Lesson topic: Analysis of the episode “Raskolnikov on the Nikolaevsky Bridge” based on the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky “Crime and Punishment” Objectives: 1. develop the ability to work with text, paying attention to the WORD of the writer; 2. check the development of reading and analytical skills; 3. learn to perceive an episode holistically, comprehensively, to see in a separate fragment of a work of art an expression of the author’s position on the world and man, and convey this through one’s own interpretation of the text. We continue to work on Dostoevsky's novel “Crime and Punishment” SLIDE 1 Topic of our lesson: Analysis of the episode “Raskolnikov on Nikolaevsky Bridge” SLIDE 2 1. Review conversation - What is an episode? (E. - a small part of a literary work that plays a certain structural role in the development of the plot. A part of a work of art that has relative completeness and represents a separate moment in the development of the theme. SLIDE 3 The content of the episode consists of the actions of the characters, small incidents or a major event that gives a new direction to the development of the plot , which in major works is built on the concatenation of a number of episodes). SLIDE 4 - Why is the last statement important? (E. is a complete, but not isolated passage of text, so analysis of an episode is a way to comprehend the meaning of an entire work through its fragment) SLIDE 5 - How are the boundaries of an episode determined? (Either by a change of characters, or by the accomplishment of a new event) - Why is it important to determine the place of a fragment in the structure of the artistic whole? Temporary, cause-and-effect relationships ___________1__________________________________________________________ Exposition denouement plot development of action culmination - Are there any connections between the episodes? (There are connections between episodes: cause-and-effect, cause-temporal, temporary) SLIDE 6 SLIDE 7 When working on an episode, we must identify important motives, ideas, artistic techniques, and the author’s creative style. Only after this do we have the right to talk about the most important features of the entire work! The events contained in the episode contain a certain motive (meeting, quarrel, argument,...) i.e. The content function of an episode can be Characterological. i.e. reflect the character of the hero, his worldview Psychological, i.e. reveals the hero's state of mind and his psychology. Evaluative, i.e. contain the author's assessment in a lyrical digression. May mark a turn in the relationship of the characters. Episode - is a micro-theme, a separate work with its own composition, in which there is an exposition, a plot, a climax, and a denouement. SLIDE 8 (CITY OF PETERSBURG) In the previous lesson, we drew attention to one of the most important themes of the novel - the theme of St. Petersburg. The city becomes the real protagonist of the novel, the action of the work takes place precisely on its streets because Dostoevsky, in his own way, comprehended the place of this city in Russian history. And although Dostoevsky’s Petersburg is a city of taverns and “corners”, it is a city of Sennaya Square, dirty alleys and tenement buildings, one day it will appear before the hero in all its majestic beauty. Before us is the episode “Raskolnikov on the Nikolaevsky Bridge” (part 2, chapter 2) SLIDE 9 (RASKOLNIKOV) - Our task is to understand: why does Dostoevsky introduce this scene into the novel? Let's read this episode. - What did you notice? What actions are taking place? (He walks in deep thought, almost got hit by a horse, for which he received a blow with a whip, which made him wake up. And then he felt that in his hand was clamped a two-kopeck piece, which a compassionate merchant’s wife had given him in the form of alms.) - Was it a coincidence that Raskolnikov ended up on Nikolaevsky Bridge? - What paradox did you notice? (This is the first thing that Dostoevsky draws the attention of readers: his hero, who ranked himself among the people of the highest rank, looks in the eyes of others simply as a beggar) - But it is important to understand why exactly here, in this place, the author made his hero wake up? Why does he forget the pain of the whip? (From the bridge, he had a magnificent view of the city. He was again faced with a riddle, the