The meaning of flowers in the work Crime and Punishment. Coursework: Symbolism of color in the novel F

A symbol is only a true symbol when it is inexhaustibly limitless in its meaning. It has many faces, many meanings and is always dark in its depth.
D. Merezhkovsky

The peculiarity of the symbol is precisely that in none of the situations in which it is used can it be interpreted unambiguously. Even for the same author in one work, a symbol can have an unlimited number of meanings. That is why it is interesting to trace how these values ​​change in accordance with the development of the plot and with the change in the hero’s state. An example of a work built on symbols from the title to the epilogue is “Crime and Punishment” by F. M. Dostoevsky.
Already the first word - “crime” - is a symbol. Each hero “crosses the line,” a line drawn by himself or others. The phrase “transgress” or “draw a line” permeates the entire novel, “passing from mouth to mouth.” “In everything there is a line beyond which it is dangerous to cross; but once you have stepped over, it is impossible to go back.” All the heroes and even just passers-by are united by the fact that they are all “crazy,” that is, “lost” the path, devoid of reason. “In St. Petersburg, a lot of people walk around and talk to themselves. This is a city of half-crazy people. Rarely where can you find so many dark, harsh and strange influences on the human soul as in St. Petersburg.” It is St. Petersburg - the fantastic city of A. S. Pushkin and N. V. Gogol - with its eternal “stuffiness and unbearable stench” that turns into Palestine, awaiting the coming of the Messiah. But this is also the inner world of Rodion Raskolnikov. The name and surname of the main character are not accidental. Dostoevsky emphasizes that the hero “lacks air.” “Rodion” means “native,” but he and Raskolnikov are a split, a split. (The city also bifurcates: real streets and a mirage, fantasy, “New Jerusalem” and “Noah’s Ark” - the old woman’s house.) The word “Raskolnikov” is also used as a common noun, because Mikolka is also “one of the schismatics”. The hero of Raskolnikov’s dream comes to mind - and now the entire narrative turns out to be entangled in a trembling network of symbols. Color in F. M. Dostoevsky is symbolic. The brightest color here is yellow. For M.A. Bulgakov this is anxiety, anguish; for A. A. Blok - fear; for A. A. Akhmatova this is a hostile, disastrous color; in F. M. Dostoevsky he is bilious and spiteful. “And there’s so much bile in all of them!” This “poison” turns out to be spilled everywhere, it is in the atmosphere itself, but “there is no air,” only stuffiness, “ugly,” “terrible.” And in this stuffiness, Raskolnikov beats “with a fever,” he has “chills” and “coldness in his back” (the most terrible punishment of hell is punishment with cold - “a terrible cold gripped him”). You can only get out of the circles of hell by stairs, so Raskolnikov (except for wandering the streets) is most often on the threshold or moving along the stairs. The staircase in mythology symbolizes the ascent of the spirit or its descent into the depths of evil. For A. A. Akhmatova, “ascent” is happiness, and “descending” is misfortune. The heroes “rush” along this ladder of life, now down into the abyss, now up, into the unknown, towards a faith or idea. Pyotr Petrovich “entered with the feeling of a benefactor, preparing to reap the fruits and listen to very sweet compliments. And of course, now, coming down the stairs, he considered himself extremely offended and unrecognized,” and his “round hat” was one of the circles of hell. But there is also a hero in the novel who “got out of the ground,” but having got out, Svidrigailov (like all heroes) ends up on the street.
None of the characters have a real home, but the rooms they live in and rent; Katerina Ivanovna’s room is completely walk-through, and all of them “have nowhere to go.” All the scandals that happen happen on the street, where people walk “in crowds” ( biblical motif).
Gospel motifs also take on a new meaning in this devilish city. “Thirty pieces of silver” turn into “thirty kopecks,” which Sonya gives to Marmeladov for a drink; under the stone, instead of Lazarus’s grave, things stolen after the murder are hidden; Raskolnikov (like Lazarus) is resurrected on the fourth day (“you barely eat and drink for four days”). The symbolism of numbers (four - the cross, suffering; three - the Trinity, absolute perfection), based on Christianity, mythology and folklore, turns into the symbolism of consonant words, where “seven” means “death”, “narrowness” generates “horror”, and “ crampedness” go to “melancholy”.
Those who live in such a world are undoubtedly sinners. They are used to lying, but “lying” for them “is a sweet thing, because it leads to the truth.” Through lies they want to know the truth, faith, but their attempts are often doomed. The devil’s laughter “wide open” (and the devil laughs, but not Christ) fetters them, and they “curl their mouths into a smile,” which makes even more surprising the existence of purity in sin, purity, the preservation of which is praised by F. M. Dostoevsky. And the suffering endured by the heroes only emphasizes this purity.
But Katerina - “pure” - dies, because you have to be wise (Sophia) and forgive and believe (Dunya and Sophia believe in Rodion). Through the mouths of Dunya, Rodion and Sonya, F. M. Dostoevsky exclaims (like Vasily of Fivey): “I believe!” This symbol is truly limitless, because “what you believe in is what it is.” The entire novel becomes, as it were, a symbol of faith, a symbol of an idea, a symbol of man and, above all, the rebirth of his soul. Despite the fact that the “crystal palace” is a tavern, and not Vera Pavlovna’s dream; and Christ is not a righteous man, but a murderer; on his head he has a hat instead of a crown of thorns, and behind his rags there is an ax, but in his heart there is an idea and holy faith in it. And this gives the right to resurrection, because “truly great people. must feel great sadness in the world.”

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Symbolism of color
in the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky
"Crime and Punishment"

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment” is surprisingly colorful. If you follow the text, different colors and their shades appear very often, and some of them are repeated constantly. In a novel by such a psychological writer as Dostoevsky, this is not accidental. It has long been known that the colors of the surrounding world affect people differently. The abundance of all kinds of shades helps to emotionally tune in to the perception of the novel.

Many critics noted the advantage of the color yellow throughout the novel: furniture “made of yellow wood”, “yellow frames”, “yellowed fabric”, “yellow sofa”, “yellow face”, “yellow ticket”, “yellow wallpaper”, “dark “yellow” face of Porfiry Petrovich, “two yellow lumps of sugar.” The whole spectrum of shades - from dark to bright yellow: the color of the setting sun, the fiery feather on Sonya’s hat, Katerina Ivanovna’s gold medal, Raskolnikov’s red hat. Psychologists say that yellow is a symbol of lightness, ease, sociability, relaxedness, courage and curiosity. Such a bright feature! Why, when reading a novel, are we so oppressed by the color of the sun? When you hear a long, monotonous sound, it seems that it penetrates you, filling every cell. The abundance of any one color has the same killing effect. It seems to accumulate inside and from there it has a depressing effect on the brain. In addition, the novel has mostly dirty yellow tones, which also has its meaning.

The word “yellow” itself takes on a depressing sound. In the first part of the novel, its synonym is “bilious”. It is worth reading the following sentences out loud: “A heavy, bilious, evil smile snaked across his lips. He lay his head down on his skinny and worn-out pillow and thought, thought for a long time. Finally he felt stuffy and cramped in this yellow closet.” What an annoying buzz is heard in these phrases! It is associated with the heat and dry dust of St. Petersburg. It feels like it's taking your breath away. Next excerpt: “He woke up bilious, irritable, angry and looked at his closet with hatred. It was a tiny cell, about six paces long, having the most pitiful appearance with its yellow, dusty wallpaper falling off the wall everywhere, and so low that it barely tall man it became creepy.” An evil hissing can already be heard here. A quiet but annoying sound irritates our nerves the most. How not to go crazy in such an environment!

Vadim Kozhinov noted that during Dostoevsky’s lifetime the words “yellow” and “bilious” were written with an “o”. Here is what the critic notes about this: “. This writing is somehow rougher and more expressive. It would be worthwhile to restore this outline now: it would emphasize the special meaning that Dostoevsky invested in these words.”

One of the most repeated colors is red. In the novel it has many shades, so it can be interpreted in different ways. The most striking example is the scene of Raskolnikov’s murder of the old pawnbroker. It seems that this episode is painted in a bloody color: “blood gushed out like from an overturned glass,” “a whole puddle of blood,” “red morocco,” “red set.” Red color means the beginning of activity (pulse rises, blood pressure rises, breathing quickens). When Katerina Ivanovna was worried, red spots appeared on her cheeks. The fact that Raskolnikov’s strength came only after the first blow to Alena Ivanovna’s head with an ax reveals some kind of animal thirst for blood. It is no coincidence that the guys from Raskolnikov’s first dream, finishing off the horse, were drunk and also red-faced.

The sunset was bright red when the hero abandoned his “obsession.” Nature itself seemed to support him at that moment.

There are shades of red in the novel, “hiding” in the names of the characters. For example, Porphyry in Greek means crimson, purple. Porphyra - purple. T.A. Kasatkina in her comments to “Crime and Punishment” wrote that the name is not accidental for a person who will “torture” Raskolnikov, “mock” him. She goes on to offer a comparison: “And having undressed Him, they put purple robe on Him; and having woven a crown of thorns, they placed it on His head and gave Him a reed in His right hand; and, kneeling before Him, they mocked Him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” (Gospel of Matthew. 27, 28–29).

The name Raskolnikov is also a color. In Greek, Rodion means pink. Quite a strange definition for a killer. In psychology pink color means tenderness, sometimes a desire to escape reality. And in fact, the hero’s sincere, kind actions convince us of the sensitivity and vulnerability of his rich soul, despite the double murder he committed.

The color green is also used in the novel. In this work he is always a sharp contrast to the surrounding environment. For example, in his first dream, Raskolnikov saw a “gray time”, a “suffocating day”, a forest blackening in the distance, black road dust, drunken and scary faces, and then a bright spot of color - the green dome of a stone church. This comparison is not accidental. Next we will see that green is the color of protection, cover. The greenery of the trees and grass is relaxation for Raskolnikov: “The greenery and freshness first appealed to his tired eyes, accustomed to city dust, to lime and to huge, crowding and oppressive buildings.”

After her forced fall into sin in the name of her loved ones, Sonya Marmeladova wrapped her head in a large green draped shawl, as if wanting to find peace and consolation under its cover. It is known that green is a symbol of the Virgin Mary.

The daughter of an elderly merchant's wife, who mistook Raskolnikov for a beggar and gave him money, was holding a green umbrella in her hands. Perhaps the umbrella here is compared with the dome of the church from Raskolnikov’s dream and the Marmeladovs’ scarf and is protection from the scorching sun, and the green color indicates that these compassionate people are under holy cover.

Waking up after my bad dream, Raskolnikov sits under a tree, the thick green crown of which is also a kind of dome of the church, as if transported to reality. It is here that the hero remembers God: “Thank God, this is just a dream!” It is here that Raskolnikov comprehends all the “ugliness” of his dream. The tree is a temple in which the hero’s soul is purified.

Possibly blue and Blue colour a – symbols of Sonya Marmeladova. It is worth remembering the description of this girl: “Sonya was short, about eighteen years old, thin, but quite pretty blonde, with wonderful blue eyes.” In Sonya’s room, in addition to the “yellowish, shabby and worn-out wallpaper,” there is another spot of color - a blue tablecloth. They say that a person who prefers the color blue is distinguished by prudence and a philosophical mood. Sophia means wise, and blue and blue - the colors of a calm, clear sky - emphasize this feature of Sonechka Marmeladova, the true depth and inexplicability of her soul. Raskolnikov’s dream of “wonderful blue water” and Sonechka’s “wonderful blue eyes” are interconnected. Before the murder of the old woman, it seemed to Raskolnikov that he was in the desert and greedily drinking water from a babbling stream. Water in Africa is salvation. Sonechka with her bottomless blue eyes is Raskolnikov’s salvation. The hero needs it as much as pure spring water from dreams.

Svidrigailov also has blue eyes, but, according to the author, “they looked coldly, intently and thoughtfully.” This means that Dostoevsky used various nuances of the same color in different ways.

The rest of the colors in the text are also not random. For example, black color is a mystery, the unknown. When Raskolnikov climbed the “back” stairs, “dark and narrow,” into Alena Ivanovna’s dark apartment, he did not yet know whether he would actually decide to kill. When the hero comes here for the second time, “two sharp and distrustful glances stared at him from the darkness.” Entering this terrible room, the hero seemed to have stepped from the threshold of his house into a dark, hopeless night, when nothing was visible at all, into a night that doomed him to death. It is interesting that Raskolnikov himself had “beautiful dark eyes.”

Contrasting black White color- a symbol of purity, innocence, but at the same time grief and sadness. The meek Sonechka had blond hair. But Svidrigailov’s hair is exactly the same, “maybe a little gray.” Here we are again faced with the fact that for Dostoevsky the same color can mean both holiness and only a shell behind which a sinful nature is hidden.

