I was disappointed that Dostoevsky did not
continue to elaborate on Raskolnikov’s inner struggle or Nikolay’s confession
in the beginning of Part 5. I was so excited to see how Porfiry would deal with
Nikolay’s unexpected news! However, Chapter 1 of this portion of the novel
focused solely on Luzhin’s shallow and superficial personality. I found it
quite comical that Luzhin believes money is the answer to all of his problems.
After witnessing Dunya’s ability to test his love for her and her family, he
truly believes that if he had given Dunya more money and gifts, she would not
have left him. Although this was funny to me, I understood that the purpose of
Luzhin’s thoughts was to convey the deep materialistic mentality of his
character. He never stops to think that Dunya’s reason for ending the
engagement with him goes deeper than thoughts of money and materialistic items.
In addition, Luzhin’s intense hatred for Raskolnikov peaks in this chapter. He
feels that Raskolnikov played a large role in ending Dunya and his engagement. Like
Madie said, Luzhin mentions that if he could have killed Raskolnikov with a
sole wish he would have. I was confused when Luzhin brought Sonya into the
story. The fact that he gave her 10 rubles was very uncharacteristic and
confusing to me. I do not believe this scene represents a change in Luzhin’s
character, he is too self absorbed to be generous to others. I believe Luzhin
is probably doing this for a selfish reason, and although I am unsure of what
his motives are, I think this will come into play later in the novel.
- Alex
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