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- Social and philosophical origins of Raskolnikov's rebellion
Rodion Raskolnikov is the main character of Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment. The character calls his behavior "rebellion." His crime was not spontaneous. Many social and philosophical factors led to the hero’s actions.
The social reasons for Raskolnikov’s crime influenced the hero much more than the philosophical ones. Indeed, under the influence of the conditions of his life, his philosophy was formed.
Rodion Raskolnikov is a former student who could not continue his studies because he was unable to pay for his studies. The hero lives very poorly. He rents a small room that looks somewhat like a coffin. The hero does not always have the financial ability to pay the landlady’s rent every month, so she is angry with Raskolnikov. Nastasya, the maid in the house, feels sorry for Raskolnikov, so she often brings him food, even if the mistress forbids it.
Raskolnikov not only suffers from poverty. Both his mother and sister are doomed to such a life. Raskolnikov does not have a permanent job. He gets by from orders that he takes from his friend Razumikhin. He, like many students, uses the services of an old money-lender, pawning various valuables for a certain period.
This sad situation in which the hero finds himself prompts him to think about poverty and wealth, as well as the qualities arising from these phenomena. The character was struck by the injustice of this world, the distribution of benefits and wealth, resources. He didn't understand why he had to live in such an environment.
The hero wrote an article about people who are divided into ordinary and ordinary. According to this theory, society was divided into outstanding people and ordinary ones. The first people carried out coups d'etat, administered justice, organized revolutions and reforms, and the second people were only material for the first people.
Raskolnikov used his theory to reassure himself. He considered himself an extraordinary person. This thought calmed him down, gave him an incentive to live and move on. Rodion Raskolnikov decided that if he was an extraordinary person, he could solve the problems of his poverty himself.
The choice of the hero fell on the old woman-pawnbroker, who was for him a fiend of hell. He committed a murder that cost him a lot.
Rodion Raskolnikov’s act was caused by the conditions of his life and philosophy, which was formed in the hero under the influence of the social situation.
Cheat sheet: Social and philosophical origins of Raskolnikov's rebellion
Here God lies defeated -
He fell, and he fell low.
That's why we built it
Higher the pedestal.
Frank Herbert
The novel Crime and Punishment was written in 1866. The sixties of the nineteenth century were very turbulent not only politically, but also in the field of thinking: the centuries-old moral foundations of society were collapsing. The theory of Napoleonism was widely preached. Young people thought that everything was allowed to them. “In one life - thousands of lives saved from rot and decay. One death and a hundred lives in return - but it’s arithmetic!” Of course, in real life no one killed anyone, but only thought about it as a joke. Dostoevsky took this theory to its zenith to see what happened. And this is what happened: an unhappy person who does not understand his mistake, a lonely person, suffering spiritually and physically. This is how Raskolnikov appears to us.
If we turn to Raskolnikov’s childhood memory (a dream), we see a kind, sensitive boy who is trying to save a dying horse. “Thank God it’s just a dream! But what is it? Is it possible that I’m starting to feel a fever: such an ugly dream!” - says Raskolnikov, waking up. He can no longer imagine himself like this, for him this boy is “a trembling creature, a louse.” But what changed Raskolnikov so much? There are many reasons, but they can be reduced to several, more general ones.
The first, we will probably call the time in which Raskolnikov lived. This time itself pushed for changes, protests, riots. Probably every young man then (and even now!) considered himself the savior of the world. Time is the root cause of Raskolnikov's actions.
The second reason is the city of St. Petersburg. Here is what Pushkin writes about him:
The city is lush, the city is poor,
Spirit of bondage, slender appearance,
The vault of heaven is pale green,
Boredom, cold and granite.
In Crime and Punishment, Petersburg is a vampire city. He drinks the vital juices from the people who come there. This happened with Raskolnikov. When he first came to study, he was still that nice boy from childhood. But time passes, and the proudly raised head sinks lower and lower, the city begins to choke Raskolnikov, he wants to take a deep breath, but he cannot. It is interesting that throughout the entire novel, St. Petersburg only once appears before Raskolnikov with a piece of its beauty: “An inexplicable coldness blew over him from this magnificent panorama; This magnificent picture was full of a mute and deaf spirit for him...” But the majestic view of St. Isaac’s Cathedral and the Winter Palace is mute for Raskolnikov, for whom Petersburg is his closet - “closet”, closet - “coffin”. It is Petersburg that is largely to blame for the novel. In it, Raskolnikov becomes lonely and unhappy, in it he hears the officers talking, and in it, finally, lives an old woman who is guilty of her wealth.
