Take-Home Exams
1. Write an essay proving that "The very essence of the crime of Raskolnikov is that it is a murder for a principle. It was not the 3,000 rubles that attracted Raskolnikov. .. .He was attracted by the killing of a principle, by permitting himself that which is most forbidden. A theorist, he did not know that in killing a principle, he was at the same time making an attempt at the very life of his own soul. But having killed, he understood, by the terrible sufferings, what kind of crime he had committed" (Nikolai Strakhov, from his review of Crime and Punsihment in the Russian journal Otechestvennye zapiski, #171, pp. 334 [1867]).
2. Explore: "The task of the novel is to show how life and theory fight each other in man's heart, to show that struggle in the form in which it reaches its highest degree, and to show that victory was won by life" (Strakhov [above) p. 329).
3. Raskolnbikov is extremely well-spoken and by virtue of his intelligence wins respect from the more intriguing characters he encounters. He is engaged in weighty, philosophical anxiety, is a generous, perceptive, poverty-stricken, talented intellectual. He is, in short, the quintessential Dostoevskian hero. How does this image of the hero relate to the crimes Raskolnikov has committed? (Will Hurd).
4. Discuss. Coincidence is an ever-present trap for weary novelists, and in this respect Dostoevsky nodded rather frequently in Crime and Punishment. It is perhaps the principle artistic blemish in the work" Ernest J. Simmons The Making of a Novelist, [p. 170].
5. Discuss. "Water is to Dostoevsky a symbol of rebirth and regeneration. It is regarded as such by the positive character, for whom it is an accompaniment and an indication of the life-giving forces in the world. By the same token, the significance of water may be the opposite for the negative characters. Water holds the terror of death for the corrupt Svidrigailov..." (George Gibian, PMLA LXX, 1955 [p. 982].
6. Discuss the symbolism of vegetation and light. "Related to the many references of the river and rain, and often closely associated with them, are two groups of symbolic imagery: that of vegetation (shrubbery, leaves, bushes, flowers, and greenness in general) and that of the sun (and the related images of light and air)" (Gibian as above).
7. Explore the fact that".. .Christian symbolism is underlined by the Pagan and underlying symbolism of the earth. Sonya persuades Raskolnikov not only to confess and wear the cross, but also to kiss the earth at the crossroads — a distinctly Russian and pre-Christian acknowledgement of the earth as the common mother of all men" (Gibian, as above).
8. There is great universality in Dostoevsky's work. Dostoevsky ".. .was always able to project.. .private dilemmas in terms that linked up with the sharp conflict of attitudes occurring in the Russia of his time" (Joseph Frank, Encounter June, 1966, [p. 30]).
9. “Among other things, Crime and Punishment defines a religion. Ingrained in the work lie Dostoevsky’s personal views on human spirituality and redemption, which appear unattached to any specific church. Dostoevsky’s views borrow from certain ‘Christian’ ideas or symbols, forming a theology rooted in the condition of human life” (Stevenson Ramsburgh). Discuss the premise.
10. “Elevated into powerful
literary symbols by authors like Dostoevsky, …prostitutes became female
archetypes who either disillusioned the men with whom they associated
or raised
them to a higher plane of being” (p. 11).
Laurie Bernstein, Sonia’s Daughters:
Prostitutes and Their Regulation in Imperial Russia,
Berkeley: Univ.
of California Press, 1995.
11. Crime and Punishment is, in many ways, a novel about death and physical struggle. Several significant and minor characters suffer violent deaths at the hands of others or themselves, attempt or contemplate suicide, or die because of financial and social circumstances. Discuss the relationshipbetween death and power in the novel (J. Barrett).
Take-home Final Exam
1. In The Brothers
Karamazov names "... form a kind of symbolic
shorthand, while remaining perfectly common cognomens. They are
sometimes
revealed at critical junctures, as during the trial: Grushenka's
—Svetlov
(light, bright) or Katerina Ivanovna's—Verkhovtsev (upper, supreme—i.e., proud). Dmitri's name is derived
from Demeter (earth), Khokhlakov's, like the person, a risible
appellation,
Fetyukovich (blockhead), Snegiryov (bullfinch, also snow), Rakitin, who
is
supple like a willow, Smerdyakov (stink). Place names are significant
—Chermashnya (the name] of an estate owned by Dostoevsky's father!)
stems from
the Slavonic "vermilion" and thus works into the symbolism of red;
Mokroe (wet), comparable to the wetting of the earth with tears; Sukhoy
Posyolok
(dry hamlet), where Mitya rushes to
salvage his fortunes through Lyagavy; and, most important, the town of
the
action, Skotoprigonevsk (stockyard), aptly characterizes the
inhabitants, but
is not disclosed until the full symbolic meaning can be felt (Book XI,
chapter
2)" (Ralph Matlaw The Brothers
Karamazov: Novelistic Technique, p 24). Discuss the obvious
connections
between the name imagery and Dostoevsky's text.