secret of the “magnificent panorama” that had long troubled his mind and heart. Now in front of him is not a city of slums, in front of him is a city of palaces and cathedrals - SLIDE 10, the personification of the supreme power of Russia. This is the Winter Palace, St. Isaac's Cathedral, the buildings of the Senate and Synod, the Bronze Horseman.) - How did Raskolnikov feel at that moment? What did he think? (The picture is majestic and cold. Only now he fully felt what step he had taken, against what he raised his ax.) - What symbolic meaning does the panorama of St. Petersburg acquire in this scene? Why does she smell cold? - Here, on the Nikolaevsky Bridge, Raskolnikov and the world hostile to him stood against each other. - What role does such an artistic detail as a two-kopeck coin clutched in the hero’s fist play in the scene? SLIDE 11 (RASKOLNIKOV, TWO-KREEN) = Now such an artistic detail as the two-kopeck piece clutched in Raskolnikov’s fist takes on a different meaning. He, who rebelled against the world of palaces and cathedrals, is considered a beggar, worthy only of compassion and pity. He, who wanted to gain power over the world, found himself cut off from people, finding himself in that yard of space that constantly arose in his cruel thoughts. This “end-to-end” image of the novel receives almost material embodiment in this scene, while remaining at the same time a symbol of enormous generalizing power. SLIDE 12 - What emotional and semantic meaning does the image of the abyss that opened up under Raskolnikov’s feet acquire? Dostoevsky showed in this scene Raskolnikov’s loneliness, his isolation from the world of people, makes the reader notice the abyss that opened up under the hero’s feet. The impression of this scene is enhanced not only by the artistic details, but also by the very rhythmic structure of the phrase, with which the author was able to convey the movement of Raskolnikov’s thoughts, the very process of his separation from people. “In some depth, barely visible under his feet, all of his former past, and former thoughts, and former tasks, and former themes, and former impressions, and this whole panorama, and himself, and everything, now appeared. everything... IT SEEMED HE FLY UP SOMEWHERE, and everything disappeared in his eyes...” This feeling of flying to nowhere, of being cut off, of the terrible loneliness of a person is intensified by several artistic details that were given a little earlier. “The sky was almost without the slightest cloud, and the water was almost blue...” Let’s mentally imagine from what point R.’s “magnificent panorama” of St. Petersburg opened up. He stood on the bridge, below him was the blue abyss of rivers and above him - the blue sky. This very real picture is filled in the novel with enormous symbolic content in comparison with all the events that we learn about from the text of the novel a little earlier. SLIDE 13 (RASKOLNIKOV) The two-kopeck coin clenched in R.’s fist (also an artistic detail filled with deep symbolic meaning) connects this episode with the scene on the boulevard, when the hero donated his twenty kopecks to save the poor girl. It connects not only because the fate of this girl is similar to the fate of Sonya, those close to the hero, but also because an ethical question of enormous importance is raised here: does he, Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, have the right to help people now, and if not, then who Luzhin has this right? Svidrigailov? Someone else? And what does it mean to help? So a small artistic detail draws us to the hero’s thoughts about serious moral problems. =How is the scene “On the Nikolaevsky Bridge” related to the preceding and subsequent content of the novel? SLIDE 14 (LAST) So a tiny episode, an infinitesimal link in the “labyrinth of connections” helps us understand the author’s intention as a whole. = Which scene and from which work of A.S. Pushkin does the scene on the Nikolaevsky Bridge echo? What are the similarities and differences between the situations? (A.S. Pushkin “The Bronze Horseman”: Eugene - sitting on a lion, saw in front of him “an idol on a bronze horse” - challenges; Raskolnikov does not challenge - he wants to establish himself in this world). In a world in which the owners of the meadows, the Svidrigailovs,..., we will talk about them in the next lesson. D/Z: Images of Luzhin, Svidrigailov

