An overview of this section-
-Raskolnikov, back in his lodgings after the murders, is getting pretty sick, drifting in and out of fever and sleep.
-Gets a summons from the police bureau regarding issues with his landlady.
-Decides to throw stolen goods into a canal, then on reconsideration hides them under a building block instead.
-Goes to see his old friend, Razumkhin, but then flees.
-Gets walloped by someone in a passing carriage.
-An elderly woman takes pity on him and gives him twenty copecks, saying, "Take it, for the love of Christ".
-He throws the money into a river.
-Has a nightmare that Ilya Petrovich the police luitenant is beating up his landlady, Pashenka.
-Razumkhin has been visiting and caring for him, with Natasya, and uses money sent from Raskolnikov's mother and sister to buy stuff for him.
-Some guys come to his place and discuss the details of the murders, trying to piece it together. Razumkhin has details pretty much sussed out.
This week I just want to mention two bits that really stood out to me from the reading, rather than try and tackle everything that's happening. Incidentally they both happened on the same page..
Twenty Copecks--
In some deep space below him, scarcely visible beneath his feet, he now beheld the whole of his earlier past- his old thoughts, old problems, old preoccupations and old feelings, and this whole panorama, and himself, and everything, everything... He seemed to be flying somewhere into the heights, and everything seemed to vanish before his eyes... Making an automatic movement with his hand, he suddenly felt the twenty-copeck piece that was clutched in it. He unclenched his fist, stared fixedly at the little coin and, with a swing of his arm, hurled it into the water; then he turned on his heel and went home. At that moment he felt as though, with a pair of scissors, he had cut himself off from everyone and everything.
This struck me as very significant (and beautifully written), and as a good summing up of where Raskolnikov is at. The woman's pity is too painful, and is everything he is trying to escape from. He does not want to see those around him as being good and loving, otherwise it breaks down the distance he is trying to build between himself and the rest of humanity.
The Nightmare--
This section really chilled my blood, in some ways even more so than the murders. It really felt frightening, because it seemed that the rest of the world was suddenly crumbling, rather than just Raskolnikov himself. He hears the police lieutenant bashing his landlady, and this sends him into complete terror and confusion. How can this possibly be happening? We later realise it was a dream.
It also seems significant when you remember his earlier dream about the horse being beaten. In both cases he felt very upset for the victim, and very helpless. In reality he is trying to shut his emotions down, but in his dreams his subconscious seems to be trying to tell him something...
For Next Week-- Read Part Two, v-vii
-Raskolnikov, back in his lodgings after the murders, is getting pretty sick, drifting in and out of fever and sleep.
-Gets a summons from the police bureau regarding issues with his landlady.
-Decides to throw stolen goods into a canal, then on reconsideration hides them under a building block instead.
-Goes to see his old friend, Razumkhin, but then flees.
-Gets walloped by someone in a passing carriage.
-An elderly woman takes pity on him and gives him twenty copecks, saying, "Take it, for the love of Christ".
-He throws the money into a river.
-Has a nightmare that Ilya Petrovich the police luitenant is beating up his landlady, Pashenka.
-Razumkhin has been visiting and caring for him, with Natasya, and uses money sent from Raskolnikov's mother and sister to buy stuff for him.
-Some guys come to his place and discuss the details of the murders, trying to piece it together. Razumkhin has details pretty much sussed out.
This week I just want to mention two bits that really stood out to me from the reading, rather than try and tackle everything that's happening. Incidentally they both happened on the same page..Twenty Copecks--
In some deep space below him, scarcely visible beneath his feet, he now beheld the whole of his earlier past- his old thoughts, old problems, old preoccupations and old feelings, and this whole panorama, and himself, and everything, everything... He seemed to be flying somewhere into the heights, and everything seemed to vanish before his eyes... Making an automatic movement with his hand, he suddenly felt the twenty-copeck piece that was clutched in it. He unclenched his fist, stared fixedly at the little coin and, with a swing of his arm, hurled it into the water; then he turned on his heel and went home. At that moment he felt as though, with a pair of scissors, he had cut himself off from everyone and everything.
This struck me as very significant (and beautifully written), and as a good summing up of where Raskolnikov is at. The woman's pity is too painful, and is everything he is trying to escape from. He does not want to see those around him as being good and loving, otherwise it breaks down the distance he is trying to build between himself and the rest of humanity.
The Nightmare--
This section really chilled my blood, in some ways even more so than the murders. It really felt frightening, because it seemed that the rest of the world was suddenly crumbling, rather than just Raskolnikov himself. He hears the police lieutenant bashing his landlady, and this sends him into complete terror and confusion. How can this possibly be happening? We later realise it was a dream.
