Third meeting with Porfiry Petrovich. Essay on the topic “Three meetings of Raskolnikov with Porfiry Petrovich

Before starting to analyze the very episode of Rodion Raskolnikov’s last meeting with Porfiry Petrovich, the scene of “revealing the cards,” it seems necessary to me to give some features of Rodion as a person capable or incapable of murder, heartless or with a living soul, with a head empty or occupied with thoughts.

Dostoevsky created the image of Raskolnikov, no different from the average young student. These are, as a rule, strong personalities in the prime of their powers, who think that they can do anything. But Fyodor Mikhailovich created a work not about human happiness, not about love... He created a work about human suffering, about human actions. Isn't it an important topic? Nothing is constant in our lives: the body ages, things disappear, the world around us changes... But there is one constant in our lives. In my opinion, these are the actions that we do. Actions remain even after our stay on earth. How long the memory of an act will exist depends only on its magnitude and globality. A good deed can make us and someone else happy, remain in our memory, leave an imprint on our personality... A bad deed can harm others, cause negative feelings in them and ourselves, it can change us. So, Rodion was just that same average student, or rather a former student. “The student is smart, talented, kind and generous in his own way...” But Raskolnikov was driven “to despair by poverty, the plight of his mother and sister...” he was unlucky to be one of many beggars. Rodion cannot get out of this dirty hole. And, as a result of this despair, terrible theories and ideas come to his mind... He becomes embittered at the world around him. All his positive feelings fall asleep, and he reveals his dark side of personality. This opened up the opportunity to commit a bad Deed. It made it possible for the thoughts of murder to develop in his head.

But Rodion is not a murderer. He cannot adapt his heart and mind to killing people. (how, for example, other characters in Dostoevsky’s work could adapt, further possible developments of his dark side of personality). He can't get rid of the feeling of guilt. This feeling has tormented him since the incident itself and, probably, will torment him until the end of his days. His soul suddenly awakens after seeing the consequences of his crime.

Porfiry Petrovich is an experienced investigator who, probably, in just a few gestures and habits can see a criminal in a person, immediately recognizes a criminal in Raskolnikov, but not a real one. He sees that this criminal is suffering, the criminal is sorry, the criminal wants to return everything back... The investigator begins to “prick” Raskolnikov. He sympathizes with Rodion, wishes him well, but he is also a provocateur who must extract confessions from the suspect.

Porfiry Petrovich meets with Rodion three times and only drops his mask on the last one. When he comes to Raskolnikov’s apartment, he does not laugh, does not giggle, and with this he takes off his mask and finishes off Raskolnikov. The investigator openly accuses him and invites him to confess, although he cannot be arrested due to lack of evidence. He is sure that everything will work out for Raskolnikov over time, that he “needs to change the air a long time ago,” that he simply needs to suffer - this will heal him. Saying goodbye, Porfiry Petrovich advises Raskolnikov, if he decides to commit suicide, to leave a “short but detailed note” in two lines, since this “will be more noble, sir.” Exhausted by the fear of exposure, Raskolnikov reconsiders, if not his theory itself, then his place in it, and with disgust he suddenly feels how weak he is, physically weakened. “I should have known this,” he thought with a bitter smile, “and how dare I, knowing myself, foreseeing myself, take an ax and get bloody?.. I should have known in advance... Eh! But I’m “I knew in advance!..” he whispered in despair.” Reading Dostoevsky, we continue to be amazed at the power of his artistic insight. What is the extraordinary appeal of this writer’s work? Every line of his books is dedicated to a person. At the center of his work is man and the eternal questions of human existence, questions of good and evil, to which he tries to answer. Dostoevsky saw the main task of his work as looking for man in man. The works of the humanist writer, a man who thought, suffered and was tormented, are permeated with pain and compassion for the “humiliated and insulted.”

