When he talks about the square foot of space, he is alluding to what he said previously, that is is better to live on a square foot of space than not to live at all.
When he talks about the square foot of space, he is alluding to what he said previously, that is is better to live on a square foot of space than not to live at all.
Space (or lack of it) is an important metaphor in C&P because it representst the stifling effect of being poor in the book. It helps create imagery of a claustrophobic world bearing pressure on Raskolnikov's shoulders - like Shakespeare did in Hamlet with imagery of putrefaction, poison, and prison.
The square foot refers to a prison cell, where he would go when he confessed.
I feel that Dostoevsky is alluding to many things, but one thing he is alluding to is the ancient tradition of certain Christian monks who would stand on a rock or pillar and spend their entire lives just out on about a square foot of space. Since he had religious influences in his life, this is a reasonable conjecture. Possibly he was hinting that maybe the monks themselves were repenting of some unknown sin to everyone else. Maybe that is the reason they punished themselve for the rest of their lives--standing on a square foot of space. But, obviously, the monks felt that it was better to stay alive--to exist--on this square foot of space rather than to kill one's self. So, Dostoevsky's characters also had many sins that needed to be repented of, and his characters were faced with two options: to atone for the sin by suicide or to atone for the sin by continuing to live, but having to suffer. Dostoevsky felt that it is better to live--even if it means staying on a square foot of space forever.
what is the significance of the square foot of space?
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