The beginning of Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky has already peaked my interest in several ways. The first thing is that after reading the introduction and seeing who the characters would be based on I figured that this book would be fairly straight forward, but I seem to have been wrong in that assumption. The reason for this being the whole tavern scene involving the main character Raskolnikov and the man he meets there, Marmeladov. At first, this seemed like the perfect opportunity for Dostevsky to reveal some character traits about the protagonist such as whether or not he's caring, kind, thoughtful etc... I soon realized however that this was not the purpose of the scene, in fact the purpose of the scene still illudes me which is why i'm including it in this post. This is because Dostoevsky revealed absolutely nothing about Raskolnikov in this scene. While I was hoping for Raskolnikov to get a little drunk and start revealing his conspiracy plans, I was instead greated by a boisterous rant from Marmeladov that was no doubt saddening but to me seemed unnecessary for the sake of the story. Only when Raskolnikov helps Marmeladov return to his wife do we learn that he is caring, especially when he leaves some money for Katerina Ivanovna knowing full well Marveladov might take that money as well for drinks. All in all though the fact that we learned so little about Raskolnikov and his plans in such a big scene really makes me question its importance, and even its relevance to the story. Hopefully someone can enlighten me with a reason as to why it was significant and why Dostoevsky included it. Aside from this there was one other thing that really peaked my interest in the beginning of ther story.
The reason I was hopeful that this book was going to be very interesting was the point about fear Raskolnikov makes on page two of the story. The line "...all is in a man's hands and he lets it all slip from cowardice, that's an axiom." really stood out to me. This is because you hear about people all the time in life that had great opportunities before them, but failed to take them out of fear. And the thing that they fear is the unkown that would follow if they seized those opportunites. I know I have been the victim of such indecision and i'm sure almost everyone has had atleast one incidence of it. The fact that Dostoevsky included such a provacative and very philosophical thought in the story is what had me hoping that this book would be highly entertaining. The other thing it did though was show that Raskolnikov is a very smart man. For him to be pointing out something that is such an axiom and so true in life has left me anticipating that whatever his full plans are regarding the Murder of Alyona Ivanovna that they will be almost flawless. I'm also antcipating that there will be philosophical remarks in the story which I find highly entertaining. Aside from these two things though nothing else seemed to interest me much in the beginning of the book, I just hope it unfolds a bit more straight forwardly than it has already.
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Anthony I infer that you are at the beginning parts of the book. I must say, it is very confusing in the beginning but everything that Dostoevsky mentions in the beginning parts of the book is very crucial to later parts. I have read the first two parts and you will find an answer to your question, "Why the tavern scene was important?" in Part 2. I will not mention where because I do not want to spoil the exciting part. However, when you figure it out let me know!
ReplyDeleteAs for your second comment "...all is in a man's hands and he lets it all slip from cowardice, that's an axiom," I agree that all man possesses opportunities in his hands and sometimes do not use the opportunity because of fear, but we also have to understand where that fear comes from. Fear is an outcome of not understanding or uncertainty thus leading to a loss of a great opportunity. Sometimes I do let opportunities pass me by because I am afraid. I am not afraid of the opportunity but rather where it will take me. Unless I am very certain that I know the opportunity has more positive than negative outcomes, I will not take it.
From past personal experiences, I can tell you there have been times where I had great opportunities in my hands but I hit a roadblock when outside forces that I had no control over such as the lack of money, inability to travel and lack of support has led me to losing that opportunity. Don't get me wrong, I agree, we fear what we do not understand and because of it we miss opportunities. This in my opinion is a characteristic of humans and should be embraced rather than labeled “cowardice” by Raskolnikov.
Anthony, unlike you, I knew from the beginning that this book was NOT going to be straightforward, and it’s clear you have realized that too. When I read about the scene in the tavern, I was also very confused about its importance, until I read Fred’s first blog about Crime & Punishment. In Fred’s post, he mentioned how Russian authors were often paid per word that they wrote as opposed to how many copies of the book were sold. While I do not believe this is Dostoevsky’s reasoning, it may have something to do with why the scene is so very long. Yet, as is with most novels, the importance of that scene will surely rear its head eventually. You also claim that this scene showed you nothing of Raskolnikov’s character, I found it the complete opposite. I learned that Raskolnikov was a man who could truly listen and understand what was being told to him, even if it was by a drunk. I do not want to say he exactly sympathized with Marmeladov, but he obviously felt compassion for his family as we see when he leaves some money in their home.
ReplyDeleteI too have unfortunately been a victim of indecision, and fear of the consequences that may come with my actions. While you say this made Raskolnikov out to be a smart man, I knew he was very intelligent from the beginning. The way he spoke within his mind made me realize that he was relatively intelligent. As of right now, I have not enjoyed reading most of this book; yet I will keep my hopes high and hope for a better outcome.
Just like you Anthony, I've found myself puzzled about the tavern scene as well. As I go over it again and again, I ask myself many questions pertaining to this scene. What was Doestoevsky's purpose in writing this scene? How does this concern Raskolnikov? Could this scene be foreshadowing something that happens later in the story? Like you said, it's not clear at all here as to what is going on, but maybe there will be an answer soon.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I too admire the quote you found, "all is in a man's hands and he lets it all slip from cowardice, that's an axiom." There's a lot of truth in this statement. I know that situations happen like this everyday. Once someone has something, they lose it within the next second. Although I may not have any experience with this, I know plenty of people to agree with it.