Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, Part Six, Chapter 8 commentary
100 Days of Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground and Crime and Punishment September 1 - December 10, 2024
100 Days of Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground and Crime and Punishment
September 1 - December 10, 2024
December 14 - posted on December 16
Crime and Punishment Part Six, Chapter 8, 11 pages
Next passages:
December 15 - to be posted on December 16
Crime and Punishment Epilogue, Parts I and II, 18 pages - THE END!!!
PLUS the commentary to Part Five, Chapter 4 - NOW COMPLETE!!!
And from mother and sister - the care of Raskolnikov’s raging soul passes over to Sonya… Sophia - her name means holy wisdom - she is the Christ-like character in the novel - humiliated by all - yet leading a troubled soul towards the light of repentance, redemption, and salvation… We will meet Dostoevsky’s greatest Christ-character in The Idiot in the fall of 2025…
“From this meeting Dunya drew at least one consolation, that her brother would not be alone: he had gone first to her, to Sonya, with his confession; in her he had sought a human being when he needed a human being; and she would go with him wherever fate sent him. She had not asked, but she knew it would be so. She looked at Sonya even with a certain reverence and at first almost embarrassed her by the reverent feeling with which she treated her. Sonya was all but on the verge of tears: she considered herself, on the contrary, unworthy even to glance at Dunya. The beautiful image of Dunya as she had bowed to her with such attention and respect at the time of their first meeting at Raskolnikov's, had since remained forever in her soul as one of the most beautiful and unattainable visions of her life.”
Dunya bowing to Sonya - to her future unimaginable suffering… Zosima will bow in front of Mitya at the start of Brothers Karamazov…
Will Raskolnikov end up like Svidrigailov? His pride destroying him onto internal damnation? If there is no afterlife - then what is the point of a moral life in the here and now?
“Left alone, Sonya immediately began to be tormented by fear at the thought that he might indeed commit suicide. Dunya was afraid of the same thing. But they had competed all day long in reassuring each other by every possible argument that it could not be so, and had felt calmer while they were together.”
"Can it be that he has only faintheartedness and the fear of death to make him live?" she thought at last, in despair.”
A second appearance of the prodigal…
“Meanwhile the sun was going down. She stood sadly by the win-dow, gazing out—but from the window only the blank, unpainted wall of the neighboring house could be seen. At last, when she had become completely convinced that the unfortunate man was dead—he walked into her room.”
The following conversation is CATACLYSMIC!!! I’ve come for your crosses!!! You wanted to save me - so save me!!! Show me your miracles!!!
"Well, so!" Raskolnikov said, grinning, "I've come for your crosses, Sonya. You're the one who was sending me to the cross-roads; why turn coward now that it's come to business?"
Sonya looked at him in amazement.”
Ah, Sonya, the holy wisdom of the soul!!! She can see RIGHT through him!!! It’s not his soul speaking - but his mind - ideas still trying to wriggle out of the need to reenter the confines of his humanity - for his own salvation’s sake…
“Sonya looked at him in amazement. His tone seemed strange to her; a cold shiver ran through her body; but a moment later she realized that all of it—both the tone and the words—was put on.
He even stared somehow into the corner as he talked to her, as if trying to avoid looking her straight in the face.”
He fears humiliation - he fears the crowd laughing at him - he fears all those worthless humans lording over him, the man with the magnificent ideas… PUBLISHED ideas to boot… The illustration I chose for this chapter portrays the mockery and humiliation of Christ… Who of us could stand this - the jeering of the crowd… No one…
“Only, you know what makes me mad? It irks me that all those stupid, beastly mugs will immediately surround me, gaping at me with their eyeballs hanging out, asking me their stupid questions, which I will have to answer—pointing their fingers at me... Pah! You know, I'm not going to go to Porfiry; I'm sick of him. Better if I go to my friend Gunpowder-now that will be a surprise, that will make an effect of sorts! And I'd better be more cool-headed; I've gotten too bilious lately. Would you believe it, I all but shook my fist at my sister just now, simply because she turned to look at me a last time. Swinishness, that's the name for it! Eh, see what I've come to! Well, so where are the crosses?"
