Suggestions
Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.Please wait while we process your payment
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
Please wait while we process your payment
By signing up you agree to our terms and privacy policy.
Don’t have an account? Subscribe now
Create Your Account
Sign up for your FREE 7-day trial
Already have an account? Log in
Your Email
Choose Your Plan
Individual
Group Discount
Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan!
Purchasing SparkNotes PLUS for a group?
Get Annual Plans at a discount when you buy 2 or more!
Price
$24.99 $18.74 /subscription + tax
Subtotal $37.48 + tax
Save 25% on 2-49 accounts
Save 30% on 50-99 accounts
Want 100 or more? Contact us for a customized plan.
Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
SparkNotes Plus
You'll be billed after your free trial ends.
7-Day Free Trial
Not Applicable
Renews December 14, 2023 December 7, 2023
Discounts (applied to next billing)
DUE NOW
US $0.00
SNPLUSROCKS20 | 20% Discount
This is not a valid promo code.
Discount Code (one code per order)
SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan - Group Discount
Qty: 00
SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Free trial is available to new customers only.
Choose Your Plan
For the next 7 days, you'll have access to awesome PLUS stuff like AP English test prep, No Fear Shakespeare translations and audio, a note-taking tool, personalized dashboard, & much more!
You’ve successfully purchased a group discount. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. You'll also receive an email with the link.
Members will be prompted to log in or create an account to redeem their group membership.
Thanks for creating a SparkNotes account! Continue to start your free trial.
Please wait while we process your payment
Your PLUS subscription has expired
Please wait while we process your payment
Please wait while we process your payment
Well, let me tell you, Rodion Romanovich, I don’t consider it necessary to justify myself; but I would be grateful if you could explain to me what was particularly criminal about how I behaved in all this, speaking without prejudice, with common sense?
Svidrigailov responds to Raskolnikov’s rudeness. After Svidrigailov asks Raskolnikov for his help getting Dunia’s interest, Raskolnikov quickly refuses and dismisses Svidrigailov’s request as ridiculous. After all, Svidrigailov’s depravity is well known. Here, Svidrigailov defends himself, arguing he simply lives as a man of instinct and passion, and acts out of natural impulses, not criminal ones. Like Raskolnikov, Svidrigailov has a distorted perception of himself.
“No, not very,” Svidrigailov answered, calmly. “And Marfa Petrovna and I scarcely ever fought. We lived harmoniously, and she was always pleased with me. I only used the whip twice in all our seven years …”
Svidrigailov continues to defend himself to Raskolnikov in an attempt to rally support in pursuing Dunia. Svidrigailov’s wife died, and rumors indicate that Svidrigailov might be responsible. Svidrigailov’s defense, however, seems credible: He claims he and Marfa never fought, and in fact, she acted as the dominant one in the relationship and took advantage of him. Yet Svidrigailov claims her ghost haunts him, which suggests guilt.
No, it’s better at home. Here at least you blame others for everything and excuse yourself.
Svidrigailov replies to Raskolnikov’s question as to whether he would have left his wife had she not cornered him into marriage by paying off his gambling debt. Svidrigailov responds no, since he felt too miserable to be anywhere else anyway. Like Raskolnikov, everywhere feels like hell to Svidrigailov. Svidrigailov’s statement mirrors Raskolnikov’s state of mind, since Raskolnikov uses his intellect to partly excuse himself for the murder he commits.
“I rarely lie,” answered Svidrigailov thoughtfully, apparently not noticing the rudeness of the question.
Svidrigailov replies to Raskolnikov’s accusing him of lying, appearing to be a character blithely unaware of social cues. He doesn’t pick up on when he isn’t welcome, nor does he pick up on when people are being rude to him. Most importantly, he doesn’t pick up on his own hypocrisy. Readers may believe Svidrigailov’s sincerity in saying that he rarely lies, since in every instance he speaks with brutal frankness, no matter how distorted his perception.
We always imagine eternity as something beyond our conception, something vast, vast! But why must it be vast? Instead of all that, what if it’s one little room, like a bathhouse in the country, black and grimy and spiders in every corner, and that’s all eternity is?
Svidrigailov speculates on the afterlife, envisioning an eternity similar to earthly reality. Unlike Raskolnikov, Svidrigailov can ultimately accept ideas about life that seem more realistic and less romantic . While both Raskolnikov and Svidrigailov approach life cynically, Raskolnikov operates more as an intellectual skeptic and Svidrigailov a realist. Svidrigailov can be satisfied thinking that eternity exists as nothing more than something as mundane as a room.
Wasn’t I right in saying that we were birds of a feather?
Svidrigailov uses an idiom to convey that he and Raskolnikov share the same nature and instincts. Raskolnikov finds himself more and more unsettled the longer he converses with Svidrigailov. What starts as a conversation about Dunia, drifts into a larger conversation about the afterlife. Svidrigailov’s bleak views terrify Raskolnikov, who fears Svidrigailov might be right. Raskolnikov and Svidrigailov
Oh, very well, for vice then. You insist that it’s vice. But anyway I like a direct question. In this vice at least there is something permanent, founded upon nature and not dependent on fantasy …
Svidrigailov responds to Raskolnikov’s condemnation of his seeking the company of women. Raskolnikov, disgusted by the vulgar way Svidrigailov talks about women, condemns him as a man of pure vice. Svidrigailov seems unruffled by Raskolnikov’s opinion. For Svidrigailov, his lust for women translates as simple passion, a natural instinct. Svidrigailov resembles Raskolnikov here as he tries to justify immorality and self-interest.
And once a girl’s heart is moved to pity, it’s more dangerous than anything. She is bound to want to ‘save him,’ to bring him to his senses, and life him up and draw him to nobler aims, and restore him to new life and usefulness—well, we all know how far such dreams can go.
Ironically, the scenario Svidrigailov describes here matches the situation between Sonia and Raskolnikov: Sonia’s heart pities Raskolnikov and she commits her life to him. Of course, Raskolnikov feels repulsed when he hears Svidrigailov speaking similarly of his sister, Dunia. Svidrigailov’s cynical view, that a woman’s pursuit to change a man is futile, has at least some merit in that the idea appears realistic.
To what a pitch of stupidity a man can be brought by frenzy!
Svidrigailov’s words spoken here must burn in Raskolnikov’s ears. Svidrigailov commenting on how his lust and passion for Dunia caused him to give her all his money, an act he judges as stupid. Raskolnikov must hear the resonance with his own murderous act undertaken in a frenzy of despair to become a sort of superman. Svidrigailov continues to function as a foil to Raskolnikov’s peace of mind.
“And … you can’t? Never?” he whispered in despair.
After Svidrigailov attempts to rape Dunia, he relents and simply asks her if she will ever love him. Dunia responds no. Svidrigailov, accepting her answer, gives her the key to leave. Shortly after, Svidrigailov kills himself with Dunia’s gun. Svidrigailov’s suicide serves as an act of acceptance—of the impossibility of his dreams, of reality, and finally, of who he is as a person—and so becomes an act of dignity.
Please wait while we process your payment