Pride seems to be a large
motivator for the characters in this novel. In this chapter, Katerina Ivanova’s
pride gets in the way causing her to make irrational decisions. First, she
spends the majority of the money that Raskolnikov gave her family on
Marmeladov’s memorial brunch. Rather that thinking about all of the mouths she
has to feed and the limited amount of money in her pocket (especially now that
Marmeladov— the family’s main source of income— is dead), she tries to throw a
lavish memorial to enhance her and her family’s reputation. Several times
throughout the service, Katerina claims that she comes from a “noble, even
aristocratic” family. As the reader, we know that this is far from the truth.
She was married to an alcoholic, her daughter is a prostitute (although she did
it for good reasons), and it is likely that her family will starve to death now
that Marmeladov is gone. Her pride also motivated her to insult the poor, low-
class guests who attended the memorial service. I found this action to be
extremely pathetic on Katerina’s part. These guests came to support her during
a sad period of her life. Rather than insulting them, she should be accepting
their gratitude and mourning her husband. In my opinion, this chapter
symbolized the collapse of Katerina’s character. She is completely out of line
with her decisions and continuously behaves inappropriately. Also, the
declination of her physical health becomes apparent in this chapter. During the
service, Katerina coughs up blood and appears particularly ill. I am curious to
see how much longer Katerina will make it due to her newly discovered health
conditions.
-Alex
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