Religious Symbolism in Crime and Punishment

The mainly Russian Orthodox city of St. Petersburg also serves as an important symbol to the story, not only as the setting, but it also has historical and geographical significance. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Russia began reconnecting with Europe after a long period of isolation, and Russia and St. Petersburg in particular became heavily influenced by Western European culture, especially Protestantism, and a sharp divide formed between its noble classes and working peasant class. St. Petersburg in Crime and Punishment is dirty, crowded and depressing.

Drunks are passed out on the street in the middle of the afternoon, women beat their children and beg for money, and everyone is crowded into cramped, noisy apartments. The clutter and chaos of St. Petersburg is symbolic in two aspects. It represents the state of Russian politics and society during the nineteenth century, but it also serves to represent Raskolnikov’s delirious and collapsing mental state as he spirals toward insanity. His mental state and the conditions of his environment are intertwined.

From the very beginning, the city is described as having an “odor”. It is crowded, disorderly, and all of it is contributing to establishing Raskolnikov’s character. This kind of environment suits his tendency towards Nihilism towards the beginning of the story, and makes it interesting to see how he plays of most of the other characters, several of whom we know are experiencing the same feelings as him but from different backgrounds such as Svidrigailov or Katerina Ivanovna. Ironically it is only when Raskolnikov is sent to prison in the cold and desolate Siberia that he is able to regain his composure and see through the nihilistic attitudes and ideas he had developed.

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Lastly, water in Crime and Punishment comes to represent life and renewal and has different meanings for different characters. In Christianity, water is used as a symbol for baptism, or “washing away” of ones sins and transgressions. For some characters, it represents a new beginning and personal growth. In Raskolnikov’s case, as a character he is somewhere on the edge of good and evil, whichever state of Raskolnikov’s mental health is leaning towards, positive or negative, is indicative of the type of experience he will have with water.

For instance, after the murders, the police call Raskolnikov into the station, and after a brief interview with Porfiry Petrovitch, he asks for a glass of water, and after drinking it, he faints, indicating that the power of the truth is too powerful for him to accept the weight of the murder on his conscious. When he wakes up, someone has brought him a glass of yellow water. The glass, being just as literally clouded and impure as his conscious is metaphorically impure, and the closer he moves towards water, the closer he comes to redemption. Raskolnikov even tries to “wash away” the blood on the ax after committing the murders.

Another example of water being used to symbolize character development is Svidrigailov. He has a fear of water, to a point where he says he can’t stand water in paintings. This fear of water is symbolic of his inability to seek salvation, and it certainly is no coincidence that when Svidrigailov eventually kills himself, he does so by going into the pouring rain and in the darkness of an alley.

He tells Sonya, the only options for Rodya to atone for what he’s done are: “a bullet in the head, or Siberia”. The difference between Raskolnikov and Svidrigailov in these situations is ultimately reflective of Christian teaching, in order to be forgiven, either by God or by the state, one must admit their sins and denounce his pride.

Svidrigailov opts for a quick and painless death as opposed to facing the long list of horrible things he has done, including cheating on his wife and molesting a 15 year girl that killed herself out of trauma from the abuse she received at Svidrigailov’s hand. In Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky makes it abundantly clear, those that think of themselves as higher than God, will be humbled in one way or another. Dostoesky Fyodor, Crime and Punishment. Tr. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, New York: Random House, 1993