Raskolnikov: Internal Conflicts Johanna Duggan Kara Bordieri

Internal Conflict “No body, but he who has felt it, can conceive what a plaguing thing it is to have a man's mind torn asunder by two projects of equal strength, both obstinately pulling in a contrary direction at the same time.” -Laurence Sterne

Instinctive Positive Qualities Charity Leaves money for Marmeladovs (27) Protect drunk girl from going with man (52) Kindness and Sympathy Doesn’t want Dounia to marry for his sake (41) Luzhin as benefactor: “better to raise a wife from poverty so you can have complete control over her” (154) Takes Marmeladov home when dying Pays for doctor (178) Gives family money (193) Razumihin’s description “noble nature and kind heart” (15)

Instinctive Positive Qualities Kindness Svidrigailov away from Dounia “were he to use [Rask’s secret] as a weapon against Dounia?” (458) Suffering/Moral human conditions (cured through confession) Uncontrollable laughter “Raskolnikov… had the utmost difficulty not to burst out laughing again” (249) Fainting Police station, mention of murders, seeing family unexpectedly

Confession Sonia: Gives Raskolnikov strength Truthful nature “Money was not [his motive]” (408) Gives Raskolnikov strength Confess to police “There, not far from the entrance, stood Sonia, pale and horror-stricken” (525)

Christianity Lazarus Taking Sonia’s Cross Raskolnikov as Lazarus “She was getting hear the story of the greatest miracle and a feeling of immense triumph came over her” (326) Path to Humanity Taking Sonia’s Cross Sonia’s prayer “Go to the cross-roads… ‘I am a murderer’” (520) New Testament under pillow (542)

The Murder! “The old woman was a mistake perhaps, but she’s not the point! The old woman was merely a sickness . . . I was in a hurry to step over . . . it wasn’t a human being I killed, it was a principle! So I killed the principle, but I didn’t step over, I stayed on this side . . . All I managed to do was kill.” Part III Ch. VI Internal conflict “I wanted to murder, for my own satisfaction ... At that moment I did not care a damn whether I would spend the rest of my life like a spider catching them all in my web and sucking the living juices out of them.” Part V Ch. IV (to Sonia)

Negative Qualities Lying Delusional, “Superhuman” "I love it when people lie! Lying is only mans privilege over all other organisms. Lying is what makes me a man." Part II Ch. VI “Nothing in the world is harder than speaking the truth and nothing easier than flattery,” (471) (Svid to Rask) Delusional, “Superhuman” “I like them to talk nonsense. That's man's one privilege over all creation. Through error you come to the truth! I am a man because I err! You never reach any truth without making fourteen mistakes and very likely a hundred and fourteen.” Part III Ch. I

Isolation “What was taking place in him was totally unfamiliar, new, sudden, never before experienced. Not that he understood it, but he sensed clearly, with all the power of sensation, that it was no longer possible for him to address these people in the police station, not only with heartfelt effusions, as he had just done, but in any way at all, and had they been his own brothers and sisters, and not police lieutenants, there would still have been no point in this addressing them, in whatever circumstances of life.” Part II Ch. I Leads to lack of empathy Sonia Confesses to her → “rejoins” society

“Moral” vs. “Immoral” Murder-utilitarian purposes Many small “good deeds” Overshadowed by murder Murder-utilitarian purposes "Crime? What crime?" he cried in sudden fury. "That I killed a vile noxious insect, an old pawnbroker woman, of use to no one! . . . Killing her was atonement for forty sins. She was sucking the life out of poor people. Was that a crime?" Part VI Ch. VII (to Dounia) Sonia accepts/helps him

Illumination of Work Internal punishment can be greater than external consequence “If he has a conscience he will suffer for his mistake. That will be punishment - as well as the prison.” Part III Ch. V (Rask to Porifry)