", part 2, chapter 2.)

...Raskolnikov was already going out into the street. On the Nikolaevsky Bridge he had to once again fully wake up as a result of one very unpleasant incident for him. The driver of one of the carriages lashed him firmly on the back with a whip because he almost got run over by the horses, despite the fact that the coachman shouted to him three or four times. The blow of the whip angered him so much that, jumping back to the railing (it is unknown why he was walking in the very middle of the bridge, where people drive, not walk), he angrily gnashed and clicked his teeth. There was, of course, laughter all around.

- And let's get to work!

- Some kind of burning.

“It’s known that he pretends to be drunk and deliberately gets under the wheels; and you are responsible for him.

- That’s what they do, venerable, that’s what they do...

Crime and Punishment. Feature film 1969 Episode 1

But at that moment, as he stood at the railing and was still meaninglessly and angrily looking after the retreating carriage, rubbing his back, he suddenly felt that someone was pushing money into his hands. He looked: an elderly merchant's wife, in a headdress and goat's shoes, and with her a girl, in a hat and with a green umbrella, probably her daughter. “Accept, father, for Christ’s sake.” He took it and they walked past. Two hryvnia money. Judging by his dress and appearance, they could very well take him for a beggar, for a real collector of pennies on the street, and he probably owed the gift of a whole two-kopeck piece to the blow of the whip, which moved them to pity.

He clutched the two-kopeck piece in his hand, walked ten steps and turned to face the Neva, in the direction of the palace. The sky was without the slightest cloud, and the water was almost blue, which is so rare on the Neva. The dome of the cathedral, which is not better outlined from any point than when looking at it from here, from the bridge, not twenty steps from the chapel, was shining, and through the clear air one could clearly see even every one of its decorations. The pain from the whip subsided, and Raskolnikov forgot about the blow; One restless and not entirely clear thought now occupied him exclusively. He stood and looked into the distance long and intently; this place was especially familiar to him. When he went to university, it usually happened, most often when returning home, that he would stop, perhaps a hundred times, at this very same place, gaze intently at this truly magnificent panorama, and each time he would almost be surprised by one unclear and insoluble problem of his own. impression. An inexplicable chill always blew over him from this magnificent panorama; This magnificent picture was full of a mute and deaf spirit for him... Each time he marveled at his gloomy and mysterious impression and put off its solution, not trusting himself, to the future. Now he suddenly suddenly remembered these previous questions and perplexities, and it seemed to him that it was not by chance that he now remembered them. One thing seemed wild and wonderful to him, that he stopped in the same place as before, as if he really imagined that he could think about the same things now as before, and be interested in the same old themes and pictures, what I was interested... just recently. He even felt almost funny and at the same time his chest was squeezed to the point of pain. In some depth, below, somewhere barely visible under his feet, all this former past, and former thoughts, and former tasks, and former themes, and former impressions, and this whole panorama, and himself, and everything, everything... It seemed as if he was flying up somewhere and everything was disappearing in his eyes... Having made one involuntary movement with his hand, he suddenly felt a two-kopeck note clutched in his fist. He unclenched his hand, looked intently at the coin, swung it and threw it into the water; then he turned and went home. It seemed to him that it was as if he had cut himself off from everyone and everything at that moment with scissors.

He arrived at his place in the evening, which means he had only been there for about six hours. Where and how he walked back, he didn’t remember anything. Having undressed and trembling all over like a driven horse, he lay down on the sofa, pulled on his overcoat and immediately forgot...

The image of St. Petersburg, created in Russian literature, amazes with its gloomy beauty, sovereign greatness, but also with its “European” coldness and indifference. This is how Pushkin saw Petersburg when he created the poem “The Bronze Horseman” and the story “The Station Warden.” Gogol emphasized everything incredible and fantastic in the image of St. Petersburg. In Gogol’s depiction, Petersburg is a city of illusion, a city of the absurd, which gave birth to Khlestakov, the official Poprishchin, and Major Kovalev. Nekrasov’s Petersburg is already a completely realistic city, where “everything merges, groans, hums,” a city of poverty and lawlessness of the Russian people.

Dostoevsky follows the same traditions in depicting St. Petersburg in his novel Crime and Punishment. Here the very place of action, as M. Bakhtin noted, “is on the border of being and non-being, reality and phantasmagoria, which is about to dissipate like fog and disappear.”

