Content

Types of portrait

Introduction

When creating an image of a person in art, the artist seems to look at him from different sides, recreating and describing him in different ways. The artist is interested in everything about a person: his face and clothes, habits and thoughts, his home and place of work, his friends and enemies, his relationships with the human world and the natural world. In literature, such interest takes on a special artistic form, and the deeper one can study the features of this form, the more fully the content of the image of a person in the art of words will be revealed, the closer the artist and his view of man will become.

Scientists are unanimous that a portrait is a reflection of the external features of the hero’s appearance, his style of behavior, a description of his actions, the structure of his thoughts. The typological originality of a portrait painter depends on the characteristics of the historical development of literature; its functional purpose is determined by the principle of correspondence or non-compliance of the external features of the character with the internal, psychological qualities of the individual.

An object our research - the portrait of Svidrigailov in the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment".

Goal of the work - reveal the originality of the portrait of Svidrigailov in the novel.

According to the goal, we will highlight main goals:

characterize the concept of “literary portrait”;

highlight the main types of portrait;

reveal the essence of psychological portraits of F.M. Dostoevsky;

to reveal the artistic originality of the portrait of Svidrigailov in the novel “Crime and Punishment”.

The concept of literary portrait

Portrait in modern literary criticism is understood according to the art historical meaning of the term - as an image of a face and figure (body), while the external appearance of a character is considered as a reflection of his inner, spiritual life and character. General ideas about the relationship between internal and external, depiction techniques are determined to a large extent by tradition, the “style of the era” (D.S. Likhachev), literary direction, “dominant”, characteristic of the individual style of the writer (A.B. Esin).

In the dictionary of literary terms by S.P. Belokurova gave the following definition of the concept of “portrait”: it is “one of the means of creating an image: an image of the appearance of the hero of a literary work as a way of characterizing him. May include a description of the appearance (face, eyes, human figure), actions and states of the hero (the so-called dynamic portrait, depicting facial expressions, eyes, facial expressions, gestures, posture), as well as features formed by the environment or that are a reflection of the character’s individuality: clothes, behavior, hairstyles, etc. A special type of description - a psychological portrait - allows the author to reveal the character, inner world and emotional experiences of the hero."

This definition is based on the fundamentally important provisions of the famous literary critic L.Yu. Yurkina, who highlights the characteristic features of a portrait - facial expressions, gestures, a person’s appearance, his gait, clothes, etc. At the same time, she notes that the external features of a character can speak about his inner world. Sometimes there may be no description of appearance, therefore, the portrait may hide the internal impulses of the individual. The literary critic’s thoughts are positive and fruitful that “the process of portraiture includes the speech behavior of the hero, a description of the structure of his thoughts.”

In all this, as L.Yu. notes. Yurkin, “the functional nature of a portrait in a literary work, the type of portrait, the character’s personality” are easily visible. Based on these provisions, as the literary scholar concludes, one can obtain a more or less complete understanding of the social status of the person being portrayed, his moral constitution, and the person’s connection with the development of society, culture and history. The portrait, thus, appears “not as a static figure, but as a dynamic and living phenomenon.”

During the analysis of the work, according to L.Yu. Yurkina, “it seems especially important to determine the degree of originality of portraits. By presenting a portrait of an individual character or a group characterized by some unity, writers can turn to literary tradition." In literature, the image of external appearance, its statics and dynamics, in particular gestures, often acquires an established meaning and is a “collapsed” characteristic of characters and their relationships. Some character traits and properties, psychological reactions, relatively speaking, are “objectified”; as a result, the manifestation of feelings, psychological nuances receive their own “face”, “grimace”, “posture”, etc. So, for example, the connection between the hand and the heart is symbolic, captured, in particular, in the form of the outstretched hand of the beggar and the response gesture - “the hand of the giver.”

In the portrait, we find L.Ya. Ginzburg, real life experience can also be realized. Researchers interpret the repetition of the same detail, the special attention of writers to certain facial features, features of the figure, turning to the facts of reality, revealing, in particular, deeply individual reasons (for example, the motif of Gogol’s nose).

