I'm slowly catching up. I found this chapter difficult to read. It's getting harder to identify with Raskolnikov or even to like him. He seems to suffer from a raging fever combined with severe mental illness, but somehow that doesn't soften my heart for him.
That scene at the bridge (where he looks at the beautiful view across the Newa to the palace) - it's a 'before and after' scene where R cuts all ties with society, but I think it also means that even when something is clear and obviously beautiful and enjoyable, R finds it hard to see it in a straight and positive way, like other people do. He finds the view 'unclear and unfathomable'. There's a gap between him and other people, and now there's also a gap within himself (before and after the murder).
It made me feel he's really drifting away from sanity and humanity in this chapter.
Yes, I get the same feeling. I think in today's world there would almost certainly be a diagnosis of some kind. Maybe he'd fall into some of the dark corners of the Internet that some angry young men fall into. Can there be any kind of redemption for Raskolnikov d'you think?
I'm not sure. In this day and age: yes, probably, but in the nineteenth century? Good mental health care wasn't a thing back then... 😬 Perhaps through religion and lots of penitence? I suppose the 'punishment' from the title may refer to some kind of redemption through punishment?
I'm slowly catching up. I found this chapter difficult to read. It's getting harder to identify with Raskolnikov or even to like him. He seems to suffer from a raging fever combined with severe mental illness, but somehow that doesn't soften my heart for him.
That scene at the bridge (where he looks at the beautiful view across the Newa to the palace) - it's a 'before and after' scene where R cuts all ties with society, but I think it also means that even when something is clear and obviously beautiful and enjoyable, R finds it hard to see it in a straight and positive way, like other people do. He finds the view 'unclear and unfathomable'. There's a gap between him and other people, and now there's also a gap within himself (before and after the murder).
It made me feel he's really drifting away from sanity and humanity in this chapter.
Yes, I get the same feeling. I think in today's world there would almost certainly be a diagnosis of some kind. Maybe he'd fall into some of the dark corners of the Internet that some angry young men fall into. Can there be any kind of redemption for Raskolnikov d'you think?
I'm not sure. In this day and age: yes, probably, but in the nineteenth century? Good mental health care wasn't a thing back then... 😬 Perhaps through religion and lots of penitence? I suppose the 'punishment' from the title may refer to some kind of redemption through punishment?
No comment! I'm terribly behind. But I will catch up!