The city in the novel becomes a real character, with its own appearance, character, and way of life. The very first contact with him turns into failure for Raskolnikov. St. Petersburg does not seem to “accept” Raskolnikov, looking indifferently at his plight. A poor student has nothing to pay for an apartment or for studying at the university. His closet reminds Pulcheria Alexandrovna of a “coffin.” Rodion's clothes had long since turned into rags. Some drunk, mocking his suit, calls him a “German hatter.” On the Nikolaevsky Bridge, Raskolnikov almost fell under a carriage; the coachman lashed him with a whip. Some lady, mistaking him for a beggar, gave him alms.

And Raskolnikov’s “vague and insoluble impression” seems to capture this coldness, the inaccessibility of the City. From the Neva embankment, the hero enjoys a magnificent panorama: “the sky... without the slightest cloud,” “the water is almost blue,” “clean air,” the shining dome of the cathedral. However, “an inexplicable chill always blew over him from this magnificent panorama; This magnificent picture was full of a dumb and deaf spirit for him.”

However, if St. Petersburg is cold and indifferent to the fate of Raskolnikov, then this city mercilessly “persecuts” the Marmeladov family. Constant poverty, hungry children, a “cold corner”, Katerina Ivanovna’s illness, Marmeladov’s destructive passion for drinking, Sonya, forced to sell herself in order to save her family from death - these are the terrifying pictures of the life of this unfortunate family.

Marmeladov, who was secretly proud of his wife, dreamed of giving Katerina Ivanovna the life she deserved, settling the children, and returning Sonya “to the bosom of the family.” However, his dreams are not destined to come true - the relative family well-being vaguely outlined ahead in the form of Semyon Zakharovich’s enrollment in the service was sacrificed to his destructive passion. Numerous drinking establishments, the disdainful attitude of people, the very atmosphere of St. Petersburg - all this stands as an insurmountable obstacle to Marmeladov’s happy, prosperous life, driving him to despair. “Do you understand, do you understand, dear sir, what it means when there is nowhere else to go?” - Marmeladov exclaims bitterly. The fight against St. Petersburg turns out to be beyond the power of the poor official. The city, this accumulation of human vices, emerges victorious in an unequal struggle: Marmeladov is crushed by a rich crew, Katerina Ivanovna died of consumption, leaving the children orphans. Even Sonya, who is trying to actively resist life’s circumstances, eventually leaves St. Petersburg, following Raskolnikov to Siberia.

It is characteristic that Petersburg turns out to be close and understandable to the most “demonic” hero of the novel, Svidrigailov: “The people get drunk, the youth, educated from inaction, burn out in unrealistic dreams and dreams, are deformed in theories; the Jews came in large numbers from somewhere, hide money, and everything else is debauched. This city smelled like a familiar smell to me from the very first hours.”

Svidrigailov notes that Petersburg is a city whose gloomy, dreary atmosphere has a depressing effect on the human psyche. “In St. Petersburg, a lot of people walk and talk to themselves. This is a city of half-crazy people. If we had sciences, then doctors, lawyers, philosophers could do the most precious research on St. Petersburg, each in their own specialty. Rarely where can you find so many dark, harsh and strange influences on the human soul as in St. Petersburg. What are climate influences alone worth? Meanwhile, this is the administrative center of all of Russia and its character should be reflected in everything,” says Arkady Ivanovich.

And the hero is right in many ways. The very atmosphere of the City seems to contribute to Raskolnikov's crime. Heat, stuffiness, lime, forests, bricks, dust, the unbearable stench from taverns, drunks, prostitutes, fighting ragamuffins - all this inspires the hero with a “feeling of deepest disgust.” And this feeling takes possession of the hero’s soul, extending to those around him and to life itself. After the crime, Raskolnikov is overcome by “an endless, almost physical disgust for everything he has encountered and everything around him, persistent, angry, hateful. Everyone he meets is disgusting to him—their faces, their gait, their movements are disgusting.” And the reason for this feeling is not only the hero’s condition, but also St. Petersburg life itself.

