Where are the rest of the questions, professor?
Where are the rest of the questions, professor?
com-pas-sion (n.) [ME. & OFr. <LL. (Ec.) compassio, sympathy < compassus, pp. of compati, to feel pity < L. com-, together + pali, to suffer] sorrow for the sufferings or trouble of another or others, accompanied by an urge to help; deep sympathy; pity
Dostoevsky Forum!
They will be forthcoming. I will not be able to post them until Thursday. Been busy.
Why, the whole point, the real sting of it lay in the fact that continually, even in the moment of the acutest spleen, I was inwardly conscious with shame that I was not a spiteful. I am a sicker man! I might foam at the mouth, but bring me a doll to play with, bring me a cup of tea with sugar in it, and maybe I will be appeased! I might even genuinely be touched, though probably I should grind my teeth at myself afterward and lie awake at night with shame for months after. That is my way.
Well, I'm new to the forum and just finished Crime and Punishment so I'll take a stab at it.
"Question: We know that poverty is rather ubiquitous throughout this novel, which takes place in St. Petersburg, Russia. Which characters are best described throughout the novel as being in a state of poverty? Which ones are not?"
Raskolnikov, Razumikhin, the Marmeladovs, pretty much everyone except Pyotr Petrovich and Svidrigailov.
"Question: We understand, by reading the text, that Raskolnikov is often depicted throughout the novel as a person who "distances himself" from two specific other characters, who are they? (this would be just the opposite of what "should happen" in a poverty-stricken" environment, where people generally bond together, poverty being the overwhelming force that makes families support one another).Hint: these two characters are related, as mother and child."
Avdotya and Pulcheria
"Symbols.The City of St. Petersburg is represented as being extremely crowded and dirty in the novel, Crime and Punishment. There are drunks throughout the streets; children and women are seen begging for money; residents are crowded into small, noisy apartments, where (in some instances) a person might own just one corner of the apartment.
Question:[i] St. Petersburg represents two major symbols in the novel; what are they?"
One of the symbols I thought of was nihilism and the effect that it has on the people living in such morbid conditions, even today in the inner city. The characters of Sonya and Raskolnikov seemed to me like opposites. I may be reaching but Raskolnikov in his superman state had an amoral attitude to the murder of the crone and could be related to as the devil. Sonya although a prostitute was conveyed as as sort of angelic character.
Last edited by Lord Bas; 02-17-2009 at 01:43 AM.
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