Something that I found very interesting about the character Rask (in short) is that he is much like characters that we have previously read about in different books. He is constantly bombarded by people wanting to tell their life stories, much like Nick Caraway from “The Great Gatsby”. For example, in Part One of the book, he is in a tavern speaking with a man named Marmeladov. Very drunk and depressed, Marmeladov tells Rask about his job and his family. He even dragged him along to his house to see his wife after almost a week of abandon. Another example of this is in Part Four chapter 1 where upon waking up a man has entered his room and just starts talking to him out of nowhere. Rask again is obliged to hear this man’s story about the death of his wife, his hatred for his cousin, Luzhin, and his protective feelings over Dunya, Rask’s sister.
Another trait that Rask seems to have is generosity and kindness. However after he is generous, he has a feeling of indecisiveness and immediately curses himself for sacrificing something that he could have used or even needed. There are many examples of this. The first being when he met Marmeladov and walked him home, he had left some money on their windowsill on his way out. “Raskolnikov managed to thrust his hand into his pocket, rake up whatever coppers he happened to find from the rouble he had changed in the tavern, and put them unobserved on the windowsill. Afterwards, on the stairs, the thought better of it and wanted to go back. ‘What a stupid thing to have done,’ he thought. ‘They have their Sonya, and I need it myself.’ (Pg 27 Ch. 2 Pt. 1) Second, when he left money for a woman who was being pursued on the park to a cab fare and lastly when he left almost half of the money his mother gave him to Marmeladov’s grieving family.
-Journal 3- In Part Five Chapter five, Sonya and Rask read a story from the bible about a man named Lazarus. After some research, there are two people in the bible named Lazarus with two different stories that play in to Crime and Punishment well. The first story of Lazarus is the one that Sonya and Rask read where Lazarus was reanimated by Jesus. The other story was of Lazarus being a poor man who sits at a rich man’s stoop. The parable explains that the rich man’s actions in this life condemned him to hell, while the beggar, Lazarus will live in peace in heaven. The second Lazarus was not explained in the book; however it does have some ties with it. In chapter five of part five, Katerina Ivanova had begun to lose her mind, screaming that the rich will perish and the poor will thrive in heaven. In my opinion the ending was sincere. I do not believe that Rask was a person who would not feel horrible for his crimes like most murderers do. Although Rask is a murderer he seems like a Robin Hood figure. He killed and stole from a woman who was not well liked in the neighborhood and was somewhat of a con artist. He also did not use the things that he stole from her for his use. He gave what he had to others, like Marmeladov’s family, while he suffered in sickness. Although he felt obliged to kill her and it was not a good deed it seems that I can weirdly overlook his crime and say “This is a good man.” I do feel that his punishment was well deserved though. While he was in prison he learned to appreciate life for what it is and learned that he could open up to people like Sonya. Because of his crime he became a better person.
