Sonya Marmeladova is the heroine of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment. Poverty and an extremely hopeless family situation force this young girl to earn money from the panel.
The reader first learns about Sonya from a story addressed to Raskolnikov by the former titular adviser Marmeladov, her father. 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 “on a 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, everything that was, I saw myself... She didn’t say anything, she just looked at me silently.”
The author gives the first description of Sofia Semyonovna later, in the confession scene of Marmeladov, crushed by a horse and living his last minutes: “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.
Another touch to the portrait of Sonya Marmeladova is her behavior during the incident at the wake. She is unfairly accused of theft, and Sonya does not even try to defend herself. Justice is soon restored, but the incident itself drives her into hysterics. The author explains this by the life position of her heroine: “Sonya, timid by nature, already knew that it was easier to destroy her than anyone else, and anyone could offend her with almost impunity. But still, until that very moment, it seemed to her that she could somehow avoid trouble - with caution, meekness, submission to everyone and everyone.”
After a scandal at a wake, Katerina Ivanovna and her children lose their shelter - they are kicked out of their rented apartment. Now all four are doomed to quick 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?”
The author needs the image of Sonya Marmeladova to create a moral counterbalance to the idea of Rodion Raskolnikov. Raskolnikov feels a kindred spirit in Sonya, because they are both outcasts. 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.
It is noteworthy that 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.
Sonya Marmeladova is one of the most important characters in the book. Without her life ideals, Rodion Raskolnikov’s path could only end in suicide. However, 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 world of his great novel.
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31. Raskolnikov’s theory and its debunking in F. M. Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment “ | » 33. Rodion Raskolnikov and Sonya Marmeladova in F. M. Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment
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One of the main characters of the novel F.M. Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” is Sonya Marmeladova, a girl forced to work “on a yellow ticket” in order to save her family from starvation. It is to her that the author assigns the most important role in the fate of Raskolnikov.
Sonya's appearance is described in two episodes. The first is the scene of the death of her father, Semyon Zakharych Marmeladov: “Sonya was small, about eighteen years old, thin, but quite pretty blonde... She was also in rags, her outfit was decorated in a street style... with a brightly and shamefully outstanding purpose.”
Another description of her appearance appears in the scene of Sonechka’s acquaintance with Dunya and Pulcheria Alexandrovna: “she was a modestly and even poorly dressed girl, very young, almost like a girl... with a clear but intimidated face. She was wearing a very simple house dress...” Both of these portraits are strikingly different from each other, which reflects one of the key features of Sonya’s character - the combination of spiritual purity and moral decline.
Sonya's life story is extremely tragic: unable to watch indifferently as her family died from hunger and poverty, she voluntarily submitted to humiliation and received a “yellow ticket.” Sacrifice, boundless compassion and selflessness forced Sonechka to give all the money she earned to her father and stepmother Katerina Ivanovna.
Sonya has many wonderful human character traits: mercy, sincerity, kindness, understanding, moral purity. She is ready to look for something good and bright in every person, even in those who are not worthy of such treatment. Sonya knows how to forgive.
She has an endless love for people. This love is so strong that Sonechka is determined to consciously give all of herself for their sake.
Such faith in people and a special attitude towards them (“This man is a louse!”) are largely connected with Sonya’s Christian worldview. Her faith in God and the miracle that comes from him truly has no boundaries. “What would I be without God!” In this regard, she is the opposite of Raskolnikov, who opposes her with his atheism and theory about “ordinary” and “extraordinary” people. It is faith that helps Sonya maintain the purity of her soul, protect herself from the dirt and vice that surrounds her; It is not for nothing that almost the only book she has read more than once is the New Testament.
One of the most significant scenes in the novel, which influenced Raskolnikov’s future life, is the episode of joint reading of a passage from the Gospel about the resurrection of Lazarus. “The cinder has long gone out in the crooked candlestick, dimly illuminating in this beggarly room a murderer and a harlot, strangely gathered together to read an eternal book...”
Sonechka plays a crucial role in Raskolnikov’s fate, which consists in reviving his faith in God and returning to the Christian path. Only Sonya was able to accept and forgive his crime, did not condemn him and was able to induce Raskolnikov to confess to his crime. She went with him all the way from recognition to hard labor, and it was her love that was able to return him to the true path.
