Crime and Punishment

I've been hesitant to post about Crime and Punishment because I have read it before, and I didn't want to give anything away. However, since we are approaching the finish of the novel, I figure that it's all right to start posting about Crime and Punishment....especially because the cranky old man is grading a blog post on it.

Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigailov was Dunia's former employer. Although Svidrigailov was married, he was infatuated with Dunia and according to Pulcheria Alexandrovna (Dunia and Rodia's mother) Svidrigailov "[...] lost all control and dared to make Dunia an open and vile proposal, promising her all sorts of inducements and offering, besides, to drop everything and take her to another estate of his, or even abroad!"

Unfortunately, Svidrigailov's wife (Marfa Petrovna) over- heard. Dunia was fired, and Marfa went around the village slandering her name. Svidrigailov, however, argued with his wife on behalf of Dunia's innocence; Marfa was finally convinced, and arranged a marriage for Dunia with one of her distant relations, Peter Petrovich Luzhin.

Luzhin, Dunia, and Pulcheria later moved to St. Petersburg, where Rodia was loging. Svidrigailov journeyed to St. Petersburg, as well, after his wife had died; he visited Rodia and stated that he no longer had feelings for Dunia, but he did not wish her to marry Luzhin because he was not a respectable man.

Dunia did call off the engagement because Luzhin did not respect, and was cruel to Rodia, Pulcheria, and her.

Many would see Svidrigailov as a romantic hero. He was willing to leave his wife for Dunia, he begged his wife to save her reputation, and he could not bare to see her marry a man that would treat her unkindly.

However, Svidrigailov can also be viewed as the negation of a romantic hero. He was willing to abandon his wife and children for younger woman. He ruined Dunia's reputation by proposing to her. Not to mention, he wanted to convince her to break off her engagement, which would have brought her and her family out of poverty, and yet he did not want to marry her himself; thus, he was essentially leaving her on her own, without a penny (or kopeck I should say).