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Ashley Lu
5 March 2007
Mr. Hinojosa
AP English P.4
Salvation Through Suffering
In Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov
obstinately clings to the nobility of his crime. He entertains thoughts of
confession, and attempts false repentance in order to reduce the torment of
his guilt. Refusing to suffer for his sin, he becomes bound to a life mired
down by the constant struggle to become extraordinary. In the end however,
Raskolnikov is freed from this struggle when he finally embraces suffering,
and embarks on a path of expiation, ultimately experiencing a resurrection.
Through the character of Raskolnikov, Dostoevsky thus reveals the effects
of suffering, that is, if accepted, suffering may purify a sin-burdened soul,
and lead to salvation, and a renewal of life.
While confessing to Sonia, Raskolnikov rationalizes that he murdered
because he wanted “to become a Napoleon” (V.4.383-4) – the ultimate
“extraordinary man” (III.5.241), free of guilt, and possessive of “the daring”
to overstep whatever obstacles in order to accomplish his goals (V.4.387).
However, even though Raskolnikov “felt clearly of course that I wasn’t
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Napoleon”, as after killing the old pawnbroker he felt remorseful, he still
refuses to suffer for his crime, stubbornly indulging in the theoretical
justifications for his misdeed (V.4.387-8). Raskolnikov insists that if he had
succeeded in becoming a Napoleon through the murder, he would have been
“crowned with glory” (VI.7.479). He also believes that the murder was no
crime, and that killing the pawnbroker “was atonement for forty sins”
(VI.7.478). Raskolnikov thus validates his crime as a noble act, and does not
submit to having committed a wrong. As a result, he finds the suffering for
his crime “senseless” (VI.7.480), and will “not think of expiating it”
(VI.7.478).
Soon after exposing to Sonia that he is the murderer, and that he has
failed in becoming an extraordinary man, Raskolnikov immediately decides
that he has “perhaps been unfair to myself” and will “make another fight for
it” (V.4.389). This further portrays Raskolnikov’s obstinate rejection of the
suffering for his wrongdoing, and his guilt, revealing his continuing desire to
achieve a Napoleonic status, to achieve that “right to commit any crime and
to transgress the law” (III.5.241).
Tenaciously embracing the psychology of an extraordinary man,
Raskolnikov often adopts an attitude of arrogance and superiority that
prevents him from being humble, a quality necessary to atone for and suffer
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for one’s sin. This is evident in Raskolnikov’s strong opposition towards
Sonia when she tells him to “go at once, this very minute, stand at the crossroads…and say to all men aloud, ‘I am a murderer!” and to “suffer and
expiate you sin” by going to Siberia (V.4.388-9). He frantically protests in
response “what wrong have I done them? Why should I go to them?”
(V.4.389). Therefore in an attempt to cling onto the nobility of his crime,
Raskolnikov feels he cannot be so weak as to humble himself before others,
and thus refuses to suffer and repent (VI.7.480). In addition, Raskolnikov
fears that the expiation of his sin will lead to public humiliation, where “they
would laugh at me, and would call me a fool for not getting it” (V.4.389).
This humiliation represents a defeat in his struggle to live up to his theory of
an extraordinary man – something Raskolnikov cannot and will not tolerate.
Sonia passionately embraces her suffering, which is Raskolnikov.
After she realizes he is the murderer, she kisses and hugs him, crying forth
“I will follow you…Oh, how miserable I am”. Raskolnikov is initially
touched by her sacrifice. But when she mentions she will follow him to
Siberia, “he recoiled at this, and the same hostile, almost haughty smile
came onto his lips”. He retorts, “perhaps I don’t want to go to Siberia yet”.
Thus even though Raskolnikov confesses to Sonia, he is still fighting to
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become extraordinary and so is not at all willing to suffer for his sin
(V.4.381).
Arrogant and lacking in humility, Raskolnikov cannot accept Sonia’s
love, and her suffering for him. When she offers him her cross and says, “we
will go to suffer together, and together we will bear our cross”, Raskolnikov
does not take it. This indicates he does not want to bear his cross, to bear the
suffering for his sin. Sonia suspects this sentiment as she says, “when you go
to meet your suffering, then put it on” (V.4.391). By rejecting Sonia,
Raskolnikov will not “give myself up”, but will “make a struggle for it”, a
struggle to be free of guilt, and to become extraordinary (V.4.390).
In the end, when Raskolnikov finally confesses to the authorities that
he murdered Alyona and Lizaveta Ivanovna, he still believes in the nobility
of his act. This is portrayed through the fact that Raskolnikov “scarcely
attempted to defend himself”, and “to the question what led him to confess,
he answered that it was his heartfelt repentance. All this was almost
coarse…” (EP.1.492). As a result, Raskolnikov’s indifference and “coarsest
frankness” during his testimony indicates he was saying something
untruthful, and thus lacking in genuine repentance. This apathy is also seen
in the manner Raskolnikov lives life in Siberia. Sonia’s letters reveal that he
has no hopes or expectations, taking a “very direct and simple view of his
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new life” (EP.1.497). Raskolnikov is thus unfeeling in his new surroundings,
as if he did not believe in his jailed condition, but was coldly accepting it so
that it would pass quickly.
