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anyone know what Rodya's mother's death is significant for? also, the dream he has in the epilogue? (about the virus)
also, one other big question, anyone can give me some hints in why Rodya repented and loves sonya at the end? how did it happen? most importantly, why!!??! what led him to suddenly think so differently?? is it love...
I haven't read this in a while, so I don't remember any significance in Rodya's mother's death. The dream, however, is extremely significant. The virus, as I can understand it, is modern philosophy and particularly nihlism. The nihlist believes in nothing, and as such, can have no allegiances, the army of men who fall upon themselves represents the fact that if there is nothing to believe in, as Raskolnikov has claimed, if there is nothing greater than the self, then there is no greater good than selfishness, and Dostoevsky is showing the woeful consequences of this philosophy if it were widely accepted. The message is much like in Heart of Darkness, where Conrad shows what happens to a great man when he steps outside of the bounds of a moral structure and is given totally to the desires of his heart. If you have not read it, you really should. Also, it is important to understand Dostoevsky's own experience, also. He was Raskolnikov, in a sense. He was a member of a communist circle in his young life, however, he was found out, and sentenced to death by the czar. Now, he was a nihlist at this time and believed in nothing, and had a spiritual awakening, almost, right before his execution, in which he began to see how good life was and how much he was going to be missing when he died. He was not killed, however, the execution was a mock execution, meant to make him realize precisely what he did, that life is precious and a gift. This is what happens to Raskolnikov at the end of the book, he has realized how foolish his ideas were and how much he has blasphemed life by saying it is not worth living, and that he has now begun to awaken to the beauty of life. The totality of Crime and Punishment is an almost autobiographical depiction of the transformation of a man, through the means of transgressing the law and being punished for it, from a nihlist who has no real reason to live into a vibrant and living human with a desire to live his life as fully as he could. Further, the statement at the end, of her reading the story of Lazarus to him, this was a foreshadowing when it happened initially of his being raised from a dead life of isolation to a life of communion with humanity, and, it seems, with the divine.
I thought her death showed how Raskolnikov was still attempting to hold on to Nihilism in which a loved one's death wouldn't matter because they have no loved ones. Shortly after this news, though, he becomes ill and has to stay in the hospital ward. I think this is showing that, although Raskolnikov would not have admitted it at the time, her death did affect him. He was so overcome with a huge secret sadness that he became physically ill, just like he became physically ill when he had to keep such strong emotion of guilt hidden.
But, I dunno. That could be way off.
from what i have read here, Will is dead on accurate. Nice work.
I would agree with the post above regarding the dream and nihilism, but to add a few things, I think the virus that spreads is not only about nihilism, but about the certainty that ideologies bring: I think in the dream, they fight because they are so certain that they understand so clearly what is right and wrong, as Raskolnikov was when he murdered the woman. I think a lot of Dostoyevsky's work focuses on how rigid, ideological thinking can make us crazy and uncompassionate.
Notice to that after the dream, Raskolnikov is laying in the infirmary, in a mental haze pondering the dream, when he see's Sonya at the gates, and things begin to clear for him at that moment.
I think the dream of the virus is Raskolnikov's vision of how the world would be if everyone was as he was, and Sonya is the way out, and this is why he really begins to love her at that point. She is simple, humble, and faithfull, a model for how Raskolnikov must change.
Rodya falling in love with Sonya at the end is signifigant because Sonya represents his 'good' side. It also represents the fact that Dostoevsky wrote the final chapters in a huge hurry so he could pay off a gambling debt.
We also can't ignore the fact that his illness took place between passover and easter. Sonya was not just a symbol of love, and a tangible example of Rodya's breakthrough from Nihilism, but an angelic, Christ-like figure of sacrifice for faith, performing the miracle of the resurrection on he, Lazarus (first verbally, then spiritually).
I have read Dostoevsky's Crime & Punishment a decade ago and I still remember the story and particularly the quandary the protagonist in the novel. This novel in essence mirrors the kind of life we all are living and in fact it is very hard to make a decision, a moral decision of all, for when we plunge into a situation wherein we have to make a choice between supporting a famished family at one side and the lesson our teacher has imparted to us regarding morality and it is indeed a great decision we will have to make in life. Of course there were circumstances that compelled the protagonist to commit a crime and he was a simple and straightforward person and of course wanted to live a moral life but the situation he was hemmed in altered him totally and that promoted him to commit a crime. This book is really awe-inspiring for it can touch upon the depths of human situation