The novel "Crime and Punishment": the meaning of the name. Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky, "Crime and Punishment"

F. M. Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment" wrote in an extremely difficult situation. A big loss in the casino, lack of money and prospects ... This novel was the only salvation from the financial collapse. Surely, these circumstances have affected the subject matter of the work, and the author's position - how much you can talk about in this case. Still, Dostoevsky does not give ratings to his characters, he just tells a story.

"Crime and Punishment" in School

FM Dostoevsky, "Crime and Punishment" - this is exactly what one of the points of the school program looks like. Tastes of the Ministry of Education do not cease to amaze. Why this novel? After all, this work is clearly not intended for an audience consisting of children aged 15-16. They simply do not understand anything. Not because they were stupid or poorly educated. Just a very specific book. Sincere characterization of the novel "Crime and Punishment", given by the average student, will be categorical. It's boring! And it's pointless. The main character for some reason killed an old woman, robbed him, he could not spend money, then suffered a lot of pages, and in the end - surrendered to the authorities. Well, stupidity is the same. A fool of some kind, not a hero.

This is how the disciple sees this novel, and, in fact, correctly sees it. Because his life experience does not allow you to notice in the book something more, read between the lines. So the child, looking at the picture, sees two dolphins, and an adult man - a naked couple, weaving in embraces. And so, and that's the right thing. Just everything has its time and its place.

Characters of the novel

For students reading the novel "Crime and Punishment", the meaning of the title of the book is obvious. Crime is murder, punishment is punishment. Just like twice two. To see the double bottom of the work, you need ... not exactly to grow up. Not in the age of business. We need to live, gain experience. Learn to see deeper, farther. Yet Dostoevsky did not write a detective story about an unsuccessful murderer, not the scope of the author.

Dostoevsky's characters can be kind, they can be evil, but they are always alive and whole. These are people who commit ordinary human acts and experience ordinary human emotions. Not supermen, not geniuses, not cardboard villains. Just people. He, like no one, knows how to convey the slightest movement of the character's soul, the subtlest shade of thought. With photographic precision draws the personality of the hero, like an experienced fingerprint - fingerprints.

The plot-forming conflict

At the same time, Dostoevsky is a bad stylist. He writes heavily and unevenly, even rudely. His novels are never taken away by brilliant, witty quotations. "Crime and punishment" is in no way a masterpiece in this respect, therefore it is rather difficult for him to read to a man who is not used to overcoming the resistance of the text. But if you try, if you get used to a specific author's style, if you listen to what the heroes say ... If you read the novel "Crime and Punishment" in this way, the meaning of the title turns out to be quite different.

The depth of the plot is not murder. This is just one of the episodes, albeit very significant. It is not important. The reason why a crime is committed and the events that follow it are important.

What did Dostoevsky write about?

So what is this book - Crime and Punishment? The description of the novel will take several lines.

The main character of the book, Raskolnikov, is a very curious personality. A student, a revolutionary, a fiery idealist, he is poor. He has nothing to pay for schooling, his family's life is full of hardship. The sister even decides to marry an unloved, but rich man, to provide a means of livelihood for relatives. Raskolnikov realizes that he must do something. To get money.

At the same time, Rodion is convinced that the world is divided into weak and strong, insignificant and great. And the former exist meaninglessly and uselessly, and the latter are the rulers of the world, on which ordinary, human laws and norms can not spread. Such is the absolutely Nietzschean theory. And, of course, Raskolnikov believes that he himself is insignificant and weak can not be. He is not like that. He is of a different breed.

Nietzschean ideology and reality

In the novel "Crime and Punishment" the main thing is precisely the conflict of this idea, quite popular in those years, with reality. It builds a plot. Following his idea, Raskolnikov decides to kill a wealthy old woman - she is nobody, unlike the present, aware of her destiny. And he does it.

Quotations are almost never borrowed from the novel. "Crime and Punishment" is quite a scant material for fans of aphorisms. But the phrase: "I'm a shivering creature or have the right?" - is familiar to everyone. It is she who is the quintessence of the novel, the essence of the conflict and the plot engine. It contains all the salt.

Because, having committed murder, Raskolnikov understands that his theory was erroneous. All people are equal, and laws exist for all. Let the old woman be ugly and disgusting, let there be people in a thousand, a million times better - murder remains a murder. And he himself is not at all an ideal superman. He "has no right". This is clearly stated to Raskolnikov by his own conscience.

Not murder and not katorga

This is what the novel "Crime and Punishment" was written about. The meaning of the name is much deeper than the usual bondage killing-penal servitude. In his ideas, Raskolnikov rejected moral norms, refuted the very notion of morality. Thus, he separated himself from humanity, claiming the place of God. This was his crime. In self-love and narcissism, in pride. Murder is but an effect.

And punishment is not jail time at all. These are the tortures of conscience, this is the collapse of life ideals, it is the realization of the meaninglessness, uselessness of the crime. To do this, I needed a moment with not spent money. He did not just kill me, but killed me in vain. He dreamed of making a great, helping the needy - and he could not, because he was too weak. The hero understands that he is not at all what he thought he was. Just an ordinary person, the same as everyone else. A trembling creature. And to live with this further Raskolnikov unbearable.

Morality in the novels of Dostoevsky

For Dostoevsky, the question of following moral norms - or the voice of God in the soul - is one of the key to creativity. His characters can not be happy outside this conditional circle. And it's not about religiosity. Dostoevsky, despite the specifics of his personality, and perhaps, thanks to her, believed humanism, morality is a natural property of the human soul. And it is in the Christian, and not in the secular meaning of the word. Pure soul harlot - a through image, which is present in almost all the works of the author. And the holy madman is a type that FM Dostoevsky loves. "Crime and punishment" in this regard is no exception. Crushed by the consciousness of reality that has collapsed on him, Raskolnikov gets help in the person of Sonechka Marmeladova. A poor girl who became a prostitute to help the family.

Crimes and Criminals

In fact, Sonechka is both an antithesis and a logical continuation of Raskolnikov's image. A man who has transgressed morality for the sake of money. But in her case the driving factor was not self-assertion, but altruism. Therefore, unlike the main character, Sonechka has kept her mental purity. It is she who helps Raskolnikov survive the crisis, she tells him the idea of repentance as a way to atone for sin. And Raskolnikov really goes on with his guilt. Although he does not pity the old woman at all, he did not feel any sympathy or experience. He feels sorry for himself, sorry for his former life, sorry for forever lost self-esteem. And repentance, in fact, is just a way to restore it.

In the text there is one funny phrase. It is pronounced by an investigator, whom the main character reproaches for eavesdropping. The policeman is surprised that, according to Raskolnikov, eavesdropping is dishonorable, and "old ladies on the head than they fell" - is quite worthy. In this - the whole essence of the main character. Such are his ideas about worthy behavior.

The novel "Crime and Punishment" is devoted to this paradoxical view of morality. The meaning of the name is that this position is criminal in itself, it can not lead to anything but evil. And punishment is not a prison, but an awareness of the fallacy of one's own path.