“It was as though a fog had fallen upon him and wrapped him in a dreary solitude from which there was no escape” (Alexia Barrios)

Since the beginning of Crime and Punishment, one of the aspects of the novel that I really enjoyed was the psychology aspect of it. Throughout the novel we have seen Rodia slowly begin to break down psychology such as in the beginning of this weeks reading we see how he is coming close to his demise as he enters a “strange period” (417) where “it was as though a fog had fallen upon him and wrapped him in a dreary solitude from which there was no escape” (417). Throughout the novel we have seen the psychological aspects that have occurred to Rodia due to the murders he committed and along with this I enjoyed the psychological mind games that were going on between Porfiry, the policeman, and Rodia. Rodia has allowed the emotional and mental reactions to the murders almost reveal his role in the act several times, many of them being in front of Porfiry such as him fainting in the police station and his remarks to Zamyotov. Even with a suspect who has confessed to the murders, Porfiry, who I am assuming has had some training in psychology, was able to determine that those events were associated with those of someone who is guilty of something.

In my last post near the end I noted how I was unsure of Svidrigailov’s intentions, and now those intentions were made quite clear. For a while this character emitted a “bad vibe” to me, which wasn’t surprising at all since there are rumors he played a role in the death of both his late wife and one of his maids. There was just something that was entirely off about him beginning when he mysteriously was in Rodia’s room discussing his affection for Dunya and even more so when he offered to pay for Sonia’s mother’s funeral, and provide them money. When Rodia learns that Dunya received a mysterious letter that upset here, I immediately knew that it must have been written by Svidrigailov based on what I had perceived him to be cunning and manipulative enough to pull that off. This was a conniving and somewhat brilliant way to lure Dunya into his hands so he could give tell her that Rodia is the murderer and offer his services only if she marries him. An interesting aspect of this predicament that Dostoevsky throws in there is the fact that though Svidrigailov is threatening her life due to his angered reaction to her rejection, Dunya is unable to go through with murder. The shots she fired barely draw blood and I found this to be important because it showed that Dunya does not share the same rationalizations when it comes to murder as her brother.