In the epic work, we agree with the statement of L.Yu. Yurkina, the portrait can be given from different positions, according to the structure of the world and the subject organization. From the position of an outside observer, the narrator gives an “objective” portrait. The characters in the world of the work react in one way or another to each other’s appearance, emotionally, “subjectively” describing and evaluating it. Of particular importance is the characters’ self-esteem and their idea of ​​their appearance. The combination of portraits, portrait details, their assessments given “from outside” and “from inside” the world of the heroes, reflects the author’s ideas about his characters. In general, “the threefold presentation of character portraits (self-esteem, assessment by other characters, assessment by the primary subject of speech) activates the reader’s perception of the characters.”

Types of portrait

The place of the portrait, as noted by G.I. Romanov, in the composition of a literary work is “extremely important and varied”:

the portrait can begin to introduce the reader to the hero (Oblomov), but sometimes the author shows the hero after he has committed some actions (Pechorin) or even at the very end of the work (Ionych);

a portrait can be monolithic, when the author brought all the features of the hero’s appearance at once, in a single “block” (Odintsova, Raskolnikov, Prince Andrei), and “torn,” in which the portrait features are “scattered” throughout the text (Natasha Rostova);

the portrait features of the hero can be described by the author or one of the characters (the portrait of Pechorin is painted by Maxim Maksimych and the incognito traveler);

the portrait “can be “ceremonial” (Odintsova), ironic (Helen and Ippolit Kuragin) or satirical (Napoleon by JT Tolstoy), only the hero’s face or the entire figure, clothes, gestures, manners can be described”;

a portrait can be “fragmentary: not the entire appearance of the hero is depicted, but only a characteristic detail, a feature; at the same time, the author powerfully influences the reader’s imagination, the reader becomes, as it were, a co-author, completing the portrait of the hero in his own mind” (Anna Sergeevna in “The Lady with the Dog” by Chekhov);

sometimes the portrait includes explanations from the author about the hero’s speech, thoughts, habits, etc.

portraits of heroes Goncharov, Turgenev, Kuprin are close to realistic painting portraits ;

portraits of Chekhov's heroes were created in impressionistic manner(Anna Sergeevna, Misyus);

portraits of Bunin's heroines expressive and colorful(Rusya, the heroines of the stories “Dark Alleys”, “Revenge”), etc.

Romantic writers created portraits that conveyed the suffering of a restless romantic soul. Ironic example romantic portrait became the descriptions of Lensky and Olga in A. Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin”.

The most common, complex and interesting type

literary portrait is psychological picture, first

brilliant examples of which appeared in Russian literature in the 1st half of the 19th century: portraits of Herman in “The Queen of Spades”, Onegin and Tatyana in “Eugene Onegin” by A. Pushkin, a portrait of Pechorin in M. Lermontov’s novel “A Hero of Our Time”, a portrait of Oblomov in I. Goncharov’s novel “Oblomov” and others. The author subtly reveals the character traits of his hero through details of appearance: facial features, pose, things. This is how not only the author’s, but also the reader’s attitude towards the hero is immediately formed.

Psychological portrait in the work of F.M. Dostoevsky

In modern literary criticism, there are several definitions of the term “psychologism”. Let us dwell on the most interesting, in our opinion, definition.

According to A.B. Esin, psychologism is “a special depiction of a person’s inner world using strictly artistic means, the depth and sharpness of the writer’s penetration into the hero’s own world, the ability to describe in detail various psychological states and processes (feelings, thoughts, desires, etc.), to notice the nuances of experiences. .. psychologism, thus, represents a stylistic unity, a system of means and techniques aimed at a complete, deep and detailed disclosure of the inner world of the heroes.”

Thus, we can conclude that the psychological portrait reflects the internal, psychological, as well as behavioral characteristics of a person.

To penetrate into the troubled soul of modern man, to understand himself and others, in order to show people the path leading to achieving the ideal - this is what Dostoevsky strove for. He “closely studies the inner world of people living in an abnormally structured society, reveals the depths of the human soul, looking into its most hidden corners and seeing tragic delusions and contradictions of a “sick” consciousness.” Showing the life of contemporary Russia, exposing the psychology of contemporary man, the writer poses complex social, philosophical, moral questions that are relevant for his era and have universal significance. On the pages of his novels, sharply opposing opinions are expressed and mutually exclusive points of view are defended. The struggle of opinions and the search for solutions to the most important philosophical problems form the basis of Dostoevsky's novels. In the foreground he has a man-idea, whose fate and views are comprehensively explored by the writer.