Furthermore, while in Siberia, Raskolnikov continues to believe that
his theory is justified, recognizing his “criminality, only in the fact that he
had been unsuccessful and had confessed it” (EP.2.499). Raskolnikov is thus
persistently mired down by the struggle to become a Napoleon. He does not
want to submit in becoming ordinary, and so will not embrace the suffering
for his crime.
Raskolnikov “would have gone to give himself up…from simple
horror and loathing of what he had done” (I.7.77). But this is not because he
feels he has committed a wrong, he simply wants “to make an end of it all”
(II.6.160), as he does not want to “go on living like that”, tormented by guilt
and with the murder as an unbearable burden (II.6.146). Raskolnikov’s
attempts at confession are thus not in expiation of his sin, but in the desire to
separate himself from the weight of his crime. Confessing poses as a
challenge to Raskolnikov however, as he is still struggling to become
extraordinary. As a result, he does not want to “live a life of submission” –
which is what an ordinary man would do (III.5.241). This is evident in
Raskolnikov’s lack of determination. For instance, even though he had
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“fully made up his mind to go to the police station” he “ seemed to clutch at
everything”, purposefully distracting himself from going to the police by
involving himself in Marmeladov’s carriage accident (II.6.164).
Further exhibiting the desire to reduce the burden of his guilt,
Raskolnikov attempts to repent through acts of kindness when he deals with
Marmeladov’s accident. He repeats numerous times he will “pay”, firstly to
the police officers after requesting they move Marmeladov to the apartment,
and then to Katerina Ivanovna after sending for a doctor (II.7). Before he
leaves, Raskolnikov also gives Katerina Ivanovna twenty roubles “to repay
my debt to my dead friend” (II.7.175). Raskolnikov’s eagerness to give
away money is an attempt to “pay” for his crime. Believing in the power of
his atonement, Raskolnikov leaves Marmeladov’s apartment “entirely
absorbed in a new overwhelming sensation of life and strength” (II.7.176).
And when talking to Polenka he adopts an air of importance, asking her to
“pray sometimes for me” (II.7.177). However, Raskolnikov’s seeming
renewal of life, and his attempts at repentance both prove to be false when
he later states that his request of Polenka to pray for him was only “in case
of emergency”, laughing all the while at his own “boyish sally”, that is, at
his own naïve outburst in needing someone else’s compassion (II.7.178).
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Raskolnikov is thus not at all repentant. He still refuses to suffer for his sin,
focusing only on ending the torment of his guilt.
Why must Raskolnikov suffer for his sin? Through Porfiry
Petrovitch’s compassionate attitude towards Raskolnikov, Dostoevsky
reveals the effects of suffering. Porfiry does not want Raskolnikov to waste
his youth, and the rest of his life over a theory that “broke down and turned
out to be not at all original”. Porfiry tells Raskolnikov that he is “not
hopelessly base”, that is, he can rise to find “faith or God” and live
(VI.2.424). Porfiry also encourages Raskolnikov to “suffer”, as this will
bring him closer to God, who shall “send you life again” and not let him die
with sin or in a futile struggle for a theory (V.2.389). Renewed life is also a
form of “fresh air”, something which Porfiry believes Raskolnikov needs,
that is, he needs to be freed from the prison of his mind, and experience new
life. Porfiry then states that the “flood will bear you to the bank and set you
safe on your feet again”, he is perhaps referring to the fact that suffering will
redeem him, bringing him to shore, and safely upon his feet as a new man
(VI.2.425).
Dostoevsky exhibits this ability of suffering to provide salvation and
resurrection through Raskolnikov finally embracing Sonia’s suffering.
Raskolnikov had always found Sonia’s love oppressive. Even when she had
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followed him to Siberia, he had “took her hand with repugnance, always
seemed vexed to meet her and was sometimes obstinately silent throughout
her visit” (EP.2.504). However, Raskolnikov, perhaps effected by the way
Sonia willingly suffers for him, and for the other criminals in helping them
during their illnesses, and helping them “write and post letters for them to
their relations”, gradually changes (EP.2.501).
This change manifests in Raskolnikov suddenly feeling “something
seize him and fling him at her feet. He wept and threw his arms round her
knees”. This action indicates that Raskolnikov is humbling himself before
Sonia. He finally surrenders to her love, and accepts her suffering for him. In
doing so, he embraces his own suffering by accepting the circumstances of
his surroundings, and his own condition, and not rejecting it with an air of
nonchalance and superiority. As a result, Raskolnikov is no longer
imprisoned in his own mind, and concerned only with his own struggle.
“Life had stepped into the place of theory” (EP.2.505), and he is now fully
“resurrected into a new life” (EP.2.504). Raskolnikov thus turns toward God
independently by taking up the New Testament. And he readily bears his
cross, realizing that this new life “would not be given him for nothing, that
he would have to pay dearly for it, that it would cost him great striving, great
suffering” (EP.2.505).
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Through Raskolnikov’s refusal to suffer for his crime, his struggle to
live up to his theory, and his final transformation in shouldering his cross,
Dostoevsky thus reveals the effects of suffering. By refusing to suffer for
one’s sins, one leads a life of eternal damnation, suffocated by struggle and
fear. But if one willingly embraces suffering, then one will experience
salvation and resurrection, in effect, becoming a new person.