the world can defeat true mercy and human compassion. This is what life is all about.