As Yu.V. notes Lebedev, Petersburg also has a detrimental effect on human morals: people in this city are cruel, devoid of pity and compassion. They seem to inherit all the bad qualities of the City that gave birth to them. So, an angry coachman, shouting at Raskolnikov to move aside, lashed him with a whip, and this scene aroused the approval of those around him and their ridicule. In the tavern everyone laughs loudly at the story of the drunken Marmeladov. For visitors to the “establishment” he is a “funny man”. His death itself, Katerina Ivanovna’s grief, becomes the same “fun” for those around him. When a priest visits the dying Marmeladov, the doors from the inner rooms begin to gradually open to “curious” people, and “spectators” crowd more and more densely into the hallway. Confession and communion of Semyon Zakharovich for the residents is nothing more than a performance. And in this Dostoevsky sees an insult to the very mystery of death.

The ugliness of life led to a violation of all norms of intra-family relations. Alena Ivanovna and Lizaveta are sisters. Meanwhile, in Alena Ivanovna’s relationship with her sister, not only manifestations of love are not noticeable, but also at least some kindred feelings. Lizaveta remains “in complete slavery to her sister,” works for her “day and night” and suffers beatings from her.

Another “reasonable lady” in the novel is thinking about how to sell her own daughter, a sixteen-year-old high school student, at a higher price. The rich landowner Svidrigailov turns up, and the “judicious lady,” not embarrassed by the groom’s age, immediately blesses the “young people.”

Finally, Sonya's behavior is also not entirely logical. She sacrifices herself for the sake of Katerina Ivanovna’s young children, sincerely loves them, but after the death of her parents she easily agrees to send the children to an orphanage.

St. Petersburg appears dark and ominous in numerous interiors, landscapes, and crowd scenes. As V. A. Kotelnikov notes, Dostoevsky here “recreates the naturalistic details of urban life - the gloomy appearance of apartment buildings, the gloomy interior of their courtyards, staircases, apartments, the abomination of taverns and “institutions”.”

A typical scene is Raskolnikov's visit to Sennaya Square. There are a lot of “shaggy people”, “all kinds of industrialists”, and merchants crowding here. In the evening they lock their establishments and go home. Many beggars live here - “you can walk around in any form you like without scandalizing anyone.”

Here Raskolnikov is walking along K Boulevard. Suddenly he notices a drunken young girl, “bare-haired, without an umbrella or gloves,” in a torn dress. She is being pursued by an unknown gentleman. Together with the policeman, Rodion tries to save her, but he soon realizes the futility of his attempts.

Here the hero goes to Sadovaya. On the way, he encounters “entertainment establishments,” a company of prostitutes “with hoarse voices” and “black eyes.” One “ragamuffin” is loudly swearing at another, “some dead drunk” is lying across the street. There is noise, laughter, and squealing everywhere. As Yu. Karyakin notes, Dostoevsky’s Petersburg is “saturated with noise” - buzzing streets, screams of ragged people, the rattling of a barrel organ, loud scandals in houses and on stairs.

These paintings are reminiscent of Nekrasov’s “street impressions” - the cycles “On the Street” and “About the Weather.” In the poem “Morning Walk,” the poet recreates the deafening rhythm of life in a big city:

Everything merges, groans, hums, Somehow dull and menacingly rumbles, As if chains are being forged on the unfortunate people, As if the city wants to collapse, A crush, talking... (what are the voices about? All about money, about need, about bread).

The landscape in this poem echoes the cityscape in Dostoevsky's novel. From Nekrasov we read:

An ugly day begins -

Muddy, windy, dark and dirty.

And here is one of the landscapes in the novel “Crime and Punishment”: “A milky, thick fog lay over the city. Svidrigailov walked along the slippery, dirty wooden pavement towards the Malaya Neva... With annoyance he began to look at the houses... Neither a passer-by nor a cab driver was seen along the avenue. The bright yellow wooden houses with closed shutters looked sad and dirty. Cold and dampness permeated his entire body...”

