The theme of the “little man” is one of the central themes in Russian literature. Pushkin (“The Bronze Horseman”), Tolstoy, and Chekhov touched on it in their works. 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 noted: “We all came out of Gogol’s “The Overcoat.”
The theme of the “little man”, “humiliated and insulted” was especially strong in Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment”. One after another, the writer reveals to us pictures of hopeless poverty.
Here is a woman throwing herself off a bridge, “with a yellow, elongated, wasted face and sunken eyes.” Here is a drunken, dishonored girl walking down the street, followed by a fat dandy who is clearly hunting for her. Former official Marmeladov, who has “nowhere to go” in life, drinks himself into alcohol and commits suicide. Exhausted by poverty, his wife, Ekaterina Ivanovna, dies of consumption. Sonya goes out onto the street 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 home is a lonely room with a strange sharp corner. Dirty and terrible are the taverns, in which, amid the screams of drunken people, you can hear the terrible confessions of destitute people.
In addition, Dostoevsky not only depicts the misfortunes of the “little man,” but also reveals the inconsistency of his inner world. Dostoevsky was the first to evoke such pity for the “humiliated and insulted” and who mercilessly showed the combination of good and evil in these people. The image of Marmeladov is very characteristic in this regard. On the one hand, one cannot help but feel sympathy for this poor and exhausted man, crushed by need. But Dostoevsky does not limit himself to touching sympathy for the “little man.” Marmeladov himself admits that his drunkenness completely ruined his family, that his eldest daughter was forced to go to the panel and that the family feeds, and he drinks with this “dirty” money.
The figure of his wife Ekaterina Ivanovna is also contradictory. She diligently preserves memories of a prosperous childhood, of her studies at the gymnasium, where she danced at the ball. She completely devoted herself to the desire to prevent her final fall, but she still sent her stepdaughter into prostitution and also accepts this money. Ekaterina Ivanovna, with her pride, strives to hide from the obvious truth: her house is ruined, and her younger children may repeat Sonechka’s fate.
The fate of Raskolnikov’s 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 inhuman 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 drunk guy beats to death a small, skinny nag to the laughter of the crowd. This world is scary and cruel, poverty and vice reign in it. It is this nag that becomes the symbol of all the “humiliated and insulted”, all the “little people” on the pages at whom the powers that be - Svidrigailov, Luzhin and the like - mock and make fun of them.
But Dostoevsky is not limited to this statement. He notes that it is in the heads of the humiliated and insulted that painful thoughts about their situation are born. Among these “poor people” Dostoevsky finds contradictory, deep and strong personalities who, due to certain life circumstances, are confused 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 dead end of life. Without studying books on philosophy, but simply following the call of her heart, she finds the answer to the questions that torment the student philosopher Raskolnikov.
F. M. Dostoevsky created a bright canvas of immeasurable human torment, suffering and grief. Peering closely into the soul of the “little man,” he discovered in it deposits of spiritual generosity and beauty, not broken by the most difficult living conditions. And this was a new word not only in Russian, but also in world literature.
In his socio-psychological novel “Crime and Punishment” Dostoevsky reveals one of the main themes of his work - the theme of the “little man”. It seems to me that Dostoevsky wants to show that the injustice of St. Petersburg society leads to the division of people into those with power and into people of low classes, “little people.” Thus, Semyon Marmeladov, Katerina Ivanovna, Sonechka, even Rodion himself represent humiliated and insulted people.
Let's start with Marmeladov. He, once a titular councilor, “always respected education combined with heartfelt feelings.” But what did fate do to him? Marmeladov was overtaken by poverty. Marmeladov was a weak man; he could not provide his family with anything. He lost his job due to staff reductions, he couldn’t find a new one, and it was easier to drink than to do anything. So he became an alcoholic and was a regular visitor to pubs in St. Petersburg. He did not appear at home so as not to listen to his wife’s reproaches, which, as he himself understood, were fair. I think he hated himself, and he would like to change his life, but he did not have the willpower to cope with the blows of fate.