Raskolnikov cannot stand it for the third time and confesses to Porfiry Petrovich of the crime. He feels sorry for Raskolnikov, he invites him to confess everything publicly in order to cleanse his soul and abolish his punishment. He partially succeeded: the punishment was abolished until only eight years of hard labor, and besides, his whole soul was cleansed: after being sent to hard labor, his conscience no longer tormented him, he left “dirty Petersburg” and fell in love with Sonya.

Rodion Raskolnikov Dostoevsky murder

Investigator Porfiry Petrovich from the novel “Crime and Punishment” is an intelligent and subtle psychologist. The unusual form of interrogation (constant eavesdropping) confuses Raskolnikov and convinces him that he is the killer.
The first time Raskolnikov came to Porfiry Petrovich laughing. “Porfiry Petrovich was dressed at home, in a dressing gown, in very clean underwear and worn out shoes. He was a man of about thirty-five, shorter than average height, plump and even with a paunch, shaven, without a mustache and sideburns, with tightly cropped hair to a large round head, somehow especially convexly rounded at the back of the head..."
Raskolnikov is sure that the investigator knows everything about him. He doesn’t dissuade him. They argue about the essence and causes of the crimes, the investigator mentions Raskolnikov’s article on this topic.
The second meeting takes place on the initiative of Raskolnikov himself, although “the worst thing for him was to meet this man again: he hated him beyond measure, endlessly, and was even afraid of somehow revealing himself with his hatred.” In the conversation, Porfiry Petrovich hints to Raskolnikov that he is a suspect. “Have you seen a butterfly in front of a candle? Well, so he will all be, everyone will be circling around me, as if around a candle; freedom will not be nice, he will begin to think, get confused, he will entangle himself all around, as if in a net, he will worry himself to death!”
The investigator drops his mask only at the last moment when he comes to Raskolnikov’s apartment. He sympathizes with Rodion, wishes him well, but he is also a provocateur who must extract confessions from the suspect. The investigator has compassion for Raskolnikov, loves him in his own way, and he just can’t tell when Porfiry Petrovich is serious and when he’s playing the fool. He says terrible things, gives terrible hints, but makes them in the form of a joke, and this hurts Rodion even more than the hints. Porfiry Petrovich is called upon to belittle the idea in the eyes of Raskolnikov, to prosaically debunk it. The investigator's laughter turns the giant Raskolnikov into a comedian. Rodion rebels against this humiliation and is caught in this.
Porfiry is a mystery for the hero, a magnet to which he is drawn and repelled. The investigator opposes his will to Raskolnikov's will. Porfiry Petrovich’s face and his “hee-hee,” mixed with compassion, are intolerable for the “Napoleon” from Stolyarny Lane. And only when he comes to Raskolnikov’s apartment, he doesn’t laugh, doesn’t giggle - and with this he takes off his mask and finishes off Raskolnikov.
Exhausted by the fear of exposure, Rakolnikov “suddenly felt how weak he was, physically weakened.” One sudden extraneous thought suddenly almost makes him laugh: “Napoleon, the pyramids, Waterloo and the skinny nasty receptionist, the old woman, the pawnbroker, with the red clothes under the bed - well, what is it like for Porfiry Petrovich to digest!.. Where can they digest it!.. Aesthetics will interfere: “Will Napoleon, they say, crawl under the bed to the “old lady”? Eh, rubbish!.."
The main character of Crime and Punishment gradually realizes that he is by no means Napoleon and that, unlike his idol, who calmly sacrificed the lives of tens of thousands of people, he is not able to cope with his feelings after the murder of one “nasty old woman.” Raskolnikov feels that his crime - unlike the bloody deeds of Napoleon - is shameful, unaesthetic, and tries to determine where he made a mistake. “The old woman is nonsense!” he thought hotly and impetuously. “The old woman is probably a mistake, that’s not the point! The old woman was only an illness... I wanted to get over it as quickly as possible... I didn’t kill a person, I killed a principle! I killed, but I didn’t cross, I stayed on this side... All I managed to do was kill. And even that, it turns out, I didn’t manage.”