Raskolnikov’s mood corresponds to this landscape: “...I love how they sing to a barrel organ on a cold, dark and damp autumn evening, certainly on a damp one, when all passers-by have pale green and sick faces; or, even better, when wet snow falls, completely straight, without wind... and through it the gas lamps shine...,” says the hero to a random passerby.

The plot of Nekrasov’s poem “Am I Driving Down a Dark Street at Night,” which is based on the fate of a street woman, precedes the plot of Sonya Marmeladova. Nekrasov poetizes the heroine’s action:

Where are you now? With miserable poverty

Have you been overcome by an evil struggle?

Or did you go the usual way,

And the fateful fate will be fulfilled?

Who will protect you? All without exception

They will call you a terrible name,

Only in me will curses stir -

And they will freeze uselessly!..

In the novel, Dostoevsky also “exalts” Sonya Marmeladova, considering her selflessness a feat. Unlike those around her, Sonya does not submit to life’s circumstances, but tries to fight them.

Thus, the City in the novel is not only the place where the action takes place. This is a real character, a real protagonist of the novel. St. Petersburg is gloomy, ominous, it seems that it does not love its inhabitants. It does not save them from life’s hardships, it does not become a home or homeland for them. This is a City that shatters dreams and illusions and leaves no hope. At the same time, Dostoevsky’s Petersburg is also a real capitalist city in Russia in the second half of the 19th century. This is a city of “clerks and all kinds of seminarians”, a city of newly minted businessmen, moneylenders and traders, poor people and beggars. This is a city where love, beauty, and human life itself are bought and sold.

As promised, we are opening a new permanent section for those who are forced to prepare (and prepare) for the Unified State Exam in literature and for Part C of the Unified State Exam in the Russian language (since it tests the skills developed in our subject). “Forced” is not a random word: preparing for the Unified State Exam is a joyless task for everyone, and passing the exam will fray your nerves (in Moscow, for example, this year, at a number of points there were not enough additional forms for Part C, and graduates had to wait several hours, until they get a ride). But nothing can be done, from this year the Unified Exam has returned to normal and turned into something like the weather - everyone scolds it, but they depend on it. We have to take this into account.

When starting to prepare, it is important to know that the exam configuration will not change in 2010- this is clear from the 2010 demo version, proposed for discussion at the end of July. The graduate will be offered a work in three parts. It takes 4 hours (240 minutes) to complete.

Parts 1 and 2 include analysis of a literary text (a fragment of an epic/dramatic work and a lyrical work). Analysis of the text of an epic (or dramatic) work has the following structure: 7 tasks with a short answer (B), oriented at a basic level and requiring the writing of a word or combination of words in the answer, and 2 tasks with a detailed answer (C1–C2) of an increased level of complexity, requiring writing an answer of 5–10 sentences. The analysis of a lyric work includes 5 tasks with a short answer (B, basic level) and 2 tasks with an extended answer (C3–C4, advanced level) in the amount of 5–10 sentences.

To complete the tasks of part 3 (C5 - high level of complexity), you need to choose one of the three proposed problematic questions and give a written, detailed, reasoned answer to it in the essay genre (at least 200 words).

Analysis of an excerpt from an epic work

On the Nikolaevsky Bridge he had to fully wake up again as a result of one very unpleasant incident for him. The driver of one of the carriages lashed him firmly on the back with a whip because he almost fell under the horses, despite the fact that the coachman shouted to him three or four times. The blow of the whip angered him so much that he, jumping back to the railing (it is unknown why he was walking in the very middle of the bridge, where people drive, not walk), angrily gnashed and clicked his teeth. There was, of course, laughter all around.

Let's get to work!

Some kind of burning.

It is known that he will pretend to be drunk and deliberately crawl under the wheels; and you are responsible for him.

That's what they do, sir, that's what they do...