Sonya has proven herself to be a decisive and active person, capable of making difficult decisions and following them. She convinced Rodion to denounce himself: “Get up! Go now, this very minute, stand at the crossroads, bow, first kiss the earth that you have desecrated, and then bow to the whole world...”
At hard labor, Sonya did everything to ease Raskolnikov’s fate. She becomes a famous and respected person and is addressed by her first name and patronymic. The convicts fell in love with her for her kind attitude towards them, for her selfless help - for something that Raskolnikov does not yet want or cannot understand. At the end of the novel, he finally realizes his feelings for her, realizes how much she suffered for him. “Can her beliefs now not be mine? Her feelings, her aspirations at least..." So Sonya's love, her dedication and compassion helped Raskolnikov begin the process of becoming on the right path.
The author embodied the best human qualities in the image of Sonya. Dostoevsky wrote: “I have one moral model and ideal – Christ.” Sonya became for him the source of his own beliefs, decisions dictated by his conscience.
Thus, thanks to Sonechka, Raskolnikov was able to find a new meaning in life and regain his lost faith.
The image of an immaculate and at the same time sinful angel in the novel “Crime and Punishment” became a real sensation for the public. opened up a different side of life for readers. The personality of Sonya Marmeladova differed from the usual literary heroes. Her crime, humility and desire to atone have become moral guidelines for all those who are confused.
Crime and Punishment
Dostoevsky collected the basis for the novel during his own hard labor exile. In Siberia, the writer did not have the opportunity to write, but he had enough time to interview exiles and their loved ones. Therefore, the images of the main characters of the novel are collective in nature.
Initially, the author conceived the novel as a confession story. The narration was told in the first person, and the main task for Dostoevsky was to show the inner psychological truth of a confused person. The writer became interested in the idea, and the serious story grew into a novel.
Initially, her role in the novel Crime and Punishment was minor, but after several edits, the image of the main character took an important place in the story. With the help of Sonya, Dostoevsky conveys to readers the important idea of the novel:
“The Orthodox view, what is Orthodoxy. There is no happiness in comfort; happiness is bought through suffering. Man is not born for happiness. A person deserves his happiness, and always through suffering.”
Analysis of the work proves that the author did an excellent job with the task. Sonya is the personification of suffering and redemption. The characterization of the heroine is revealed to the reader gradually. All quotes about a former prostitute are filled with love and care. Dostoevsky is equally worried about the fate of the girl:
“...Oh yes Sonya! What a well, however, they managed to dig! And they use it! That's why they use it! And we got used to it. We cried and got used to it. A scoundrel of a man gets used to everything!”
Biography and plot of the novel
Sofya Semyonovna Marmeladova was born into the family of a minor official. The girl's father is an elderly man, earns little and likes to drink. Sonya's mother died long ago, the girl is being raised by her stepmother. The father's new wife has a mixture of feelings for her stepdaughter. Katerina Ivanovna takes out all her dissatisfaction with her failed life on an innocent girl. At the same time, the woman does not feel hatred towards the younger Marmeladova and tries not to deprive the girl of attention.
Sonya did not receive an education, because, according to her father, she is not distinguished by intelligence and intelligence. The trusting and good-natured heroine blindly believes in God and meekly serves the interests of the Marmeladov spouses and the stepmother’s children from her first marriage.
The girl is already 18 years old, although the heroine’s appearance would be more suitable for a child: blond hair, blue eyes, angular figure:
“She couldn’t even be called pretty, but her blue eyes were so clear, and when they came to life, the expression on her face became so kind and simple-minded that you involuntarily attracted people to her.”
The family lives in the Russian outback, but after the father lost his permanent income, the Marmeladovs moved to St. Petersburg. In the capital, Semyon Zakharovich quickly finds a job and just as quickly loses it. The bosses are not ready to put up with employee drunkenness. Providing for the family falls entirely on Sonya.
Left without a livelihood, the girl sees one way out - to quit her job as a seamstress, which brought in too little money, and get a job as a prostitute. For the shameful earnings, the girl was kicked out of the apartment. Sonya lives separately from her family, rents a room from a tailor she knows:
“...my daughter, Sofya Semyonovna, was forced to receive a yellow ticket, and on this occasion she could not stay with us. Because the hostess, Amalia Fedorovna, didn’t want to allow that.”