There is no material evidence against Raskolnikov. The moral side of his crime becomes of great importance. A terrible truth is revealed to him - his crime was meaningless: “He didn’t cross, he stayed on the other side.” Therefore, I did not have the right to allow myself to take this step.” The hero calls himself an “aesthetic louse” because even before the crime he set boundaries for himself: for real people there are no such boundaries. Meetings with Porfiry Petrovich are very important - he is an intelligent, subtle psychologist. His role in the novel is to constantly make fun of Raskolnikov. This form of interrogation confuses Raskolnikov and convinces him that Raskolnikov is the murderer. The first time Raskolnikov came to Porfiry Petrovich laughing. “Porfiry Petrovich was dressed at home, in a dressing gown, very clean underwear and worn out shoes. He was a man of about thirty-five, shorter than average height, plump and even with a paunch, shaven, without a mustache or sideburns, with tightly cropped hair on a large round head, somehow especially convexly rounded at the back of the head...” Raskolnikov is sure that the investigator knows about that's all. He doesn’t dissuade him. They argue about the essence and causes of the crimes, the investigator mentions Raskolnikov’s article on this topic. The second meeting takes place on the initiative of Raskolnikov himself. Although “the worst thing for him was to meet this man again: he hated him beyond measure, endlessly, and was even afraid of somehow revealing himself with his hatred.” In the conversation, Porfiry Petrovich hints to Raskolnikov that he is a suspect. “Have you seen a butterfly in front of a candle? Well, so he will all be, everything will be around me, like circling around a candle; freedom will not be nice, it will begin to think, get confused, entangle itself all around, as if in a net, worry itself to death!” The investigator drops his mask only at the last moment when he comes to Raskolnikov’s apartment. The place of the investigator in the novel is constant ridicule of the main character, despite the seriousness of the attitude towards him. The investigator has compassion for Raskolnikov and loves him in his own way. But he is also a provocateur who must provoke Rodion to confess. Raskolnikov just can’t tell when Porfiry Petrovich is serious and when he’s playing the fool. He says terrible things, gives terrible hints, but he makes them in a humorous tone, form, and the form, more than the hints, hurts Rodion. Porfiry Petrovich is called upon to belittle the idea in the eyes of Raskolnikov, to prosaically debunk it. The investigator's laughter turns the giant Raskolnikov into a comedian. Rodion rebels against this humiliation and gets caught. Porfiry is a mystery for the hero, a magnet to which he is drawn and repelled. The investigator opposes his will to Raskolnikov's will. Porfiry Petrovich’s face and his “hee-hee”, mixed with compassion, are intolerable for the “Napoleon” from Stolyarny Lane. And only when the investigator comes to Raskolnikov’s apartment, he does not laugh, does not giggle, and with this he takes off his mask and finishes off Raskolnikov. Dostoevsky outlined the main content of the novel as follows: “A young man, expelled from university students, a bourgeois by birth and living in extreme poverty, due to frivolity, due to unsteadiness in concepts, succumbing to some strange “unfinished” ideas that were floating in the air, decided to go out at once from his bad situation. He decided to kill one old woman, a titular councilor who gave money for interest. The old woman is stupid, deaf, sick, greedy, takes Jewish interest, is evil and eats up someone else's life, torturing her younger sister as her worker. “She’s no good,” “what does she live for?” “Is it useful to anyone?” etc. – These questions confuse the young man. He decides to kill her, rob her, in order to make his mother, who lives in the district, happy, to save his sister, who lives as a companion with some landowners, from the voluptuous claims of the head of this landowner family - claims that threaten her with death, to finish the course, go abroad and then throughout your life be honest, firm, unswerving in the fulfillment of your “humane duty to