Raskolnikov and Svidrigailov: on the brink of suicide.
In Dostoyevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment”, the main character,
Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov goes through a long series of events, which
compare and contrast him with the people around him. One of the most
significant characters crucial to understanding Raskolnikov’s personality
is Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigailov.
Overall, the enigma of Rodion’s persona is expanded and illuminated by
two characters: Svidrigailov as the dark, calculative, and repulsive side;
and Sonya Marmeladova as the compassionate, humane, and spiritual half of
Raskolnikov. What makes Svidrigailov such an important element in the novel
is the fact that by his lack of morals and superiors, he becomes the
epitome of Raskolnikov’ theory of the Ubermensch, a thought Rodion
conceived out of desperation and mental fatigue.
It is the comparison of Svidrigailov and Raskolnikov that eventually
reveals each of them stands on the theory of the Super-human. Despite all
hopes of being among history’s great people such as Napoleon, Julius Caesar
et al, Raskolnikov fails the self-test of belongingness to the superior
class. Perhaps, Raskolnikov even hoped that the murder, if committed
without remorse or doubt, would propel him into superiority. He definitely
had the reasons to believe in his greatness because it is evident that
Raskolnikov clearly displays some of the qualities of a Super-human, based
on his own standards: he is intelligent, quite arrogant, and his pride is
very vividly apparent in his behavior with his only friend, Razumikhin, and
several occasions, on which he had refused to accept other people’s
assistance or support. But unfortunately, contrary to what Rodion had
anticipated, the murder delivers crippling inward blow to his conscience
and self-image, and Raskolnikov finally realizes that he is, in fact,
nothing but a “trembling creature.”
Svidrigailov, however, fits the qualifications of an Ubermensch
perfectly. There is nothing sacred in the world for Arkady Ivanovich. The
sole purpose of his life is the hedonistic pursuit of his own selfish goals
and practice of his self-made rights. The list of examples that attest to
Svidrigailov’s inhumanity is quite long, ranging from lies and debt evasion
to rape and, possibly, murder. For instance, when he learns about the
suicide of a fifteen-year old girl, whom he raped, Svidrigailov shrugs
without any remorse. The sadistic torment, which led his servant Philip to
suicide, also seems to have not given Arkady Ivanovich any feelings of
guilt. Svidrigailov is fully aware of his own vicious nature. Shortly after
his marriage to Marfa Petrovna, he announces to her that “he will not be
able to be a fully loyal husband.” Clearly, Svidrigailov is a person of
great vice and malice.
With such a clear distinction between the characters, a distinction
that decisively favors Svidrigailov as a superior being, why does it so
happen that Raskolnikov, a failed theorist, a confirmed “louse”, finds a
new life at the end of the novel, while Arkady Ivanovich finally resorts to
suicide? Is it not strange that Svidrigailov, having become completely free
from his marital duties (which he never honored, anyway), endowed with
substantial income from his deceased wife’s estate, not burdened by any
family obligations, would take his own life, while Raskolnikov, a man who
has betrayed himself and many people around him, with a murder on his
hands, and severe prosecution impending, would embrace his misery instead
of liberating himself in the waters of Neva?
Raskolnikov contemplates suicide on many occasions throughout the
novel. His first encounter with this thought occurs at a canal bridge,
where an ostensibly drunken woman jumps into the dirty water in a suicidal
attempt, but is rescued by the passersby. At this point, Raskolnikov
dismisses the idea of self-violence because it seems to be too unsightly a
spectacle. At several other times, it seems that the author is repeatedly
discussing suicide, calling it “going to America”, which is suggested as an
escape promising to remove an individual from all his/her present
difficulties. This notion becomes clearer near the end of the novel, when
Svidrigailov finally “goes to America” by a bullet to his right temple. The
last time when Raskolnikov returns to thought of suicide is on the night
before his final visit to the police station. After parting with
Svidrigailov, he walks to the middle of a bridge to contemplate suicide
once again. However, this time Rodion’s decision evolves from factors that
are drastically different from those he had before. There is an
alternative. There is a hope of regeneration and a normal life.