Of course, Svidrigailov’s dream about a drowned girl is “white”: a bright, cool staircase, white satin shrouds, white grodenapple, white ruffle, white tulle dress, marble hands and profile, blond hair. There was not such a number of repetitions even in the scene of the murder of the old pawnbroker! Special mention must be made of the “white and tender daffodils” hanging on bright green stems. Daffodils are flowers of grief and sadness. In some countries they were placed on the deceased. The author vividly depicted the stems of these flowers: “bright green, plump and long.” Bright green is the color of a freedom-loving, independent person. This was the girl who was destroyed by Svidrigailov. She did not want to live with shame and chose to die.

The color gray also appears in the novel. For example, all the clothes bought by Razumikhin for Raskolnikov were of this exact shade. Why did Raskolnikov stubbornly refuse to try on new things? This color is characteristic of an emotionally constrained society. A “gray” person is afraid to express himself loudly and does not want to give himself away. But the hero, of course, is not like that. He does not consider himself to be a “first category of people,” so he does not want to wear clothes of their color. His old red hat - shining example his personality. Yes, the hero wanted to be invisible for a while, but his real goal was to be exceptional, unique. Perhaps the reluctance to wear gray clothes alone reveals to us the meaning of Raskolnikov’s theory.

Dostoevsky surprisingly accurately used the possibilities of color as a symbol. For example, in the epilogue the old one appears again green scarf Sony. The green color returns at the moment of Raskolnikov’s resurrection, as if showing us that the hero again believed and found peace in his “children’s church with a green dome.”

Color symbolism in F. M. Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment”

All levels of organization of the literary text “Crime and Punishment” are subordinated to the core idea of ​​the work. F. M. Dostoevsky shows that Raskolnikov’s idea of ​​​​dividing humanity into two uneven parts is inextricably linked with the immediate conditions of his life, with the world of St. Petersburg corners, one of which is occupied by the hero himself. The novel is imbued with symbolism. Many researchers have paid attention to the “symbolic sharpness literary characters Dostoevsky." But color plays a very special role in the work.
In Dostoevsky's works, color and color definitions have symbolic meaning and serve to reveal state of mind heroes. Analyzing the use of color in the novel “Crime and Punishment,” we can say that the entire work was created on almost the same yellow background. Indeed, yellow appears most often in the novel. But the color scheme in the writer’s descriptions is not at all limited to yellow, since throughout the entire novel we encounter white, red, and black colors, which play an important role in all descriptions.
Let's return to the main color of the work - yellow. What is its symbolism? First of all, the color yellow is associated with illness when it comes to a person. On the contrary, when talking about things, the yellow color resembles something sunny, golden, it can evoke joyful emotions. However, in the novel “Crime and Punishment” this does not happen. Dostoevsky's yellow color in all descriptions of people and things is a painful color. For example: “She put her own cracked teapot in front of him, with the tea already drained, and put two yellow lumps of sugar”; “When he looked around, he saw that he was sitting on a chair, that some man was supporting him on the right, and that another man was standing on the left, with a yellow glass filled with yellow water. ”
Here “yellow sugar” is combined with a cracked broken teapot and “leaked tea”, which is also yellow. In the second example - “yellow glass”, i.e. not washed for a long time, with a touch of yellow rust, and yellow rice water are directly related to the hero’s illness, to his fainting state. A painful, wretched yellowness is also found when describing other things, for example: Alena Ivanovna’s “yellowed fur coat,” Raskolnikov’s “very red, all with holes and stains,” etc.
The color yellow predominates in the description of the room into which the young man walked, with yellow wallpaper. “The furniture is all very old yellow wood. thunder pictures in yellow frames. “This is how the author describes the apartment of an old pawnbroker. And here is a description of Raskolnikov’s home: “It was a tiny cell, about six steps long, which had the most pitiful appearance with its yellow, dusty wallpaper that was peeling off the wall everywhere. ” Dostoevsky compares the protagonist’s miserable home to a yellow wardrobe. The yellow color in the description of objects is in harmony with the painful yellowness of the novel’s heroes, surrounded by these objects. In the descriptions of the portraits of most of the novel's heroes, the same sickly yellow color is found. For example: Marmeladov - “with a yellow, even greenish face swollen from constant drunkenness and with swollen eyelids. ”; Porfiry Petrovich’s face was “the color of a sick, dark yellow.”
Sometimes in the description of portraits of heroes the definition of “yellow” gives way to the definition of “pale”, which is similar in emotional and color connotation. For example: “Sonechka’s pale face with burning eyes,” “. color rushed into Dunya’s pale face,” etc. Yellowness and pallor are an integral characteristic of all residents of St. Petersburg. This is confirmed in the episode of Sonya’s meeting with an unfamiliar master: “his wide-cheeked face was quite pleasant, and his complexion was fresh, not St. Petersburg. ”
Thus, the color yellow, predominant in the description of the heroes and the objects surrounding them, creates a deep impression of general wretchedness and morbidity. The author observes his characters through “yellow glasses”. This happens to a person who loses consciousness and sees everything in yellow for some time. And against the same background, other colors, and primarily red, acquire great symbolic meaning. So, after the murder of Alena Ivanovna, her apartment, which at the beginning of the novel is described as yellow, acquires a red tint in Raskolnikov’s eyes, reminiscent of the color of blood. Raskolnikov notes that the apartment “had a significant structure, more than an arshin in length, with a convex roof, upholstered in red morocco. On top, under a white sheet, lay a hare's fur coat, covered with a red set. First of all, he began to wipe his blood-stained hands on the red set.”
The contrast of red against the background of yellow makes a strong impression on Raskolnikov. Other colors stand out just as sharply against the sickly yellow background, and above all the color of the characters’ eyes. These are “Sonechka’s wonderful blue eyes” and the completely different blue eyes of Svidrigailov with a “cold, heavy gaze”; these are Raskolnikov’s “beautiful dark eyes with a burning gaze” on the first pages of the novel and these same eyes “with an inflamed” and then “dead look” after the murder, etc. From these examples you can see how color, even indirectly indicated, conveys state of mind hero: from beautiful-dark, i.e. deep, color to “inflamed”, i.e. naturally shiny, and then to dead, i.e. colorless.
Stands out against a background of yellow, gray and red green color. It is strikingly different from the entire color scheme of the work, standing out for its freshness and purity. Green is the color of rebirth, a color that gives hope for transformation. It is found in Raskolnikov’s second, “African” dream about an oasis, expressing an unconscious thirst for spiritual clarity and purity, but in reality this feeling is suppressed. Sonechka, the ideal of Christian meekness and humility, appears at the end of the work in a green scarf. The very moment when she puts it on is symbolic. This happens in Siberia, in a prison, where she once again comes to visit Raskolnikov on the morning when a turning point occurs in the unrepentant killer. Going to “work” in the morning, he sees the far shore, where “there was freedom, where people lived who were not like those here, it was as if time itself had stopped, as if the times of Abraham and his flocks had not passed.” It is on this morning that Raskolnikov understands that he loves Sonya endlessly, feels that he has been resurrected, that life has finally come.
So, we can conclude that the use of certain colors in the novel “Crime and Punishment” by F. M. Dostoevsky plays an important role in revealing the content of the entire work. The author uses almost the entire gamut of color designations in the description (black, lilac, blue, indigo, brown, pink, etc.) and is not limited, as it may seem at first glance, to only the yellow palette.

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/ Works / Dostoevsky F.M. / Crime and Punishment / Color symbolism in F. M. Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment”

See also the work “Crime and Punishment”:

Symbolism of color, name, numbers. in the novel "Crime and Punishment"

The main color of the novel is yellow.
Raskolnikov (yellow closet with yellow wallpaper; “a heavy, bilious, evil smile snaked across his lips”).
Sonya (room with “yellowish wallpaper”).
Porfiry Petrovich (furniture made of “yellow polished wood”).
Svidrigailov (yellow wallpaper in the hotel room where the hero is staying).
The old woman is a pawnbroker (dressed in a frayed and yellowed jacket, furniture made of yellow wood).

The color yellow in the novel creates an additional feeling of morbidity, enhances the atmosphere of ill health, frustration, anguish, hysteria and at the same time mustiness and hopelessness.

The number "three" in the novel
- Raskolnikov (ringed the old woman’s bell three times; meets with Porfiry Petrovich three times; thinks that Sonya has 3 roads when she stands 3 steps from the table)
- Sonya (there are 3 large windows in her room; she gave Marmeladov 30 kopecks; Katerina Ivanovna “laid out 30 rubles”)
- Svidrigailov (wanted to offer Duna up to 30 thousand; hands Sonya 3 tickets)
The number "seven" in the novel
— the novel consists of 6 parts and an epilogue
— The 1st and 2nd parts of the novel consist of 7 chapters.
- 7 pm - fatal time for Raskolnikov (orders murder)
- Svidrigailov lived with his wife, Marfa Petrovna, for 7 years)
- 7 children from the tailor Kapernaumov

The meaning of wisdom does not exhaust the potential of this name; in the philosophical system of correspondences, the emblematic convergence of the dream - Sonya seems to be the most correct for understanding the symbolism of the work. Sonya, the ethically awake heroine, comprehends the truth through her own being and is likened to the real dream of a rebellious spirit.
about Raskolnikov - there was a split in his soul
Razumikhin is a man who thinks, he has a cold calculation. in general, you can write a lot about this

Symbolism of color and numbers in F. M. Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment”

In the works of F.M. Dostoevsky, all kinds of images and symbols acquire special meaning, helping to express the writer’s position. The novel “Crime and Punishment” was no exception in this sense.

Developing the psychological drama of Rodion Raskolnikov, the author shows the color scheme and digital range through the eyes of the hero. Having committed his crime, Raskolnikov constantly snatches from the palette of life around him only the dominant colors: red and yellow. Red is blood, yellow is gold, an indirect cause of murder.

“Another lady, very plump and crimson-red, with spots, a prominent woman, and very lavishly dressed, with a brooch on her chest the size of a tea saucer, stood aside and waited for something.”

“When he woke up, he saw that he was sitting on a chair, that some man was supporting him on the right, that another man was standing on the left with a yellow glass filled with yellow water, and that Nikodim Fomich was standing in front of him and looking intently at him; he got up from his chair.”

Episodes where Raskolnikov is struck by ominous colors are associated with a crime. The symbolism of the numbers is aimed at punishment, as if confirming the thought of Sonechka Marmeladova that the only way is faith and repentance.

The number four appears most often in the novel, implying the four sides of the cross, holy repentance. " Sonya’s room looked like a barn, had the appearance of a very irregular quadrangle, and this gave it something ugly.”- here the thought seems to be about how desperate, in a terrible way the owner of the room carries her cross to help her loved ones.

Raskolnikov's room also has a quadrangular shape, but this can hardly be called a unique phenomenon; there is no emphasis here. But relatively soon another episode appears in the novel, confirming the presence of symbolism: a narrative from the Gospel is heard, describing the miraculous resurrection of a certain Lazarus from Bethany. It would seem that the story is just an accident, but (!) Lazarus was resurrected by Christ four days after his burial. And Rodion Raskolnikov himself comes to Sonya four days after the crime was committed...

The novel “Crime and Punishment” is a story of the soul, not of life. And since the author, in my opinion, tells us this story quite clearly, then, putting ourselves in the place of the main culprit of the events, we can feel the pressure of flowers, inextricably linked with a stained conscience and a horrified imagination.

Our hearing, like Raskolnikov’s, will begin to “catch” only words that are directly related to the crime we committed; the character will become suspicious and restless, imminent exposure will be imagined everywhere...

Dostoevsky pays a lot of attention to describing the squalid interiors of furnished rooms. But the rest of his attention is drawn to smells and symbolic colors. In his descriptions of St. Petersburg, Dostoevsky mainly uses yellow, red and white colors. But even in this short list, yellow dominates. It turns out that the main background of the novel is yellow, a poisonous color. “A small room with yellow wallpaper. The furniture is all very old and made of yellow wood.”

S. M. Solovyov, who specially studied the color background of Dostoevsky’s works, came to the conclusion that “Crime and Punishment” was created using virtually one yellow background. And this background is a very good addition to the dramatic experiences of the characters. In addition to the description of the old woman’s room, we can give many more examples confirming the presence of a yellow background in the novel: a description of Raskolnikov’s closet, with its “yellow dusty wallpaper” (note that the word “dusty” was not used by Dostoevsky by chance either. Dusty, stuffy - these words are very are close in value). And in Sonechka’s room there is yellow wallpaper. “Furniture of yellow polished wood” in Porfiry Petrovich’s office, a ring with a yellow stone on Luzhin’s hand. There are many such examples. These details reflect the hopeless atmosphere of the existence of the main characters of the work and are harbingers of bad events. The color yellow enhances the atmosphere of ill health, sickness, and disorder. The dirty yellow, dull yellow, sickly yellow color itself evokes feelings of internal oppression, mental instability, and general depression. In the novel, Dostoevsky seems to compare two words: “yellow” and “bilious,” which often appear in the narrative. For example, about Raskolnikov he writes as follows: “A heavy, bilious smile snaked across his lips. Finally he felt stuffy in this yellow closet.” The novel very clearly traces the interaction between internal and outside world hero. “Bile” and “yellowness” take on the meaning of something painfully oppressive and oppressive.

