Topic " little man" in F. Dostoevsky's novel "Crime and Punishment"

Compassion is the greatest form

human existence...

F. Dostoevsky L. Tolstoy

The theme of the "little man" in Russian literature is widely represented in the work of many great Russian writers. interest in fate common man in conditions of social injustice, A. S. Pushkin showed in “ stationmaster”, N. V. Gogol described the tragedy of the “little man” in the story “The Overcoat”, A. P. Chekhov turned to this topic in the stories “Thin and Fat”, “Death of an Official”, A. N. Ostrovsky in the play “Dowry "created the image of a petty official Karandyshev. All these writers can rightly be considered great humanists, because they showed mercy, compassion, sympathy for poor people and raised in their works the question of the need for fundamental changes in the lives of the “humiliated and insulted”, outcast by society.

F. M. Dostoevsky did not leave aside the theme of the “little man”. tragic world his heroes create the impression of unprecedented moral purity and spiritual loftiness.

Poor people live in the dirt of vices in the novel Crime and Punishment. Dostoevsky finds in the fallen and destitute heroes the purity of the soul, dignity and that higher principle, which is called humanity. All the "little people" in the novel yearn for a truly human existence. Marmeladov and his wife weep in a vain search for justice; he is tormented by the question of whether he, Raskolnikov, is a man; and even the immoral Svidrigailov wants to die, having done good before death. Dostoevsky's faith in the inexhaustible depths of humanity excites and convinces the writer that people must be warned against evil.

The descriptions of horrendous poverty and hopelessness scattered throughout the novel are brought to tragedy in the depiction of the Marmeladov family. In the official Marmeladov, Dostoevsky showed the extreme degree of deprivation and poverty. The tragedy of this "little man" is revealed in his confession. In a dirty tavern, at a sticky table on which stands a bottle of vodka, Marmeladov opens his soul. The description of the appearance of this hero is noteworthy: an old, completely worn tailcoat, fastened with the only surviving button, a crumpled dirty shirt-front. He was a man "with a yellow, even greenish face swollen from constant drunkenness." But the portrait of Marmeladov is not only socially pointed, it is at the same time an excellent psychological picture, which conveys the loneliness of the "little man" in the bourgeois world, his futile efforts to arouse sympathy and compassion.

From the confession, we learn that Marmeladov reached the extreme degree of poverty. In his story it sounds tragic story Sonechka, who went to the panel to save her loved ones from starvation. That's why Marmeladov drinks to forget his damned life. “Doesn’t my heart hurt? Don't I feel? Am I not suffering? - Marmeladov says in despair. Caught in a dead end in life, this "small

man" chooses a passive form of protest. Humility and humility to the fate of Marmalade complements unrestrained drunkenness. “... After all, it is necessary that every person should have at least one such place where he would be pitied,” says this unfortunate man. He is possessed by complete despair from the consciousness of his hopelessness. “Do you understand, do you understand, dear sir,” Marmeladov turns to Raskolnikov, “what does it mean when there is nowhere else to go?” These words express the last limit of despair. Marmeladov cannot resist the cruelties of life, he finds death under the wheels of a carriage on the pavement, in the mud, in full view of a dozen indifferent eyes.

The main accusation against the bourgeois world is the image of Katerina Ivanovna, Marmeladov's wife. Her portrait was given by Dostoevsky against the backdrop of a squalid dwelling: “The stub of a candle illuminated the poorest room ten paces long. A holey sheet was stretched through the back corner ... The room was stuffy ... there was a stench from the stairs ... ". This interior highlights the extreme poverty of the Marmeladov family.

The flickering light of a dying candle illuminates Katerina Ivanovna's face. One can see bright consumptive spots on her cheeks, parched lips, a feverish look attracts attention.