The complexity and ambiguity of the characters of F.M. Dostoevsky, according to G.I. Romanova, is largely “clarified through the analysis and interpretation of such components of figurativeness as portrait And behavior, receiving mainly different verbal and objective embodiment."

The impression of in-depth, penetrating psychologism is created in the novel “Crime and Punishment” (1866) thanks to “a special combination of portrait characteristics of the characters with the depiction of behavioral forms,” namely: the manner of holding, walking, looking, communicating, and the corresponding facial expressions and gestures, as well as features of manifestations of strong emotions (crying, laughter, hysteria, anger, etc.).

“Amendments” to the main, “full” portrait given in the exhibition are short remarks by the narrator, recording the change of feelings, thoughts of the characters, their reaction to changing circumstances.” This is facial expressions: grimaces of impatience, fear, horror, irritation, suspicion, etc., expressing mainly negative emotions. Gestures (fussy, awkward, rude) and body movements are consistently recorded. The character of Dostoevsky's heroes does not change throughout the novel, but the change in their facial expressions appears as a revelation of the depths of these characters, creating the impression of constant movement and dynamics.

Portrait of Svidrigailov in the novel “Crime and Punishment”

Descriptions of the appearance of the heroes in Dostoevsky, as noted by V.Ya. Kirpotin, “are constructed differently than the psychological portraits traditional for critical realism. They are always quite schematic and are rarely presented to the reader visibly and clearly. Some of them may even be repeated from novel to novel." As an example, we can cite such similar portraits as the portrait of a demonic handsome man with a mask-like face (Svidrigailov, Stavrogin, Ganya Ivolgin, Lambert). “Dostoevsky’s distrust and dislike for the external portrait” is noted by many researchers, noting that Dostoevsky tries to convey “the ambiguity, changeability, and inconstancy of the expression of the characters’ faces. It seems that if it were possible, he would not give portraits of his characters at all.

Revealing the inner world of his characters, the writer sought to show the clash of opposing forces, the constant struggle between consciousness and subconscious, intention and the implementation of this intention. The heroes of his works do not just worry - they suffer painfully. Striving for deep psychological motivation of the character, F. M. Dostoevsky subordinates portraiture to this task. Thus, in the novel “Crime and Punishment,” the writer twice resorts to describing the appearance of almost all of his characters. Svidrigailov was no exception.

The novel gives an external portrait of the hero twice. At the beginning: “He was a man of about fifty, above average height, portly, with broad and steep shoulders, which gave him a somewhat stooped appearance. He was smartly and comfortably dressed and looked like a dignified gentleman. In his hands was a beautiful cane, which he tapped along the sidewalk with every step, and his hands were in fresh gloves. His wide, high-cheekbone face was quite pleasant, and his complexion was fresh, not St. Petersburg. His hair, still very thick, was completely blond and just a little gray, and his wide, thick beard, hanging down like a shovel, was even lighter than his head hair. His eyes were blue and looked coldly, intently and thoughtfully; scarlet lips. In general, he was a perfectly preserved man who seemed much younger than his age.”

At the end of the novel (in the 6th part) the portrait is repeated, psychologically clarified, concretized: “It was some kind of strange face, like a mask: white, ruddy, with ruddy, scarlet lips, with light

a blond beard and still quite thick blond hair. The eyes were somehow too blue, and their gaze was somehow too heavy and motionless. There was something terribly unpleasant in this handsome and extremely youthful, judging by his age, face. Svidrigailov’s clothes were smart, summer, light, and he especially showed off his underwear. On the finger there was a huge ring with an expensive stone...”

As we observe in these characteristics, the hero cannot come to harmony with himself, therefore his portrait is psychologically contradictory. Such an obvious disproportion in the portrait of Svidrigailov testifies to his effort to preserve his moral character and human dignity, because, as we feel, behind the external gloss and charm lies emptiness. At the same time, no matter how hard the hero tries to master his facial expression, his gestures, another, true hero still looks out from under the artificially made appearance (the eyes looked “coldly intently”, “a strange face, like a mask”). As we see, the portrait of Svidrigailov literally turns into a mask. In this image, notes V.Ya. Kirpotin, “the gap between the external and the internal reaches its climax.” This portrait of a man bursting with health and well-being stands out from the entire gallery of portraits in the novel. However, to us it appears as a mask, underneath it is dead nothingness. It is no coincidence that heroes like Svidrigailov either bear death themselves or voluntarily surrender to its power. According to the fair remark of V. Shklovsky: “Svidrigailov is liberation from the prohibitions of morality, given to a villain who knows nothing but his desires and is coming to death.”

