CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
407
side is an account of a crime open to explanation on the seem–
ingly objective grounds of material need and a sinister "nihilis–
tic" theory, is converted on the subjective side into an analysis
of an extreme pathological condition or soul-sickness, if you will.
The episodes dealing with Svidrigailov, the would-be
seducer of Raskolnikov's sister Dounia, have an engrossing
interest of their own, but they also serve the same functional
purpose of reducing the protagonist's remoteness from the com–
mon human measure. In order to heighten the dramatic tension
and explore to the end the complex meanings of Raskolnikov's
plight, it was positively necessary to involve him in intimate
human associations, notwithstanding the feeling of absolute
aloneness, or "agonizing, everlasting solitude," into which he
is plunged by his murderous act. It is a feeling brought on by
the guilt he refuses to acknowledge and strains every nerve to
repress; and what better way was there of dramatizing the
struggle within him between guilt and scornful pride than by
showing him entering almost in spite of himself into relations
with people who for reasons both good and bad are intent on
penetrating his isolation? Sonia, his "chosen bride" and Chris–
tian mentor, is of course the chief agent of this turn of the
plot, but so in his own paradoxical fashion is Svidrigailov. The
latter, however, is so fascinating a character in his own right,
exercising an appeal nearly matching that of the hero, that at
times he threatens to run away with the story; certainly the
scene of his suicide .and of the dream-haunted night that pre–
cedes it are perfectly realized incidents and among the marvels
of the book. It must have called for the nicest management
on the author's part to hold
him
to his subordinate position.
But that was only part of the task Dostoevsky set himself in
undertaking to unify the three thematic elements at his disposal:
the major theme of Raskolnikov's crime and its consequences
and the strongly contrasted minor themes of the lowly and
good
Marmeladovs on the one hand and of the wealthy im–
moralist Svidrigailov on the other. And it is the achieved