As for Katerina Ivanovna, I personally do not consider her a fallen woman. In my opinion, she has become a hostage to circumstances: her husband drinks, there is no money, children need to be raised and fed. All this affected her physical and psychological health. But, despite this and being a specially educated and staff officer’s daughter, she was happy with the city and did not tolerate insults from Lebezyatnikov and Amalia Lippevehsel. She loved cleanliness, was hardworking, and even washed her husband and children’s clothes at night so that they would wear something clean the next day. I believe that her life was full of injustices and suffering that she did not deserve.
And Sonya, this poor sweet girl, how much she suffered in her 18 years of life! Sonya could not tolerate her stepmother's reproaches and she had only one way out. She took the yellow ticket to save her family. But how much it cost her. Not only did she “serve” people, but she also often listened to insults from people higher up. The only salvation for Sonya and other “little people” in this novel is faith - faith in God, faith in better times.
Dunechka and Pulcheria Alexandrovna are also humiliated and insulted, since they had to endure the slander of Marfa Petrovna, and then the insults of Luzhin. And they couldn't do anything about it. The main feature of all the “little people” in Dostoevsky’s work is helplessness. They are all being oppressed by more powerful individuals, but they can't do anything about it.
And finally Rodion Raskolnikov, a poor former student, confused in himself. In his thoughts he was Napoleon, a great man, but in reality he belongs to the category of “little people”. Although he is smart and educated, he lacks what is inherent in worthy people - a goal. Rodion did not have a main goal in life, he floated with the flow of fate, he did not want to study, he did not want to work either, he was not looking for love. He wanted to make money in an easy way, but he himself did not understand what to do next. With thoughts of killing the old woman, he forgot what he lived for.
In conclusion, I would like to mention that Dostoevsky himself was not from the circle of these “little” people, but he was able to understand their destinies and spiritual experiences in such a way that you involuntarily begin to understand that Dostoevsky is a master in revealing the secrets of the human soul.
The work of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky “Crime and Punishment” has become one of the most important books of Russian classical literature. It carries a very important meaning, since it refers not just to books of fiction, but is deservedly considered a philosophical masterpiece. The "little people" play the most important role in Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment.
"Little people"
The theme of the “little man” in Crime and Punishment plays almost a leading role. If you look and carefully analyze the heroes of the work, you will notice that almost all the characters in the book point out to the reader the vital character traits of a person.
In general, speaking about the “little people” in the novel “Crime and Punishment,” it must be said that Fyodor Mikhailovich identified several criteria that distinguish these heroes from others. In literature, the phrase “little man” denotes those lyrical heroes who are not able to confront the surrounding problems and are forced to wage a constant struggle for survival with the most powerful people. In addition, as Dostoevsky himself emphasizes in his work “Crime and Punishment,” “little people”, as a rule, live and maintain at the lowest standard of living, spending most of their existence below the poverty line.
In addition, Fyodor Mikhailovich himself portrays his heroes not just as beggars and unable to provide themselves with the necessary means, but as offended by life, humiliated by others and feeling like absolute insignificance in the outside world.
Hero Rodion Raskolnikov
“Little Man” “Crime and Punishment” Raskolnikov leads the main storyline. It is around him that all events unfold. as a “little man” in “Crime and Punishment” is designated by his low social status, which pushes him to kill the old pawnbroker. It is his poverty and inability to earn money and provide for himself and his family that breaks the protagonist. In addition, because of his poverty, Raskolnikov is unable to help his sister, who is ultimately forced to marry a rich man, greedy and calculating, as it turns out later.
Already completely despairing of his situation, Raskolnikov takes the decisive step - he agrees with himself to kill. Despite the fact that initially such an idea came to the hero solely because of poverty, in the end Rodion comes to the conclusion that he did not do this in order to help his family or get out of a difficult situation himself. Raskolnikov admits that he committed the murder, for which only he is responsible, solely for himself.