According to Professor Chizh, in “Crime and Punishment” Svidrigailov is the most perfect, “immortal” image of moral insanity.”

What is called moral insanity is expressed by a complete or almost complete loss of moral concepts in the presence of other mental manifestations. “Russian people are generally broad people,” says Svidrigailov, “broad, like their land, and extremely prone to the fantastic, to the disorderly.” “In our educated society, we don’t have particularly sacred traditions,” he further develops his thought. Others compose these sacred and moral concepts from books or “derive them from chronicles,” but, according to Svidrigailov, this means being a “cap” and “indecent for a secular person.” With a feeling of satisfaction, he calls himself “white-handed” and does not recognize any shrines.

The social danger of the Svidrigailovs lies, according to V. Shklovsky, in the fact that they are considered sick only from a medical point of view. Dostoevsky shows the undoubted morbidity of Svidrigailov, suffering from hallucinations, and his contagious, pernicious influence. In this hero one can feel the tragic fragmentation of life, which is so characteristic of the atmosphere of Dostoevsky’s works.

Conclusion

As we were able to verify, F.M. Dostoevsky shows an amazing ability with a few strokes in describing the appearance of a character (using the example of Svidrigailov) not only to show his inner world, but also to go into the incomprehensible region of the subconscious, thereby motivating his actions. The unity of form and content in his works is manifested in the fact that even such an element as a portrait, in the words of N.N. Nasedkina, “becomes the conductor of the main idea of ​​the novel - to show the split, disharmonious world in which Dostoevsky’s heroes live.”

List of used literature

Belokurova S.P. Dictionary of literary terms. - M., 2005.

Ginzburg L.Ya. About psychological prose. - L.: Fiction, 1977. - 448 p.

Dostoevsky F.M. Crime and Punishment. - M., 1997.

Nasedkin N.N. Dostoevsky: Encyclopedia. - M.: Algorithm, 2003.

Kirpotin V.Ya. Dostoevsky is an artist. - M., 1972.

Romanova G.I. The practice of analyzing a literary work. -M.: Flinta-Nauka, 2004. - 255 p.

Romanova G.I. Creative history // Introduction to literary criticism: Literary work: Basic terms and concepts / Ed. L.V. Chernets. - M., 1999. - 1st ed.; 2nd ed. reworked and additional -2006 - pp. 508-521.

Romanova G.I. The theme of evil in criticism of Dostoevsky // Philological Sciences. - 2005. - No. 2. - P. 14-22.

Dictionary of literary characters: Russian literature: Mid-19th - early 20th centuries. - M.: Moscow Lyceum, 1997.

Yu.Yurkina L.Yu. Introduction to literary criticism. - M.: Higher School, 1999.-S. 296.

Of the many minor characters, Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigailova is the most striking and important for characterizing the main character Raskolnikov. The image and characterization of Svidrigailov in the novel “Crime and Punishment” are described by Dostoevsky quite clearly, vividly, and in the most detail. This character so clearly emphasizes many aspects of the protagonist’s character that it is very important to understand the very essence of the unsympathetic Arkady Ivanovich.

Dostoevsky F. M., like an artist, painted a portrait of Arkady Ivanovich with clear, bright, rich strokes with a wide brush. And although Svidrigailov is not the main character, it is difficult to forget him and impossible to pass by.

Appearance

“... He was about fifty years old, taller than average, portly, with broad and steep shoulders, which gave him a somewhat stooped appearance... His wide, high-cheekbone face was quite pleasant, and his complexion was fresh, not St. Petersburg. His hair, still very thick, was completely blond and just a little gray, and his wide, thick beard, hanging down like a shovel, was even lighter than his head hair. His eyes were blue and looked coldly, intently and thoughtfully; scarlet lips"

This is how the portrait of Svidrigailov was painted. The author drew him in great detail, emphasizing the importance of this character for the destinies of the other heroes of the novel. The portrait is very interesting: at first the reader sees a very pleasant person, even handsome. And suddenly, at the end of the description, it is said about the eyes: a steady, cold gaze, albeit thoughtful. The author emphasized the famous expression “the eyes are the mirror of the soul” in literally two words that reveal the very essence of the character. Even a very attractive person may turn out to be completely different from what he first appears. Here is the first hint of the true essence of Svidrigailov, which the author reveals through the opinion of Raskolnikov, who noticed that Arkady Ivanovich’s face is more like a mask hiding all the ins and outs, that, despite his attractiveness, there is something very unpleasant in Svidrigailov.