However, the novel also mentions the color green, the color of Marmelad’s “family” scarf. This scarf, like a cross, is worn by Katerina Ivanovna, followed by Sonya Marmeladova. The scarf represents both the suffering that befalls its owners and their redemptive power. Dying, Katerina Ivanovna says: “God himself knows how I suffered...”. Going after Raskolnikov, who is going to confess to a crime, Sonya puts this scarf on her head. She is ready to take upon herself suffering and thereby atone for Raskolnikov’s guilt. In the epilogue, in the scene of rebirth, the resurrection of Raskolnikov, Sonya appears in the same Scarf, haggard after illness. At this moment, the green color of the suffering and hopes of the main characters of the work overcomes the yellow color of sick Petersburg. The “dawn of a renewed future” shone on their sick faces; they were ready to embrace a new life.

The image of St. Petersburg in Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment” is symbolic. He is, on the one hand, the social background against which the events of the novel unfold, on the other hand, he himself is a character, an accomplice in Raskolnikov’s terrible act, as well as his repentance and return to the world of people.

Yellow color: quotes from the novel “Crime and Punishment”

Appearance of heroes

Other details

THE TOPIC OF LIFE IN ST. PETERSBURG APARTMENTS

St. Petersburg is a city in which people live in “cells”, in dirty yellow houses with dirty dark staircases, spend time in small stuffy workshops or in stinking taverns and taverns, the city is half-crazy, like most of Dostoevsky’s heroes familiar to us.

In the novel Crime and Punishment, life is in a state of moral and social decay. The stuffiness of the St. Petersburg slums is a particle general atmosphere novel, hopeless and stuffy. There is a certain connection between Raskolnikov’s thoughts and the “turtle shell” of his closet, “a tiny room about six steps long,” with yellow, dusty wallpaper peeling off the walls and a low wooden ceiling. This little room is a small copy of a more grandiose, equally stuffy “room” big city. It’s not for nothing that Katerina Ivanovna says that on the streets of St. Petersburg it’s like being in rooms without windows. The picture of cramped, suffocating crowding of people “in a limited space” is haunted by a feeling of spiritual loneliness. People treat each other with distrust and suspicion, they are united only by curiosity about the misfortunes of their neighbors and gloating about the successes of others. Amid the drunken laughter and poisonous ridicule of visitors to the tavern, Marmeladov tells a story that is stunning in its tragedy. own life; The residents of the house in which Katerina Ivanovna lives come running to the scandal.

Description of rooms (apartments, interiors, etc.)

All levels of organization of the literary text “Crime and Punishment” are subordinated to the core idea of ​​the work. F. M. Dostoevsky shows that Raskolnikov’s idea of ​​​​dividing humanity into two uneven parts is inextricably linked with the immediate conditions of his life, with the world of St. Petersburg corners, one of which is occupied by the hero himself. The novel is imbued with symbolism. Many researchers have paid attention to the “symbolic sharpness of Dostoevsky’s literary characters.” But color plays a very special role in the work.

In Dostoevsky's works, color and color definitions have a symbolic meaning and serve to reveal the mental state of the characters. Analyzing the use of color in the novel Crime and Punishment, we can say that the entire work was created on almost the same yellow background. Indeed, yellow appears most often in the novel. But the color scheme in the writer’s descriptions is not at all limited to yellow, since throughout the entire novel we encounter white, red, and black colors, which play an important role in all descriptions.

Let's return to the main color of the work - yellow. What is its symbolism? First of all, the color yellow is associated with illness when it comes to a person. On the contrary, when talking about things, the yellow color resembles something sunny, golden, it can evoke joyful emotions. However, this does not happen in the novel Crime and Punishment. Dostoevsky's yellow color in all descriptions of people and things is a painful color. For example: “She put her own cracked teapot in front of him, with the tea already drained, and put two yellow lumps of sugar”; “When he looked around, he saw that he was sitting on a chair, that a man was supporting him on the right, that another man was standing on the left, with a yellow glass filled with yellow water. »

Here, “yellow sugar” is combined with a cracked, broken teapot and “leaked tea,” which is also yellow in color.

In the second example - “yellow glass”, i.e. not washed for a long time, with a touch of yellow rust, and yellow rice water are directly related to the hero’s illness, to his fainting state. A painful, wretched yellowness is also found when describing other things, for example: Alena Ivanovna’s “yellowed fur jacket,” Raskolnikov’s “very red, all with holes and stains,” etc.

The color yellow predominates in the description of the room into which the young man walked, with yellow wallpaper. “The furniture is all very old yellow wood. thunder pictures in yellow frames. “This is how the author describes the apartment of an old pawnbroker. And here is a description of Raskolnikov’s home: “It was a tiny cell, about six steps long, which had the most pitiful appearance with its yellow, dusty wallpaper that was peeling off the wall everywhere. » Dostoevsky compares the protagonist’s miserable home with a yellow wardrobe. The yellow color in the description of objects is in harmony with the painful yellowness of the novel’s heroes, surrounded by these objects.

In the descriptions of the portraits of most of the novel's heroes, the same sickly yellow color is found. For example: Marmeladov - “with a yellow, even greenish face swollen from constant drunkenness and with swollen eyelids. "; Porfiry Petrovich’s face was “the color of a sick, dark yellow.”

Sometimes in the description of portraits of heroes the definition of “yellow” gives way to the definition of “pale”, which is similar in emotional and color connotation. For example: “Sonechka’s pale face with burning eyes,” “. color rushed into Dunya’s pale face,” etc. Yellowness and pallor are an integral characteristic of all residents of St. Petersburg. This is confirmed in the episode of Sonya’s meeting with an unfamiliar master: “his wide-cheeked face was quite pleasant, and his complexion was fresh, not St. Petersburg. »

Thus, the color yellow, predominant in the description of the heroes and the objects surrounding them, creates a deep impression of general wretchedness and morbidity. The author observes his characters through “yellow glasses”. This happens to a person who loses consciousness and sees everything in yellow for some time. And against the same background, other colors, and primarily red, acquire great symbolic meaning. So, after the murder of Alena Ivanovna, her apartment, which at the beginning of the novel is described as yellow, acquires a red tint in Raskolnikov’s eyes, reminiscent of the color of blood.

Raskolnikov notes that the apartment “had a significant structure, more than an arshin in length, with a convex roof, upholstered in red morocco. On top, under a white sheet, lay a hare's fur coat, covered with a red set. First of all, he began to wipe his blood-stained hands on the red set.”

The contrast of red against the background of yellow makes a strong impression on Raskolnikov. Other colors stand out just as sharply against the sickly yellow background, and above all the color of the characters’ eyes. These are “Sonechka’s wonderful blue eyes” and the completely different blue eyes of Svidrigailov with a “cold, heavy gaze”; these are Raskolnikov’s “beautiful dark eyes with a burning gaze” on the first pages of the novel and these same eyes “with an inflamed” and then “dead look” after the murder, etc. From these examples you can see how color, even indirectly indicated, conveys the state of the hero’s soul: from beautiful to dark, i.e. deep, color to “inflamed”, i.e. naturally shiny, and then to dead, i.e. colorless.

Against the background of yellow, gray and red, green stands out. It is strikingly different from the entire color scheme of the work, standing out for its freshness and purity. Green is the color of rebirth, a color that gives hope for transformation. It is found in Raskolnikov’s second, “African” dream about an oasis, expressing an unconscious thirst for spiritual clarity and purity, but in reality this feeling is suppressed. Sonechka, the ideal of Christian meekness and humility, appears at the end of the work in a green scarf. The very moment when she puts it on is symbolic. This happens in Siberia, in a prison, where she once again comes to visit Raskolnikov on the morning when a turning point occurs in the unrepentant killer. Going to “work” in the morning, he sees the far shore, where “there was freedom, where people lived who were not like those here, it was as if time itself had stopped, as if the times of Abraham and his flocks had not passed.” It is on this morning that Raskolnikov understands that he loves Sonya endlessly, feels that he has been resurrected, that life has finally come.

So, we can conclude that the use of certain colors in the novel “Crime and Punishment” by F. M. Dostoevsky plays an important role in revealing the content of the entire work. The author uses almost the entire gamut of color designations in the description (black, lilac, blue, indigo, brown, pink, etc.) and is not limited, as it may seem at first glance, to only the yellow palette.

The action of the novel “Crime and Punishment” does not take place on a square with fountains and palaces, or on Nevsky Prospect, which for contemporaries was a kind of symbol of wealth, position in society, pomp and splendor. Dostoevsky's Petersburg is disgusting slums, dirty drinking dens and brothels, narrow streets and gloomy alleys, cramped courtyards, wells and dark backyards. It’s stuffy here and you can’t breathe from the stench and dirt; On every corner you come across drunks, ragamuffins, and corrupt women.

In this city, tragedies constantly occur: from a bridge, in front of Raskolnikov’s eyes, a drunken woman throws herself into the water and drowns, Marmeladov dies under the wheels of a dandy gentleman’s carriage, on the avenue in front of the tower, Svidrigailov commits suicide, on the pavement Katerina Ivanovna bleeds, and on the boulevard Raskolnikov meets a young girl who was “drunk somewhere, deceived, and then let out onto the street.” Dostoevsky's Petersburg is sick, and most of the characters in his works are sick, some morally, some physically. Characteristic feature The color by which we recognize the environment and people affected by the disease is the irritating, intrusive, unhealthy color yellow. Yellow wallpaper and yellow wood furniture in the room of the old pawnbroker, Marmeladov’s face yellow from constant drunkenness, Raskolnikov’s yellow closet, “like a closet or chest,” a suicidal woman with a yellow, worn-out face, yellowish wallpaper in Sonya’s room, “yellow furniture polished wood" in Porfiry Petrovich's office, ring With a yellow stone on his hand. Luzhin. These details reflect the hopeless atmosphere of the existence of the main characters of the novel and become harbingers of bad events.

The color red is also a harbinger of bad events. A month and a half before the murder, Raskolnikov goes to pawn “a small gold ring with three red stones” - a souvenir gift from his sister. “Red pebbles” become, as it were, harbingers of the inevitable shedding of blood. The color detail is repeated: the red lapels on Marmeladov’s boots are noticed by Raskolnikov, whose thoughts persistently return to the crime.-..

Presentation on the topic: The symbolism of yellow in F. M. Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment”

Research work on literature Symbolism of yellow color in F. M. Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment”

Fedor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky

Of the thirty novels, novellas, stories that make up literary heritage F.M. Dostoevsky, we can single out twenty, where St. Petersburg is the main place of action.

There are pages of genius in Crime and Punishment. The novel looks exactly like it, that’s how it’s structured. With a limited number of characters, it seems that there are thousands and thousands of unfortunate people in it people - all old Petersburg is visible from this unexpected angle. A lot of “horror” is pumped up, to the point of unnaturalness... But- strong, demon! A. Fadeev

The purpose of the work is to identify and describe the functions of the yellow color in the text of the novel. Objectives: to find out what color vocabulary is used in the work being studied; to identify the purposes of using the color yellow in the novel; to determine what mood it helps to convey; to consider what the choice of yellow color is when describing the interior , portrait and mental state of the hero; study the functioning of the color yellow in the novel; discover and comprehend the moral and philosophical issues exhibited in the coloristic structure of the work.

Functions of color in a work of art: 1. Distinctive, or descriptive, function: - description of nature, - description of the interior, - description of the appearance of a person. 2. Characterizing function: - characteristic of reality, - characteristic of the human condition.

Symbolism of yellow color 1. States associated with positive energy2. Magical influence3. Badge of honor in society4. Language of communication with gods and spirits5. Language of rituals6. Signs and signals7. Negative symbolism of yellow and gold

The color yellow in the novel by M. V. Lomonosov 4.6/13.5 V. K. Trediakovsky 1.8/23.6 A. P. Sumarokov 4.8/26.3 G. R. Derzhavin 2.5/17 .5 V.V. Kapnist 4.2/29.6 A.S. Pushkin 4.3/16.3M. Yu. Lermontov 3.5/10.1F. I. Tyutchev 2.4/22.5N. V. Gogol 5.0/10.6 L. N. Tolstoy 7.9/1.7 F. M. Dostoevsky 10.6/2.5

Raskolnikov’s room “It was a tiny cell, about six steps long, and had the most pitiful appearance with its yellow, dusty wallpaper that was peeling off the wall everywhere. “Later, this cell is spoken about again, when Raskolnikov “felt stuffy and cramped in this yellow closet, similar to a closet or a chest.” And, already lying in bed, the sick “Raskolnikov turned to the wall, where there was dirty yellow wallpaper with white flowers chose one awkward one White flower, with some brown lines, and began to examine it. "

“It was a tiny cell, six steps long, which had the most pitiful appearance with its yellow, dusty wallpaper that was peeling off the wall everywhere. »

Sonya’s room “The yellowish, scrubbed and worn wallpaper turned black in all corners; It must have been damp and fumes here in the winter.”