Having delved into the main social causes of the rebellion, it is worth taking on the philosophical and psychological ones. Here the first thing to name, of course, is Raskolnikov’s character: proud, even vain, independent, impatient, self-confident, categorical... but you never know how many definitions you can come up with? Because of his character, Raskolnikov fell into a hole from which few can get out...
When Raskolnikov was just developing his theory, he, without even suspecting it, already considered himself a People with a capital M. Further more. Being constantly alone, all he did was think. So, he deceived himself, convinced himself of something that was not there. It is interesting that at the beginning he justifies himself, like many young people, with the noble goal of helping others. But after committing the crime, Raskolnikov realizes that he killed not to help others, but for himself. “The old woman was only sick... I wanted to get over it as quickly as possible... I didn’t kill a person, but I killed principles. He killed the principles, but didn’t cross, he remained on this side,” “... I needed to find out then, and quickly find out, whether I was a louse, like everyone else, or a man?.. Am I a trembling creature or do I have the right...” Interesting also that Raskolnikov considered himself the only right one until the very end. “Nothing, they won’t understand anything, Sonya, and they are not worthy to understand,” “... maybe I’m still a man, and not a louse, and I’m hasty in condemning myself. I will still fight."
Raskolnikov's loved ones understood him better than he understood himself. “After all, he doesn’t love anyone; maybe he will never love! - says Razumikhin. “And a scoundrel, however, is this Raskolnikov! I carried a lot on myself. He can be a big scam over time, when nonsense pops up, but now he wants to live too much,” says Svidrigailov. “I consider you to be one of those whose guts can be cut out, and he will stand and look at his tormentors with a smile,” if only he finds faith or God. Well, find it and you will live,” says Porfiry Petrovich. “She [Sonya] also knew his vanity, arrogance, pride and lack of faith.”
Disbelief. It is with this word that Dostoevsky wants to justify Raskolnikov’s action. This is evidenced by Sonya, “character number two,” who truly believes and lives by it, and thanks to this, has risen much higher than Raskolnikov. The name of the main character speaks about this. This is evidenced by numerous hints and “unquoted” quotations from the Holy Scriptures, hidden Gospel images. After all, God means not just belief in something supernatural, but also the presence of minimal moral principles. And this is so necessary in an era of change and rebellion in order to keep a person afloat and not lead him astray from the “true path”!
“If a creature has already become someone, it will die, but will not turn into its own opposite,” “there is no sharp line between people and gods: people become gods, and gods turn into people” - these lines were written much later, and this proves that no matter what time we live, the themes for novels remain the same: where is the border between fas and nefas (permissible and unlawful).
In preparing this work, materials from the site www.studentu.ru were used
Social and philosophical origins of Raskolnikov's rebellion
In the novel “Crime and Punishment” by Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, one of the most important topics addressed by the author is social problems and philosophical problems. Indeed, the time in which the main events of the novel take place was truly a turning point for Russia - the sixties of the nineteenth century turned out to be difficult both for the country in general and for the lower strata of the population in particular.
It is impossible not to notice in what inhuman conditions the main character of Dostoevsky’s novel, Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, lives. His room, which can hardly be called a room, is very small and dusty, and the area in which the house is located cannot be called prosperous. Dusty streets, drinking establishments, devastation and dirt - it’s hard to even imagine how much pressure such a situation puts on a person. And the worst thing is that all of Russia was like this, all of St. Petersburg was like this, excluding some central regions. The social situation of ordinary people who did not belong to the nobility was truly disastrous; one gets the feeling that they had practically no chance for a normal life, although perhaps it all depends on the individual. In my opinion, this hopelessness became the main reason for Raskolnikov’s rebellion, if we talk directly about its social origins.
The theoretical basis of Raskolnikov's idea
It is no coincidence that Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky pays so much attention to the description of Raskolnikov’s theory in the novel Crime and Punishment. She is not a figment of the imagination of a great writer. Among Dostoevsky's contemporaries there were many young, educated people who were keen on Nietzsche's ideas. It was his teaching that gave rise to similar beliefs, popular among young people trying to find a way out of a humiliating beggarly situation. The work of a talented writer raised pressing problems of modern society. Crime, drunkenness, prostitution - vices generated by social inequality, have overwhelmed Russia. Trying to escape from the terrible reality, people became carried away by the ideas of individualism and forgot about the eternal moral values and commandments of the Christian religion.