Character, its formation

Svidrigailov is a nobleman, which means that he received a decent education. He served in the cavalry for about two years, then, as he himself said, “wandered around,” already living in St. Petersburg. There he became a sharper and ended up in prison, from where Marfa Petrovna rescued him. It turns out that the entire biography of Arkady Ivanovich is his path to moral and ethical decline. Svidrigailov is cynical, a lover of debauchery, which he himself admits even with some pride. He has no sense of gratitude: even to his wife, who saved him from prison, he directly states that he is not going to remain faithful to her and change his lifestyle for her sake.

His entire life was marked by crimes: because of him, his servant Philip and the servant’s daughter, a girl dishonored by Svidrigailov, committed suicide. It is most likely that Marfa Petrovna was poisoned because of her lecherous husband. Arkady Ivanovich lies, slandering Dunya, Raskolnikov’s sister, slandering her, and also trying to dishonor the girl. With all his dissolute and dishonest life, Svidrigailov is gradually killing his soul. And it would be okay if he destroyed everything good in himself, Arkady Ivanovich kills everything around him, everything he touches.

Character personality traits

Svidrigailov is depicted as a perfect villain who has fallen into the abyss of evil, having seemingly lost every pitiful remnant of conscience. He has absolutely no doubts when doing evil, does not think about the consequences, and even enjoys the torment of the people around him. A lustful libertine, a sadist, he tries to satisfy all his base instincts, without experiencing the slightest remorse for what he has done. It seems to him that it will always be like this.

Svidrigailov and Raskolnikov

Having met the main character, Arkady Ivanovich once notices to him that they are both “birds of a feather.” Raskolnikov finds Svidrigailov extremely unpleasant. Rodion even feels some confusion, feeling the power of Arkady Ivanovich over himself, who understood a lot about the student. Raskolnikov is frightened by the mysteriousness of Svidrigailov.

However, despite the fact that Rodion killed the old pawnbroker, they are not at all alike. Yes, Rodion put forward a theory about superhumans, even killed a man while testing his theory. But in Svidrigailov, as in a distorting mirror, he saw himself in the future, if he continued to live according to the principles of his idea. And this revealed humanity in Rodion, pushed him to repentance and understand the depth of his fall.

The end of Arkady Ivanovich

Dostoevsky, in addition to his mastery of writing, was endowed with the talent of a psychologist. Here too, describing the life path of Svidrigailov, an inveterate villain, he stops him with love, paradoxically as it may seem. Arkady Ivanovich, having met Dunya, first tries to seduce her. When he fails, he denigrates the girl in the eyes of others. In the end, he is surprised to realize that he truly loved her. And this understanding of the truth of love opens in his soul all the floodgates that hitherto had not let out either conscience, repentance, or understanding of the atrocities he committed.

He lets Dunya go, noting with desperate bitterness:

“So you don’t love me? And you can't? Never?".

Svidrigailov suddenly realizes that he is absolutely alone in his fall, that he is unworthy of anyone’s love. The epiphany comes too late for him. Yes, he is trying to atone, to somehow make amends for all the evil that he has done so far. Arkady Ivanovich gives money to Dunya and Sonya, donates a large sum to the Marmeladov family... But he cannot achieve deep, sincere repentance.

But the pangs of conscience aroused in him memories of the atrocities he had committed. And these memories turned out to be an unbearable burden for the conscience. Svidrigailov committed suicide.

And in this he turned out to be weaker than Raskolnikov, who was not afraid, but confessed and repented, not being afraid to live on.

Svidrigailov is outlined by Dostoevsky very vividly and naturally. This is the type of person who has no moral rules. Svidrigailov was educated, well-mannered, rich, handsome, but sensual pleasures destroyed him. Chasing these pleasures, he squandered his fortune, became a sharper and then a beggar. A rich woman fell in love with him, paid his debts and made him her husband. Svidrigailov lives in the village for several years, and does not deny himself sensual pleasures. Finally he got tired of everything. At this time, he met Avdotya Romanovna and began to pursue her to satisfy his passion. Thinking that Avdotya Romanovna is resisting his wishes because he is married, Svidrigailov, without hesitation, kills his wife, abandons his children and goes to St. Petersburg for Dunya. By cunning, he lures her into his apartment and wants to dishonor her. But when he sees that Raskolnikova feels hatred and contempt for him, he lets her go. After that, he was left with only one outcome - suicide. Svidrigailov throws away his money and dies indifferent to everything, even to himself. Of course, no one will feel sorry for such a monster.