It also seems significant when you remember his earlier dream about the horse being beaten. In both cases he felt very upset for the victim, and very helpless. In reality he is trying to shut his emotions down, but in his dreams his subconscious seems to be trying to tell him something...
For Next Week-- Read Part Two, v-vii
11 comments:
Oh, I am a little disconcerted that I am first here. I don't actually have much to say at this point and was looking for something to spark a thought from the rest of you. But, yes, I did think that was an important moment on the bridge, when he realises that it's outlandish to imagine that he could think the same things as before. He knows that one act changed him irrevocably forever.
Do you think Razumiknin suspects Ras at this point? I was getting the impression that he did, and found it curious when he said to Zosimov "if one goes into all the ins and outs of everyone, are there really going to be all that many good people left?".
Hello, I have decided not to read your post, because I am a week behind in my reading because of MYC... so I will probably be out of action this week. Doh! But hopefully to return victorious next week...
Hey Ben, I was saying to Ali on Facebook that I could not, for the life of me, finish C&P when I tried it 6 years ago. I threw it in the trash when I finished it because it was so painful! All that schizophrenic monologue was just too much...
I've read a little bit of The Brothers Karamazov and it's a much easier read :) Keep going!
Haydn.
Yes, I thought that line was pretty poignant too, Ali, about there being not many good people. You do get the impression Razumkin has an inkling, though I don't really know why he would know, and if he does, why is he being so affable with Ras?
Soph, thanks for letting us know. "Happy" reading!
Haydn, good to hear from you mate. Hope things are going well for you in Korea. You're giving me mixed messages though-- should I throw it in the trash, or keep going?:)
Once again, I just cannot fathom how in the world Raskol's possibly going to survive the amount of pages left in the book. At every moment, his insanity and grief and agony are so intense, you wonder how it could continue.
Ben - I totally agree with you: when he throws the money off the bridge, it's almost as if he threw himself off.
Intense, intense, intense! Such good writing.
Hi Ben, yes, well that is just what I was I thinking with Razumikhin - why is he being so generous if he knows? and is it because he knows something of Ras, and possibly heard a good many things from him in his feverish delirium and understands the whole. Guess we shall just have to wait and see ... (I'm wondering what Ras might have muttered when he fainted in the Bureau as well.)
Glad you made it over here Hadyn!
It struck me at about 5:30AM this morning - the perfect theme song for Raskolnikov: "Climbing up the Walls", by Radiohead.
Surely you agree?
:) Thanks Ali. Ben I encourage you to keep going. I had not the stamina to contend with the Big Punishment but if you can it'll build your strength.
Korea's a bit crazy - it's own form of crime and punishment :P
yeah, good call Peter, (Pyotr)-- just listened to the song again..It does capture the mood! For me, I have been listening to Rackmaninov and imagining that as the soundtrack-- works well too.
Yeah, hadn't thought of that Ali, that he muttered stuff in his delerium..
Yeah, I'll definately push on Haydn. I am really enjoying it so far. I was thinking that it reminds me a bit of my favourite book, Catcher in the Rye, in some ways..
Sorry to come into this so late.
I read something interesting the other day about how the city of St Petersburg is depicted in the book - particularly the bit you quoted Ben, when Ras is on the bridge and throws the 20 copecks away. If you keep reading, he then reflects on the city in a detached way. It says,
"It (the view of the city) left him strangely cold, this gorgeous picture was for him blank and lifeless".
It's as if the city of St Petersburg, with all its ideals concerning modernism, utilitarianism, bureaucracy and hierarchy - ideals he would have learnt about at college - are now "dead" to him. In the same way, his motives for murder which were similarly driven by the very things the city of St Petersburg upholds, i.e. utilitarianism, seem foreign and meaningless to him now the deed is done and the blood is on his hands.
All of this serves to emphasise Ras' dual nature and his constant to-and-fro-ing between the horrific nature of his crime, and the end justifying the means. This conflict between morality/utilitarianism, in a small way, shows the wider tension between St Petersburg as a great modern city built on beuraucracy, and the more traditional/religious values of Russia (e.g. fellowship, mateship, etc).
I hope that makes sense. I read that this morning and thought it was interesting! I think in the same way we see this tension today. One example that lept out at me is the Labor party - built on the traditional Aussie values of workers united, trade unionism and givign everyone a fair go, but forced to confront the reality of an increasingly commercialised, privatised world. Rudd, I think in a non-creepy way, embodies a skitzophrenic split between the two, like Raz.
Or do I just need to drink some coffee before thinkign in the morning??
Thanks for sharing that Soph, that is really interesting. Thinking about the historical background makes me realise the depth and intricacy of the book.
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