Apartment of the old moneylender “Small room. with yellow wallpaper. The furniture, all very old and made of yellow wood, consisted of a sofa with a huge curved wooden back, a round oval-shaped table in front of the sofa, a toilet with a mirror in the wall, chairs along the walls and two or three penny pictures in yellow frames. “In the hallway it was very dark and empty, not a soul, as if everything had been taken out; Quietly, on tiptoe, he walked into the living room: the whole room was brightly bathed in moonlight; everything is the same here: the chairs, the mirror, the yellow sofa and the framed pictures.”

Portraits of heroes “His (Porfiry Petrovich’s) plump, round and slightly snub-nosed face was the color of a sick, dark yellow, but quite cheerful and even mocking.” “The stuffiness was the same; but he greedily breathed in this stinking, dusty, city-polluted air. His head began to feel slightly dizzy; some kind of wild energy suddenly shone in his inflamed eyes and in his emaciated, pale yellow face.” (Raskolnikov)

Portraits of heroes “She forgot herself again, but this last oblivion did not last long. Her pale yellow, withered face was thrown back, her mouth opened, her legs stretched out convulsively. She took a deep, deep breath and died.” (Katerina Ivanovna)

The image of yellow Petersburg A man is suffocating in Dostoevsky's Petersburg, in a city where the yellow color very clearly highlights the painful atmosphere of the city. It is no coincidence that the author draws attention to this particular color - the color of madness, which once again speaks of incurable disease St. Petersburg. Thus, the image of St. Petersburg was firmly associated in Russian literature with the color yellow.

For Dostoevsky, Petersburg is a city of contrasts: “humiliated and insulted” and “ powerful of the world this”; this is a city where you can’t breathe, a city of indifference and inhumanity; it is a killer city, a ghost city, and a dead-end city; this is horror and madness. A crazy city gives birth to crazy ideas, a killer city gives birth to killer people.

Colors of St. Petersburg (Based on the novel by F. Dostoevsky “Crime and Punishment”)

COLORS OF ST. PETERSBURG
(Based on the novel by F. Dostoevsky “Crime and Punishment”)

People have always associated colors with their feelings and experiences. Here in the poem by Dmitry Pavlychko we read: “Red is love, and black is sadness.” We provide symbolic meaning to other colors and shades in everyday life and on holidays.
For Dostoevsky, the alarming color of life in St. Petersburg is associated with yellow, which is deeply antipathetic to him. Yellow color is treason, it is a crime, it is a disease of the soul and body. This color accuses of betrayal and extramarital love. Should never be given yellow flowers.
But it is this color that dominates the landscapes of the big killer city. A yellow sun rises above the miasma-saturated and yellowish air of the impoverished capital. In the rooms where the two main characters live, the wallpaper, if it were not dirty, would also be of the same overwhelming color, which gives no rest to the eyes and brain. Here is a former student doing his “test”: “The small room into which the young man walked, with yellow wallpaper, ... was at that moment brightly lit by the setting sun ... there was nothing special in the room. The furniture is all very old and made of yellow wood, and two or three money pictures in yellow frames... \"
There is something manic in the passion of St. Petersburg residents for this purulent, painful color. Svidrigailov passes his last path in his life between the light yellow wooden houses, which create a kind of passage, very similar to what is built for a person forced to go “through the gauntlet.” Only this is not a “green” street, but a yellow street. If we went out onto the central streets and avenues lined with the palaces of Rastrelli, Rossi, Voronikhin, we would again see that same St. Petersburg empire flavor. It’s not for nothing that a hospital for the mentally ill is called the “yellow house” in all countries.
This terrible color follows at the beginning of the novel in Marmeladov’s story about his daughter: “I went with a yellow ticket,” that is, she became a prostitute, abandoning her honor and her faith to the mercy of the gluttonous city of her youth, because she aroused “the commandments,” therefore, she lost her soul forever...
This terrible and damned color fills the face of the deceased Katerina Ivanovna. “She was forgotten again, but this last oblivion did not last long. Pale yellow... her face was thrown back... \"
Together with Raskolnikov, they saw another incarnation of the yellow devil when they found Svidrigailov in a tavern. Former owner Dunechki listened to some Katya’s singing, and when he released her, he “poured a full glass of wine and laid out a little yellow ticket.” Can you guess what it is? Yes, this is the ruble, the only owner of the crazy city. It’s nothing like a piece of paper, behind it you can see a figure of “yellow metal,” as it is written down in the protocols.
It was for his sake that Svidrigailov married, and after losing his wife, he found a teenager as his bride. It was for the sake of the “little yellow one” that the moneylender lived and died under the ax. It is a goal and a weapon in the struggle of life. Remember how Luzhin planted a credit card to finally lose the already unhappy people... It is for the sake of the “yellow devil” that the disgraced girls of the hostesses of “gay establishments” are hunted.
The colors of treason, crime, debauchery, illness, death, the color of money - the colors of the capital Russian Empire St. Petersburg

The symbolism of color in the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment"

The influence of color on a person’s emotional state has long been the subject of close study by psychologists. F.M. Dostoevsky uses certain colors to describe objects, characters, and convey them inner world.

Purpose of the study: carry out an analysis of color painting in the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” in connection with the change in the internal state of the main character based on the frequency of color use.

To achieve the goal you will need to solve the following tasks:

2) perform a text analysis of the novel “Crime and Punishment”;

3) explain the features of color symbolism in psychology and in the novel “Crime and Punishment”;

4) analyze the color painting in the novel in connection with the change in the internal state of the main character based on the frequency of color use;

5) to identify the perception of the color scheme of the novel by students in grades 10-11, teachers and parents of the gymnasium.

Hypothesis: The color scheme in the novel Crime and Punishment is associated with the psychological state of the main character. We assume that for Dostoevsky color was necessary to create a special world around the heroes, thanks to which the inner state of the protagonist is revealed.

Relevance Our research is determined by the following facts: 1) a subtle psychological analysis of the hero’s inner world is revealed more deeply through the prism of low color symbolism; 2) studying the novel through the prism of color painting can increase interest in the work of F.M. Dostoevsky.

Practical significance The work lies in the fact that in the course of the study we compared the symbolism of color in psychology and in the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky, quotations from the work were classified, distributed according to color, an analysis of color painting in the novel “Crime and Punishment” was carried out, so this work can be used in the study of the work of F.M. Dostoevsky for a greater understanding of the writer’s inner world. The developed standard tasks in the Russian language and literature based on the novel can be used in their work by teachers and students both in the classroom and during self-study topics for preparing for the Unified State Exam.

Preview:

MBOU gymnasium of the village of Azovskaya, grade 10

SYMBOLICS OF COLOR IN THE NOVEL by F.M. DOSTOEVSKY "CRIME AND PUNISHMENT"

Scientific supervisor: Natalya Georgievna Prokhorova, teacher of Russian language and literature, MBOU gymnasium of the village of Azovskaya

I. Symbolism of color

1.1. Symbolism of color in psychology

1.2. F.M. Dostoevsky. Novel "Crime and Punishment" in color

II. Analysis of the color painting of the novel in connection with changes in the internal state of the characters based on the frequency of color use

List of used literature and sources

Since ancient times, people have attached special importance to the “language of colors.” Color preferences largely determine a person’s mood, attitude to reality, character and depend on many reasons: cultural level, age, gender, education, characteristics of temperament and character, etc.

According to S.M. Solovyov, word artists can be divided into two types: 1) colorists (for example, G.R. Derzhavin, N.V. Gogol, F.I. Tyutchev, etc.), for whom “color was a powerful tool of style” and who “very used color generously"; 2) “artists and writers who use color extremely sparingly.” In the book " Visual media in the works of F.M. Dostoevsky,” the scientist devotes a separate chapter to the impact of color on the reader, noting the widespread use of yellow, red, green colors in the novels of F.M. Dostoevsky. From the point of view of S.M. Solovyov, “the color saturation of the works of writers of the 60s of the 19th century, including F.M. Dostoevsky is very low." L. Dmitrieva in the article “The symbolism of color in the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” notes that the novel is “very colorful” and the abundance of all kinds of shades in it helps to emotionally tune in to the perception of the work.” HE. Kalenkova in the article “Color scheme in “Crime and Punishment” by F.M. Dostoevsky" writes: "F.M. Dostoevsky is not a colorist writer, but when reading his novel one gets the impression of a rich color scheme.” The influence of color on a person’s emotional state has long been the subject of close study by psychologists. F.M. Dostoevsky uses certain colors to describe objects, heroes, and convey their inner world.

Purpose of the study: to analyze the color painting in the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” in connection with the change in the internal state of the main character based on the frequency of color use.

To achieve the goal, you will need to solve the following tasks:

1) analyze literary critical material on the topic of the work;

Hypothesis: the color scheme in the novel “Crime and Punishment” is associated with the psychological state of the main character. We assume that for Dostoevsky color was necessary to create a special world around the heroes, thanks to which the inner state of the protagonist is revealed.

Research methods: analysis of literature on the research question, comparative analysis, survey, interviewing, method of mathematical statistics, as well as comparison of color associations.

The relevance of our research is determined by the following facts: 1) a subtle psychological analysis of the hero’s inner world is revealed more deeply through the prism of low color symbolism; 2) studying the novel through the prism of color painting can increase interest in the work of F.M. Dostoevsky.

The practical significance of the work lies in the fact that during the study we compared the symbolism of color in psychology and in the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky, quotations from the work were classified, distributed according to color, an analysis of color painting in the novel “Crime and Punishment” was carried out, so this work can be used in the study of the work of F.M. Dostoevsky for a greater understanding of the writer’s inner world. The developed standard assignments in the Russian language and literature based on the novel can be used by teachers and students both in the classroom and when independently studying the topic and for preparing for the Unified State Exam.

GLIZNUTSA Vasily Dmitrievich

Krasnodar region, Seversky district, Azovskaya village

SYMBOLICS OF COLOR IN F. M. DOSTOEVSKY’S NOVEL “CRIME AND PUNISHMENT”

I Symbolism of color

I.1 Symbolism of color in psychology

Psychologists (Bazyma B.A., Kucherenko V.V., Petrenko V.F., Luscher M., Schwartz B.) believe that each color has its own meaning, and therefore affects consciousness differently. Colors evoke certain emotions, raise or lower your mood. The famous German poet Johann Wolfgang Goethe developed the theory of color and formulated psychological states related to perception color combinations, in the famous “Teaching of Colors”. I.V. Goethe wrote: “Color is a product of light that evokes emotions.” We do not take the expressions “black with grief”, “red with anger”, “green with anger”, “gray with fear” literally, but associate a person’s emotional states with a color that is capable of expressing them. Emotions and color are “linked” to each other.

Yellow, according to a number of psychologists, is a symbol of holiness, sociability, lightness, ease, curiosity, relaxedness, courage, since ancient times it has been perceived as frozen sunlight, it means wealth, youth, goodness, joy. This is the color of autumn, mature withering leaves and ears of corn. M. Luscher believed that yellow is a “symbol of activity.” Most often, this color leaves a warm and pleasant impression.

But according to German psychotherapist Edd Klessman, this color also represents “envy and jealousy, greed and deceit.” The negative symbolism of yellow is sin, betrayal, withering, sadness, despair, illness, death, the other world. Expressions such as “yellow press” (a publication that specializes in rumors, scandals, and gossip) and “yellow house” (a madhouse) are well known. The name “yellow house” comes from the color of the Obukhov Hospital in St. Petersburg. Initially, the House of Charity was painted in the traditional yellow color for St. Petersburg. Very soon this idiom became an allegory for all madhouses. Judas Iscariot was depicted in a yellow cloak as a seller of Christ. Among the Slavic peoples, the color yellow is considered to be the color of jealousy and betrayal, and in Tibet jealousy is called the “yellow eye.” In medieval Spain, heretics who were sentenced to be burned at the stake were dressed in yellow. Yellow card – a warning in some sports games. “Yellow ticket” is an identity card for corrupt women.

Red is the color of power, everything mystical, mysterious, associated with blood and fire. Its meanings are diverse and sometimes contradictory. According to E. Klessmann, “red can cause aggression and hatred.” “Red symbolizes power, impulse, and often causes excitement and anxiety.” In many languages, the same word means the color red and, in general, everything beautiful and beautiful.

Red, according to Leonid Zapadenko, is the main heraldic color. On the banner it symbolizes struggle, rebellion, revolution. It is interesting that among many tribes of Africa, America and Australia, warriors, preparing for battle, painted themselves red. As K. Rowe points out, “in ancient China, the rebels called themselves “red warriors.” Red color is a symbol of power. In Byzantium, only the empress could wear red boots."

According to most popular beliefs, the color black was associated with a dark night, a time when the forces of evil reign. Black eyes are still considered dangerous and envious. L.N. Mironova notes that “in Russian in native language the word “black” means something old, lacking shine, as well as gloomy and gloomy: black humor, “drinking black.”