A girl of easy virtue received from the government a “yellow ticket” - a document proving that the young lady was selling her body. Even shameful work does not save the Marmeladov family.
Semyon Zakharovich dies under the hooves of a carriage horse. In the bustle and commotion, the girl’s first acquaintance with Raskolnikov takes place. The man already knows the girl in absentia - the elder Marmeladov told Rodion about Sonya’s difficult fate in all its details.
Financial assistance from a stranger (Rodion Raskolnikov pays for his father’s funeral) touches the girl. Sonya goes to thank the man. This is how the difficult relationship between the main characters begins.
During the process of organizing a funeral, young people spend a lot of time talking. Both feel like outcasts from society, both are looking for consolation and support. The mask of a cold cynic, which covers the main character, falls, and the true Rodion appears before pure Sonya:
“He suddenly changed; his affectedly impudent and impotently defiant tone disappeared. Even my voice suddenly weakened..."
Marmeladov's death completely undermined the stepmother's health. Katerina Ivanovna dies of consumption, and Sonya falls on the shoulders of caring for the younger members of the family. Help for the girl comes unexpectedly - Mr. Svidrigailov places the little ones in an orphanage and provides the younger Marmeladovs with a comfortable future. This is how Sonya’s fate unfolded in a terrible way.
But the desire to make sacrifices pushes the girl to the other extreme. Now the heroine intends to devote herself to Raskolnikov and accompany the prisoner into exile. The girl is not afraid that her loved one killed the old woman to test a crazy theory. Marmeladova’s truth is that love, faith and selflessness will heal and guide Rodion on the right path.
In Siberia, where the main character is sent, Sonya gets a job as a seamstress. The shameful profession remains a thing of the past, and, despite the coldness of the young man, Sonya remains faithful to Rodion. The girl’s patience and faith bring results - Raskolnikov realizes how much he needs Marmeladova. The reward for the two wounded souls was the joint happiness that came after the atonement of sins.
Film adaptations
The first film dedicated to Raskolnikov's crime was filmed in 1909. The role of Rodion's faithful companion was played by actress Alexandra Goncharova. The film itself has long been lost; copies of the film do not exist. In 1935, American filmmakers filmed their version of the tragedy. The image of the immaculate sinner went to actress Marian Marsh.
In 1956, the French showed their own view of the drama of a confused man. She played the role of Sonya, but in the film adaptation the name of the main character was replaced with Lily Marcelin.
In the USSR, the first film about the fate of Raskolnikov was released in 1969. The director of the film is Lev Kulidzhanov. Sofya Semyonovna Marmeladova was played by Tatyana Bedova. The film was included in the program of the Venice Film Festival.
In 2007, the series “Crime and Punishment” was released, in which the image of the main character was embodied.
The majority of film critics did not like the serial film. The main complaint is that Rodion Raskolnikov does not experience human feelings. The hero is obsessed with anger and hatred. Repentance never touches the hearts of the main characters.
- Dostoevsky's first child was named Sonya. The girl died a couple of months after birth.
- In St. Petersburg, the heroine lived in the building of the former state chamber. This is a real house. Sonya's exact address is Griboyedov Canal embankment, 63.
- The rap artist uses the name of the main character from Crime and Punishment as a pseudonym.
- In the first version of the novel, Sonya's biography looks different: the heroine comes into conflict with Dunya Raskolnikova and becomes the object of Luzhin's crazy but immaculate love.
Quotes
“You walked away from God, and God struck you down and handed you over to the devil!”
“To accept suffering and redeem yourself through it, that’s what you need...”
“...And tell everyone, out loud: “I killed!” Then God will send you life again. Will you go? Will you go?..”
“What are you doing, why did you do this to yourself! No, there is no one more unhappy than you in the whole world now!”