Pride, pride, pride, destructive, corrosive, damning… Will the crosses help?
The sacredness of the blessing - let the redemption of the soul commence - with the acceptance of all embracing love and forgiveness…
“It was as if he were not himself. He was unable to stay still even for a minute, unable to focus his attention on any one subject; his thoughts leaped over each other; his speech wandered; his hands were trembling slightly.
Sonya silently took two crosses from a drawer, one of cypress, the other of brass; she crossed herself, crossed him, and hung the cypress cross around his neck.”
The mockery continues - why the wooden cross for me and the fancy brass one for you?! I should have put on the cross and icon I ripped off the neck of the corpse right after the murder… Fine, I will go and confesses - to make your wish of locking me up come true… Pride pride pride - he simply can’t let go…
"So this is a symbol of my taking a cross upon myself, heh, heh!
That's right, I haven't suffered enough yet! Cypress, for simple folk; the brass one, Lizaveta's, you're keeping for yourself-can I see it? So she was wearing it... at that moment? I also know of two similar crosses, a silver one and a little icon. I let them drop on the old crone's chest that time. It would really be more to the point if I put those on now. It's all nonsense, however; I'm forgetting the real business; I'm somehow distracted!... You see, Sonya, as a matter of fact I came to forewarn you, so that you'd know...
Well, that's all... That's the only reason I came. (Hm. I thought I'd have more to say, though.) Anyway, you yourself wanted me to go; well, so I'll be locked up in jail and your wish will be fulfilled; so, why are you crying? You, too? Stop; enough! Oh, how hard this all is for me!"
He picked up his cross - now he must bear it…
“Feeling came to life in him, however; his heart was wrung as he looked at her. "But this one, why this one?" he thought to himself.
"What am I to her? Why is she crying, why is she getting me ready, like mother or Dunya? She'll be my nursemaid!"
Her insistence on his redemption through suffering made her hateful to him…
“He wanted, however, to say something else.
He crossed himself several times. Sonya seized her shawl and threw it over her head. It was a green flannel shawl, probably the same one Marmeladov had mentioned, the "family shawl."
WHY is he allowing this frail and tender human being to take possession of his soul and attempt to drag him to the light - kicking and screaming?!?!?!
“Sonya was left standing in the middle of the room. He had not even said good-bye to her; he had already forgotten her; a corrosive and rebellious doubt was seething in his soul.”
WHY is Sonya so important for him - AND for the resolution of this novel?!?!?! Because she picked up his other cross - the cross for the UNFORGIVABLE murder - the murder of the holy fool Lizaveta… Sonya gives Raskolnikov her own cross - to bear for the rest of his life in order to aspire towards redemption and forgiveness… But the cross for the second murder she will bear with him, for him, next to him - forever and ever… THAT’S why we need Sonya - AND Raskolnikov needs Sonya - his second sin is unforgivable - just as all violence against animals (the beaten horse in the dream), holy fools (the meek and saintly Lizaveta whose fearful features he sees in Sonya's face), and children (this is why Svidrigailov cannot be forgiven - and has no one in his life who could share the burden with him and lead him to light and redemption).
But can Raskolnikov EVER be nice to Sonya for what she has done for him?!?!?! Taken part of his sin onto her soul?! Do we say thank you to such people?!?!?! No - we rage!!! Pride pride pride…
“Was it really crosses I wanted from her? Oh, how low I've fallen! No—I wanted her tears, I wanted to see her frightened, to look at her heartache and torment! I wanted to cling at least to something, to linger, to look at a human being! And I dared have such hopes for myself, such dreams, abject as I am, worthless—a scoundrel, a scoundrel!"
There will be an exchanging of crosses in The Idiot… Just you wait - if you thought this was much - wait till the encounter between Satan incarnate and a meek and fully human Christ - in the fall of 2025…
AND there will be a reference to a woman with an infant in her arms in The Idiot - AND in Brothers Karamazov…
Raskolnikov is giving away his last coins at the start of the novel - and he continues all the way to the end… Perhaps he is not such a hopeless human after all…
“Here's a woman with a child, begging for alms; curious that she should consider me more fortunate than herself. Maybe I'll give her something just for the oddity of it. Hah, a five-kopeck piece managed to survive in my pocket, I wonder how! Yes, yes... take it, mother!"