Hero Semyon Marmeladov
In Crime and Punishment, the “little man” Marmeladov also plays an important role. A former military man, having lost his job, becomes depressed. He drinks all the money that this “little man” of “Crime and Punishment” receives, which is why he cannot provide for his family. Despite this, Marmeladov perfectly understands his situation, but he is no longer able to correct it - the fight against his own drunkenness seems so impossible to him. Because of his own alcoholism, the hero dies, and his death is too stupid for a person who was previously respected - he simply gets drunk and falls under the wheels of a cart. Dying, Marmeladov tells his eldest daughter that she is the only support of the family, thereby throwing off any responsibility and obligations to his family.
Image of Marmeladov
Marmeladov is a lyrical hero who could not resist his financial difficulties, but found an excellent way to get away from them: the emerging alcohol addiction allowed the former ladle to forget at least for a while. However, he himself was the arbiter of his fate - he himself destroyed his family by drinking away all the family funds; he himself took a loan from a very greedy man, who then haunted the family; he himself has lost his essence.
In one of his conversations with Raskolnikov, Marmeladov asks Rodion if he knows the feeling that arises in those circumstances when a person has nowhere to return. After all, Semyon believed that he had no home, that he had nowhere to go. But the whole point was that when he left home, he took all the money, after which the family was again left without a livelihood. The fact that Marmeladov was not welcome at home was only his own fault.
Sonechka Marmeladova
Among all the “little people” of Crime and Punishment, Sonechka Marmeladova was distinguished by her dedication. Sonya, seeing the difficult situation the family was in, got a job that was completely unsuitable for a young girl. Sonechka and her image of the “little man” in Crime and Punishment also have an important role. Despite her work as a corrupt girl, Sonya still lives by the principles of her heart. Her religious views became a guide to life for Sonechka. The Christian norms that guide the heroine become an important reason for Raskolnikov’s confession to murder.
Sonechka's image
A selfless heroine, capable of accepting any person without blaming him for anything, like a ray of light in the entire work. The image of Sonechka is an example of a righteous person, placed in the framework of a forced existence, which forces him to do completely wrong things. However, Sonechka's position is justified - she became a savior for the family. It was thanks to her work that the younger brothers and sisters could at least occasionally eat normally, and the mother could work and have time to take care of household chores.
Katerina Marmeladova
The problem of the “little man” in “Crime and Punishment” also affected Katerina Marmeladova, Sonechka’s mother. A thirty-year-old woman, who became a widow at an early age, marries very unsuccessfully for the second time - despite the fact that Semyon was once a decent and respected person, over time he becomes an intolerable drunkard. Katerina, who is a mother of many children, is trying to fight with her husband, trying to explain to him that his children are suffering from his drunkenness - the whole family lives very poorly, they have a huge amount of debt, and the eldest daughter will never be able to go out because of her work. married Katerina constantly talks about this to her husband, showing him that there is no need to ruin the lives of her other children, that the eldest daughter already sacrificed her future so that the family could still survive. However, all her moral teachings have no effect on her husband - he still drinks and comes home only when he needs money again.
The exhausted woman is no longer able to tolerate this behavior of her husband and one day she simply begins to beat Semyon. Rodion Raskolnikov witnesses this scene, which makes a strong impression on him. He leaves his last money on the windowsill in order to help this family in some way. However, Katerina, who came from a decent family, does not accept his money. This immediately characterizes Marmeladova’s personality - despite her position, she is too proud to accept handouts from the outside. “Little Man” Katerina Marmeladova is unable to humiliate herself in front of others.
Razumikhin
The image of Razumikhin personifies the opposite of the images of “little people” in the work “Crime and Punishment”. Despite the fact that he is as poor as all the other characters in the book, he still does not despair and tries to cope with his difficulties. A poor student, in love with Dunya and caring for the distraught Raskolnikov, he tries to survive in his difficult situation. His love of life and optimism guide his actions and worldview. Despite the fact that he, just like Raskolnikov himself, is on the social “bottom”, he is trying to get out of it in honest and righteous ways. Fyodor Dostoevsky portrayed this hero as a mirror image of Raskolnikov, showing readers that another outcome of such a life situation is possible.