humanity,” which, of course, will “make up for the crime.” Based on these “unfinished ideas” floating in the air, Raskolnikov creates his own rather coherent theory. He sets out its foundations as follows: “...People, according to the law of nature, are generally divided into two categories: into the lowest (ordinary), that is, so to speak, into material that serves solely for the generation of their own kind, and actually into people, that is, having the gift or talent to say a new word in one’s environment. The divisions here, of course, are endless, but the distinctive features of both categories are quite sharp: the first category, that is, the material, generally speaking, people are by nature conservative, decorous, live in obedience and love to be obedient. In my opinion, they are obliged to be obedient, because this is their purpose, and there is absolutely nothing humiliating for them. The second category, everyone breaks the law, destroyers, or is inclined to do so, judging by their abilities. The crimes of these people, of course, are relative and varied; for the most part they demand, in very diverse statements, the destruction of the present in the name of the better. But if he needs, for his idea, to step over even a corpse, through blood, then within himself, in conscience, he can, in my opinion, give himself permission to step over blood - depending, however, on the idea and size her, mind you. It is only in this sense that I speak in my article about their right to commit a crime... However, there is nothing to worry about much: the masses almost never recognize this right for them, execute them and hang them (more or less)... The first category is always the master of the present, the second category - master of the future. The first preserve the world and increase it numerically; the latter move the world and lead it to the goal. Both have exactly the same right to exist.” However, when confronted with living life, the theory of two classes of people begins to collapse. Exhausted by the fear of exposure, Raskolnikov reconsiders, if not the theory itself, then his place in it: “... He suddenly felt with disgust how weak he was, how physically weak. “I should have known this,” he thought with a bitter smile, “and how dare I, knowing myself, anticipating myself, take an ax and get bloody. I should have known in advance... Eh! But I knew it in advance! “- he whispered in despair. Sometimes he stopped motionless before some thought: “No, those people are not made like that; a real ruler, to whom everything is permitted, destroys Toulon, carries out a massacre in Paris, forgets the army in Egypt, wastes half a million people in the Moscow campaign and gets away with a pun in Vilna; and after death, idols are placed for him, and therefore everything is resolved. No, on these people, it’s clear that it’s not a body, but bronze!” One sudden extraneous thought suddenly almost made him laugh: “Napoleon, the pyramids, Waterloo - and the skinny nasty receptionist, the old woman, the pawnbroker, with the red clothes under the bed - well, what is this for Porfirya Petrovich to even digest! Where can they digest it? Aesthetics will get in the way: “would Napoleon, they say, crawl under the bed of the “old lady”! Eh, rubbish! “The main character of “Crime and Punishment” already understands that he is by no means Napoleon, that, unlike his idol, who calmly sacrificed the lives of tens of thousands of people, he is not able to cope with his feelings after the murder of one “nasty old woman.” Raskolnikov feels that his crime, unlike the bloody deeds of Napoleon, is shameful and unaesthetic. Later, in the novel “Demons,” Dostoevsky developed the theme of an “ugly crime” - there it is committed by Stavrogin, a character related to Svidrigailov in “Crime and Punishment.” Raskolnikov is trying to determine where he made the mistake: “The old lady is nonsense! - he thought hotly and impetuously, - the old woman is probably a mistake, that’s not the point! The old woman was only sick... I wanted to get over it as quickly as possible... I didn’t kill a person, I killed a principle! I killed the principle, but I didn’t cross, I stayed on this side... All I managed to do was kill. And he didn’t even manage to do that, it turns out.”

