"Crime and Punishment": the main characters. Characteristics of Raskolnikov

Each of us has probably heard a story about an old school-martyr killed by an ax - this is the novel of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment". The main characters are woven into a chain of complex events, from which they find a way out. The work will teach everyone to reasonably live, sincerely forgive and fervently love.

The history of writing the novel

The idea of "Crime and Punishment" Dostoevsky nurtured six years. In 1859, he told his brother in a letter that he was going to immediately begin writing a confessional novel. The writer himself experienced all the horror of hard labor and wanted to share this with the readers. Dostoevsky's novel "Crime and Punishment" was written after his other masterpieces - "The Insulted and Injured", "Notes from the Dead House" were the prelude to a more grandiose book. Initially, the work was planned to become a small story, but Dostoevsky, deep into the soul of the invented hero, raised complex moral and ethical issues, the disclosure of which would not be enough for several sheets. Finishing the idea of love with the idea of the author not accidentally: he wanted to reproduce the story, when Jesus Christ saves the repentant sinner.

"Crime and Punishment": the protagonists of the work

In the novel, the author employed a few individuals around which the main sequence of events occurs. The protagonist is Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, a retired student, who decides to kill Alena Ivanovna, the old interest-bearer. Lizaveta is the sister of the mortician, who also dies at the hands of a young man. For the disclosure of the crime is taken by an experienced investigator Porfiry Petrovich. Pulcheria Alexandrovna and Avdotya Romanovna - mother and sister of Rodion Raskolnikov. The family lives modestly and tries to help the poor student. Dunya was even considered a servant by Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigailov, who was trying to corrupt her. To permanently forget her past, the girl accepts the offer of the rich Mr. Petr Petrovich Luzhin to get married and move to St. Petersburg. Andrei Semeonovich Lebeziatnikov is a retired official who huddles in a small apartment with his wife Katerina Ivanovna and three young children. Raskolnikov falls in love with his eldest daughter Sonya, who will later be his salvation. Dmitry Prokofievich Razumihin is a loyal friend of Rodion, who takes care of Dunya and Pulcheria Alexandrovna in difficult moments.

The storyline of the novel

Rodion Raskolnikov lives on the money of his mother and sometimes sells his belongings to the interest-bearing Alena Ivanovna. The old woman annoys him so much that he guesses the time, rushes into the apartment and cuts it with an ax. Suddenly, Sister Elizabeth returns, which also becomes an unhappy victim. He acted like a cruel man, but Raskolnikov's characteristic - his positive qualities - allows him to look at him from the other side. He is possessed by the desire to take possession of the old woman's wealth only because he is poor himself, but his conscience does not allow him to appropriate his loot, and he gets rid of profit.

After the crime Avdotya Romanovna and Pulcheria Alexandrovna visit Rodion and try to help him - he seems to them sick. In the first chapters Raskolnikov met in a tavern with a bankrupt Lebesiatnikov, who drunkenly rushes under a horse and dies. Because of the accident, Rodion finds out the family of the deceased and pays attention to the eldest daughter of Sonya, who admits to the murder of the old woman and her sister. The discerning girl asks that he repent, and the investigator does not hurry to put him in jail and gives a few days to walk on freedom.

Analysis of the epilogue

In the afterword the author narrates about the imprisonment of the main hero in the Siberian fortress. Here the characteristic of Raskolnikov varies - he becomes sensual and conscientious, repents of crime and does not try to justify himself. Dunya tells his mother that his son went on a long business trip, but the old woman, without waiting for him, dies of illness. Razumikhin does not leave a friend in trouble and decides to move to Siberia. Struck by the nobility of a friend, Dunya marries this man. Sonia found all the ways to see Rodion - they love each other, and neither the distance nor the sentence did not frighten them.