Image of Razumikhin
Razumikhin is the embodiment of faith in the best and the ability to survive even in the most difficult conditions. The hero manages not to go crazy in his poverty, which interferes with his normal life in the same way as with the lives of all other heroes. Such a skill as remaining true to one’s principles greatly helps Razumikhin not to fall into the apathy into which Raskolnikov fell. But besides these moral qualities, Razumikhin is also not disappointed in people, does not notice their true essence. He completely believes Raskolnikov that he is not a murderer. In addition, he is sure that all Rodion’s confessions were said in delirium, since the news of the death of the old pawnbroker had a strong impression on the hero - he was her debtor.
The main thing in the work
Looking at all the statements and quotes of the “little people” in Crime and Punishment, we can say that Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was the first writer who paid attention not to a person’s financial situation, but to his spiritual qualities. All the heroes of Dostoevsky's work are too proud to accept the help of others. They are all trying to survive, each following their own path. However, they are united by one common goal - to get out of poverty, start their life anew and live it happily. The roads the heroes take lead them to different decisions. She led Raskolnikov to hard labor, Sonechka to humiliation, Katerina to illness, Marmeladov to drunkenness.
General conclusion
Dostoevsky perfectly shows in his work how much people themselves are to blame for the fact that their lives turn out this way. Raskolnikov is an excellent example of this: he could not commit murder, but try to find a job that would eventually bring him a decent income. So did Marmeladov, who could try to quit drinking and find a good job to provide for his family. Katerina could forget about her pride for a moment, return to her parents' house, and not marry a second time.
All the heroes faced serious consequences due to their pride and attempts to get out of their situation by dishonest means. This is exactly what the author shows, this is what became the main theme of the work.
F. M. Dostoevsky in his work showed the immensity of the suffering of humiliated and insulted people and expressed enormous pain for this suffering. The writer himself was humiliated and insulted by the terrible reality that broke the fate of his heroes. Each of his works looks like a personal bitter confession. This is exactly 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.
Moral history
The struggles of the novel's protagonist, Rodion Raskolnikov, unfold against the backdrop of everyday life in the city. The description of St. Petersburg in the novel makes a depressing impression. Everywhere there is dirt, stench, stuffiness. Drunken cries can be heard from the taverns, poorly dressed people crowd the boulevards and squares: “Near the taverns on the lower floors, in the dirty and smelly courtyards of Sennaya Square, and most of all near the taverns, there were crowds of many different and every kind of industrialists and rags... Here they didn’t pay attention to rags. without scandalizing anyone.” Raskolnikov is one of this crowd: “He was so poorly dressed that another, even an ordinary 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 experiencing the bullying of landowners and rich people.
Dostoevsky depicts various shades of the psychological experiences of a poor man who has nothing to pay his landlord’s rent. The writer shows the torment of children growing up in a dirty corner next to a drunken father and a dying mother, amid constant abuse and quarrels; the tragedy of a young and pure girl, forced due to the desperate situation of her family to start selling herself and dooming herself to constant humiliation.
However, Dostoevsky is not limited to describing everyday phenomena and facts of terrifying reality. He seems to connect them with the depiction of the complex characters of the novel's heroes. The writer strives 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. The “little people” driven to despair begin to have various fantastic “ideas” that are no less nightmarish than the reality around them.
This 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 Raskolnikov’s fate consists of tragic trials and painful searches for a way out of this situation. The lives of the other heroes of the novel - Marmeladov, Sonya, and Dunya - are also deeply tragic.
The heroes of the novel are painfully aware of the hopelessness of their situation and the cruelty of reality. “After all, it is necessary that every person at least have somewhere to go. For there comes a time when you definitely need to go somewhere!.., after all, it is necessary that every person has at least one such place where they would be pitied!.. Do you understand, do you understand... what does it mean when already nowhere else to go?..” – these words of Marmeladov, sounding like a cry for salvation, make the heart of every reader clench. They, in fact, express the main idea of the novel. This is the cry of the soul of a man, exhausted, crushed by his inevitable fate.