The figure of Svidrigailov stands somehow apart from the entire action of the novel. Much about it remains unexplained and mysterious. Svidrigailov is a man capable of all sorts of nasty things, but at the same time we see in him also good movements of the soul - for example, he suddenly provides for her family after the death of Katerina Ivanovna. His relationship to Raskolnikov's sister is unclear. He obviously had a deep and abiding passion for her. The scene of his date with her makes one think that it was not just animal lust that was speaking in him, but something else. The mental process that led him to suicide is also unclear. Despite the insufficiency and vagueness of the depiction, Svidrigailov gives the impression of something solid, some kind of strength. He's even likable, despite his bad sides. “Crime and Punishment”, in its artistic completeness, takes first place among Dostoevsky’s novels, novels of city life, the life of St. Petersburg, “a half-crazed city,” as one of the heroes of “Crime and Punishment” puts it.

According to prof. Chizh in Crime and Punishment there are five mentally ill people: Raskolnikov and his mother, Marmeladov and his wife and Svidrigailov. The last one is the most perfect, “immortal”
a depiction of moral insanity. What is called moral insanity is expressed by a complete or almost complete loss of moral concepts in the presence of other mental manifestations. “Russian people are generally broad people,” says Svidrigailov, “broad, like their land, and extremely prone to the fantastic, to the disorderly.” “In our educated society, we don’t have particularly sacred traditions,” he further develops his thought.

Others compose these sacred and moral concepts from books or “derive them from chronicles,” but, according to Svidrigailov, this means being a “cap” and “indecent for a secular person.” With a feeling of satisfaction, he calls himself “white-handed” and does not recognize any shrines. He is a family nobleman, a former cavalry officer, who has not broken various social “ties” that have helped him out more than once in difficult moments of his life. “Following an old regimental habit,” he is an alcoholic, and because of his love for strong sensations, he is a cheater and a libertine, which he speaks about with open cynicism. He beat his wife with a whip, also finding pleasure in this, and
Thus, he poisoned her, having achieved through threats or bribes that a medical autopsy established death from a hearty lunch after swimming. Svidrigailov easily got away with the suicide of his lackey, brought to this by rude treatment. Svidrigailov is not ashamed to remember this, but
just boring. Having learned from an overheard conversation about Raskolnikov’s crime, Svidrigailov considers him an interesting person and offers to arrange an escape abroad. Raskolnikov for him is “a berry from his own field.” Recognizing his full right to use people for his own pleasure and benefit, Svidrigailov is contemptuous of all new social trends and is very glad that in his area the peasant reform was carried out in such a way that his income did not decrease.

The social danger of the Svidrigailovs is that they are considered sick only from a medical point of view. To everyone, they are, at most, people with oddities. Dostoevsky shows the undoubted morbidity of Svidrigailov, suffering from hallucinations, and his contagious, pernicious influence. He “has the good fortune to interest with his judgments” Raskolnikov’s sister, whom he eventually drives with his vile harassment to the point that she shoots at him and almost kills him. He finds himself a bride, a “sixteen-year-old angel,” enjoys her bashful tears from his treatment and already knows in advance that after the wedding he will leave her, and that some Madame Resslich is trying to arrange this wedding, so that later, taking advantage of the hopeless situation of the abandoned woman,
“turnover”, “in our layer, that is, and higher.” The spiritually undeveloped Lebezyatnikovs and the morally deaf Luzhins are connected by countless threads of interaction with Svidrigailov’s moral insanity. The hopelessly stupid and rude Lebezyatnikov even sees the service of progress in the confession, for example, of such ideas that nobility and generosity are all nonsense, absurdities, old prejudiced words. Through Lebezyatnikov, Marmeladov learns that “compassion in our time is forbidden even by science, and that this is already being done in England, where there is political economy.” Luzhin, a “reliable and wealthy” person, also referring to “science,” argues that you need to love not your neighbor, but yourself, and that everything is based on personal interest. He deliberately looks for a wife from a poor family so that she feels obligated to her husband. Luzhin chooses a poor girl, Avdotya Romanovna Raskolnikova, who fits his ideal of a poor and therefore submissive wife. Her mother, a needy widow of a nobleman, a woman tired of struggling with poverty and subsequently maddened by fear and worries about her children, in some kind of despair is looking for justifications for Dunya’s marriage to Luzhin, who “seems to be a kind” man. Therefore, Svidrigailov rightly notes that Raskolnikov’s mother should not prefer Luzhin to him: it makes absolutely no difference. Luzhi is only not as bold and arrogant as Svidrigailov, but he will not stop at any meanness to
achieve his goal when he does not have to fear resistance. The Svidrigailovs, Lebezyatnikovs, Luzhins and others like them bear all their weight on the weak, the humiliated, the poor.