Roman F.M. Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" is dedicated to the history of Rodion Raskolnikov's gestation and commission of a crime. Remorse after the murder of the old pawnbroker becomes simply unbearable for the hero. This internal process is carefully described by the author of the novel. But it is not only the authenticity of the psychological state of the main character that makes this work remarkable. In the system of images of “Crime and Punishment” there is one more character, without whom the novel would have remained a detective story. Sonechka Marmeladova is the core of the work. The daughter of Marmeladov, whom he met by chance, entered Raskolnikov’s life and marked the beginning of his spiritual rebirth.
Sonechka's life is unremarkable. After the death of his mother, his father, out of pity, married a woman who was left a widow with three children. The marriage turned out to be unequal and a burden to both. Sonya was Ekaterina Ivanovna's stepdaughter, so she got it the most. In a moment of emotional distress, the stepmother sent Sonya to the panel. Her “earnings” supported the whole family. The seventeen-year-old girl had no education, which is why everything turned out so badly. Although the father did not disdain the money earned by his daughter in this way, and always asked her for a hangover... I also suffered from this.
This, as already mentioned, is an ordinary everyday story, characteristic not only of the mid-19th century, but of any time. But what made the author of the novel “Crime and Punishment” focus on Sonechka Marmeladova and generally introduce this image into the plot? First of all, this is Sonya’s perfect purity, which the life she lives could not kill. Even her appearance testifies to her inner purity and greatness.
Raskolnikov first meets Sonya in the scene of Marmeladov’s death, when he sees her in the crowd of people who have come running to see a new spectacle. The girl was dressed according to her occupation (a colorful dress bought through third parties, a straw hat with a bright feather, the obligatory “umbrella” in her hands with patched-up gloves), but then Sonya comes to Raskolnikov to thank him for saving her father. Now it looks different:
“Sonya was small, about eighteen years old, thin, but quite pretty blonde with wonderful blue eyes.” Now she looks like “a girl of modest and decent manner, with a clear, but somewhat intimidated face.”
The more Raskolnikov communicates with her, the more she opens up. Having chosen Sonya Marmeladova for a frank confession, he seems to be trying to test her strength, asking angry, cruel questions: is she afraid of getting sick in her “profession”, what will happen to the children if she gets sick, that Polechka will face the same fate - prostitution. Sonya answers him as if in a frenzy: “God will not allow this.” And he doesn’t hold a grudge against his stepmother at all, claiming that it’s much harder for her. A little later, Rodion notes in her a feature that clearly characterizes her:
“In her face, and in her entire figure, there was, in addition, one special feature: despite her eighteen years, she seemed almost still a girl, much younger than her years, almost like a child, and this sometimes even manifested itself comically in some of her movements "
This childishness is associated with purity and high morality!
Also interesting is Sonya’s characterization by her father: “She is unrequited, and her voice is so meek...” This meekness and meekness is a distinctive feature of the girl. She sacrificed everything to save her family, which, in essence, was not even her family. But her kindness and mercy are enough for everyone. After all, she immediately justifies Raskolnikov, saying that he was hungry, unhappy, and committed a crime, being driven to despair.
Sonya lives life not for herself, but for the sake of others. She helps the weak and needy, and this is her unshakable strength. Raskolnikov says this about her:
“Oh yes Sonya! What a well, however, they managed to dig! And they use it! That's why they use it. And we got used to it. We cried and got used to it.”
Raskolnikov finds this desperate dedication of hers completely incredible. He, as an egoist individualist, always thinking only about himself, tries to comprehend her motives. And this faith in people, in goodness, in mercy seems insincere to him. Even in hard labor, when old, seasoned murderers-criminals call a young girl “merciful mother,” he had to lose sight of her in order to understand how important and dear she was to him. Only there does he accept all her views, and they penetrate his essence.
Sonechka Marmeladova is a wonderful example of humanism and high morality. She lives according to Christian laws. It is no coincidence that the author settles her in the apartment of the tailor Capernaumov - a direct association with Mary Magdalene, who lived in the city of Capernaum. Her strength is expressed in purity and inner greatness. Rodion Raskolnikov very aptly described such people: “They give everything... they look meek and quiet.”
F.M. Dostoevsky - novel “Crime and Punishment”.
In the drafts of Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky notes: “Man is not born for happiness. A person deserves his happiness, and always through suffering. There is no injustice here, because vital knowledge and consciousness... are acquired by experience pro and contra, which must be carried on oneself.” The writer presents us with a sacrificial soul, a heroine who has accepted suffering, in the novel.