2. "Dmitry Karamazov is
... presented as a positive type whose intuitions are basically correct
and
lead him to God's truth. But his character is deeply flawed. It may be
said
that Dmitry plays the right tune, but often plays it badly. Dnitry is a
counter
image to his brother Ivan, whose intuitions are basically false and
lead him
away from God but Ivan has many admirable traits. He delivers a false
message,
but does it extremely well. The point of Dostoevsky's painstaking
efforts to
bring the good and the bad in both brothers as close to a balance as
possible
is to show that what ultimately matters is a man's heart, while his
deeds, his accomplishments, and his success in
the world are irrelevant before God" (V. Terras, Reading
Dostoevsky, p 140) " Discuss the citation.
3. According
to Victor Terras, "Ivan Karamazov, author of 'The
Grand Inquisitor,' which he calls 'a poem,' and also of an earlier
poem, 'A
Geological Cataclysm,' and other works, is by far the most literate of
the
Karamazovs. His destruction as an author, which goes hand in hand with
his
downfall as a man, is one of Dostoevsky's main concerns. As a 'poem,'
'The
Grand Inquisitor' is undermined even from within through the
introduction of
false notes, melodrama, and inner contradictions, all of which together
suggest
that the Grand Inquisitor is no prince of the Church or glamorous
Miltonic
Satan, but 'a silly student, who never wrote two lines of poetry'"
(Terras, see above). Do you agree with Terras's view?
4. "The Grand
Inquisitor" "... is Dostoevsky's final statement against God. It is
Dostoevsky confronting himself with the candor and courage to place
everything
he had built up into^ the balances again. It is his final confrontation
with
the testimony of things seen and with man's desolating weakness and
infinite
capacity for self-deception. Only the words he wrote from prison to a
friend
remain at the end to sustain him, as they had all his life, and to
sustain his
world: 'If anyone proved to me that Christ was outside the truth, and
it really
was so that the truth was outside Christ, then I should prefer to
remain with
Christ than with truth'" (Edward Wasioiek, Dostoevsky,
p. 167). Discuss Dostoevsky's seemingly ambivalent
view.
5. "More traditional
symbolism of the four elements, particularly earth and fire, is
naturally
widespread in the novel. The earth appears as a regenerative substance.
For
example, Khokhlakova's advice to extract gold from mines; Snegiryov's
trampling
money into the ground; Zosima embracing and kissing the earth; Alyosha,
whose
faith is restored when he repeats his mentor's prostrations. The images
of fire
...operate primarily as symbols for spiritual ardor, and frequently
misdirected
or excessive ardor" (Matlaw, cited above, p. 27).
6. Discuss the relationship
between Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov and his four sons, Dmitry Ivan,
Alyosha and
his illegitimate son, Smerdyakov.
7. One often hears the
statement that"... The Grand
Inquisitor remains the prism through which one may view and
interpret
Dostoevsky's oeuvre." What does
this statement mean?
8. "The Grand
Inquisitor" offers at least two opposing answers to humankind's search
for
truth. Discuss the opposing conclusions one can draw from this chapter.
Where
do you yourself stand on these issues?
9. The Epilogue of The Brothers
Karamazov concludes very differently from the epilogue of
Crime and Punishment. Dostoevsky changes the subject back to one
he is picking up from an earlier portion of his narrative. What happens
to
Mitya is not discussed. This leaves the reader to his/her own devices.
How do
you feel about this conclusion.
10. In works of literature
there can be an opposition or a similarity between the Textual
conclusion and the dramatic
conclusion of a given work. Discuss the dramatic and textual
conclusions of The Brothers Karamazov.
11. The trial concludes with
the peasants of the jury finding Mitya "guilty.' How Does this strike
you?
12 .
Dostoevsky's
son Alexei Fyodorovich died just before
the author began Brothers Karamazov.
Discuss the
resurrection of Dostoevsky's son, Alexei,
and the use of the novel as a memorial to
to him. How does
Dostoevsky recreate the
relationship of father and son in Brotrhers Karamazov
(Will
Hurd).