Fear as an Incentive for Deplorable Actions

Domingues

Beatriz Domingues

Ms. Landmark

IB English A1 (HL)

01 March 2009

Fear as an Incentive for Deplorable Actions

Fear has been since the time of Caesar, an incentive for people to commit iniquities. It is easy to find oneself when in fear of losing a person, a status or a belief to commit appalling actions all for the sake of his fear. In historical texts it is common to see notes regarding Caesar and his sentence to kill Jesus for fear of losing the respect of his people, demonstrating the concealing of true convictions. While giving life to his characters, Dostoevsky utilizes the motif of fear in Crime and Punishment to demonstrate how fear compels his characters to perform deplorable actions, consequence of this feeling. Dostoevsky first addresses this fear in Part One Chapter Two when Marmeladov and Raskolnikov are at a tavern dialoguing and Marmeladov mentions that Katerina Ivanovna, his proud wife, suffers with the current condition of her life as she “began to cough and even spit blood” (Dostoevsky 12) while spending days “scrubbing and washing and bathing” (Dostoevsky 12) uncommon for those that come from her corresponding high education. It is however this fear of failing in her life that leads Katerina, in moment of “distraction, when she was ill and wrought up, and the children were crying with hunger” to acuse Marmeladov’s daughter, Sonya of being inconvenient in the house by stating, “Here you are living with us, eating and drinking and keeping warm, you lazy good-for nothing” (Dostoevsky 14). However the consequences of Katerina’s conduct are unquestionably the deplorable act as Marmeladov narrates that he saw “little Sonya get up (…) and go out, (…) after eight she came back. She came in and went straight to Katerina Ivanovna and laid thirty silver roubles on the table without a word” ( Dostoevsky 14), illustrating Sonya’s self sacrifice, repercussion of Katerina’s words.

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Dostoevsky further exemplifies fear as a compelling factor to commit deplorable acts as he describes Luzhin’s dependence on Dunya for being a person who feels indebted to him for saving her untruthfully blemished reputation and his reaction when losing her. In fear of not retaining her back, Luzhin decides to prove Raskolnikov wrong in his assertions since it was he who had convinced both Pulkheria and Dunya that Luzhin was not truly in love with her after being consumed by anger after being defied when Dunya is accompanied by both to meet him. Luzhin initiates this plan as he “wrote to my [Raskolnikov’s] mother and informed her that I had given all my money (…) to Sofya Semenovna” (Dostoevsky 339) and not the funeral they would come to attend. To finally prove Raskolnikov’s assertions were wrong in fear of losing Dunya, Luzhin “had contrived to show that Sofya Semenovna was a thief (…) he was almost right in his suspicions, that he was justified in being angry with me (…) attacking me to consequently defend and protect the honor of my sister and his future wife”(Dostoevsky 339). Dostoevsky then exemplifies that it was within the feeling of utmost fear that Luzhin would blemish one’s reputation in such a shameful way.
It is, however, through Raskolnikov that Dostoevsky epitomizes fear as an incentive for deplorable acts. Although subtle, a reason to be taken into consideration for the murder of Alyona is Raskolnikov’s fear of being ordinary. Through a conversation between Porfiry, Razumikhin and Raskolnikov, Dostoevsky with precise diction states through the mouth of Porfiry, Raskolnikov’s greatest fear of being ordinary as he says, “All men are divided into ‘ordinary’ and ‘extraordinary’. Ordinary men have to live in submission, have no right to transgress the law, because , don’t you see they are ordinary. But extraordinary men have a right to commit any crime and to transgress the law in any way, just because they are extraordinary.” This is the fear that drives Raskolnikov to ascertain his state of superiority like Napoleon and to commit, without great thought the murder of Alyona, his deplorable action that shows him he is nothing but ‘ordinary’. Dostoevsky then illustrates through the characters of Katerina Ivanovna, Peter Petrovich Luzhin and Rodnya Raskolnikov how it is unchallenging to find oneself when in fear of losing a status, a person or a belief to commit disgraceful actions, consequence of this feeling.