White is a spiritual guardian. It is the color of goodness, good luck, healing and purification, innocence, joy and virtue. E. Klessmann believed that “... white symbolizes purity, but it can evoke associations with sadness and mourning.” People like him different types and temperaments. From the point of view of Max Lüscher, “in Christianity, white denotes kinship with the deity.” Saints, righteous people, and angels are depicted in white.

But white can also have the opposite meaning: to mean evil, suffering, death, illness. It seems to absorb all colors and correlates with emptiness, with death. It is not for nothing that our ancestors dressed the dead in white clothes and covered them with a white shroud. Some tribes in Africa and Australia paint the body with white paint in the event of the death of loved ones. In China, white is the color of mourning; white mourning was also used by the Slavs in ancient times. According to L.N. Mironova, “... in Russian poetry of the beginning of the century, white is associated with negative emotions and with thoughts directed to the other world.”

For many peoples, the color green symbolized youth and fun, although sometimes insufficient perfection. According to E. Klessman, green represents hope and, on the contrary, illness. Green color has both a calming and depressing effect. S. Eisenstein writes about the symbolism of green: “... the color of the rebirth of the soul and wisdom.” And it is no coincidence that melancholy is called “green”, and the person himself “turns green” with anger. Iranians associate the color green with misfortune and sorrow, which is why they say “green leg” about an ill-fated person, and “green house” about a cemetery.

The color blue in many countries is a symbol of fidelity and openness, kindness and honesty. According to E. Klessman, it expresses “peace, fidelity, but it can mean madness.” Hegel believed that “the color blue corresponds to meekness, intelligence and sentimentality.”

L.N. Mironova writes that “in medieval Europe blue was the color of the costume of a knight who wants to demonstrate fidelity to his lady in love.” A sign of high origin - “blue blood”.

Petrenko V.F., Kucherenko V.V. note: “In some countries, the color blue has symbolic meanings similar to black: it is considered mourning in Ancient Egypt, the French call horror “blue fear,” and among the Slavic peoples, blue is the color of sadness and was associated with the demonic world. Ancient legends describe black and blue demons.

Ancient symbolism colors and its interpretation in different cultures is also confirmed in modern theories that claim that color and a person’s emotional state are interconnected. The correspondence between color and internal state was studied by the German poet, statesman, thinker and naturalist I. Goethe, the Swiss psychologist M. Luscher, associate professor of the department social psychology Kharkov State Academy of Culture Bazyma B.A., psychotherapist Rowe K. and others. Research conducted by Russian psychologists V.F. Petrenko and V.V. Kucherenko, confirm the relationship between a person’s emotional state and his choice of certain colors as his preferred ones.

In this chapter, we gave characteristics of the positive and negative meanings of color, summarized the opinions of psychologists, historians and writers about the correspondence of color and the dominant emotional state of a person. The sequence of presentation is determined by the frequency of use of these colors in the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment".

I .2 F.M. Dostoevsky. Novel "Crime and Punishment" in color

Color has always had and has great importance in a person’s life, which is reflected in fiction. When we read a work, a picture of what is happening to our certain colors. The color scheme influences our understanding of the characters described and the world around them.

In the works of F.M. Dostoevsky's color has a symbolic meaning and serves to reveal the mental state of the heroes. In Crime and Punishment, different colors and their shades appear quite often, and this cannot be an accident. The entire novel, in our opinion, is subordinated to the main idea that is revealed in Raskolnikov’s theory. The idea of ​​dividing people into “trembling creatures” and “those with rights” is inextricably linked with the living conditions of the protagonist, with the world of St. Petersburg corners. Color plays a special role in the work.

Many critics note the predominance of color scheme novel yellow. What is its symbolism? In psychology, the color yellow, on the one hand, is associated with illness when talking about a person, and on the other hand, when talking about things, the color yellow resembles something golden, sunny, and evokes joyful emotions. But in the novel “Crime and Punishment” the color yellow in descriptions of both people and things is always a painful color.

Yellow is a very impulsive color, pushing a person to action and activating brain activity. This color accompanies Raskolnikov throughout the novel, and his thoughts are indeed very restless, and his actions are impulsive. Sometimes the hero falls into unconsciousness, sometimes he becomes very active.

Raskolnikov has a “thin, pale yellow face,” his room had the most pitiful appearance “with its yellow, dusty wallpaper falling off the wall everywhere.” Dostoevsky compares the main character's miserable housing with a yellow wardrobe. Nastasya placed in front of Rodion, who was in a painful state, “her own cracked teapot, with already drunk tea, and put two yellow lumps of sugar.” When Rodion becomes ill, he is given “a yellow glass filled with yellow water.” The “yellow glass,” that is, not washed for a long time, with a touch of rust, and yellow water are directly related to the hero’s illness, to his fainting state.

The word “yellow” itself takes on a depressing sound, apparently because in the first part of the novel its synonym is “bilious.” The writer uses this word to describe the internal state of the characters; in this situation it has an additional meaning - angry, bitter. “A heavy, bilious, evil smile snaked across his lips. He lay his head down on his skinny and worn-out pillow and thought, thought for a long time. Finally, he felt stuffy and cramped in this yellow closet.” Something oppressive and annoying can be heard in these phrases! It seems to take your breath away! Let’s listen to the description of the protagonist’s home: “He woke up bilious, irritable, angry and looked at his closet with hatred. It was a tiny cell, about six steps long, having the most pitiful appearance with its yellow, dusty wallpaper that was falling off the wall everywhere, and so low that even a slightly tall person felt terrified in it.” It’s as if an evil hissing can be heard here: a quiet but annoying sound is annoying. How can you not go crazy in such an environment!

Scientists have found that the color of the interior has a significant impact on a person’s well-being, and in different ways: some colors depress, irritate, cause depression, while others, on the contrary, calm, reduce stress, and add energy and joy to life. When color harmony is achieved in the interior, a person begins to feel comfort on a subconscious level. Otherwise, a feeling of anxiety arises, irritation sets in, and this is exactly what, in our opinion, is happening to Raskolnikov. Such a situation stifles, oppresses, forces one to hatch monstrous theories.

Imagine that you hear a monotonous, continuous sound. It seems that it penetrates into you, fills every cell. The abundance of some color has the same effect: it seems to accumulate inside and from there has a depressing effect on the brain.

The yellow tone is used in the description of premises, appearance and other characters and creates an atmosphere of ill health, sadness, nervous breakdown, and general depression. Alena Ivanovna is dressed in a yellowed fur jacket, in her room there is “yellow wallpaper”, “furniture made of yellow wood”, “pictures in yellow frames”. In Porfiry Petrovich’s office there is official furniture “made of yellow, polished wood,” and his face is “sick, dark yellow.” Katerina Ivanovna has a “pale yellow, withered face”, Marmeladov has a “swollen, yellow face from constant drunkenness”, in Sonya’s room there is “yellowish, scrubbed and worn-out wallpaper”, and Sonya herself “went on a yellow ticket”. Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin had “a large, massive, extremely beautiful ring with a yellow stone.” These details reflect the hopeless atmosphere of the existence of the characters in the novel and become harbingers of bad events.

In addition, here we can guess another meaning of the color yellow: it reminds us of the sun, and it is associated with power and greatness. The idea of ​​power is the basis of Raskolnikov’s theory: “power over the entire anthill,” over the trembling creatures. In addition, the action of the novel takes place in St. Petersburg, and this is the city of the “golden bag”.

As a truly subtle psychologist, F.M. Dostoevsky was able to use color to show the atmosphere of the city: Petersburg is presented in yellow tones. Raskolnikov, standing on the bridge, sees a woman “with a yellow, elongated, worn-out face.” Suddenly she rushes into the water. This scene embodies the motif of hopelessness, when a person “has nowhere else to go.” The bright yellow houses on Bolshoy Prospekt, not far from where Svidrigailov shot himself, look sad and dirty.

When reading a novel, the color yellow depresses us; it often shows illness, poverty, and death. Raskolnikov sits alone in his “yellow closet”; before his death, Svidrigailov rents a room in a cheap hotel, and in his room there is the same dirty, yellow wallpaper.

The yellow color, which has become dirty in the novel, represents lives, abilities and talents obscured by dirt, unclaimed human capabilities. But F.M. Dostoevsky makes us understand that his heroes are worthy normal life.

Thus, the yellow color, which predominates in the description of the heroes and the objects around them, creates the impression of general wretchedness and morbidity. A person suffocates in Dostoevsky’s Petersburg, as in “rooms without windows.” I'm scared for the people living here. All of them are surrounded by an overwhelming yellowness. It seems as if we are watching the characters through “yellow glasses”. The color yellow has a strong impact on the characters and the reader; it is the engine of the plot, determining the fate of the characters. Dirty yellow, dull yellow, sickly yellow color causes depression, internal oppression, mental instability.

The color red is also used ambiguously in the novel; it has many shades, and therefore can be interpreted in different ways. It is connected mainly with the image of Raskolnikov. In his first dream, he sees “big, drunken men in red shirts.” One of them has a “fleshy, carrot-red face.” A “woman” in red sits nearby. Raskolnikov sees the sunset of a “bright, red sun.” A month and a half before the murder, Raskolnikov pawns “a small gold ring with three red stones” - a gift from his sister. “Red pebbles” become, as it were, harbingers of the inevitable shedding of blood. The color detail is repeated: Raskolnikov, whose thoughts persistently return to the crime, notices the “red lapels” on Marmeladov’s boots, and in the tavern shows Zametov “little red credit cards.” Raskolnikov, standing on the bridge, “some red circles began to spin in his eyes,” and everything “spun and danced around.” Then he saw a woman, tall, with a scarf on her head and with reddish, sunken eyes, who threw herself into a ditch. Either in reality, or in a dream, again being in the apartment of the old woman-pawnbroker, Raskolnikov saw a “huge, round, copper-red moon” that looked straight into the windows. The color red here embodies aggression and illness.

F.M. Dostoevsky uses the color red to depict scenes of cruelty and anger. The episode of Raskolnikov’s murder of the old pawnbroker is painted in a bloody color: “blood gushed out like from an overturned glass,” “a whole puddle of blood,” “red morocco,” “red set.” Wiping his hands stained with blood, Rodion thinks: “Red, but blood is more inconspicuous on red.” In this case, the red color means the beginning of activity: the pulse rises, breathing quickens, and blood pressure rises. After the first blow to Alena Ivanovna’s head with an ax, Raskolnikov gained strength and felt an animal thirst for blood. It is no coincidence that the men from Raskolnikov’s first dream, finishing off the horse, were also drunk and red-faced. If at the beginning of the novel Alena Ivanovna’s apartment is described in yellow, then after the murder it takes on a red tint, reminiscent of the color of blood. The apartment had “a significant structure, more than an arshin in length, with a convex roof, upholstered in red morocco... On top, under a white sheet, lay a hare’s fur coat, covered with a red set...”. The contrast of yellow and red makes a strong impression on Raskolnikov.

More often, red, scarlet, crimson are used as colors of vulgar satiety: these are the red lapels of the smart, oiled boots of the owner of the tavern; and a crimson-red lady, very magnificently dressed, some kind of “Munich German with a red nose.” But the same color appears on the face of the young man in love during his extreme embarrassment: “red as a peony, lanky and awkward, the ashamed Razumikhin entered.”

Dostoevsky uses red to depict sick people. The drunken Marmeladov has “reddish eyes” and “red hands.” Red spots constantly appeared on the face of Katerina Ivanovna, who was suffering from consumption. In a moment of despair, Katerina Ivanovna “decorated” her children: “the boy was wearing a turban made of something red and white so that he would pretend to be a Turk. There weren’t enough costumes for Lenya; “I just had a red cap knitted from garus put on my head.” Svidrigailov watches a man “with an extremely curly head and a red, inflamed face.” During the confession of the dying Marmeladov, describing the portrait of Sonechka, uses a “fiery” color. Here the writer was able to convey the defiant brightness of a vulgar, flashy outfit, emphasizing its absurdity for the given setting and for its owner herself - this amazingly pure creature doomed to shame.

In the novel, shades of red are also “hidden” in the names of the characters. For example, Porphyry in Greek means “burnt red,” purple, crimson, and porphyry means crimson. Thus, we see that the name is not accidental for the one who will “torture” Raskolnikov.

The name of Raskolnikov himself is also a color. Rodion in Greek means pink. A strange term for a murderer. In psychology, pink color means tenderness, the desire to escape from reality. And indeed in the novel we see the sincere, kind actions of the hero, which convinces us of the sensitivity and vulnerability of his soul.

Thus, everything positive and joyful in the lives of the heroes is so shaded, blurred and muffled that the aggressive element begins to dominate in the person.

Black stands out against the background of yellow and red. But in the novel, unlike what is generally accepted, the color black symbolizes the power of evil. When Raskolnikov climbed the “back” stairs, “dark and narrow,” into Alena Ivanovna’s dark apartment, he did not yet know whether he would decide to kill. When he comes there for the second time, “two sharp and distrustful glances stared at him from the darkness.” Entering this terrible room, the hero seemed to have stepped into a dark, hopeless night, into a night that doomed him to death. In the vision, Raskolnikov climbed “a back staircase, completely dark, and from somewhere came the ringing of Sunday bells.”

