Luzhin is a hypocrite. The image and characteristics of Luzhin in the novel Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky essay

Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin is one of the minor, but far from insignificant, characters in the novel “Crime and Punishment.” The reader will meet the first, very enthusiastic mention in a letter to his mother. Pulcheria Alexandrovna imagines Luzhin almost as a knight on a white horse. After all, this sweet man wooed her dowry daughter, Rodion’s sister, despite the plight of her family. He is ready to marry and would like to meet her brother. Only a noble and worthy person is capable of such a “feat,” the elderly lady believes.

Petr Petrovich is 45 years old, he serves as a lawyer and holds the post of court councilor. He is distantly related to Marfa Petrovna Svidrigailova. In general, he gives the impression of a man of modest education, but shrewd, reliable, financially secure and promising - the hero’s plans are to open his own law office in the city of St. Petersburg. But only the external impression is positive. In fact, Luzhin is a stingy, mean, vain and petty type.

Luzhin comes from the lower classes with a petty, envious soul. Having risen from the bottom, he fell in love with narcissism and got used to financial well-being. Money is his only value in life. It doesn’t matter how they are obtained, it doesn’t matter whose they are - the main thing is their presence. It is banknotes that elevate Luzhin above his peers and equate him with someone who until recently was much higher.

Role in the plot

The hero had been thinking about marriage for a long time, saving money and looking for a suitable option. He was not waiting for love, but for the opportunity to woo an educated, beautiful, honest girl from a poor family. So that after the marriage ceremony she does not dare to breathe on him out of deepest gratitude, so that she obeys him in any whims, so that he can do whatever his heart desires with her, without fear of rebuff.

And Raskolnikov unraveled this true essence in Luzhin from the very first meeting, as soon as he, a self-confident peacock and the rights of Dunya’s groom, crossed the threshold of his St. Petersburg apartment. Pyotr Petrovich expected a warm welcome and a lot of sweet compliments addressed to him, but received serious disagreements. Raskolnikov categorically refused to bless his marriage with Dunya.

The unexpected “retirement” comes as a shock to the hero. And the fact that the turnaround came from a poor student, the brother of a potential slave wife, aroused such anger in Luzhin’s soul that he was unable to cope with it. Obsessed with a thirst for revenge, Luzhin directs his anger towards the most defenseless of creatures - towards. At a wake for her father, the scoundrel quietly slips money into the girl’s pocket and publicly accuses her of theft. Considering the poor girl's occupation, such an accusation could cost her her freedom. But justice triumphs - there is a witness who saves Sonya. From now on, the reader will not meet Luzhin in the novel again.

Quotes from Luzhin

I’m glad to meet young people: from them you’ll find out what’s new. Well, my thought is precisely this: you will notice and learn most by observing our younger generations.

Every person must first be examined for himself, and more closely, in order to judge him.

A husband should not owe anything to his wife; it is much better if the wife considers her husband to be her benefactor.

Marrying a poor girl who has already experienced grief in life, in my opinion, is more advantageous in terms of marital relations than one who has experienced contentment, because it is more beneficial for morality.

Luzhin is Dostoevsky's most hated character in the novel. Without Luzhin, the picture of the world after the defeat in Crime and Punishment would have been incomplete and one-sided. According to a fatal, incomprehensible and unacceptable pattern for Raskolnikov, all reasons led to the fact that the triumphant consequence, the crown of all things, turned out to be Luzhin, what he imagines, what stands behind him.

Luzhin ascended to the provinces, where he accumulated his first, apparently already significant, money. He is half-educated, not even very literate, but he is a backbiter, a hooker, and now, in the prospect of new courts, he has decided to move to St. Petersburg and take up the legal profession. Luzhin understood that in the post-reform situation, in the emerging capitalist society, the legal profession promised both fat pieces and an honorable position next to the first people of the faded noble elite: “... after much consideration and expectation, he finally decided to finally change his career and join a more extensive circle of activity, and at the same time, little by little, move to a higher society, which he had long been thinking about with voluptuousness... In a word, he decided to try Petersburg” (6; 268).

Luzhin is forty-five years old, he is a business man, busy, serves in two places, feels secure enough to start a family and a house. Luzhin decided to marry Duna because he understood: a beautiful, educated, self-controlling wife could greatly help his career, just as a wife from the family of the Myshkin princes helped Epanchin’s rise. However, compared to Epanchin, Luzhin is still too Chichikov; his prudence cannot yet free itself from natural squabbles. He sent his bride and mother to St. Petersburg as beggars. In St. Petersburg, he placed them in the suspicious rooms of the merchant Bakaleev, just to make it cheaper. He counted on the helplessness, defenselessness and complete insecurity of his future wife.

However, it was not only stinginess that controlled him. Luzhin was from the philistine type of the Mlekopitaevs (“Bad joke”). He understood equality in his own way. He wanted to become equal with the stronger, with his superiors. He despised the people whom he overtook on the path of life. Moreover, he wanted to rule over them. The lower the social quagmire from which he rose, the more cruelly he wanted to show his weight, the severity of his blows. He was comforted by a sense of predatory self-satisfaction, the triumph of a winner who had pushed another down to the bottom to take his place. In addition, he also demanded gratitude from the dependents and the “beneficiaries.” Hence the plan he cherished in his marriage to Dunya, a plan that he almost did not hide: Luzhin “expressed that even before, without knowing Dunya, he had decided to take an honest girl, but without a dowry, and certainly one who had already experienced plight; because, as he explained, a husband should not owe anything to his wife, but it is much better if the wife considers her husband to be her benefactor” (6; 62).