Female and male images in the novel

In each work of the heroes can be divided into positive and negative. The images in "Crime and Punishment" are so colorful that the reader can not immediately give them an estimate. Dostoevsky portrays Raskolnikov as a two-faced man: the offender has a great loving heart, a desire to help his neighbor, a desire to repent. An ambiguous opinion is also about Lebeziatnikov - he is a big fan of drinking, rarely recalls the family, but his naivete and unstable financial position justify it. The description of the unhappy life of a bankrupt official is given several pages in the novel "Crime and Punishment".

The main characters of the work are predominantly positive, and among the secondary characters there are two negative male images - Svidrigailov and Luzhin. Razumihin is Raskolnikov's best friend, who is both his own support and his family. The female images of Pulcheria Alexandrovna, Duni and Sonia are idealized in the novel, and it is impossible to give an estimate to the old woman-percenturist alone: she seemed stingy and evil to the hero, and Dostoyevsky is silent about other of her qualities.

Execute can not be pardoned

People are born and die day after day, and Raskolnikov begins to feel that there is nothing to worry about if he kills an old woman-percent. But is he right to reason like that? The novel "Crime and Punishment" raises complex philosophical questions, the answers to which are subsequently found by the hero himself.

Rodion thinks for a long time, "to execute" the old woman or "pardon", but still doubts the need for her existence, and therefore decides that if she is in the next world, everyone will be calmer. At the crime scene, the assassin behaves less confidently: he is lost and not even able to endure all the wealth of the interest-bearer. He is tormented by hallucinations, phobias, he is going mad with despair. It would have been better if he had pardoned Alena Ivanovna, because now, after her death, he was left with nothing.

Characteristic of Rodion Raskolnikov: is he a trembling creature or a right having?

The main character has no maniacal inclinations, and he decides to kill Alena Ivanovna consciously. The old woman lives out her time alone with wealth, which is more suitable for orphans, and not for those who do not need anything. Raskolnikov's plan seems extremely simple, but the hero does not think about the consequences. This youthful naivete was the reason for the subsequent failures of the poor student. The novel "Crime and Punishment" teaches us to think about the consequences, and not be as unreasonable as the protagonist.

Before Raskolnikov's dilemma: is he a trembling creature or a right having? The hero believes that in this world he must be established through murder, having carried out his main desire - so would a strong man. This philosophy also leads Raskolnikov to a standstill.

What fate does the hero choose F. Dostoyevsky? "Crime and Punishment" as a novel-warning

Even the most terrible villain has the right to be justified. The action of Raskolnikov can be understood: the author first deprives him of his reason, and then directs the truths to let him. Rodion feels the pain of conscience not because he committed the crime, but because he considered himself "the right to have."

Raskolnikov is quite young and stupid, and it will be wrong to condemn him. Having conquered the slogan "the end justifies the means," he kills Alena Ivanovna, but for some reason - he cares about the mother, the future of the sister, helps the family of the deceased Marmeladov, thinks about disadvantaged children and is going to allocate some money to needy orphans. If he were a wealthy man, he would never have gone to murder, and then crime and punishment would not have come to pass. The main characters - a friend of Rodion, his mother and sister - do not condemn him, but try to understand. Sincere repentance exalts any criminal, and repentant Raskolnikov will be worthy of another life with a man who will always be there, will help and support - with Sonia Marmeladova. Dostoevsky chooses the ending, when a person's life does not end on a scaffold, but has a continuation.

Sonechka Marmeladova: the savior and the guardian angel

Love can work miracles. It changes the person from within, directs on a way of true and gives the stimulus to live further. For Rodion Raskolnikov, Sonia turned out to be a rescue. "Crime and Punishment" tells how the protagonist changes after meeting with this girl: without her, he would have died in prison because of illness and boredom, he would hardly have realized his action, did not repent. Before confessing to the murder, he goes out into the street and kisses the ground, sincerely regrets what happened.

The work describes the love of two unhappy people who have become happy in their own way. One day Raskolnikov will leave prison, and she and Sonya will live a full life and will thank fate for the fact that after many trials she allowed them to meet with each other.