The passage below is from pages 214-215 of Crime and Punishment. Accepting Razumikhin's assessment as accurate (which undoubtedly it is) find three good examples of Raskolnikov displaying his dual nature. Anything we discussed yesterday is fair game, but we need more.
Underline and note three in your book and come prepared to discuss them.
“Now then, Dmitri Prokofych, I should like very, very much to know…generally…how he looks at things now—that is, please understand me, how shall I put it—that is, better to say: what are his likes and dislikes? Is he always so irritable? What are his wishes and, so to speak, his dreams, if you can say? What precisely has a special influence on him now? In short, I should like...”
"Ah, mama, how can anyone answer so much all at once?" Dunya remarked.
“Ah, my God, but this is not at all, not at all how I expected to see him, Dmitri Prokofych.”
“That’s only natural.” Dmitri Prokofych replied. “I have no mother; but my uncle comes here every year, and almost every time fails to recognize me, even externally, and he is an intelligent man; well, and in the three years of your separation a lot of water has flowed under the bridge. What can I tell you? I’ve known Rodion for a year and a half: sullen, gloomy, proud; recently (and maybe much earlier) insecure and hypochondriac. Magnanimous and kind. Doesn’t like voicing his feelings, and would rather do something cruel than speak his heart out in words. At times, however, he’s not hypochondriac at all, but just inhuman, cold and callous, as if there really were two opposite characters in him, changing places with each other. At times he’s terribly taciturn! He’s always in a hurry, always too busy, yet he lies there doing nothing. Not given to mockery, and not because he lacks sharpness but as if he had no time for such trifles. Never hears people out to the end. Is never interested in what interests everyone else at a given moment. Sets a terribly high value on himself and. it seems, not without a certain justification. Well, what else?…It seems to me that your arrival will have a salutary effect on him.”
“Ah, God grant us that!” Pulcheria Alexandrovna cried out, tormented by Razumikhin’s assessment of her Rodya.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.
You can also follow any responses to all entry through the RSS Comments feed.