As portrayed by the biblical figure of Lazarus, who rose from the dead
after Jesus called to God and prayed for Lazarus’ resurrection,
Raskolnikov’s process of coming back to life begins when he experiences a
touch of divine intervention – love. Indeed, when a person as ascetic and
nihilistic as Raskolnikov experiences love, it does seem like an
impossibility whose occurrence may not be explained by anything other than
an act of God. Sonya Marmeladova is the object of Raskolnikov’s love and a
catalyst for his ultimate transformation. As Svidrigailov’s antagonist,
Sonya embodies the split Raskolnikov’s humane, compassionate side and leads
him to recognition and a new life.
Svidrigailov and Sonya are the sides between which Raskolnikov
vacillates throughout most of the novel. Having read Rodion’s article about
crime, Arkady Ivanovich finds it appropriate to attempt to befriend
Raskolnikov despite the latter’s explicit hostility. But aside from
Svidrigailov’s ambitions regarding Dunya and the discovery of kinship
between him and Raskolnikov, Arkady Ivanovich’s innermost reason to search
for someone who might help him escape the boredom, which he brought upon
himself by consistently committing various antisocial acts that alienated
him from everyone and left him utterly alone. The last straw for
Svidrigailov is the rejection he receives from Dunya, whom he desperately
craved.
To further illustrate Svidrigailov’s hopelessness, Dostoyevsky
includes the story about Arkady Ivanovich’s sixteen-year-old fiancйe.
Although it seems that a man as perverse as Svidrigailov would not hesitate
to take advantage of that innocent child (after all, he has done it
before!), Arkady Ivanovich pays his last visit to that family and leaves a
gift of fifteen thousand rubles. Later that night, Svidrigailov has a
dream, in which he morbidly contemplates the corpse of a young girl who
drowned herself after being raped. In the second dream he has that night,
he sees a five-year-old girl whose innocent countenance of a child morphs
into the expression of a veteran prostitute as Svidrigailov watches,
terrified. In the preceding days, Svidrigailov has been becoming
increasingly convinced of his own worthlessness, and these dreams finally
allow him to see who he is in perspective. No longer able to tolerate his
own self, with no place to go, and no one to help him find peace,
Svidrigailov uses the last bullet left in Sonya’s revolver to take his own
life. Svidrigailov commits suicide in front of a stranger whom the author
identifies as Jewish, a people Dostoyevsky regards with disdain, which
further shows the desperate loneliness that tormented Arkady Petrovich.
At the time of Svidrigailov’s suicide, Raskolnikov’s story was also
nearing its cathartic finale. Dostoyevsky completes the picture of the
novel’s denouement by creating an interesting inconsistency in weather. It
is stated that on the morning of Svidrigailov’s suicide, the weather was a
disgusting mixture of rain, fog, and stinging cold. However, when narration
turns to Raskolnikov and his walk to the police station, the day is said to
have been warm, sunny, and pleasant since that morning. This is a
deliberate artistic motion used by the author to contrast the two
characters who, at one point, stand somewhat close, but eventually succumb
to the separate fates they bring about by their predicaments.
This is the ultimate question of this analysis: why did Svidrigailov,
the real Ubermensch, commit suicide, while Raskolnikov, the confirmed
louse, was able to attain peace and a chance to be happy? Well, it is, in
fact, quite simple: it was Raskolnikov’s mistake to think that he ever was
a super-human, and it was his fortune that he did not prove himself right.
If Raskolnikov was a character parallel to Svidrigailov, he, too, would
have acted in these malicious, self-centered ways that would have
eventually brought about his tragic demise alongside Arkady Petrovich.
Perhaps it was Rodion’s youthful exuberance, the unrestrained flexing of
his intellectual muscle that provoked him to take on the principles of the
world, but it was his extraordinary luck to have near him the people who
gave him back his mind and his heart.
