Fyodor Dostoevsky is rightfully considered an unsurpassed connoisseur of the human soul. This writer, like no one else, realized that each person is a separate world of passions, beliefs and hopes. That is why his characters make up the palette of the brightest and most diverse images of not only Russian, but world literature. One of them is Sonya Marmeladova. This article is devoted to the characterization and analysis of the heroine of the greatest psychological novel.
Unique female look
The Marmeladov family occupies a special place in Dostoevsky's novel. Each of its members is experiencing its own tragedy. The theme of “humiliated and offended” is also revealed in this work, however, the image of the main character is incomparable in terms of the strength of suffering with any other even in the work of the great Russian writer. Therefore, it is unique in literature.
Life Story
Who is Sonya Marmeladova?Her characteristic is reduced to the following qualities: sincerity, mercy, kindness. The strength of each of them is extraordinary. And only the owner of the best human qualities is able to survive the tragedy that befell her fate, and at the same time not harden her soul, not lose her moral foundation.
The protagonist of the novel once meets a tipsy, downtrodden man in a tavern, whose stories cause laughter from others. Sonya Marmeladova is the daughter of this man. The life story of these people amazes Raskolnikov. And having met a girl, an idealist student is no longer able to stay away from the misfortune that has affected this family. Poverty is not a vice, but poverty is another matter. It humiliates a person and forces him to commit a crime against morality. This is the tragedy of Marmeladov. His daughter went to the bar in order to feed her family. At that time, he was somewhere "lying drunk." And from now on, he began to drink even more fiercely, almost to the point of madness, infuriating his sick and exhausted wife and hurting his daughter's already suffering heart. But the girl has an unusually loving and open soul. Otherwise, it is impossible to survive the torment experienced by Sonya Marmeladova.
Characteristic
Fallen women in society are scorned. Sonya Marmeladova did not escape this fate either. The fact that prostitution has become the only possible way for her to feed her father, stepmother and their small children does not interest anyone. And few people are able to comprehend the depth of someone else's suffering. To do this, you need to have either the detached idealism of Raskolnikov, or the loving heart of a father. The protagonist's sister also feels sympathy for Sonya. However, such unsightly personalities as Luzhin and Lebeziatnikov are only capable of condemnation. And it should be said that these characters are collective images. Such individuals abound at all times. But both of them, as well as Sonya Marmeladova herself, understand that she committed the greatest sin, transgressed the law of morality. And it will not be easy for her to wash off the traces of a terrible vice.
Raskolnikov
The image of Sonya Marmeladova is surprising in that, despite her grief and the contempt of others, she is capable of true love. This is not about that earthly feeling, which is more reminiscent of a selfish passion, but about another, true, Christian one. The girl has not lost the ability to sympathize. Perhaps the fact is that she was at the bottom of social society for a short time? Or is the fact that nothing can kill noble spiritual qualities? The author points to another reason.
On that evening, when Raskolnikov confesses his crime to Sonya, she decides to share her fate with him. But first he must repent and come to the investigator with a confession. And before leaving, Rodion Romanovich receives from the girl a cross that once belonged to Lizaveta. The very one whose life ended up on the conscience of an ambitious student by chance, whose murder shattered the already untenable idea of "the right of those who have the right." And from this act we can conclude that the strength to survive and notFaith gave Sonya to lose herself. Only the Christian idea can save humanity. She alone has the right to exist.
In the epilogue
At the end of the work, the role that Sonya Marmeladova played in the fate of Raskolnikov becomes finally clear. "Crime and Punishment" is a novel that does not end with the confession of the protagonist in the perfect crime. After all, this is still not a detective story, but a work that has the deepest idea, relevant at all times.
Raskolnikov confesses everything. But even in hard labor for a long time he blames himself only for the fact that he could not realize his grandiose plans. Sonya accompanies him. She causes sympathy among the prisoners, while a strange student - only hostility. His soul is filled with suffering for his own failed fate. Her love for him. And the day comes when Raskolnikov realizes his guilt, understands to the end the meaning of the words that she once spoke to him. It's still seven long years before release. But from the day of Raskolnikov's repentance, a new story begins - "the gradual renewal of man."
