Tyler Scholes
October 21, 2012
AP English Literature, 2A
Crime and Punishment Final Essay
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Freedom from guilt is seen to come from confession or suicide. Arkady Ivanovich
Svidrigailov committed multifarious crimes that accumulated so much guilt that this critical crisis within his own mind came to be; would he free himself from the guilt by confession, or would he choose suicide? Svidrigailov could be considered the most nefarious character in
Crime and Punishment ; a polar opposite of Sonia, these two characters are representations of the two paths that Raskolnikov could take for his own freedom. While Sonia urged Raskolnikov towards confessing and freedom from his tormented mind, Svidrigailov showed that even through random acts of kindness, a criminal that had committed acts such as murder would see suicide as a definite method of freedom, and even take it
Svidrigailov was depicted as such in the book: “He was a man about fifty, rather tall and thickly set, with broad high shoulders which made him look as though he stooped a little. He wore good and fashionable clothes, and looked like a gentleman of position. He carried a handsome cane, which he tapped on the pavement at each step; his gloves were rather spotless.
He had a broad, rather pleasant face with high cheek-bones and a fresh colour, not often seen in
Petersburg. His hair was still abundant, and only touched here and there with grey, and his thick

Scholes 2 square beard was even lighter than his hair. His eyes were blue and had a cold and thoughtful look; his lips were crimson. He was a remarkedly well-preserved man and looked much younger than his years.” (245) He was older, but looked very young, tidy, dignified, and even vibrant when compared to the city dwellers he lived among.
Svidrigailov tormented, with schadenfreude, Raskolnikov and Dunya such as confessing to Raskolnikov himself that he overheard the siblings’ conversation about the murders (Part 5
Chapter IV) after overhearing these confessions to Sonya (Part III Chapter IV). He confessed to having killed multiple people quite ruthlessly, ghosts tormenting his mind and chaining
Svidrigailov to a torture that could not be taken away easily, unless he decided to kill himself. He was unfaithful to his wife, sleeping around with other people, and seeking after Dunya herself, a former employee. Through it all, Svidrigailov represents the suicidal path that Raskolnikov could have taken, for “Nothing in this world is harder than speaking the truth, nothing easier than flattery.” (471)
Svidrigailov had freedom already in his own way, besides the tortures of the crimes he had committed. His wife actually consented for him to be able to sleep around: “After many tears, an unwritten contract was drawn up between us… Marfa Petrovna gave me a free hand with the maidservants, but only with her secret knowledge…” (467) In this, he had pretty much the freedom he wanted. The only problem seemed to be that his mind needed freedom from mental torture, and in the case of sleeping around while he had a wife to attend to, only made it much worse.
“… I tell you frankly that I feel really sorry for the innumerable woes of which I was the cause.” (468) Svidrigailov does reveal that he does, in fact, feel bad for what he has done. Within

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Crime and Punishment , Svidrigailov does reveal to be a disparaging pedophile along with a cheater and a malicious killer. Raskolnikov adds in a response to Svidrigailov “Luzhin charged you with having caused the death of a child. Is that true?” (469) Thereafter, Svidrigailov avoids the subject, later admitting to some crimes.
Svidrigailov was terribly obsessed with Dunya. “… I resolved to offer her all of my money—thirty thousand roubles I could have realized then—if she would run away with me here, to Petersburg. Of course I should have vowed eternal love, rapture, and so on. Do you know, I was so wild about her at that time that if she had told me to poison Marfa Petrovna or to cut her throat and to marry herself, it would have been done at once!” (472) Saying this,
Svidrigailov admitted how far he would go to get Dunya, and how much he really did not care about his wife.
Through all of this, Svidrigailov kept developing a more tortured mind, locking up all of his trouble and keeping him away from a potential freedom of mind. Had he taken Raskolnikov’s final route or taken after Sonya, his mind would be free and he would still be living. But, he took the cheater’s way out of guilt.
In the end, after confessing to Raskolnikov’s sister and being thoroughly rejected,
Svidrigailov committed suicide. Before doing so, he gave Sonia “three 5-per-cent bonds to the value of three thousand roubles.” (494) Before parting from her, he hints to Raskolnikov through
Sonia the tragic path that could be taken rather than confessing. “My greetings to Rodion
Romanovitch.” (495) These were the words he spoke before leaving Sonia and the given money.
On pages 503-504, Svidrigailov also helps a little girl recently beaten by her mother inside from the cold, pouring rain, and tucks her into bed, letting her sleep. But he woke, from a

Scholes 4 nightmare in which the girl reached out to him, finding the girl didn’t even exist. Nightmare after nightmare revealed how troubled his mind really was. The time was getting closer and closer.
“The revolver and the notebook lay beside him.” (505)
“ ‘Well brother, I don’t mind that. It’s a good place. When you are asked, you just say he was going, he said, to America.’ He put the revolver to his right temple. ‘You can’t do it here, it’s not the place,’ cried Achilles, rousing himself, his eyes growing bigger and bigger.
Svidrigailov pulled the trigger.” (506)
His mind too tortured and too weak to confess his crimes, no attempt to ease his mind, all
Svidrigailov could do was kill himself in the end. This choice of freedom was the fatuous way out; this was the precursor to Raskolnikov’s alternate way out if Raskolnikov had not confessed.
The shock of his suicide would not be as large as it potentially could have been. In most cases of suicide, many people are affected, especially close friends, and could potentially continue on to a suicidal chain. There is believed to be within it a false freedom. These people can no longer redeem themselves; they no longer will experience anything they want to. No more happiness can be felt, along with the torture and sadness they left behind. Many people are too weak to deal with any of the stress and the sadness throughout their lives, people such as Svidrigailov.
Through much pain, torture, confinement, and sadness, Raskolnikov listens to the wise
Sonia and confesses at last, dealing with his consequences to put his mind at rest and to avoid taking the coward’s way out. Thus, Raskolnikov has potential for redemption and living a better life than he had previously. Svidrigailov’s opposite, Sonia, proved to be the better and stronger influence for Raskolnikov’s final choice for freedom. In Sonia lies the sight for the best freedom in any given situation, not a coward, but able to live a full life.

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Dunya also gives herself a choice instead of a previous decision based on the good of others on financial aid from marriage, deciding to go to the dedicated Razumikhin instead of the terrible Luzhin. The two give themselves the freedom of having a choice to be happy with someone they care about, rather than restricting themselves to a worse fate.
Freedom is a choice that may have to be fought for and has to be treated carefully, or it will be lost if it slips from any grasp. If confession is to be made to relieve torturous thoughts, and suicide to end lives, then choosing an end to life also destroys the happy aspects of life that could come after being relieved, rather than giving a chance to experience fun, brilliant activities.
Choose freedom of mind, or choose death.

Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Crime and Punishment. New York: Penguin Books, 2003
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