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

(Novel, 1866)

Svidrigailov Arkady Ivanovich - one of the central pfoi. “... He was about fifty years old, taller than average, portly, with broad and steep shoulders, which gave him a somewhat stooped appearance... His wide, high-cheekbone face was quite pleasant, and his complexion was fresh, not St. Petersburg. His hair, still very thick, was completely blond and just a little gray, and his wide, thick beard, hanging down like a shovel, was even lighter than his head hair. His eyes were blue and looked coldly, intently and thoughtfully; lips are scarlet." Raskolnikov notices that his face looks like a mask and there is something extremely unpleasant about him.

Nobleman. Served for two years in the cavalry. Then, in his words, he “lounged around” in St. Petersburg. He was a cheater. Having married Marfa Petrovna, who bought him out of prison, he lived in the village for seven years. Cynic. Loves debauchery. He has a number of serious crimes on his conscience: the suicide of Philip’s servant and the fourteen-year-old girl he insulted, possibly the poisoning of his wife... Raskolnikov’s double, S., seems to have been generated by the hero’s nightmare. Appearing in his closet, he declares that they are “birds of a feather” and invites Raskolnikov to give ten thousand to his sister Duna, who, due to his harassment, was compromised and lost her position. Having lured her to him under the pretext of important news concerning her brother, he reports that Rodion is a murderer. He tries to gain Dunya's favor by offering to save Raskolnikov, and then blackmails her. Dunya, in order to prevent violence, shoots at him with a revolver and misses. However, S, humbling himself, unexpectedly lets her go. In his question: “So you don’t love me? And you can't? Never?" - there is a sound of sincere bitterness, almost despair.

Unlike Raskolnikov, he is already on the other side of good and evil and seems to have no doubts. It is no coincidence that S. is so worried about Raskolnikov, who feels his power over himself, with his mystery. He is free, the moral law no longer has power over him, but this does not bring him joy. All that remains for him is world boredom and vulgarity. S. had fun as best he could, trying to overcome this boredom. At night ghosts appear to him: Marfa Petrovna, servant Philip... The indistinguishability of good and evil gives rise to bad infinity and makes life meaningless. It is no coincidence that eternity appears to him in the image of a village, smoky bathhouse with spiders. And although he helps settle Marmeladov’s children after the death of Katerina Ivanovna, takes care of a little girl in a hotel before committing suicide, his soul is almost dead. S. commits suicide with a revolver shot.

It is interesting to trace how Dostoevsky created the image of Svidrigailov. In the draft notes of “Crime and Punishment” this hero is called A-ov, after the name of one of the convicts of the Omsk prison Aristov, who in “Notes from the House of the Dead” is characterized as the limit of “moral decline ... decisive depravity and ... arrogant baseness” . “This was an example of what one physical side of a person could reach, not internally restrained by any norm, any legality... It was a monster, a moral Quasimodo. Add to the fact that he was cunning and intelligent, handsome, even somewhat educated, and had abilities. No, better is fire, better is pestilence and famine than such a person in society!”

Svidrigailov was supposed to be the embodiment of such complete moral ugliness. However, this very image and the author’s attitude towards it turned out to be incomparably more complex: along with cheating, dirty debauchery and cruelty that led his victim to suicide, he turns out to be unexpectedly capable of good deeds, philanthropy and generosity. Svidrigailov is a man of enormous inner strength who has lost the sense of boundaries between good and evil.

