After
this event, the student passes through almost every conceivable mental
state; we study all these shifting moods under a powerful microscope.
The assassin is redeemed by the harlot Sonia, who becomes his
religious and moral teacher. The scene where the two read together the
story of the resurrection of Lazarus, and where they talk about God,
prayer, and the Christian religion, shows the spiritual force of
Dostoevski in its brightest manifestations. At her persuasion, he
finally confesses his crime, and is deported to Siberia, where his
experiences are copied faithfully from the author's own prison life.
Sonia accompanies him, and becomes the good angel of the convicts, who
adore her. "When she appeared while they were at work, all took off
their hats and made a bow. 'Little mother, Sophia Semenova, thou art
our mother, tender and compassionate,' these churlish and branded
felons said to her. She smiled in return; they loved even to see her
walk, and turned to look upon her as she passed by. They praised her
for being so little, and knew not what not to praise her for. They
even went to her with their ailments."
It is quite possible that Tolstoi got the inspiration for his novel
"Resurrection" from the closing words of "Crime and Punishment."
Raskolnikov and Sonia look forward happily to the time when he will be
released. "Seven years--only seven years! At the commencement of their
happiness they were ready to look upon these seven years as seven
days.
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