Shades of Rodion: Sonya, Porfiry & Arkady

Rodion himself harbors dual personalities and both are very easily distinguishable by their traits (in my opinion). One can presume that Dostoevsky, to serve as a better understanding on how distinct each personality is, established three characters each with separate mirror images of Rodion. Two of these characters are truly incomparable and in my opinion incredibly similar to Doctor Jekyll and Hyde from The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde written by the legendary Robert Louis Stevenson, as well as an additional character which to me is the perfect blend, having the best attributes of each.
One is Sonya Semyonovna Marmeladov, the epitome of purity and innocence, the compassionate and awfully humble love interest of our main protagonist, the seemingly bi-polar Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov. Sonya throughout the novel represents the softer side of Rodion, the humane, charitable, very meek and sensitive Rodion who throughout the entire novel, one tends to see, makes quick rare appearances. Sonya's role was to help Rodion recover that amiable side to him, since she is somewhat his conscience. Many times throughout the novel she is thought to be "the suffering of all humanity" yet through all of her trials and tribulations she still maintains this glimmer of hope, that incredible faith, something which you can feel that Rodion still has. Yet in reality she was more or less Rodion's confidant or muse, since she didn’t try and reform Rodion though action and blatant advice, she inspires him to change, she was someone he could trust with his feelings. Little by little she broke down that wall and forced him to drop all those shields he had and bring forth that softer side of Rodion, similar to Sonya herself, the meek very weak Rodion as well as other feeble human emotions he so desperately wants to avoid all together.
Arkady Skidrigailov is the apathetic very cold self-willed intellectual, someone who feels no remorse, no compassion, a real sinner in all definitions of the word. Arkady represents in my opinion the reflection of who Rodion has become as well as his future if he continuous this path of self destruction. Inevitably because of his lack of compassion and his scandalous very impious behavior, past as well as present, he cannot attain the love of one named Dunya, sister of Rodion, whom he has become so attached to. Though both were so incomparable to begin with in terms of their definition of morality. Realizing Dunya will probably never return his affection the coward takes his life, since he wasn't too keen on the idea of being alone with his wife’s passing and all, even though he was already making advances to Dunya while married to her and denied it when caught. Yet again he is the reflection of what’s to become of Rodion.
Porfiry Petrovitch is a criminal investigator who I believe serves as the reflection of the perfect mesh of Rodion's two personalities. Porfiry's purpose was to bring Rodion to equilibrium of the compassionate, strong willed and clear minded intellectual. Porfiry sees immense potential in Rodion, He feels if Rodion would just hone in his potential for something beneficial instead of ignorant and without morality he would bring great success to Russia. Though one knows that although being compassionate as well as charitable are good qualities, one still needs a self-willed very detached attribute to one self to succeed in this cut throat world as well as survive, but one must be able to know when to turn on the switch. In reality we all have duel personalities, which is what Dostoevsky was trying to convey through Rodion.
posted by Oscar P.