The main character of the novel feels a close connection with all humiliated and suffering people, feels a moral responsibility towards them. The destinies of Sonya Marmeladova and Dunya are connected in his mind into one knot of social and moral problems. After committing the crime, Raskolnikov is overcome by despair and anxiety. He experiences fear, hatred of his persecutors, horror of a committed and irreparable act. And then he begins to look more closely than before at other people, to compare his fate with theirs.
Raskolnikov brings Sonya's fate closer to his own; in her behavior and attitude to life, he begins to look for a solution to the issues that torment him.
Sonya Marmeladova appears in the novel as the bearer of the moral ideals of millions of “humiliated and insulted.” Like Raskolnikov, Sonya is a victim of the existing unjust order of things. Her father's drunkenness, 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, giving herself over to the vile and depraved world. But, unlike Raskolnikov, she is firmly convinced that no hardships in 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 severity of their situation, prefer to be victims rather than executioners. It's 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.”
(398 words) The typical image of the “little man” is presented in many works of Russian classics: “The Overcoat” by N.V. Gogol, “The Station Agent” by A.S. Pushkin. Their characters are weak, unpurposeful, incapable of decisive action, and occupy a low position in society. “The Humiliated and Insulted” by F.M. Dostoevsky is a little different from them.
From the first pages of the work “Crime and Punishment” the reader gets acquainted with the main character of the novel. Rodion Raskolnikov is a former student, “crushed by poverty.” Due to poverty, the character had to give up his studies and constantly look for means to survive. His living conditions are terrible. Raskolnikov’s room looks like a “coffin”, “cage”, “wardrobe”, but not like an apartment. The hero lives in a dirty area, where you can always meet drunks on the streets. But Raskolnikov does not adapt to circumstances, like Bashmachkin, he strives to find a way out of this low situation. Having created his own theory, he brings his ideas to life.
The image of the little man in Dostoevsky’s novel is also revealed through the example of the Marmeladov family. Raskolnikov meets Semyon Zakharovich in a tavern. He learns all the details of his poor life. Marmeladov cannot resist the hardships of the difficulties that have befallen him; he sees the only way out in drunkenness. The character is left without a job, his daughter, Sonya, has to go “on a yellow ticket” in order to earn money for subsistence (which Marmeladov will later drink away). Katerina Ivanovna is sick, there is nothing to feed her small children. This hopeless situation morally suppresses the former titular councilor. But, despite poverty, Marmeladov did not lose the best traits of his human character. The character confesses to Raskolnikov that he sincerely loves both Katerina Ivanovna and his children. He is ashamed of his lack of will, he declares to the hero: “Doesn’t my heart hurt because I’m groveling in vain?” Together with the author, we sympathize with the unfortunate hero, and do not mock him.
Sonya can also be classified as a “little people”. Her room looked like “a barn, had the appearance of a very irregular quadrangle” - “the poverty was visible.” Sonya has to make money in a “dirty” way, which is always in short supply. But, despite this situation, with the help of faith she retained her spiritual purity. Sonya's love revived Raskolnikov, thanks to her the character repented of his crime.
Thus, Dostoevsky’s “little people” do not have the usual image of a downtrodden and unhappy person. They are all different, each has its own story, where tragedy is intertwined with heroism, which we are not used to seeing either in Bashmachkino or in Vyrin. Each of them rebels against fate in their own way, clumsily fights it, but still does not give up, taking blow after blow. Even the weak-willed Marmeladov seeks pleasure in beating his wife, and grief at the bottom of the glass. They do not agree to come to terms with their insignificance and live a full emotional life, saving themselves in the hope of saving others.
The many-wise Litrekon asks you to notice the shortcomings of the work and complain about a short essay-reasoning if it did not suit you.