Analyzing the life story and character of Katerina Ivanovna, it should be noted that she is not from the camp of people downtrodden and resigned to life. She belongs to the camp of rebellious and bitter people. Dostoevsky writes that "it was possible to kill her by circumstances, but it was impossible to beat her morally, that is, to intimidate and subjugate her will." That is why Katerina Ivanovna is so desperately struggling with poverty. She washes, scrubs her miserable room, mends, washes children's rags at night, tries to have everything in her family, like decent people. To do this, she teaches children French, monitors their manners and behavior. Embittered by the blows of fate, Katerina Ivanovna frantically seeks and demands justice. This is expressed in her rebellious actions: both in the scene of her behavior at her husband's wake, and in the dramatic episode when she arranges a "demonstration of poverty." Clumsily dressed up her children, she makes them sing French songs, like crazy, rushes through the city until she falls dead on the pavement, here last words, which Katerina Ivanovna says: “They left the nag! Overstrained!

Katerina Ivanovna's rebellion is a protest of a man driven to the last degree of despair, but not reconciled with cruel reality. This is evidenced by her resolute refusal of the dying communion: “What? Priest? Nao... I have no sins! God must resist without that ... He himself knows how I suffered!

A. M. Gorky called F. M. Dostoevsky “our sick conscience”, because the writer brings up moral sensitivity, mercy, teaches not to know peace while a person suffers. Dostoevsky counted on the fact that humanity can be restored through the moral self-improvement of the individual. But in order to counteract evil, decisive changes are needed in an imperfect society in which the tragedies of the “little man” arise. That is why, again and again, the soul of the protagonist of the novel, Raskolnikov, is relentlessly excited by the longing that calls him to action, to the defense of humanity.

F. M. Dostoevsky in his work showed the immensity of the suffering of humiliated and insulted people and expressed great pain for this suffering. The writer himself was humiliated and offended by the terrible reality that broke the fate of his heroes. Each of his works looks like a personal bitter confession. This is how the novel "Crime and Punishment" is perceived. It reflects a desperate protest against the cruel reality that crushed millions of people, just as the unfortunate Marmeladov was crushed to death.
The story of the moral struggle of the protagonist of the novel, Rodion Raskolnikov, unfolds against the backdrop of Everyday life cities. The description of Petersburg in the novel makes a depressing impression. Dirty, stinky, stuffy everywhere. Drunken cries are heard from the taverns, poorly dressed people are crowding on the boulevards and squares: attracted no one's arrogant attention to themselves, and it was possible to walk around in any form you like without scandalizing anyone. Raskolnikov is one of this crowd: “He was so poorly dressed that another, even habitual person I would be ashamed to go out into the street in such rags during the day.
The life of the other heroes of the novel is also terrible - the drunken official Marmeladov, his wife Katerina Ivanovna, who is dying of consumption, Raskolnikov's mother and sister, who are being bullied by landowners and rich people.
Dostoevsky portrays various shades psychological experiences of a poor man who has nothing to pay for an apartment to his owner. The writer shows the torment of children growing up in a dirty corner next to a drunken father and dying mother, amidst constant strife and quarrels; the tragedy of a young and pure girl, who, due to the hopeless situation of her family, is forced to start selling herself and doom herself to constant humiliation.
However, Dostoevsky is not limited to describing everyday phenomena and facts of horrifying reality. He seems to connect them with the image of the complex characters of the heroes of the novel. The writer seeks to show that the everyday everyday life of the city gives rise not only to material poverty and lack of rights, but also cripples the psychology of people. Driven to despair, “little people” begin to have various fantastic “ideas”, no less nightmarish than the reality surrounding them.
Such is Raskolnikov's "idea" about Napoleons and "trembling creatures", "ordinary" and "extraordinary" people. Dostoevsky shows how this philosophy is born from life itself, under the influence of the terrifying existence of “little people”.
But not only the fate of Raskolnikov is made up of tragic trials and painful searches for a way out of this situation. The life of other heroes of the novel - Marmeladov, Sonya, and Dunya - is also deeply tragic.
The heroes of the novel are painfully aware of the hopelessness of their situation and all the cruelty of reality. “After all, it is necessary that every person at least somewhere could go. For there is a time when it is absolutely necessary to go at least somewhere!., after all, it is necessary that every person should have at least one such place where he would be pitied!.. Do you understand, do you understand ... what does it mean, when there is nowhere else to go?..” - from these words of Marmeladov, sounding like a cry for salvation, the heart of every reader shrinks. In fact, they express the main idea of ​​the novel. This is the cry of the soul of a man, exhausted, crushed by his inevitable fate.
The protagonist of the novel feels a close connection with all the humiliated and suffering people, feels moral responsibility In front of them. The fates of Sonya Marmeladova and Dunya are connected in his mind into one knot of social and moral problems. After the crime, Raskolnikov is overcome by despair and anxiety. He experiences fear, hatred for his persecutors, horror before a perfect and irreparable deed. And then he begins to look at other people more carefully than before, to compare his fate with theirs.
Raskolnikov brings the fate of Sonya closer to his own, in her behavior and attitude to life, he begins to look for a solution to the questions that torment him.
Sonya Marmeladova appears in the novel as a carrier moral ideals millions "humiliated and insulted". Like Raskolnikov, Sonya is a victim of the existing unfair order of things. The drunkenness of her father, the suffering of her stepmother, brother and sisters, doomed to hunger and poverty, forced her, like Raskolnikov, to cross the line of morality. She begins to sell her body, gives herself up to the vile and depraved world. But, unlike Raskolnikov, she is firmly convinced that no hardships of life can justify violence and crime. Sonya calls on Raskolnikov to abandon the morality of the “superman” in order to steadfastly connect his fate with the fate of suffering and oppressed humanity and thereby atone for his guilt before him.
“Little people” in Dostoevsky's novel, despite the gravity of their position, prefer to be victims rather than executioners. Better to be crushed than to crush others! This conclusion is gradually coming to main character. At the end of the novel, we see him on the threshold of a "new life", "a gradual transition from one world to another, acquaintance with a new, hitherto completely unknown reality."

