A Dynamic Personality

Raskolnikov is without a doubt one of the most interesting characters that I have read about. There are several parts to him, he can be devious, naive, compassionate, intelligent yet careless. As mentioned before, from the very beginning, he sees everyone as inferior, and wishes to not be a part of any social activities. My biggest question is: How did he get here? Was there something in his past that has slowly caused him to be this way, or has he always been like this? Raskolnikov, I would guess, is probably in his early twenties, and is so poor that he wears the same tattered rags everyday and lives in a shoddy closet. He doesn’t even have enough money to attend the university. Could it be that his impoverished state has led him to be bitter and disdainful?
In general, Raskolnikov does not seem like a bad person. Beneath that arrogant exterior is someone who does have feelings. When he meets Marmeladov at the tavern, he sat beside him and was willing to listen to him tell his life story and his troubles. He even accompanied him to his house, seeing how Marmeladov was completely drunk. When Marmeladov arrived home Raskolnikov witnessed how he was beaten by his wife, and how the other people who live in the building ridiculed Marmeladov as he was being dragged by the hair. Raskolnikov was not one of those, he felt sorry for him and left him some money to help out his family. When he received the letter from his mother, he was very affected, and was eager to read it. Apparently, he is close to his family, and cares about them and doesn’t want anything to happened to them. I think that this is why he won’t allow Dunya’s marriage. He refuses to allow his sister to sell herself to some man that she does not even love and have his mother living somewhere alone so that he can have some money in his pocket. Another example of Raskolnikov’s sudden show of humanity is when he calls the police officer to look after the young drunk girl who is wandering the streets exposing herself to the danger of the streets.
What I still don’t understand is how he can suddenly flip his mentality. Moments after leaving Marmeladov’s house, he wonders why he gave them his money. They have their daughter, Sonya, to provide them with money, while he only has himself. Later on, after trying to protect the young girl, he laughs at the policeman and tells him to let her go because it’s of no importance to him anyway. The way that Raskolnikov can change his personality baffles me, yet continues to intrigue me. It’s evident that he’s an unstable person, and no matter how carefully he had planned out the crime, he had many doubts. He had moments when he was so disgusted with himself for even contemplating something like that, and was determined to end it once and for all. Then, something led him to go back. Clearly, committing the crime was not something that was in Raskolnikov’s nature. He was extremely nervous throughout he whole ordeal, and clumsily put himself at risk of being found out several times. His conscience is killing him, and his paranoia got to the point that he grew extremely ill with a fever that led him into several episodes of delirium. During these times we can see Raskolnikov’s guilt. He desperately wants to get rid of the evidence, he doesn’t even wan to keep the money, which is the whole reason why he decided to go through with it anyway. There’s something that is stronger than him that has compelled him to do this.
It could be possible that his childhood has affected him in some way. In Part I, Raskolnikov falls asleep and has a very disturbing dream in which he was a child. He was with his father, and they were walking outside when he sees a rowdy group of drunkards savagely beating a mare because she’s weak and can’t handle the group. The gruesome beating occurred before Raskolnikov’s eyes as a child. He was innocent and helpless , he couldn’t do anything to prevent it. Now, it seems that he is just as innocent, there’re something that compelled him to commit the crime and be just like Mikolka in his dream. Hopefully more events in the story will help uncover more of Raskolnikov’s past and help to determine what led him to where he is.
Posted by Wendy C.