But at that moment, as he stood at the railing and was still meaninglessly and angrily looking after the retreating carriage, rubbing his back, he suddenly felt that someone was pushing money into his hands. He looked: an elderly merchant's wife, in a headdress and goat's shoes, and with her a girl, in a hat and with a green umbrella, probably her daughter. “Accept, father, for Christ’s sake.” He took it and they walked past. Two hryvnia money. Judging by his dress and appearance, they could very well take him for a beggar, for a real collector of pennies on the street, and he probably owed the gift of a whole two-kopeck piece to the blow of the whip, which moved them to pity.

He clutched the two-kopeck piece in his hand, walked ten steps and turned to face the Neva, in the direction of the palace. The sky was without the slightest cloud, and the water was almost blue, which is so rare on the Neva. The dome of the cathedral, which is not better outlined from any point than when looking at it from here, from the bridge, not reaching twenty steps from the chapel, was shining, and through the clear air one could clearly see even each of its decorations. The pain from the whip subsided, and _____________ forgot about the blow; One restless and not entirely clear thought now occupied him exclusively. He stood and looked into the distance long and intently; this place was especially familiar to him. When he went to university, it usually happened - most often when returning home - that he would stop, perhaps a hundred times, at this very same place, gaze intently at this truly magnificent panorama and each time almost be surprised by one unclear and insoluble problem of his own. impression. An inexplicable chill always blew over him from this magnificent panorama; This magnificent picture was full of a mute and deaf spirit for him... Each time he marveled at his gloomy and mysterious impression and put off its solution, not trusting himself, to the future. Now he suddenly suddenly remembered these previous questions and perplexities; it seemed to him that it was not by chance that he now remembered them. One thing seemed wild and wonderful to him, that he stopped in the same place as before, as if he really imagined that he could think about the same things now as before, and be interested in the same old themes and pictures, what I was interested... just recently. He even felt almost funny and at the same time his chest was squeezed to the point of pain. In some depth, below, somewhere barely visible under his feet, all this former past, and former thoughts, and former tasks, and former themes, and former impressions, and this whole panorama, and himself, and everything, everything... It seemed as if he was flying up somewhere, and everything was disappearing in his eyes... Having made one involuntary movement with his hand, he suddenly felt a two-kopeck note clutched in his fist. He unclenched his hand, looked intently at the coin, swung it and threw it into the water; then he turned and went home. It seemed to him that it was as if he had cut himself off from everyone and everything at that moment with scissors.

F.M. Dostoevsky. "Crime and Punishment"

IN 1. What council is being referred to in the passage?

AT 2. Insert the name of the character in question instead of the blank in the passage.

AT 3. What event separated the hero from the “previous past”? (Answer in one word.)

AT 4. What is the description of an open space external to the hero called: nature, city, etc.?

AT 5. What are the names of the figurative definitions used by the author in describing the “magnificent panorama”: inexplicable cold, spirit dumb and deaf, lush painting?

AT 6. What is the name of the juxtaposition of contrasting words, concepts, images that we encounter, for example, in such fragments: “even almost funny to him became and at the same time chest squeezed to the point of pain", "in some deep, below, somewhere barely visible under his feet, now all this former past seemed to him... it seemed as if he was flying away somewhere up”?

AT 7. What artistic device is the last sentence of the passage based on?

C1. Why does the hero of Dostoevsky's novel throw away the coin given to him?

C2. In what other works of Russian literature have you encountered images of St. Petersburg and how do they resonate with Dostoevsky’s “Petersburg” novel?

Answers and comments

As you can see, all the proposed tasks are aimed at identifying what is important and essential both in the passage and in the novel as a whole. Tasks B1, B2 And AT 3 They allow you to check (of course, not completely) how well the student remembers the chronotope of the work, the system of characters and the plot. St. Isaac's Cathedral is a symbol of ceremonial, magnificent St. Petersburg (see more about this below), therefore knowledge of this spatial detail is necessary for understanding the meaning of the novel and should not be perceived as exotic. Task B4 checks how the student can characterize the fragment as a whole. Tasks B5–B8 are aimed at the ability to see the important artistic means that the author uses in this particular fragment, and determine their role (that is, they again work on understanding).

