Crime and Punishment1
Many great literary works emerge from a writer's experiences. Through The Crucible, Arthur Miller unleashes his fears and disdain towards the wrongful accusations of McCarthyism. Not only does Ernest Hemmingway present the horrors he witnessed in World War I in his novel, A Fair Well to Arms, he also addresses his disillusionment of war and that of the expatriates. Another writer who brings his experiences into the pages of a book is Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Faced with adversity and chronic financial problems, he lived as a struggling writer in St. Petersburg, a city stricken with poverty. Dostoyevsky's novel, Crime and Punishment, ingeniously illustrates the blatant destitution that plagued the city of St. Petersburg in nineteenth century. Throughout Crime and Punishment, Dostoyevsky reveals how this destitution victimizes two main female characters, Sofia Semionovna Marmeladov and Avdotya Romanovna Raskolnikov. In a poverty stricken St. Petersburg, many drunkards scourge the local taverns to satiate their desolation. One such out-of-work government clerk, Zakharych Semyon Marmeladov, lingers in the taverns relinquishing every penny to alcohol. Marmeladov's inability to maintain a job causes his family to live as indigents. Th
In the same likeness, Peter Petrovich Luzhin, a corporate lawyer, indulges Sonia with lectures of hand kisses and the French workers' associations and proclaims that he "like[s] the girl a lot . [and] no one [treats] her more politely and considerably than [he does], or [has] greater respect for her dignity" (360), yet, he accuses her later at her father's funeral feast of stealing "a government-accredited band note of the value of one hundred rubles" (381). With no steady income flowing into the family's pockets, Sonia's three younger stepsiblings cry of hunger. Although Sonia is an "honorable girl . Svidrigailov divulges Dunia's brother's secret about murdering the pawnbroker, Alyona Ivanova, and her sister, Lizaveta Ivanovna, then he traps Dunia in his apartment. After tainting her body, "she [does] not utter a word[;] she [does] not even look" (28). With vainglorious intentions, Luzhin looks at Dunia as a woman who "would be slavishly grateful to him all her life because he was heroic, and she would belittle herself reverently before him, while he enjoyed complete and unlimited power over her" (302). In order to quiet "the weeping of [the] hungry children," Sonia turns to a life of prostitution as a means of supporting her family (28). Dunia avoids the enormous calamity of going through with the marriage plans with Luzhin; nevertheless, she stills find herself entwined in another trap of an aggressor when she encounters Svidrigailov once again in St. In response to the cries, Katherine Ivanovna, Sonia's stepmother, introduces the idea of harlotry to Sonia. Svidrigailov believes that Dunia may be bought with money; he even approaches Rodion, her brother, and offers him ten thousand rubles.
Common topics in this essay:
Petrovich Luzhin,
Katherine Ivanovna,
Sonia Dunia,
Crime Punishment,
Lizaveta Ivanovna,
St Petersburg,
Petersburg Svidrigailov,
Petrovna Svidrigailov's,
Martha Petrovna,
Lebeziatnikov Luzhin's,
st petersburg,
crime punishment,
sofia semionovna,
yellow ticket,
katherine ivanovna,
peter petrovich luzhin,
avdotya romanovna,
dunia woman,
28 poverty,
martha petrovna,
avdotya romanovna raskolnikov,
martha petrovna's,
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Acceptance Essays
