Raskolnikov Corruption

Marmeladov is an important character in Crime and Punishment because he shows the impact that the environment of a person can affect them through alcoholism. He is a miserable alcoholic who is married to Katerina Ivanovna and the father of Sonia. In the beginning of the novel, Raskolnikov meets Marmeladov in a bar. Immediately the reader can see how Marmeladov is a broken, corrupt, and desperate man. This is connected to poverty as poverty has a powerful impact on the people who live under its constant pressure. Dostovesky also uses Marmeladov to show how beaten down husbands turn to alcohol and abuse of their wives and family (Breger 119). Marmeladov does not do this in a physical sense, but rather emotionally. While talking to Raskolnikov, Marmeladov says, “"Oh my dear sir, perhaps it all seems a …show more content…
However, Marmeladov did not always realize what he was doing was wrong. In the beginning, Marmeladov uses Sonia's self-sacrificial nature to dismiss his own sins and continue to fund his habit with the money that she brings home. He fails to see his actions for what they actually are because he turns to alcohol to escape the reality of his suffering and the suffering of his family, keeping him from understanding the extent of his actions (Blake 255). An example of Marmeladov’s carelessness when it comes to taking Sonia’s money is seen when he discusses his drinking habits, "Well then, here I am, her own blood father, and I took her thirty kopecks to go and get myself drunk! And I dri-i-ink!" (Dostoyevsky 20). Marmeladov takes Sonia’s money that was intended for her desperate step-mother and her hungry siblings, however Marmeladov takes the money spends the money in a way that will only benefit him with little thought involved. After Marmeladov is struck by the horse and cart when he drunkenly stumbled into the street, Sonia visits him on his