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Semyon Zakharovich Marmeladov is a good-natured man whose reputation, marriage, and dignity has been destroyed by years of reckless alcoholism. He is a widower, and he fathered Sonya in his first marriage. He later married Katerina Ivanovna, who was also a widow, and took responsibility for her three children from her previous marriage. Sadly, while he was once an official with a good salary and a respectable social standing, his alcoholism lost him his profession and caused him to squander his money. Marmeladov suffers from shame due to his failure to provide for and protect his family, but his addiction is too severe to break. His and Katerina Ivanovna’s frustrating and tragic circumstances show how difficult it is to climb out of poverty. Additionally, Katerina Ivanovna and Sonya’s powerlessness to stop or control Marmeladov’s irresponsible behavior represents the failure of the system to protect women and children from the damage done to them by untrustworthy patriarchal figures. Russian women in the mid-19th century were disenfranchised and at the mercy of their husbands and fathers.
Marmeladov also relates to Raskolnikov in that both men have capitulated fully to their vices or darker urges. While being a drunk is not as violently immoral as being a murderer, Marmeladov’s inability to control his addiction has a terrible impact on both his life and his family’s life – he drives his daughter to prostitution and his wife to sickness, madness, and finally death. Similarly, Raskolnikov’s actions also indirectly result in his mother’s descent into insanity and illness, which ends in her death. Ultimately, both Marmeladov and Raskolnikov are sinners, and both must bear responsibility for causing the death and misery of their family members.