IN task C1 students can speculate about Raskolnikov’s tossing and turning after the crime in an attempt to find an “outcome” (one of the key words of the novel). He either wants to confess, or feels a surge of desire to continue the fight. The alms given to him on the Nikolaevsky Bridge connect him with people whom he is not yet internally ready to come to and whom he hates at that moment (see a little earlier in the text: “One new, irresistible sensation took possession of him more and more with almost every minute: it was some kind of endless, almost physical disgust for everything he encountered and around him, stubborn, angry, hateful to him - everyone they met was disgusting - their faces, gait, movements were disgusting. it seems that if someone spoke to him..."). He himself rejects sacrifice, alms - Raskolnikov still has a lot to endure in order to find a way to people.

Carrying out task C2, students can turn to Dostoevsky’s predecessors on the “St. Petersburg” theme (for example, Pushkin, Gogol, Nekrasov), and also remember his followers (for example, A. Blok, O. Mandelstam, A. Akhmatova). Dostoevsky did not like Peter and his city. In the writer’s diaries there is such an entry that can be used to illustrate Dostoevsky’s attitude towards St. Petersburg: ““I love you, Peter’s creation!” Sorry, I don't like him. Windows, holes - and monuments.” Let us also note here the contrast, the antithesis; one of its parts are “monuments” - magnificent monuments, to which the cathedral from the passage belongs. St. Petersburg is a city of contrasts, pomp and poverty, triumphant stone and dying man.

Nikolaevsky Bridge (now Lieutenant Schmidt Bridge) Raskolnikov peers into St. Isaac's Cathedral. In the picture described by Dostoevsky there is a strange duality, a split that even concerns Raskolnikov’s perception of space. On the one hand, this is a temple as a symbol of purity and sinlessness. On the other hand, this magnificent panorama emanated a “dumb and deaf spirit.” Each time Raskolnikov was amazed at his “gloomy and mysterious impression” of this picture. In the panorama of St. Isaac's Cathedral, the stern and gloomy spirit of the custodian and founder of the city, Peter I, seems to be hidden, and the monument to Peter reared on a horse - this stone idol - is the material embodiment of the genius of the place, in the words of N.P. Antsiferov. The specter of gloomy statehood, already noted by Pushkin in the poem “The Bronze Horseman,” when an idol, jumping off a pedestal, chases the “little man” Eugene, also frightens and haunts Raskolnikov. In front of this majestic, but devastatingly cold statehood, Raskolnikov, who imagines himself to be a superman, turns out to be a microscopic “little man”, from whom this “incomprehensible city” of kings and officials indifferently turns away. As if ironizing Raskolnikov and his “superhuman” theory, Petersburg first hits the hero on the back with a whip on the back, and then with the hand of a compassionate merchant’s daughter throws alms to Raskolnikov - two kopecks falls into Raskolnikov’s palms. He, not wanting to accept handouts from the hostile city, throws the two-kopeck piece into the water: “He clutched the two-kopeck piece in his hand, walked ten steps and turned to face the Neva, in the direction of the palace (Winter Palace - A.G.). The sky was without the slightest cloud , and the water is almost blue, which is so rare on the Neva. The dome of the cathedral, which is not outlined better from any point, as when looking at it from here, from the bridge, not reaching twenty steps from the chapel, it shone, and through the clean air you can see. it was possible to clearly see even every piece of his jewelry (...) When he went to the university, it usually happened, most often when returning home, maybe a hundred times, to stop at this very same place, to peer intently at this a truly magnificent panorama..."
“The artist M.V. Dobuzhinsky became interested in why Dostoevsky noted this place as the most suitable for contemplating St. Isaac’s Cathedral. It turned out that from here the entire mass of the cathedral is located diagonally and complete symmetry in the arrangement of parts is obtained” (Belov S.V. Roman F. M. Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment". M., "Enlightenment", 1985, p.