(347 words) In his work, F.M. Dostoevsky often paid special attention to the problems and suffering ordinary people. The writer has always sought to know the Russian people, to identify their advantages and justify their shortcomings. This is exactly what we see in the novel Crime and Punishment. All the heroes of the work are poor, downtrodden, unremarkable people, but the writer gradually reveals these characters to the reader, forcing him to take a fresh look at the world as a whole.

Initially, we do not see anything positive in Dostoevsky's Petersburg, the city of lunatics. The semi-mad student Rodion Raskolnikov, obsessed with the idea of ​​his own superiority over others, the prostitute Sonya, the unemployed drunkard Marmeladov, his arrogant wife Katerina, embittered at the whole world, and others episodic characters create before us a terrible picture of immorality, cruelty and indifference. Raskolnikov brutally kills an old pawnbroker, Marmeladova pushes her adopted daughter onto the bar, and her husband robs his own family to get drunk in a dirty tavern. Someone would take pity on the unfortunate, someone would treat them with disdain, but not Dostoevsky. It would seem that low people demonstrate moral qualities worthy of suffering. Terrible conditions push them to terrible things, denigrate their souls and harden their hearts, but under all this filth and abomination, real ascetics are hidden. Desperate Sonya Marmeladova went to the panel to feed her family, but even in such a humiliating situation, she retained faith in God in her heart. It was she who, with her love, helped Rodion to free himself from delusions and find peace of mind. Raskolnikov himself, starving, helps the Marmeladov family with money, not even expecting to get anything for it, before the events of the novel, he rushed into the burning house without fear to save the child. Marmeladov, who despised her husband, when a misfortune happened to him, did not leave him until his death and sincerely grieved for him. But the morality of ordinary Russian people is most clearly revealed during the commemoration in memory of Marmeladov. When Luzhin, wanting to hurt Raskolnikov, accuses Sonya of stealing, Katerina, Rodion and a complete stranger Lebezyatnikov defended the honor of the poor girl to the last. When Luzhin's deceit became clear, there was no limit to the indignation of all the guests present. The scoundrel was immediately expelled.

Each creation of Dostoevsky is filled with pity for humanity, but at the same time he sincerely believes that it is the Russian people, who have retained their humanity and sincere faith, who can change the world and bring peace and love to earth.

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The theme of the "little man" is one of the central themes in Russian literature. She was also touched upon in her works by Pushkin (“ Bronze Horseman”), and Tolstoy, and Chekhov. Continuing the traditions of Russian literature, especially Gogol, Dostoevsky writes with pain and love about the "little man" living in a cold and cruel world. The writer himself remarked: "We all came out of Gogol's Overcoat."