"God keep you!" came the weepy voice of the beggar-woman.”
God keep you… Do you remember what Porfiry said during their final encounter - who knows, perhaps God is guiding him after all, saving him from himself - for a great and future deed… God’s ways are unknowable after all…
“He walked into the Haymarket.”
We are back to where the novel started - Raskolnikov trying desperately to hide himself in the crowd - from himself and his own inhuman thoughts… What better place to hide than in the speckled crowd of humanity…
AND NOW - THE CRUCIAL moment in the novel - Raskolnikov embracing the need for confession of sin on the way to redemption and salvation… PUBLIC confession - in the SAME market square where the darkness of his ideas pushed him to step over his humanity and kill in order to place himself above humanity!!! PUBLIC confession - since he killed publicly - with the doors wide open… Svidrigailov kills himself publicly - in front of a witness - as an extension of his unrepentant pride… Raskolnikov must go on his knees and ask for forgiveness in front of a sea of humanity - on the very spot where ideas of greatness subverted his humanity… THIS is tough to read - I am in awe of Dostoevsky - now and forever and ever…
“He suddenly remembered Sonya's words: "Go to the cross-roads, bow down to people, kiss the earth, because you have sinned before it as well, and say aloud to the whole world: 'I am a murderer!'" He trembled all over as he remembered it. And so crushed was he by the hopeless anguish and anxiety of this whole time, and especially of the last few hours, that he simply threw himself into the possibility of this wholesome, new, full sensation.
It came to him suddenly in a sort of fit, caught fire in his soul from a single spark, and suddenly, like a flame, engulfed him. Everything softened in him all at once, and the tears flowed. He simply fell to the earth where he stood ...
He knelt in the middle of the square, bowed to the earth, and kissed that filthy earth with delight and happiness. He stood up and then bowed once more.”
And if we expect the world to love and forgive us for showing humility - forget it!!! The crowd jeers… Look at the painting of the crowd jeering at Christ… No, Dostoevsky is not being sacrilegious… If Christ himself could bear the jeering of the crowd - then so must we… forever and ever, till eternity…
"This one's plastered all right!" a fellow near him observed.
There was laughter.
"It's that he's going to Jerusalem, brothers, and he's saying good-bye to his children and his motherland and bowing to the whole world, giving a kiss to the metropolitan city of Saint Petersburg and its soil," some drunken little tradesman added.”
Narratives, narratives… Everyone around us always knows everything about us - they just don’t know the inner us… Going to Jerusalem… The eternal journey towards suffering, redemption, and forgiveness…
Who can tell these days who is who from external looks?!?!?! Could Raskolnikov tell THIS crowd that he killed?!?!?! No… no one could…
"Still a young lad!" a third one put in.
"From gentlefolk!" someone observed in an imposing voice.
"You can't tell nowadays who's gentlefolk and who isn't."
All this talk and commentary held Raskolnikov back, and the words "I killed," which were perhaps on the tip of his tongue, froze in him. However, he calmly endured all these exclamations…”
Ah, to hell with this!!! Who needs this idiotic route of transformation of pride into redemption?!?!?! Human conscience… And Sonya follows him gently, softly, quietly, and relentlessly… She is here to save him through suffering - because she must… Because there is no other way for us to self realize as human beings but through suffering and the transcendence of this suffering… Sonya is the strongest character in the novel - because she suffered the most - and now she must lead another soul to the light… AND SHE WILL!!!
“He understood in that moment, once and for all, that Sonya was now with him forever and would follow him even to the ends of the earth, wherever his fate took him. His whole heart turned over inside him... but—here he was at the fatal place...”
And then - stalling of action - and all that noise from the thunderous Gunpowder!!! A BRILLIANT move!!! Talk incessantly about a wide array of seemingly unrelated topics - AND get the interlocutor to relax enough to reveal to you what you most want to hear!!! I’ve used this tactic often - guilty as charged - and appreciate a GREAT practitioner of this method!!! Gunpowder is THE BEST!!!
“Oh, Lord! And who among writers and scholars did not make some original steps to begin with! My wife and I, we both respect literature—my wife even to the point of passion! ... Literature and artistry! One need only be a gentleman, and the rest can all be acquired by talent, knowledge, reason, genius! A hat—now what, for instance, is a hat? A hat is a pancake, I can buy one at Zimmerman's; but that which is kept under the hat, and is covered by the hat, that I cannot buy, sir!..”
We are back to the Zimmerman hat - we’ve come full circle in headgear references in the novel!!! And now we know the danger of what is lurking under these hats - NIHILISM!!! Belief in the power of NOTHING!!! But NOT Raskolnikov, right?!
“It's quite another matter with you, for example, or let's say your friend, Mr. Razumikhin! Your career is a scholarly one, and you won't be put off by any setbacks! For you, all these beauties of life, one might say, nihil est' - ascetic, monk, hermit that you are! ... For you, it's a book, a pen behind the ear, scholarly research-there's where your spirit soars!”
We wish… sincerely…
And Zametov turned up a scoundrel after all - quarreled with everyone, disrespected everyone - and left… Gunpowder is PRICELESS!!!
“I fulfill the duties of a citizen and a human being, and who is he, may I ask?”
End of times… end of times… women cutting their hair and studying… Ideas spreading… What next?!?!?! Revolution… As a woman with short hair and mountains of books - duly noted…
"I'm talking about these crop-haired wenches," the garrulous Ilya Petrovich went on. "I’ve nicknamed them midwives, and personally I find the nickname completely satisfactory. Heh, heh!”
What else is a sign of the end of times?!?!?! Suicides…
“And then, too, there are so many suicides spreading around-you can't even imagine. They spend their last money and then kill themselves.”
If Raskolnikov needed one final thunderclap - this was it… Svidrigailov killed himself - so that Raskolnikov could be reminded of the beauty of life… Just as the death of inspector Javert resurrects Jean Valjean (could we please read that magnificent novel again?!!!), the departure of Anna revitalizes Levin’s life in Anna Karenina, and, in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, Clarissa understand the inner essence of life after learning of the suicide of Septimus… They have thrown it all away - they let darkness destroy life… Satan’s triumph bears the seed of Raskolnikov’s resurrection… Goethe’s eternal truth resounds yet again:
“I am part of that power which eternally wills evil and eternally works good.”
Darkness or light…
“Raskolnikov felt as if something had fallen on him and crushed him.”
Damnation or redemption…
Destruction or love…
“He walked out; he was reeling. His head was spinning. He could not feel his legs under him. He started down the stairs, propping himself against the wall with his right arm. It seemed to him that some caretaker with a ledger in his hands pushed him as he climbed past on his way up to the office, that some little mutt was barking its head off somewhere on a lower floor, and that some woman threw a rolling pin at it and shouted. He went on down the stairs and came out into the courtyard. There in the courtyard, not far from the entrance, stood Sonya, pale, numb all over, and she gave him a wild, wild look. He stopped before her. Something pained and tormented, something desperate, showed in her face.
She clasped her hands. A hideous, lost smile forced itself to his lips. He stood a while, grinned, and turned back upstairs to the office.”
Sonya… The rock… The strongest character pretty much in all of world literature… I bow to you deeply, with gratitude and awe…
I killed… Let the suffering begin… Let the cleansing of the soul commence… Let pride perish and humanity triumph… Sonya read to him the story of Lazarus... Now resurrection…
"It was I who killed the official's old widow and her sister Lizaveta with an axe and robbed them."
lya Petrovich opened his mouth. People came running from all sides.
Raskolnikov repeated his statement."
THE END...
The Mocking of Christ, 1503-1505, by Matthias Grünewald, 1470-1528, Alte Pinakothek, Munich.