Sonya Marmeladova sacrifices herself and becomes a corrupt woman in the name of saving her family. Raskolnikov, having met Sonya, tries to find something related in their destinies. “You stepped over... you were able to step over. You committed suicide, you ruined your life... yours (it’s all the same!).” However, there is a significant difference in the life position of the heroes. Raskolnikov allowed himself to “bleed according to his conscience.” Sonya recognizes the value of the life of any person, regardless of his moral qualities. Crime is impossible for her.
If Raskolnikov’s theory initially involves harm to society, then Sonya only brings harm to herself. If Rodion is free in his choice between good and evil, then Sonya is deprived of this freedom. She is well aware of the vileness of her craft. She also thought about ending her life. However, she cannot even afford this.
“It would be fairer,” exclaims Raskolnikov, “a thousand times fairer and wiser it would be to dive straight into the water and finish it all at once!”
What will happen to them? – Sonya asked weakly, looking at him painfully, but at the same time, as if not at all surprised by his proposal. Raskolnikov looked at her strangely.
He read everything in one look from her. Therefore, she really had already had this thought herself. Perhaps many times she seriously thought in despair about how to end it all at once, and so seriously that now she was almost not surprised at his proposal. She didn’t even notice the cruelty of his words... But he fully understood the monstrous pain to which she had been tormented, and for a long time now, by the thought of her dishonorable and shameful position. What, he thought, could still stop her determination to end it all at once? And then he fully understood what these poor little orphans and this pitiful, half-crazed Katerina Ivanovna, with her consumption and banging her head against the wall, meant to her.”
D. Pisarev says that “Sofya Semyonovna would also be able to throw herself into the Neva, but, throwing herself into the Neva, she could not lay out thirty rubles on the table in front of Katerina Ivanovna, which contains the whole meaning and the whole justification for her immoral act.” The position of the heroine is an inevitable result of the conditions of social life. Pisarev notes that neither Marmeladov, nor his daughter, nor their entire family can be blamed or despised. The blame for their condition lies not with them, but with the circumstances of life, social conditions, when a person has “nowhere else to go.” Sonya has no position, no education, no profession. In the family there is poverty, Katerina Ivanovna’s illness, her father’s drunkenness, the crying of unhappy children. She tries to save her family by doing small, private good. On the path of life, she is supported by meekness, humility, and faith in God.
The plot of Sonya Marmeladova develops the harlot motif in the novel. In the Gospel parable, Christ saved a harlot from people who were going to stone her. And the biblical harlot left her profession and became a saint. Thus, the biblical heroine always had freedom of choice. Dostoevsky's Sonya, as we noted above, is deprived of this freedom of choice. Nevertheless, this heroine cannot be called passive. Sonya is an active, active person. The profession of a prostitute is shameful, humiliating, disgusting, but the goals for which she chose this path, according to the writer, are selfless and holy. And here Dostoevsky sounds in a new way the motif of resurrection. The heroine considers her entire past life to be a dead dream. And only misfortune, the misfortunes of the family, force her to awaken. She is resurrected to a new life. “I myself was Lazarus who died, and Christ raised me.” These words are not in the final version of the novel; they were only in drafts of the novel. However, the motif of resurrection is also realized in the image of Sonya.
At the same time, this image develops in the novel the biblical motif of forgiveness and Christian love. Sonya Marmeladova evaluates people by their inner qualities, without attaching much importance to appearance or financial situation. Even a bad person, a scoundrel and a scoundrel, she is in no hurry to condemn, she tries to understand what is behind this external evil. Unlike Raskolnikov, she did not lose faith in people. The behavior of this heroine is controlled by all-forgiving, selfless love. And she saves not only her own family, but also Raskolnikov, who cannot bear the murder he committed. And this, according to Dostoevsky, is the true beauty of human action, the moral height of the individual. And maybe this was exactly what this heroine’s understanding of happiness was. Happiness is living for the sake of your loved ones. Sonya realizes her happiness through suffering.
So, in the image of Sonya Marmeladova, Dostoevsky expressed his belief in goodness, justice, and mercy. This heroine is the writer’s moral ideal.
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