Essay on literature on the topic: Three meetings of Raskolnikov with Porfiry Petrovich

Other writings:

1. Investigator Porfiry Petrovich from the novel “Crime and Punishment” is an intelligent and subtle psychologist. The unusual form of interrogation (constant eavesdropping) confuses Raskolnikov and convinces him that he is the killer. The first time Raskolnikov came to Porfiry Petrovich laughing. “Porfiry Petrovich Read More ......
2. Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment” is “one of the most complex works of Russian literature, in which the author told about the story of the death of the soul of the main character after he committed a crime, about the alienation of Rodion Raskolnikov from the whole world, from those closest to him Read More .. ....
3. “Crime and Punishment” by F. M. Dostoevsky is the first Russian detective novel. But, along with the detective plot, the author gives detailed psychological characteristics of his heroes. He so masterfully described the internal state of Raskolnikov, driven into a corner, that Dostoevsky himself was seriously suspected of murder. Read More......
4. Raskolnikov goes to Porfiry Petrovich at the very end of the novel just like the previous times, but this time there was a bad feeling in his soul: suddenly Porfiry Petrovich guessed everything, suddenly that tradesman or janitor with whom he met Read More .... ..
5. The official Semyon Zakharovich Marmeladov and his family play an important role in the development of the plot and problems of the novel “Crime and Punishment”. We first meet this hero in an episode of his conversation with Raskolnikov in a tavern. It is from this passage that we learn the story Read More......
6. After the crime committed by Raskolnikov, the second part of the novel begins - punishment. Raskolnikov increasingly begins to feel a painful feeling of “openness and disconnection from humanity.” The closest people - his mother and sister - became strangers and distant to him. He suffers when he sees love Read More......
7. “Love is so omnipotent that it regenerates ourselves” (F. M. Dostoevsky) The main character of F. M. Dostoevsky in the novel “Crime and Punishment” is Rodion Raskolnikov, a former student living in great poverty in St. Petersburg. Raskolnikov was “remarkably handsome, with beautiful dark complexions Read More......
8. The dreams that the main character of the novel “Crime and Punishment” sees help the reader to look into the most intimate “corners” of his soul. The novel contains four dreams of the hero. He sees two of them before the crime is committed, and two after the crime. The first “terrible” dream Read More ......

Investigator Porfiry Petrovich from the novel “Crime and Punishment” is an intelligent and subtle psychologist. The unusual form of interrogation (constant eavesdropping) confuses Raskolnikov and convinces him that he is the killer.
The first time Raskolnikov came to Porfiry Petrovich laughing. “Porfiry Petrovich was dressed at home, in a dressing gown, in very clean underwear and worn out shoes. He was a man of about thirty-five, shorter than average height, plump and even with a paunch, shaven, without a mustache and sideburns, with tightly cropped hair to a large round head, somehow especially convexly rounded at the back of the head..."
Raskolnikov is sure that the investigator knows everything about him. He doesn’t dissuade him. They argue about the essence and causes of the crimes, the investigator mentions Raskolnikov’s article on this topic.
The second meeting takes place on the initiative of Raskolnikov himself, although “the worst thing for him was to meet this man again: he hated him beyond measure, endlessly, and was even afraid of somehow revealing himself with his hatred.” In the conversation, Porfiry Petrovich hints to Raskolnikov that he is a suspect. “Have you seen a butterfly in front of a candle? Well, so he will all be, everything will be spinning around me, as if around a candle; freedom will not be nice, he will begin to think, get confused, entangle himself all around, as if in a net, worry himself to death!”
The investigator drops his mask only at the last moment when he comes to Raskolnikov’s apartment. He sympathizes with Rodion, wishes him well, but he is also a provocateur who must extract confessions from the suspect. The investigator has compassion for Raskolnikov, loves him in his own way, and he just can’t tell when Porfiry Petrovich is serious and when he’s playing the fool. He says terrible things, gives terrible hints, but makes them in the form of a joke, and this hurts Rodion even more than the hints. Porfiry Petrovich is called upon to belittle the idea in the eyes of Raskolnikov, to prosaically debunk it. The investigator's laughter turns the giant Raskolnikov into a comedian. Rodion rebels against this humiliation and is caught in this.
Porfiry is a mystery for the hero, a magnet to which he is drawn and repelled. The investigator opposes his will to Raskolnikov's will. Porfiry Petrovich’s face and his “hee-hee,” mixed with compassion, are intolerable for the “Napoleon” from Stolyarny Lane. And only when he comes to Raskolnikov’s apartment, he doesn’t laugh, doesn’t giggle - and with this he takes off his mask and finishes off Raskolnikov.
Exhausted by the fear of exposure, Rakolnikov “suddenly felt how weak he was, physically weakened.” One sudden extraneous thought suddenly almost makes him laugh: “Napoleon, the pyramids, Waterloo and the skinny nasty receptionist, the old woman, the pawnbroker, with the red clothes under the bed - well, what is it like for Porfiry Petrovich to digest!.. Where can they digest it!.. Aesthetics will interfere: “Will Napoleon, they say, crawl under the bed to the “old lady”? Eh, rubbish!.."
The main character of Crime and Punishment gradually realizes that he is by no means Napoleon and that, unlike his idol, who calmly sacrificed the lives of tens of thousands of people, he is not able to cope with his feelings after the murder of one “nasty old woman.” Raskolnikov feels that his crime - unlike the bloody deeds of Napoleon - is shameful, unaesthetic, and tries to determine where he made a mistake. “The old woman is nonsense!” he thought hotly and impetuously. “The old woman is probably a mistake, that’s not the point! The old woman was only an illness... I wanted to get over it as quickly as possible... I didn’t kill a person, I killed a principle! I killed, but I didn’t cross, I stayed on this side... All I managed to do was kill. And even that, it turns out, I didn’t manage.”

