Dual Natures of Characters
Jeanna Carlsson & Shalaka Damle
Activity
What are 2 aspects of your personality or interests that are conflicting?
Overview
- many main characters have split/dual personalities
- dichotomies
- source of characters' motivations
- common technique in Dostoyevsky's writing
Literary Criticism
- The Three Motives of Raskolnikov: A Reinterpretation of Crime and Punishment by Maurice Beebe
- Dostoyevksy's use of "doubles" creates a sense of unity in his writing
- focus remains on protagonist whether or not he is present in the scene
Raskolnikov
- 'Sometimes, though, he is not at all morbid, but simply cold and inhumanly callous; it's as though he were alternating between two characters.' (Part 3, Chapter II)
- "I saw myself how he was watching her and following her, only I hindered him, and now he's waiting until I go away. How can we keep him from her? How can we get her home?" (Part 1, Chapter IV) "Well, let him; he'll take something from that one, too, and let the girl go with him, and that will be the end of it. . . . Why did I go meddling in all that! Who am I to help anyone? Do I have any right to help? Let them all gobble each other alive—what is it to me?" (Part 1, Chapter IV)
- " 'I simply hinted that an ‘extraordinary’ man has the right … that is not an official right, but an inner right to decide in his own conscience to overstep … certain obstacles, and only in case it is essential for the practical fulfillment of his idea (sometimes, perhaps, of benefit to the whole of humanity).' " (Part 3, Chapter 5)
- ‘The old woman was a mistake perhaps, but she is not what matters! The old woman was only an illness…. I was in a hurry to overstep…. I didn’t kill a human being, but a principle! I killed the principle, but I didn’t overstep, I stopped on this side…. I was only capable of killing. And it seems I wasn’t even capable of that …' (Part 3, Chapter 6)
Sonia
- Spoken by Marmeladov - 'My daughter Sofya Semyonovna has been forced to take a yellow ticket, and owing to that she is unable to go on living with us.' (Part 1, Chapter II)
- " ‘Go at once, this very minute, stand at the cross-roads, bow down, first kiss the earth which you have defiled and then bow down to all the world and say to all men aloud, ‘I am a murderer!’ Then God will send you life again.'"
Svidrigailov
- "‘I am always fond of children, very fond of them,’ laughed Svidrigaïlov...I offered to assist in the young girl’s education in French and dancing. My offer was accepted with enthusiasm as an honour—and we are still friendly….'" (Part 6, Chapter IV)
- ‘I will undertake all the arrangements, the funeral and that. You know it’s a question of money and, as I told you, I have plenty to spare. I will put those two little ones and Polenka into some good orphan asylum, and I will settle fifteen hundred roubles to be paid to each on coming of age, so that Sofya Semyonovna need have no anxiety about them. And I will pull her out of the mud too, for she is a good girl, isn’t she? So tell Avdotya Romanovna that that is how I am spending her ten thousand.’ (Part 5, Chapter V)
- Spoken by Petrovich: 'Yes, that’s so. He had lost his wife, was a man of reckless habits and all of a sudden shot himself, and in such a shocking way…' (Part 6, Chapter 8)
Discussion Questions
- Does Svidrigailov's suicide show the dominance of one aspect of his personality over another?
- To what extent do Svidrigailov's OR Sonia's good deeds overshadow their bad deeds?
- To what extent does Raskolnikov rely on his gut instinct to make decisions and/or act?
- To what extent is Raskolnikov able to reconcile with his crime?
- What other characters besides Sonia and Svridigailov portray aspects of Raskolnikov's personality?
- Should one aspect of our personalities be dominant over the other(s)? What are the benefits and consequences of this?
Closing Thoughts
Works Cited
- Beebe, Maurice. "The Three Motives of Raskolnikov: A Reinterpretation of Crime and Punishment." College English 17.3 (1955): 151-58. JSTOR. Web.