Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors
used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
The City
The city of St. Petersburg as represented in Dostoevsky’s
novel is dirty and crowded. Drunks are sprawled on the street in
broad daylight, consumptive women beat their children and beg for
money, and everyone is crowded into tiny, noisy apartments. The
clutter and chaos of St. Petersburg is a twofold symbol. It represents
the state of society, with all of its inequalities, prejudices,
and deficits. But it also represents Raskolnikov’s delirious, agitated
state as he spirals through the novel toward the point of his confession
and redemption. He can escape neither the city nor his warped mind. From
the very beginning, the narrator describes the heat and “the odor”
coming off the city, the crowds, and the disorder, and says they
“all contributed to irritate the young man’s already excited nerves.”
Indeed, it is only when Raskolnikov is forcefully removed from the
city to a prison in a small town in Siberia that he is able to regain
compassion and balance.
The Cross
The cross that Sonya gives to Raskolnikov before he goes
to the police station to confess is an important symbol of redemption
for him. Throughout Christendom, of course, the cross symbolizes Jesus’
self-sacrifice for the sins of humanity. Raskolnikov denies any feeling
of sin or devoutness even after he receives the cross; the cross symbolizes
not that he has achieved redemption or even understood what Sonya
believes religion can offer him, but that he has begun on the path
toward recognition of the sins that he has committed. That Sonya
is the one who gives him the cross has special significance: she gives
of herself to bring him back to humanity, and her love and concern
for him, like that of Jesus, according to Christianity, will ultimately
save and renew him.