The theme of the "little man", "humiliated and offended" was particularly strong in Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment. One by one, the writer reveals before us pictures of hopeless poverty.

Here a woman throws herself from the bridge, "with a yellow, oblong, exhausted face and sunken eyes." Here is a drunken, dishonored girl walking down the street, followed by a fat dandy who is obviously hunting her. The former official Marmeladov, who "has nowhere to go" in life, becomes an inveterate drunkard and commits suicide. Exhausted by poverty, his wife, Ekaterina Ivanovna, dies of consumption. Sonya goes outside to sell her body.

Dostoevsky emphasizes the power of the environment over man. Everyday little things become a whole system of characteristics for the writer. One has only to remember the conditions in which the “little people” have to live, and it becomes clear why they are so downtrodden and humiliated. Raskolnikov lives in a room with five corners, similar to a coffin. Sonya's dwelling is a lonely room with a strange sharp corner. Dirty and terrible are the taverns, in which, under the cries of drunkards, one can hear the terrible confessions of destitute people.

In addition, Dostoevsky not only depicts the disasters of the "little man", but also reveals the inconsistency of his inner peace. Dostoevsky was the first to evoke such pity for the "humiliated and offended" and who mercilessly showed the combination of good and evil in these people. The image of Marmeladov is very characteristic in this respect. On the one hand, it is impossible not to feel sympathy for this poor and tormented man, crushed by need. But Dostoevsky is not limited to touching sympathy for the "little man." Marmeladov himself admits that his drunkenness finally ruined his family, that eldest daughter forced, was to go to the panel and that the family is fed, and he drinks with this "dirty" money.

The figure of his wife Ekaterina Ivanovna is also controversial. She diligently keeps memories of a prosperous childhood, about her studies at the gymnasium, where she danced at the ball. She devoted herself entirely to the desire to prevent a final fall, but nevertheless she sent her step-daughter to engage in prostitution and also accepts this money. Ekaterina Ivanovna, with her pride, seeks to hide from the obvious truth: her house is ruined, and her younger children, perhaps, will repeat the fate of Sonechka.

The fate of the Raskolnikov family is also difficult. His sister Dunya, wanting to help her brother, serves as a governess to the cynic Svidrigailov and is ready to marry the rich man Luzhin, for whom she feels disgust.

Dostoevsky's hero Raskolnikov rushes around the crazy city and sees only dirt, grief and tears. This city is so inhumane that it even seems like the delirium of a madman, and not the real capital of Russia. Therefore, Raskolnikov's dream before the crime is not accidental: a drunken guy beats a small, skinny nag to death to the laughter of the crowd. This world is terrible and cruel, poverty and vice reign in it. It is this nag that becomes a symbol of all the “humiliated and insulted”, all “ small people» on pages that are mocked and ridiculed powers of the world this - Svidrigailov, Luzhin and the like.

But Dostoevsky is not limited to this statement. He notes that it is in the heads of the humiliated and offended that painful thoughts about their situation are born. Among these "poor people" Dostoevsky finds contradictory, profound and strong personalities who, due to some circumstances of life, have become entangled in themselves and in people. Of course, the most developed of them is the character of Raskolnikov himself, whose inflamed consciousness created a theory contrary to Christian laws.

It is characteristic that one of the most "humiliated and insulted" - Sonya Marmeladova - finds a way out of the seemingly absolute impasse of life. Without studying books on philosophy, but simply at the call of her heart, she finds the answer to those questions that torment the philosopher-student Raskolnikov.

F. M. Dostoevsky created a vivid canvas of immeasurable human torment, suffering and grief. Looking closely into the soul of the "little man", he discovered deposits in it generosity and beauty, not broken by the hardest conditions of life. And this was a new word not only in Russian, but also in world literature.

F. M. Dostoevsky in his work showed the immensity of the suffering of humiliated and insulted people and expressed great pain for this suffering. The writer himself was humiliated and offended by the terrible reality that broke the fate of his heroes. Each of his works looks like a personal bitter confession. This is how the novel "Crime and Punishment" is perceived. It reflects a desperate protest against the cruel reality that crushed millions of people, just as the unfortunate Marmeladov was crushed to death.