Svidrigailov. Fragments from the film “Crime and Punishment”

Preparatory notes have been preserved in Dostoevsky's notebooks, which reflect the gradual formation of the characteristics of this image and variations of its essence in the writer's imagination. “Passionate and stormy impulses, bubbling up and down; it’s hard to bear oneself (strong nature, uncontrollable, to the point of feeling voluptuous, gusts of lies (Ivan the Terrible), many meannesses and dark deeds, a child (NB killed), wanted to shoot himself. For three days he decided. He tormented the poor man who depended on him and on whom he kept. Instead of shooting himself, get married. Jealousy. (Charged 100,000.) Slander of wife. Kicked out or killed the hanger-on. A gloomy demon from which he cannot get rid of. Suddenly the determination to expose himself, the whole intrigue; repentance, humility, leaves, becomes a great ascetic, humility, thirst to endure suffering. Betrays oneself. Link. Asceticism.

“I don’t want to imitate the people in a vile way.” Still, there is no humility, a struggle with pride.”

Further, this characteristic is further modified, and it is obvious that the complex image that floats before the creative imagination of the novelist contains features not only of Svidrigailov, but also of a number of his later characters - the Great Sinner, the hero of the planned novels “Atheism” (1868–1869) and “The Life of the Great sinner" (1869–1870), Stavrogin ("Demons") and Versilov ("Teenager"):

“Passionate and stormy impulses. No coldness and disappointment, nothing used by Byron. An exorbitant and insatiable thirst for pleasure. The thirst for life is unquenchable. A variety of pleasures and satisfactions. Perfect consciousness and analysis of every pleasure, without fear that it will weaken because it is based on the needs of nature itself, the physique. Pleasures are artistic to the point of refinement and next to them are rude, but precisely because excessive rudeness comes into contact with refinement (a severed head). Psychological pleasures. Pleasures are criminal violations of all laws. Mystical pleasures (fear at night). Enjoyment of repentance, monastery (fasting and prayer). Beggarly pleasures (begging for alms). The Delights of Raphael's Madonna. The pleasures of theft, the pleasures of robbery, the pleasures of suicide. (Having received an inheritance for 35 years, until then he was a teacher or official, and was afraid of his superiors). (Widower). Enjoying education (learning for this). Enjoyment of good deeds."

As a result, Crime and Punishment portrays Svidrigailov as a man who violated the sacred mother earth and severed his connection with the human family. He kills his personality and falls into the power of faceless cosmic forces. The last night before his suicide, Svidrigailov wanders through deserted streets under thunderstorms and pouring rain. The spirit of non-existence, embodied in him, recognizes in the revolt of the elements a “fateful inheritance.” Mental chaos merges with natural chaos. The description of this stormy night is the pinnacle of Dostoevsky’s “mystical realism.” (See the full text of the passage "The Death of Svidrigailov".)

Until ten o'clock in the evening, Svidrigailov visits “various taverns and sewers”, listens to the barrel organ in some kind of pleasure garden. “The evening was stuffy and gloomy. By ten o'clock in the evening terrible clouds came from all sides - thunder struck and the rain poured down like a waterfall. The water did not fall in drops, but gushed onto the ground in whole streams. The lightning flashed every minute, and one could count up to five times during each glow.” At midnight he goes to the St. Petersburg side, rents a room in a dirty wooden hotel, but even this tiny cell does not save him from the raging elements. They are chasing him. “This must be some kind of garden under the window,” he thought, “the trees are rustling; how I don’t like the noise of trees, at night, in a storm and in the dark, it’s a bad feeling! Rain, dampness, water cause unbearable disgust in him. “Never in my life have I loved water, even in landscapes”; he is tormented by a nightmare: the girl he insulted - a drowned woman - lies in a coffin among flowers. He opens the window: “The wind poured violently into his cramped closet and, as if with frosty frost, covered his face... In the midst of the darkness and night, a cannon shot was heard, followed by another... Ah, a signal! The water is rising, he thought.”

The image of a drowned woman (a girl whom Svidrigailov once abused) approaches him like a flood. Water takes revenge on the defiler. Svidrigailov kills himself in a damp fog, on a dirty street, among wet trees: “A milky, thick fog lay over the city. Svidrigailov walked along the slippery, dirty wooden pavement towards the Malaya Neva. He imagined the water of the Malaya Neva rising high during the night, Petrovsky Island, wet paths, wet grass, wet trees and bushes.” He stops in front of a house with a watchtower and pulls the trigger in front of the Jewish fireman.