Raskolnikov’s eyes are interesting: “beautiful dark”, “black inflamed”, “black eyes inflamed with anger”. Avdotya Romanovna’s eyes were a little lighter than her brother’s: “the eyes are almost black.” Pyotr Petrovich felt deep indignation against “black ingratitude,” “the black snake of stung pride sucked his heart all night,” because he “thought to keep them (Dunya and her mother) in a black body.”

Contrasting with black, white is a symbol of innocence, purity, but at the same time sadness and sorrow. The meek Sonechka had blond hair, Lizaveta was “all white as a sheet,” Dunya “had a white transparent scarf tied around her neck,” and Lyonya’s hat had “a piece of a white ostrich feather stuck in it.” It’s strange that Svidrigailov’s hair is the same, “just a little gray.” We can conclude that for Dostoevsky, the same color can mean both holiness and only a shell behind which a sinful nature is hidden.

Before committing suicide, Svidrigailov sees in a dream a dead girl “in a white tulle dress” lying on a table covered with “white satin shrouds”, white gradenaple, white thick ruffle, marble hands, blond hair. There was not such a number of repetitions even in the scene of the murder of the old pawnbroker! Special mention must be made of the “white and tender daffodils” hanging on bright green stems. Daffodils are flowers of sorrow; in some countries they were placed on the deceased. The stems of these flowers are “bright green, plump and long.” Bright green is the color of a freedom-loving, independent person. Apparently, this was the girl who was killed by Svidrigailov. She did not want to live with shame and chose to die.

The appearance of “clean laundry” occurs at the threshold points through which the heroes pass. This is new white wallpaper in the old woman’s apartment and a whitewashed room where Raskolnikov was hiding immediately after the murder... - a hint at the possible revival of the hero.

The other colors in the novel are also not accidental. The green color differs from the rest of the color scheme of the work and stands out for its freshness and purity. For example, in Raskolnikov’s first dream we see a “gray time”, a “suffocating day”, a forest blackening in the distance, black road dust, scary faces, and then a stone church with a green dome. By using the color green in the first dream, the author emphasizes that kindness is under the cover of holiness. Further, green is shown more than once as the color of protection, cover. The greenery of the trees and grass is relaxation for Raskolnikov: “The greenery and freshness first appealed to his tired eyes, accustomed to city dust, to lime and to huge, crowding and oppressive buildings.”

Green is a color that gives hope for transformation. There is almost no greenery in the work, although the events take place in July. A striking symbol is the green draped shawl. Sonya wrapped herself in it after sacrificing herself for the sake of her neighbors, as if wanting to find peace under its cover, because green is a symbol of the Virgin Mary. On the last pages of the novel, Sonechka again appears in a green scarf. She puts it on in prison on the morning when a turning point occurs in the unrepentant murderer: Raskolnikov realizes that he loves Sonya, feels that he has been resurrected.

The daughter of an elderly merchant's wife, who mistook Raskolnikov for a beggar and gave him money, was holding a green umbrella in her hands. One cannot help but draw a parallel: the dome of the church from Raskolnikov’s dream, Sonya’s scarf, the umbrella in the girl’s hands... They are protection, and the green color indicates that these compassionate people are under holy protection. And the house in which Sonya lived was green.

Waking up from his terrible dream, Raskolnikov sits down under a tree, the green crown of which resembles a church dome, as if transported to reality. Here Raskolnikov comes to the idea of ​​the “ugliness” of his dream.

Color has healing properties, and its absence has a detrimental effect on human health. Color is life. Today, many scientists recognize the fact that the bright colors of the world are necessary for a person to live a healthy life. The lack of color leads to the appearance of “color hunger,” which turns out to be the cause of neuropsychiatric diseases. This is exactly what happens to Raskolnikov in St. Petersburg.

It is significant that Raskolnikov’s spiritual “recovery” begins in Siberia. When he looked at the opposite bank, a landscape appeared before him in which there was neither oppressive yellowness nor aggressive redness. There was only space in it, overflowing. And Raskolnikov was finally freed from the stuffiness of the cramped streets, from the painful melancholy squeezing his heart. He found love and faith in a prosperous future.

The color of the characters’ eyes stands out very sharply against the background of sickly yellow and red. They are unusual in Sonya Marmeladova: “She was small, about eighteen years old, thin, but quite pretty blonde, with wonderful blue eyes.”

The blue color symbolizes infinity and fidelity. By carefully contemplating this color, you can feel how a state of peace arises. It is enough to remember how wonderful it is to observe a clear blue sky. According to psychologists, blue color is often preferred by people who want to devote themselves to noble causes and spiritual achievements. It is Sonechka’s nobility and self-sacrifice that Dostoevsky emphasizes with the blue color of the heroine’s eyes. Thanks to Sonya, a turning point occurs in the unrepentant killer.

In Sonya’s room, in addition to the “yellowish, shabby and worn-out wallpaper,” there is another spot of color - a blue tablecloth. It is believed that a person who prefers the color blue is distinguished by prudence and a philosophical mood. Sophia means wise, and blue and blue, the colors of the clear sky, emphasize the depth of her soul. Raskolnikov’s dream of “wonderful blue water” and Sonechka’s “wonderful blue eyes” are interconnected. Before the murder of the old woman, it seemed to Raskolnikov that he was in the desert and greedily drinking water from a babbling stream. Just as water was salvation for him, so Sonechka with her bottomless blue eyes is necessary for the hero.

Svidrigailov also has blue eyes, but they give a completely different impression. According to the author, “they looked coldly, intently and thoughtfully.” These “eyes were too blue, and their gaze was somehow too heavy and motionless.” We can conclude that F.M. Dostoevsky used nuances of the same color in different ways. The blue color of the eyes of the vicious, internally devastated Svidrigailov takes on a strange, dual meaning, complementing the characteristics of a scoundrel and a libertine. The blue color of his eyes is used with the word “too”, which is immediately alarming. Svidrigailov himself looks disgusting with his blue eyes.

The blue color is also used as a means of enhancing irony in the caricature scene to describe the toilet of Louise Ivanovna - “a magnificent, crimson-red lady”, the mistress of a “noble house”.

The color gray is also found in the novel: this was the clothing that Razumikhin bought for Raskolnikov. This color is typical for a person who is afraid to make a loud statement about himself. The hero is not like that, he does not consider himself to be a “trembling creature”, therefore he does not want not only to wear such clothes, but also to try them on. Yes, the hero wanted to be invisible for a while, but his real goal was to be exceptional, maybe that’s why he wore an old red hat.

Grayness in attitude towards people speaks of their worthlessness, downtroddenness, inability to express and realize themselves. Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin is a very respectable man, but in reality he is empty. F.M. Dostoevsky more than once emphasizes his insignificance and spiritual inconsistency. He even has speaking surname- Luzhin, but the puddle is colorless. Colorlessness and soul emptiness for a writer it’s the same thing.

So, we can conclude that the use of certain colors in the novel “Crime and Punishment” plays an important role in revealing the content of the entire work. The color scheme of the novel corresponds to its plot scheme and ideological content, helps to reveal the idea of ​​the work, the characters of the characters and their state of mind.

The writer influences the reader through the image thanks to color. He uses words that help the reader imagine what is described in the work, while leaving their mark on the personality, worldview, and style of the author. The results of the study of color symbolism in Crime and Punishment convince us that the choice of colors in the novel should not be considered as a random or insignificant phenomenon.

Course work
5th year student
Morozova Maria
OZO literary department

Scientific adviser:
k.f. Sc., Associate Professor Kondratyeva V.V.

Taganrog
2012
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1. COLOR WRITING AS A LITERARY CATEGORY
CHAPTER 2. SYMBOLISM OF COLOR IN F. M. DOSTOEVSKY’S NOVEL “CRIME AND PUNISHMENT”
2.1. THE ROLE OF COLOR IN THE CREATION OF RODION RASKOLNIKOV’S IMAGE
2.2. THE ROLE OF COLOR IN THE CREATION OF SONIA MARMELADOVA’S IMAGE
2.3. THE ROLE OF COLOR IN CREATING THE IMAGE OF ST. PETERSBURG
CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY

INTRODUCTION
This work is an attempt to identify and study the symbolic meaning of color in the prose of F. M. Dostoevsky. The desire to most fully identify many obvious and hidden meanings contained in the images is dictated by the desire to understand the spiritual world of the writer and his system of values.
The content of the work is in line with the trends of modern literary criticism, which is actively developing the problem of interpreting a literary text.
To understand the deep meaning of the work, you need to know the “language of flowers”, their symbolic meaning. The work reveals the symbolism of flowers in Russian literature using the example of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment.”
The relevance of this work is determined by the following facts:
1) The symbolism of color in the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky. "Crime and Punishment" has not been sufficiently studied.
2) Dostoevsky is rightfully considered one of the best writers in the world. A subtle psychological analysis of the inner world of the heroes of his novels is revealed even more deeply through the prism of color symbolism, where Christian symbols occupy an important place.
Despite the large number of works exploring the semantic diversity of the writer’s works, this aspect of the study of his work remains relevant, since the process of comprehending the meaning of great artistic creations, which include the works of F.M. Dostoevsky, never-ending. No act of understanding works of art (even the most soulful and deep) can be the only and exhaustively correct one, because any artistic text is, according to B. M. Gasparov’s definition, “a part of the continuously moving stream of human experience” and each time exists in a new semantic environment , which is “each new case of a sentence and perception of a text.”
Subject of research: Symbolism of color in Dostoevsky F. M.’s novel “Crime and Punishment.”
Object of study: F. M. Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment.”
The purpose of the study of this work is to reveal the symbolism of color in the novel “Crime and Punishment”.
The goal involves solving the following tasks:
Tasks:
1) Study the theory of the issue of color painting in a literary text.
2) Study of theoretical material on the symbolism of color.
3) List the colors in the novel by F. M. Dostoevsky and identify their connection with the images of the heroes.
4) Analysis of the color symbolism “Crime and Punishment”
The theoretical and methodological basis of the research consists of works that consider the theory of symbol definition, problems of symbol and its connection with realistic art (A.F. Losev, S.S. Averintsev, A.P. Kvyatkovsky), works on the study of Dostoevsky’s symbolism of light in this work (A.F. Losev, K.V. Mochulsky).

CHAPTER 1. COLOR WRITING AS A LITERARY CATEGORY
...A symbol is only then a true symbol,
when it is inexhaustibly limitless in its meaning. It has many faces, many meanings and is always dark in its depth.

D. Merezhkovsky (On the causes of decline and new trends in modern Russian literature)

The question of the use of color in literary creativity as a special technique, a means of conveying the author’s consciousness and idiostyle features has not yet been thoroughly developed and does not have a clear theoretical basis. But it is impossible to talk about an absolute lack of information on this topic, since color is studied in other areas: design, psycholinguistics, art in general, iconography, folklore and mythology.
Color painting - The art of conveying colors and colors of the surrounding world through the language of a work of art. [Kuznetsov A. S. el. resource]
For researchers, color in literature has a special, exceptional interest, since the writer, like any person, uses it intuitively, subconsciously, which speaks of an individual worldview, an extraordinary view of the world around him. Although the use of a particular color can be explained by religious beliefs, education, upbringing, this is precisely the fundamental difference between color in literature and color, for example, in painting, where the use of color is often, but not always, subject to traditions, in which color is included into the system of studying painting directly. The pattern in the use of color terms goes back to ancient times. In the monuments of ancient Russian writing, the colors predominantly named, according to D.S. Likhachev, are white, black, and red [Likhachev D.S. el resource]. In the work of L.V. Zubova, the same feature is noted for Russian classical literature.[Zubova L.V. el. resource] The problem of color interests representatives of various sciences.
With the help of color, you can evoke in the reader a complex range of feelings and moods when perceiving a work of art, since it has enormous power emotional impact, the ability to express not only “visible” external signs, but also the most subtle psychological states. Throughout its history, humanity has developed a whole system of associations associated with one color or another, having a special symbolic meaning. It should also be remembered that each national culture has a specific perception of color. All this must be taken into account when analyzing works to indicate the author’s style.
All color terms can be divided into two functional groups: 1) naming the color of an object in nature [Likhachev D.S. el. resource] - an image of one of the real characteristics of something. In this consideration of color, one cannot speak of an absolute absence of symbolic meaning, since in every culture there are historically established associations, parallels of color with other objects and phenomena of reality. [Kandinsky V. el. resource] 2) sometimes carrying a symbolic meaning that is difficult to discern. It is this group of color terms that can better reveal individual facets of the writer’s individual style.
Color plays an important role in literary works, and it is important to consider that the depiction of color is not the writer’s goal, but serves as the realization of creative ideas. The use of color reveals the writer’s individual style, the author’s vision of the world and its embodiment in his works.