The story of the moral struggle of the protagonist of the novel, Rodion Raskolnikov, unfolds against the backdrop of the daily life of the city. The description of Petersburg in the novel makes a depressing impression. Dirty, stinky, stuffy everywhere. Drunken cries are heard from the taverns, poorly dressed people are crowding on the boulevards and squares: attracted no one's arrogant attention to themselves, and it was possible to walk in any form without scandalizing anyone. Raskolnikov is one of this crowd: "He was so poorly dressed that another, even a familiar person, would be ashamed to go out into the street in such rags during the day."

The life of the other heroes of the novel is also terrible - the drunken official Marmeladov, his wife Katerina Ivanovna, who is dying of consumption, Raskolnikov's mother and sister, who are being bullied by landowners and rich people.

Dostoevsky depicts various shades of psychological experiences of a poor man who has nothing to pay for an apartment to his master. The writer shows the torment of children growing up in a dirty corner next to a drunken father and dying mother, amidst constant strife and quarrels; the tragedy of a young and pure girl, who, due to the hopeless situation of her family, is forced to start selling herself and doom herself to constant humiliation.

However, Dostoevsky is not limited to describing everyday phenomena and facts of horrifying reality. He seems to connect them with the image of the complex characters of the heroes of the novel. The writer seeks to show that the everyday everyday life of the city gives rise not only to material poverty and lack of rights, but also cripples the psychology of people. Driven to despair, "little people" begin to have various fantastic "ideas" that are no less nightmarish than the reality surrounding them.

Such is Raskolnikov's "idea" about Napoleons and "trembling creatures", "ordinary" and "extraordinary" people. Dostoevsky shows how this philosophy is born from life itself, under the influence of the terrifying existence of "little people".

But not only the fate of Raskolnikov is made up of tragic trials and painful searches for a way out of this situation. The life of other heroes of the novel - Marmeladov, Sonya, and Dunya - is also deeply tragic.

The heroes of the novel are painfully aware of the hopelessness of their situation and all the cruelty of reality. “After all, it is necessary that every person could at least go somewhere. For there is such a time when it is absolutely necessary to go at least somewhere!., after all, it is necessary that every person should have at least one such place where he sorry! .. Do you understand, do you understand ... what does it mean when there is nowhere else to go? .. "- from these words of Marmeladov, sounding like a cry for salvation, the heart of every reader shrinks. In fact, they express the main idea of ​​the novel. This is the cry of the soul of a man, exhausted, crushed by his inevitable fate.

The protagonist of the novel feels a close connection with all the humiliated and suffering people, feels a moral responsibility to them. The fates of Sonya Marmeladova and Dunya are connected in his mind into one knot of social and moral problems. After the crime, Raskolnikov is overcome by despair and anxiety. He experiences fear, hatred for his persecutors, horror before a perfect and irreparable deed. And then he begins to look at other people more carefully than before, to compare his fate with theirs.

Raskolnikov brings the fate of Sonya closer to his own, in her behavior and attitude to life, he begins to look for a solution to the questions that torment him.

Sonya Marmeladova appears in the novel as the bearer of the moral ideals of millions of "humiliated and offended". Like Raskolnikov, Sonya is a victim of the existing unfair order of things. The drunkenness of her father, the suffering of her stepmother, brother and sisters, doomed to hunger and poverty, forced her, like Raskolnikov, to cross the line of morality. She begins to sell her body, gives herself up to the vile and depraved world. But, unlike Raskolnikov, she is firmly convinced that no hardships of life can justify violence and crime. Sonya calls on Raskolnikov to abandon the morality of the "superman" in order to steadfastly unite his fate with the fate of suffering and oppressed humanity and thereby atone for his guilt before him.

"Little people" in Dostoevsky's novel, despite the gravity of their position, prefer to be victims rather than executioners. Better to be crushed than to crush others! The main character gradually comes to this conclusion. At the end of the novel, we see him on the threshold of a "new life", "a gradual transition from one world to another, acquaintance with a new, hitherto completely unknown reality."