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/lit/ - Literature

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12521314 No.12521314 [Reply] [Original]

What is he intended to show the reader in the book? It would seem like he is a monolithic "bad guy." He is a pedophile, he attempted to rape Dunya and he drove his servent to suicide. Yes, he did give money to Sonia and the other kids but it seems like it was an attempt to groom them. So what is the reasoning for Dostoevsky to put such a one dimensional character in the book?

>> No.12521353

He is haunted by his evil, that's why he kills himself. He relents from his final efforts to rape, he isn't really monolithic.

What does he signify? Judas, the unrepentant alternative to Raskolnikov. Raskolnikov could either kill himself, or face the music. Arkady shows us the alternative

>> No.12521393

>>12521353
Thanks for the explanation. I think I misinterpreted his suicide as coming out of his frustration at Dounia for not loving him, not as him regretting his past actions towards Dounia.

>> No.12521397

He's my favorite character in the book. A dark mirror, showing us that a man who can't live with himself must die.

>> No.12521404

>>12521393
lol the guy is a child rapist who murdered his wife, he wasn't done in by unrequited love

>> No.12522053

>>12521393
Well yeah. If he was just frustrated, he would have just shot Dunya and got away with it. There were little to none holes in his plan to trap her.

>> No.12522058

>>12521397
Fuck you.

>> No.12522887

>>12521314
He, along with Luzhin, is a representation of what Raskolnikov would have become if he had stayed on the path he had.

>> No.12523786
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12523786

I think the Svidrigailav may have some mild bi polarism. The way he spoke when he first came to Raskolnikov had some earmarks of a manic state.
I think >>12521393 probably triggered a depression causing he to dwell more heavily on his deeds
When he is having wine and talking about himself in the saloon he even admits that he is often of a brooding and gloomy nature.

I just finished the chapter ending his life and honestly it may be the very best passage in the whole novel rivaled only by the horse beating fever dream.

>> No.12524045

>>12523786
Yep the last chapter is by bar my favorite. His dream about the small girl who he described as having a smile of a french prostitute was really incredible.