GL. 2. SYMBOLISM OF COLOR IN F. M. ZOSTOEVSKY’S NOVEL “CRIME AND PUNISHMENT”
We observe a completely special approach to color in F. M. Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment.” Dostoevsky's best novels, Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov, are much less colorful than Tolstoy's War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Although it is impossible not to note the common features in the evolution of color in the novels of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. For both writers, the transition to maturity is marked by a decline and limitation of color.
What is the reason for the sharp decrease in color in Russian democratic literature of the 50-80s of the 19th century? Perhaps this is a reflection of the acute conflict, crisis conditions of the era, bringing not only literature, but also part of painting closer to the atmosphere of tragedy?
Dostoevsky writes in “The Teenager”: “I write down only events, avoiding with all my might everything extraneous, and most importantly, literary beauties.” [Dostoevsky, p. 2] The artist, as we know, was not a master of landscape art; there are few landscapes in his works. But he has a lot of sunsets and images of the setting sun. As many as 45 descriptions! And of these - an amazing thing - only four mention color. The rest are completely devoid of color, but very sad. “Landscape is a state of mind,” someone said. This aphorism has the most direct relation to Dostoevsky. He has a special, peculiar sensitivity to color.
Dostoevsky is the creator of a psychologically accentuated, sharp-sounding color stroke. And this touch is always directed; it is given many complex shades, everyday and psychological overtones. Dostoevsky gives examples of the use of expressive color. This expression is created by the use of ordinary color, but alongside it there is an acute plot development. Dostoevsky introduces the reader to the world of a complicated but extremely expressive interpretation of color. He creates a completely original direction in its use in literature.
2.1. THE ROLE OF COLOR IN REVEALING THE IMAGE OF RODION RASKOLNIKOV.
The work of F. M. Dostoevsky is distinguished by the extreme drama of ideological clashes, the catastrophic nature of situations, and the irreconcilability of judgments. Dostoevsky sincerely and passionately expresses and defends his ideas and views, he suffers without finding answers to the complex questions of existence. The hero interests Dostoevsky not as an element of reality, possessing certain and solid social-typical and individual-characterological features, not as a certain appearance, composed of unambiguous and objective features, in their totality answering the question - “who is he?” No, Dostoevsky is interested in the hero as a special point of view on the world and on himself, as a semantic and evaluative position of a person in relation to himself and in relation to the surrounding reality. What is important to Dostoevsky is not what his hero is in the world, but what the world is for the hero and what he is for himself. [Bakhtin M.M. el. resource]
The minds of many people of the last century were dominated by the false idea of ​​the superiority of some people over others, the right of a strong personality to command others, to decide their destinies. The heroes of the analyzed novel - Rodion Raskolnikov and Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigailov - became prisoners of this idea.
Rodion Raskolnikov, the main character of the novel, lives in a gloomy, depressing environment in St. Petersburg. Poor student. Raskolnikov feels useless to anyone, an outcast among rich mansions and a dressed-up public. Depressed by poverty and the injustice of life, Raskolnikov decides to kill the pawnbroker Alena Ivanovna.
The idea was that, according to Rodion, you can commit a crime for the sake of the common good, a crime “in accordance with your conscience”: you can kill a stupid, senseless, insignificant, evil, sick, useless old woman, but on the contrary, harmful to everyone (1, el . resource), take her money and make amends for this “tiny criminal” with thousands of good deeds.
Raskolnikov thought a lot about this idea until he found an explanation for it. He came to the conclusion that all of humanity has long been divided into two categories: into ordinary people, subject to force, “trembling creatures,” and into supermen, to whom everything is permitted and who will stop at nothing, even before a crime. And this, Raskolnikov thinks, is an eternal and immutable law:
He who is strong and strong in mind and spirit is the ruler over them! Whoever dares a lot is right. Whoever can spit on more is their legislator... This is how things have been done until now and this is how it will always be! (1, electronic resource)
Having believed in this idea, Rodion wants to test himself: who is he - a “trembling creature” or a “lord of fate”? But, having killed the old pawnbroker, Raskolnikov became convinced that he was not at all a “being of a higher order,” since the crime brought him nothing but suffering and pangs of conscience.
And so, trying to remake human nature in himself, to separate will from conscience, Raskolnikov comes to a tragic split. Playing the role of a “lord,” he understands that such a role is not for him. Having killed the pawnbroker, Rodion kills everything human that connected him with the world around him, with people: “I killed myself, not the old woman.” (1, electronic resource)
After the murder, Raskolnikov experiences a state of detachment from the world, his soul is enveloped in a “dead cold.” This terrible feeling becomes retribution for the crime committed.
The hero realized that all people are invisibly connected with each other and each person, his life, is an unconditional value, therefore no one has the right to control the life of another person.
Raskolnikov's tragedy lies in the falsity of his own theory. He realized this after committing a crime, but was able to return to his former, normal life only through suffering.
The most common color in the novel turns out to be yellow. It is present almost constantly, has a strong impact on the characters and the reader, and is even the engine of the plot, determining the fate of the characters. S. M. Solovyov writes that Dostoevsky’s work was created using virtually one yellow background! This yellow background is a magnificent, holistic pictorial addition to the dramatic experiences of the heroes [S. M. Soloviev el. resource]. Dostoevsky clearly does not like the color yellow: he expressed his negative attitude towards yellow more than once. In addition to memories of childhood, other factors must have influenced the attitude towards color, first of all, knowledge of the traditional attitude towards it among the people, in Christianity.
The piercing yellow color in folk symbolism is associated with envy and jealousy (“yellow with envy”). Most often, yellow is understood as the color of the Sun: by its dual nature, it is “the color of instinct, guesswork, intuition, so easily confusing, which, after all, contains a kind of solar power, all-penetrating and all-enlightening. Golden-yellow, with a slight reddish tint, the color most often refers to mature wisdom; pale yellow - to insidious aggressiveness, for example in the idea of ​​​​the color of Judas’ clothes. [Losev A.F. el. resource] Therefore, in the Middle Ages, Jews had to wear yellow clothes.
In the novel “Crime and Punishment,” apparently, yellow (dirty, pale, burnt out) has the following meaning: aggressive insidiousness, betrayal, betrayal, sickness, unhealthy atmosphere as such. Let's analyze two examples: “She put her own cracked teapot in front of him, with tea already drunk, and put two yellow lumps of sugar.” “When he woke up, he saw that he was sitting on a chair, that some person was supporting him on the right, that another person was standing on the left, with a yellow glass filled with yellow water..” (1, electronic resource)
“Yellow sugar” is combined with a cracked teapot (broken, i.e. sick) and drunk tea, which is also yellow. In the second example, the “yellow glass”, that is, not washed for a long time, with a touch of yellow rust, and yellow rusty water are directly related to the hero’s illness, to his fainting state. We also encounter a painful, wretched yellowness when describing other things, for example: Alena Ivanovna’s “yellow fur jacket,” Raskolnikov’s “very red, all with holes and stains,” etc.
The color yellow in the novel is present in almost all rooms and creates an atmosphere of ill health, disorder, anguish, pain, and sadness. Dirty yellow, dull yellow, sickly yellow color evokes feelings of internal oppression, mental instability, and general depression. “A small room into which a young man walked, with yellow wallpaper. The furniture is all very old and made of yellow wood, penny pictures in yellow frames” 2. This is how Dostoevsky describes Alena Ivanovna’s apartment. And here is a description of Raskolnikov’s poor home. “It was a tiny cell, about six steps long, which had the most pitiful appearance with its yellow, dusty wallpaper, which was peeling off from the wall everywhere” 2 .
The constant, demonstrative use of this color contains Dostoevsky’s bitter irony and at the same time a deep humanistic subtext. The yellow color, which has become dirty in the novel, the brightness of which is muted, represents muted lives obscured by dirt, muted love of life, abilities and talents, suppressed joy of creativity, unclaimed human strength and potential. At the same time, Dostoevsky makes us understand that his heroes, lost and lonely, sick and oppressed by poverty, also deserve a normal life. This is one of the meanings of the yellow color background.
However, we should not forget that yellow, with all its vitality, is a very impulsive color, a color that awakens the imagination, activates brain activity, and moves a person to action.
The color yellow constantly accompanies Raskolnikov in the novel, and his thoughts are indeed very restless, and his actions are impulsive. Sometimes the hero falls into unconsciousness, sometimes he becomes unusually active and energetic.
In addition, another meaning of the color yellow is guessed here.
The color yellow reminds us of the sun, the sun is associated with power, greatness (Sun King Louis XIV). The idea of ​​power is also present in Raskolnikov’s theory: “power over the entire anthill,” over trembling creatures - this is exactly what the hero craves in the novel.
However, in criticism there are other interpretations of Dostoevsky’s yellow background. S. M. Soloviev, for example, believes that “the color yellow is associated here with an atmosphere of pain, sadness, and depression. [Soloviev S. M. el. resource]
Researchers of Dostoevsky’s work note that in all of world art there are few works like “Crime and Punishment” in which the yellow color would be so completely consistent. The analogy is drawn not with literature, but with painting, with the creative quest of the Dutch artist

Van Gogh. Van Gogh's painting “Cafe” depicts the hall of a provincial tavern with a bright yellow floor and hanging kerosene lamps, the light from which paints the figure of the owner and the entire furnishings yellow. “In my “Cafe,” Van Gogh wrote, “I tried to express that a cafe is a place where you can go crazy or commit a crime... All this expresses the atmosphere of a hot abyss, pale suffering. All this expresses darkness, in which, however, strength lies dormant.”[Wallace R. el. resource]
The results of the study of colorism as a functional phenomenon in Crime and Punishment convince us that both the paucity of use and the choice of colors in the novel should in no way be considered as random or insignificant phenomena. Colorism, even its apparent poverty, here carries a huge semantic load and is used as a means of expressing F. Dostoevsky’s plan and worldview, performing primarily the functions of revealing spiritual and philosophical content and emotional and psychological impact, and very rarely - a descriptive function.
Dostoevsky gradually reveals the image of Raskolnikov: we see him as a beloved son and brother, we understand his social and financial situation, we feel his proud spirit and are convinced of the responsiveness and compassion of his heart. At the same time, Dostoevsky avoids open descriptions of the character, soul, and worldview of the protagonist.
Thus, the color yellow, predominant in the description of the hero and the objects surrounding them, creates a deep impression of general wretchedness and morbidity. The author seems to be observing his hero through “yellow glasses”. This happens to a person who loses consciousness and sees everything in yellow for some time.
Other colors, and primarily red, acquire great symbolic meaning. In the novel it has many shades, so they can be interpreted differently. So, after the murder of Alena Ivanovna, her apartment, which was described in the first pages of the novel in yellow, acquires a red tint in Raskolnikov’s eyes, reminiscent of the color of blood. Raskolnikov notices that the apartment had a significant structure, more than an arshin in length, with a convex roof, upholstered in red morocco, with steel nails studded along it. The serrated key just fit and unlocked. On top, under a white sheet, lay a hare's fur coat, covered with a red set; underneath was a silk dress, then a shawl... First of all, he began to wipe his blood-stained hands on the red set. “Red, but blood is more inconspicuous on red,” he reasoned. (1, electronic resource) The contrast of red against the background of the usual yellow makes a strong impression on Raskolnikov. "God! Am I going crazy? - he thinks. It seems that the episode of Alena Ivanovna’s murder is painted in a bloody color: “blood gushed out like from an overturned glass,” “a whole puddle of blood,” “red morocco,” “red set.” Red color means the beginning of activity (pulse rises, blood pressure rises, breathing quickens).
The sunset was bright red when the hero abandoned his “obsession.” Nature itself seemed to support him at that moment.
There are shades of red in the novel, “hiding” in the names of the characters. For example, Porphyry in Greek means crimson, purple. Porphyra - purple.
The name Raskolnikov is also a color. In Greek, Rodion means pink. Quite a strange definition for a killer. In psychology, the color pink means tenderness, sometimes the desire to escape reality. And in fact, the hero’s sincere, kind actions convince us of the sensitivity and vulnerability of his rich soul, despite the double murder he committed.
The rest of the colors in the text are also not random. For example, black color is a mystery, the unknown. When Raskolnikov climbed the “back” stairs, “dark and narrow,” into Alena Ivanovna’s dark apartment, he did not yet know whether he would actually decide to kill. When the hero comes here for the second time, “two sharp and distrustful glances stared at him from the darkness” 2. Entering this terrible room, the hero seemed to have stepped from the threshold of his house into a dark, hopeless night, when nothing was visible at all, into a night that doomed him to death. It is interesting that Raskolnikov himself had “beautiful dark eyes.”
To summarize, the use of few colors in the novel is not accidental. Dostoevsky thus wanted to show the gradual disclosure and development of the image of Rodion Raskolnikov and used color symbolism to achieve this goal. All color symbols carry a huge semantic load and are used as a means of expressing F. M. Dostoevsky’s plan and worldview, performing, first of all, the functions of revealing spiritual and philosophical content and emotional and psychological impact
2.2. THE ROLE OF COLOR IN THE CREATION OF SONIA MARMELADOVA’S IMAGE
Sonya Marmeladova is a kind of limit of meekness and suffering. In the name of saving the children of her stepmother and her drunken father, who has sunk to the point of losing his human form, from starvation, she goes out onto the street and becomes a prostitute. “Since then, my lord,” he continued after some silence, “since then, due to one unfavorable incident and the report of ill-intentioned persons,” to which Daria Frantsovna especially contributed, because it was as if she had been deprived of due respect, “ from then on, my daughter, Sofya Semyonovna, was forced to receive a yellow ticket, and on this occasion she could no longer stay with us. Because the hostess, Amalia Fedorovna, didn’t want to allow this...” (1, electronic resource) And again we observe the author’s use of the color yellow as an indicator of Sonya’s unhealthy, disastrous position. The author does not directly indicate Sonya’s occupation, and this is what determines the use of the definition “yellow ticket”.
This is painful humiliation, the apotheosis of suffering and self-sacrifice. The meek, religiously exalted Sonya sacrifices everything that is especially dear to her and goes through the most severe suffering in the name of the happiness of her neighbors. Sonya professes moral precepts, which, from Dostoevsky’s point of view, are closest to the people - the covenants of humility, forgiveness, sacrificial love. She does not judge Raskolnikov for his sin, but painfully sympathizes with him and calls on him to “suffer” and atone for his guilt before God and before people.
Sonechka Marmeladova is destined to share the depth of Raskolnikov’s mental torment; it is to her that the hero decides to tell his terrible, painful secret. In the person of Sonya, Raskolnikov meets a person who is awakening in himself and whom he still pursues as a weak and helpless “trembling creature”: he suddenly raised his head and looked intently at her; but he met her restless and painfully caring gaze; there was love here; his hatred disappeared like a ghost. (1, electronic resource) “Nature” requires the hero to share with Sonechka the suffering of his crime, and not the manifestation that causes it. Sonechka’s Christian-compassionate love calls Raskolnikov to this type of recognition.
Now about the blue color. It is known that blue is the color of the sky, both visible and spiritual.
Dostoevsky endowed his favorite heroine, Sonechka Marmeladova, with wonderful blue eyes. But the blue color does not always express an unambiguous attitude towards it by the author and the heroes. For another hero, the same color produces a completely different impression. The blue color of the eyes of the vicious, cynical, internally devastated Svidrigailov takes on a strange, dual, deceitful meaning, complementing the characteristics of a scoundrel and libertine. The blue color of his eyes is used with the word “too”, which again evokes associations of danger, excessiveness of anything, and this is immediately alarming. Svidrigailov himself, with his blue eyes, looks disgusting: the eyes were somehow too blue, and their gaze was somehow too heavy and motionless. There was something terribly unpleasant in this handsome and extremely youthful, judging by his age, face. (1, electronic resource)
The blue color is also used in another capacity - as a means of enhancing irony, even ridicule, “participates” in a caricature scene to describe the toilet of Louise Ivanovna - a magnificent, crimson-red lady, the mistress of a “noble house.” (1, electronic resource)
The meaning of white color in life is air, sun, purity, insight, purity, innocence. Also, white color means holiness, salvation, priesthood, spiritual power. In Christianity, this color has always signified the innocence of the soul, the purity and holiness of life. This color can also mean isolation, sterility, disappointment, numbness, boredom, stiffness.
Contrasting with black, white is a symbol of purity, innocence, but at the same time grief and sadness. The meek Sonechka had blond hair. But Svidrigailov’s hair is exactly the same, “maybe a little gray.” Here we are again faced with the fact that for Dostoevsky the same color can mean both holiness and only a shell behind which a sinful nature is hidden.
The color green is also found in the novel. And, as a rule, it is symbolic. Green is the color of protection. Turning to church canons, we see that Trinity Cathedrals can also have green domes, since green is the color of the Holy Spirit. (7, online resource)
There is almost no greenery as an element of the summer landscape in the work, despite the fact that the events take place in the summer season, in July. Except for the picture that appeared to Svidrigailov half asleep on the eve of suicide. Dostoevsky indicates the holiday - Trinity Day, the day of the Most Holy Trinity, a holiday dedicated to the unity of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. This is a holiday of harmony of spirit, soul and body. Only in such harmony is development, well-being, flowering, and growth possible.
But the most striking symbol in the work is the green draped shawl. Moreover, in comparison with other characteristics of this symbol (large, draped, common, family), the green color in it carries the greatest functional load. This is a symbol that the Marmeladov family seems to be under the protection of some higher power. The object itself—the scarf and its color—suggests the idea of ​​the Protection of the Virgin Mary. On the first pages of the novel, in Marmeladov’s story, Sonya appears in this scarf after sacrificing herself for the sake of her neighbors. On the last pages of Crime and Punishment there is also her image in a green scarf, the image of the heroine who brought Raskolnikov back to life.
However, despite the fairly clear objective and definite symbolic use of green in the novel Crime and Punishment, it is useful to know all the meanings of green in order to be convinced of the author's intention regarding the presence and role of green in the work, as well as to experience all its semantic nuances. Therefore, we turn to the Encyclopedia of Symbols:
Green, like many other colors, has a dual meaning in a symbolic sense... In popular belief, green symbolizes, first of all, hope. Where greenery blooms, there is simply nature, there is self-evident growth... the experience of spring. When, for example, even the devil appears as “Green,” this means that he remained there in the guise of an ancient plant god. However, this is also countered by negative content: the immense appearance of greenery in all dreams means an oversaturation of negative natural attractions. [Eppley E el. resource] Christian symbolism finds this color the color of the middle and mediation, equidistant from both the blue of heaven and the red of hell, calming, refreshing, the color of contemplation, the expectation of rebirth. The Cross of Christ as a symbol of hope and Salvation is often presented as green... the throne of the Supreme Judge - as if consisting of green jasper (jasper) (Rev. 4: 3). [Eppley E. el. resource]
As we can see, it is no coincidence that Dostoevsky is so restrained in his use of the color green: in the world he depicts there is no “oversaturation of natural inclinations”; they only appear accusatory in Svidrigailov’s delirium on the eve of his suicide. The lack of greenery indicates the absence of even the necessary development of what is given by nature.
Considering in detail the use of colors when creating the image of Sonya Marmeladova, we can note that Dostoevsky introduces colors that are practically opposite to those used in the creation of Rodion Raskolnikov. This reflects the worldview position of the author himself and his manifestation as a humanist writer. The image of Sonya, Dostoevsky’s favorite image, appears in the novel as the basis of goodness, mercy, self-sacrifice and compassion.
2.3. THE ROLE OF COLOR IN CREATING THE IMAGE OF ST. PETERSBURG.
The theme of St. Petersburg is traditional for Russian literature. The action of F. M. Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment” takes place in St. Petersburg. This city many times became the protagonist of Russian fiction, but each time it was a new city: either proudly displaying its palaces and parks “full of lands of beauty and wonder,” as Pushkin called it, then – a city of slums and narrow streets – “ stone bags." Each writer saw and described the city in his own way, in accordance with the artistic task that faced him. Petersburg in “Crime and Punishment” is a city of loneliness. There is no warmth of human communication or home comfort anywhere. Raskolnikov feels an inexplicable cold in the capital. The misfortune of living in St. Petersburg breaks the fate of the heroes and leads them to extreme despair. It is no coincidence that the action of the novel is assigned to the city of white nights, which are especially conducive to waking dreams. Having created the image of St. Petersburg, the writer thereby showed the basis by which the personality and worldview of the person in it is determined. Raskolnikov’s theory was born here. It is known that Dostoevsky did not at all invent it, but almost completely borrowed it from life. Such ideas were really in the air in those years. They took on different forms, but the principle itself – “permissiveness” – was the same. It is this principle that unites Raskolnikov, Luzhin, Svidrigailov and, perhaps, Lebezyatnikov in the novel; they only explain it differently, each for himself..
It is precisely this unnatural, illusory life of the capital that seems so strikingly different from the norm of human existence to the author as a dream. The revival of Raskolnikov's soul is unthinkable in such a situation; it is not without reason that a completely different landscape appears in the epilogue of the novel. From the high bank a wide vicinity opened up. A song could be heard faintly from the farther bank. There, in the sun-drenched vast steppe, nomadic yurts were blackened as barely noticeable dots. There was freedom and other people lived there,
etc.................

There are many symbolic details in Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment. The names of the characters are symbolic, the opening landscapes and interiors are significant. The color scheme of the novel and its color scheme are also characteristic.

Researchers of Dostoevsky's work have repeatedly noted the predominance of one color in the color scheme of the novel - yellow. Indeed, all the action in the novel takes place almost against a yellow background.

The yellow tone in the novel penetrates not only the interior, but also the portrait. Alena Ivanovna is dressed in a yellowed fur jacket, in her room there is yellow wallpaper, furniture made of yellow wood, pictures in yellow frames. Raskolnikov has an “emaciated, pale yellow face,” his room has “dirty, yellow wallpaper,” and when Rodion becomes ill, he is served “a yellow glass filled with yellow water.” Porfiry Petrovich has a “sick, dark yellow face”; in his office there is government furniture, “made of yellow, polished wood.” Katerina Ivanovna has a “pale yellow, withered face,” Marmeladov has a “swollen, yellow face from constant drunkenness,” and in Sonya’s room there is “yellowish, scrubbed and worn-out wallpaper.”

The image of St. Petersburg is also depicted in yellow tones in Crime and Punishment. So, standing on the bridge, Raskolnikov sees a woman “with a yellow, elongated, worn-out face.” Suddenly she rushes into the water. Raskolnikov learns that this is not her first suicide attempt. Previously, she “wanted to hang herself,” “they took her off the rope.” This scene embodies the motif of hopelessness, a dead end, when a person “has nowhere else to go.” The bright yellow houses on Bolshoy Prospekt, not far from where Svidrigailov shot himself, look sad and dirty.

What is the meaning of this yellow coloring in Dostoevsky's novel?

It is known that yellow is the color of the sun, the color of life, joy, energy, conducive to communication and openness. In the novel, the meaning of this color seems to be inverted: it often frames poverty, illness and death. Raskolnikov sits alone in his “yellow chamber”; before his death, Svidrigailov rents a room in a cheap hotel, and in his room there is the same dirty, yellow wallpaper.

The constant, demonstrative use of this color contains Dostoevsky’s bitter irony and at the same time a deep humanistic subtext. The yellow color, which has become dirty in the novel, the brightness of which is muted, represents muted lives obscured by dirt, muted love of life, abilities and talents, suppressed joy of creativity, unclaimed human strength and potential. At the same time, Dostoevsky makes us understand that his heroes, lost and lonely, sick and oppressed by poverty, also deserve a normal life. This is one of the meanings of the yellow color background.

However, we should not forget that yellow, with all its vitality, is a very impulsive color, a color that awakens the imagination, activates brain activity, and moves a person to action.

The color yellow constantly accompanies Raskolnikov in the novel, and his thoughts are indeed very restless, and his actions are impulsive. Sometimes the hero falls into unconsciousness, sometimes he becomes unusually active and energetic.

In addition, another meaning of the color yellow is guessed here. The color yellow reminds us of the sun, the sun is associated with power, greatness (Sun King Louis XIV). The idea of ​​power is also present in Raskolnikov’s theory: “power over the entire anthill”, over the trembling creatures - this is exactly what the hero craves in the novel.

However, in criticism there are other interpretations of Dostoevsky’s yellow background. S. M. Solovyov, for example, believes that the color yellow is associated here with an atmosphere of pain, sadness, and depression.

In addition, we should not forget that “Crime and Punishment” is a St. Petersburg novel. And Petersburg is second half of the 19th century century - the city of the “golden bag”. "Passion for Gold" stronger than love“, in the kingdom of monetary relations, love, beauty, a woman, a child... turn into a commodity that can be traded...” wrote V. Ya. Kirpotin. Therefore, the yellow color background in the novel, in addition, symbolizes gold and commodity-money relations.

In addition to yellow, in descriptions of nature and in portraits in Dostoevsky’s novel, the color red is often found, which is associated mainly with the image of Raskolnikov. In his first dream, he sees large, drunken men in red shirts. Their faces are red. A “woman” in red sits nearby. On the bridge, Raskolnikov sees the sunset of a “bright, red sun.” He pawns the pawnbroker “a small gold ring with three red stones.” Under Alena Ivanovna’s bed he finds a bed set “upholstered in red morocco.” Under the white sheet the old woman has a hare's fur coat, "covered with a red set." The red color here embodies aggression, rage, anger. Its extreme embodiment is blood.

Thus, the color scheme of the novel corresponds to its plot scheme and ideological content. Everything positive and joyful in the lives of the heroes is so shaded, blurred and muffled that the aggressive, destructive element begins to dominate in a person, and blood flows. Thus, the color background in the novel merges with its philosophical orientation, thoughts about the world and man.