Three characters in Crime and Punishment; Dunya, Sonya, and Lizaveta struggle with the question of what a woman owes to her family. Sonya becomes a prostitute so that her family can make ends meet. Lizaveta is a slave to her older sister, Alyona Ivanova. She can never act without the Alyona’s approval and suffers beatings for incompetence. Dunya considers marrying a man to secure a comfortable life for her mother and brother, Roskolnikov. These women give up everything for their families and because of that, their worth in society diminishes. Dunya is different from the others in that she has someone who is against her decision to give up her life. While these women’s circumstances seem to be about what a woman owes to her family, really,
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One, Roskolnikov is unwilling to be complacent with his sister’s sacrifice and two, she has not yet entered into the contract with her fiancé, Pyrotr Petrovich. When Roskolnikov receives news of his sister’s engagement, he immediately realizes that Dunya is selling her life to get him out of debt and back into school. He also believes that Dunya’s sacrifice is the same as Sonya’s. “Do you understand that this Luzhinian cleanliness is just the same as Sonechka’s cleanliness and maybe even worse, nastier, meaner, because in your case, Dunechka, some extra comfort can still be reckoned on, while there it’s quite simply a matter of starving to death!” (44). This quote illustrates the implicit tension of selling oneself into a life of comfort. Compared to Sonya, who did not have the choice of comfort, it is a shadier plot. Roskolnikov objects to this plot for the same reason he admires Sonya; she destroyed a life and kept living with the consequences and hardships. Dunya will be destroying a life as well, but she will be gaining comfort and avoiding hardships. After hearing Sonya’s story from her father, Roskolnikov sympathizes with Sonya …show more content…
Sonya is forced to decide whether her life is worth more than the lives of her family. By selling herself for her family, society judges her worth and presents her with a symbol of shame, the yellow ticket. It is due to this ticket that Sonya is forced to live separately from her family. The pattern of family complacency is evident with Sonya’s father, Marmelodov. When he is telling the story of his life to Roskolnikov, Marmelodov does not protest in any way to his wife’s request of his daughter. Instead he protects his wife with excuses for the reason she suggested prostitution. Marmelodov says “’[b]ut do not blame her, do not blame her, my dear sir, do not blame her! She said this not in her right mind but in emotional agitation, in sickness, and with children crying from hunger, and said it, besides, more for the sack of insult than in any strict sense.’” (18). This is an example of Marmelodov accepting fate obediently. Marmelodov asks Roskolnikov to not blame his wife in the matter as well, but he is also asking himself. He blames himself for Sonya’s position and his wife’s words. He is now making excuses for living with the consequence of his
One, Roskolnikov is unwilling to be complacent with his sister’s sacrifice and two, she has not yet entered into the contract with her fiancé, Pyrotr Petrovich. When Roskolnikov receives news of his sister’s engagement, he immediately realizes that Dunya is selling her life to get him out of debt and back into school. He also believes that Dunya’s sacrifice is the same as Sonya’s. “Do you understand that this Luzhinian cleanliness is just the same as Sonechka’s cleanliness and maybe even worse, nastier, meaner, because in your case, Dunechka, some extra comfort can still be reckoned on, while there it’s quite simply a matter of starving to death!” (44). This quote illustrates the implicit tension of selling oneself into a life of comfort. Compared to Sonya, who did not have the choice of comfort, it is a shadier plot. Roskolnikov objects to this plot for the same reason he admires Sonya; she destroyed a life and kept living with the consequences and hardships. Dunya will be destroying a life as well, but she will be gaining comfort and avoiding hardships. After hearing Sonya’s story from her father, Roskolnikov sympathizes with Sonya …show more content…
Sonya is forced to decide whether her life is worth more than the lives of her family. By selling herself for her family, society judges her worth and presents her with a symbol of shame, the yellow ticket. It is due to this ticket that Sonya is forced to live separately from her family. The pattern of family complacency is evident with Sonya’s father, Marmelodov. When he is telling the story of his life to Roskolnikov, Marmelodov does not protest in any way to his wife’s request of his daughter. Instead he protects his wife with excuses for the reason she suggested prostitution. Marmelodov says “’[b]ut do not blame her, do not blame her, my dear sir, do not blame her! She said this not in her right mind but in emotional agitation, in sickness, and with children crying from hunger, and said it, besides, more for the sack of insult than in any strict sense.’” (18). This is an example of Marmelodov accepting fate obediently. Marmelodov asks Roskolnikov to not blame his wife in the matter as well, but he is also asking himself. He blames himself for Sonya’s position and his wife’s words. He is now making excuses for living with the consequence of his