In the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" the main character is Rodion Raskolnikov, and one of the secondary characters is the investigator Porfiry Petrovich, who is leading the case of the robbery and murder that Raskolnikov committed.

The first meeting between the heroes takes place in Porfiry Petrovich’s apartment, while Rodion is very nervous: “Thoughts were spinning like a whirlwind in Raskolnikov’s head. He was terribly annoyed,” and Porfiry Petrovich himself, in turn, behaves completely calmly and at ease. The investigator also mentions Rodion’s article “On the Crime...”, which immediately makes it clear to Raskolnikov that he is suspected of a crime and is trying to extract a confession from him, because in his article he expresses his theory about “ordinary” and “extraordinary” people, the essence of which is the fact that someone must only obey, and someone is even allowed to perform actions similar to the actions of the main character. After the meeting itself, Raskolnikov calms down and realizes that his guilt has still not been proven.

The second clash takes place in the office where Porfiry Petrovich works. An interrogation is underway. The investigator puts pressure on Rodion in every possible way, he is sure that it was the main character who committed this crime and is trying to bring him to light. At the same time, Raskolnikov literally boils with anger and calls everything that is happening torment: “in one word: if you please, either ask me, or let me go, right now... and if you ask, then it’s not otherwise than in form, sir! Otherwise I won’t allow it...” Such a reaction only further convinces Porfiry Petrovich that he is right about the person being interrogated, but unexpectedly both are confused by the painter Mikola, who ran into the office and was next to the apartment of the old pawnbroker during the murder of her and her sister. He takes all the blame on himself.

The third and final meeting takes place in Raskolnikov’s own apartment. This time the investigator no longer has any doubts about who committed this crime, but Rodion does not admit to what he did:

“It wasn’t me who killed,” Raskolnikov whispered, like frightened little children when they are captured at the scene of a crime.

No, it’s you, Rodion Romanych...”

Porfiry Petrovich tries to convince the main character to confess and guarantees that he will help mitigate the punishment. He gives him time to think and leaves.

As a result, we can say that investigator Porfiry Petrovich appears to us as a reasonable, intelligent and knowledgeable person, since he carefully watched his interlocutor, asked leading questions, put pressure on the main character in every possible way and, as a result of everything, realized that Raskolnikov was the criminal. In turn, Rodion is shown driven into a corner. He realizes that he is pressed against the wall and tries to fight back, but it is all in vain. Raskolnikov was afraid of exposure, because he believed that his theory about the “powers of this world” and “trembling creatures” was correct, he wanted to prove to himself that he belonged to the former, and could not accept his wrongness and his defeat.

Along with the article “Essay on the topic “Three meetings of Raskolnikov with Porfiry Petrovich” read: