The Good The Bad And The Ugly — страница 2

  • Просмотров 238
  • Скачиваний 6
  • Размер файла 16
    Кб

switch – there were no marks even. . . don+t regard me as a cynic, please; I am perfectly aware how atrocious it was of me and all that; but I know for certain, too, that Marfa Petrovna was very likely pleased at my, so to say, warmth.X (Page 244.) This shows that it is not Raskolnikov who is the extraordinary man, it is Svidrigaylov, and that being an extraordinary man is essentially being evil. He is capable of killing without feeling any sort of remorse and is able to justify it for himself. He does not take responsibility for his actions and acts only based on gaining something for himself. Raskolnikov seems to be the mixture of the thoughts of Sonia and Svidrigaylov in the novel. He desperately wants to prove himself an extraordinary man with the right to breech morals

that no other human is capable of. He thinks that because he is above the normal mortal he can commit an act of murder with out feeling resentful. In this excerpt Raskolnikov is explaining his theory on an extraordinary man. |. . . an extraordinary man has the right . . . that is not an official right but an inner right to decide in his own conscience to overstep certain obstacles.X (Page 226.) He is basically proclaiming that if you feel as if you can commit a crime and justify it to yourself then it is permissible. This does not necessarily mean it is right according to the law, but only if you believe it within yourself. He planned to prove himself an extraordinary man after he killed the old pawnbroker. After carrying out his horrible deed he experiences feelings that he

thought he could overcome. Immediately after the murder he is laying in his bed with these thoughts, |For the first moment he thought he was going mad. A dreadful chill came over him; but the chill was from the fever that had begun long before his sleep. Now he was suddenly taken with violent shivering, so that his teeth chattered and all his limbs were shaking.X This physical response is an indication of the quilt that he is repressing. He also represses his actions to his sub conscience so his feelings of guilt appear in the form of dreams. In this dream that he has about his victim his fear and remorse are apparent. |He stood over her. |She is afraid!X he thought. He stealthily took the axe from the noose and struck her one blow, then another on the skull. But strange to say

she did not stir, as though she were made of wood. He was frightened . . . the old woman was sitting and laughing, shaking with noiseless laughter. . . He was overcome with frenzy and began hitting the old woman on the head. . . the laughter and whispering from the bedroom grew louder. . . He tried to scream and woke up. (Page 241.) His victim is mocking him in the dream which proves that he still feels the feelings of remorse that any normal person would feel, making him only an ordinary man. After confessing to Sonia he can no longer hold it in and he then confesses to his crime and accepts his punishments. With this act he redeems himself and is not an evil man although he committed evil acts. In comparing the three characters that commit sinful acts it is clear that there are

many different levels of evil. While Sonia reacts with repentance Svidrigaylov fabricates reasons to justify his behavior. A truly evil man is one who would believe that there are reasons beyond his control that verify his acts and their severity. Raskolnikov believed that he would be able to justify his crimes because he is an extraordinary man, but proved in confessing that he is not capable of being truly evil. I believe that Dostoevsky was trying to establish the fact that the truly evil humans are those who believe that their behavior is justified. For example, Adolf Hitler believed that he was doing the world a favor by getting rid of any human that wasn+t of the Aryan race. In committing these horrible acts while also believing that they are justified he is proving that he

is the definition of a truly evil man according to Dostoevsky. Even though each one of these characters actions breach the common themes of morality not all of them are necessarily evil themselves. Each of these characters represents a different concept of evil. One good, one bad, and the other ugly. The goodness in evil is shown through the saintly prostitute, Sonia. Dostoevsky establishes the existence of true evil through the selfish acts of Svidrigaylov while Raskolnikov represents the ugly form of evil. His acts are in fact wrong, but he realizes this in the end. This saves him from becoming what he believed was extraordinary because his definition of extraordinary, was in fact, evil.