He threatens the bride that he will leave her if she does not obey and does not break up with Rodya, for whose sake she decided to accept his hand.

“He is a smart man,” Raskolnikov says about Luzhin, “but to act smartly, intelligence alone is not enough.” Luzhin's mind was short, too definite, a practically rationalistic, penny-calculating mind, devoid of intuition and not taking into account the considerations of the heart, shunning the unknown and everything that does not add up, like dominoes on an abacus.

Luzhin is a Russian version of the French bourgeois, as Dostoevsky understood him and as he was described in “Winter Notes on Summer Impressions.” Luzhin is less polished, less cultured, he stands not at the end, but at the beginning of the process. Luzhin shines like a new penny, he can even be called handsome, but at the same time his beautiful and respectable face made an unpleasant, even repulsive impression. He is sneaky, not morally squeamish, sows gossip and invents gossip. Luzhin does not understand either disinterested honesty or nobility. Exposed and kicked out by Dunya, he believes that he can still fix everything with money. He saw his mistake mainly in the fact that he did not give Dunya and her mother money. “I thought to hold them in a black body and bring them so that they would look at me as if I was providence, but there they are!.. Ugh!.. No, if I had given them, for example, fifteen hundred thousand for a dowry during all this time, yes for gifts... it would be cleaner and... stronger! (6; 254).

Luzhin's mind was entirely devoted to property, to making capital, to making a career. An upstart, nouveau riche, and in his own way he broke the old patriarchal integrity, and he considered himself one of the “new people” and thought to justify his dirty practice with modern theories. Luzhin called himself a person who shares the beliefs of “our newest generations.” His hopes for success were indeed connected with changing times, and it is clear why: in old Rus', with its serfdom rights, privileges, traditions, and noble standards of honor and ennobled behavior, he had nothing to do and nothing to count on. In old Rus' he would have remained, at best, a successful Chichikov; in post-reform Russia he would have become a successful lawyer or a gründer - or both, and even a public figure of a liberal persuasion called to the banquet table. Luzhin is devoid of conscience, reflection, he is convinced that everyone is like him, he does not hide the fact that he is looking closely at new ideas for his own selfish purposes. In “ideas,” Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin did not go beyond the boundaries of stale stencils and vulgar commonplaces: “...new, useful thoughts are widespread,” he declaimed smugly, “some new, useful works are widespread, instead of the old dreamy and romantic ones; literature takes on a more mature tone; many harmful prejudices have been eradicated and ridiculed... In a word, we have irrevocably cut ourselves off from the past, and this, in my opinion, is already the case, sir...” (6; 123).

Luzhin was drawn to “our young generations” because he assumed strength in them. He insured himself in case of more radical changes, so that with all turns of the wheel he would be on top, winning. The unclean means of unclean activity made him fear the true democratic public, publicity, and revelations. Therefore, he looked for connections, harmless and non-compromising, of course, with “other curious and fabulous circles”: “He heard, like everyone else, that there are, especially in St. Petersburg, some progressives, nihilists, denouncers, etc. and so on, but, like many, he exaggerated and distorted the meaning and meaning of these names to the point of absurdity. Most of all, for several years now, he was afraid of exposure, and this was the main reason for his constant, exaggerated anxiety, especially when he dreamed of transferring his activities to St. Petersburg” (6; 273).

Luzhin sought contacts with the “younger generations,” however, not only out of fear of possible, although unclear to him, social and political changes.

Luzhin was dull and poorly educated, and wrote in a pre-reform, slanderous style, but he understood that time requires ideology. After all, even the bookseller from the flea market of Cherubim “has now started to get in the right direction.” Luzhin changed his skin, became a liberal leader, he needed a “platform”, moreover, a “progressive”, “advanced” one.

The simplest law of mimicry suggested that “ideology” should be sought not in the Old Testament scriptures, but in modern science, in political economy, in utilitarian philosophy, the formulas of which acquired the meaning of a bargaining chip, used by everyone in accordance with his position and level of development.

It was these appropriately interpreted formulas that Luzhin clung to with all his strength, with some even passion. Luzhin knew the theory of reasonable egoism and the resulting theory of solidarity of interests of Feuerbach - Chernyshevsky from hearsay, from well-worn conversations, and perceived it in his own way as a justification for individualistic egoism and as a principle for everyone pursuing their own private goals, as a principle of bourgeois political economy: laissez faire , laissez passer Dostoevsky. Context of creativity and time. St. Petersburg, 2005. P. 343.

He agreed to free himself from all restrictions imposed by religion, tradition, and public morality; he benefited from the law of general disunity and the wolf law of general chaos: his fangs had already grown, and he was firmly convinced that in a war of all against all he would be among the victors. Luzhin never took enthusiasm and daydreaming seriously; moreover, the enthusiastic dreamers were clearly defeated in the political and social battle that had just ended; according to Luzhin, it could not be otherwise. He learned one lesson from the whole movement of the sixties: get rich!

Luzhin’s interlocutors, Raskolnikov and Razumikhin, quickly saw through it, quickly understood that it was transforming the principle of the common good, professed by the socialist “young generations,” into the principle of social anthropophagy, professed by the emerging Russian bourgeoisie.

Dostoevsky was a great master of monologues, dialogues and conversations of many people. He breaks off the begun thread of a theoretical socio-philosophical conversation and throws it onto the topic of interest to everyone: the mysterious murder of Alena Ivanovna, the secret of which so far only Raskolnikov knew. A new direction in the conversation is sparked by what seems to be a very reasonable and relevant remark from Luzhin. “Not to mention,” he continues, “that crimes in the lower class have increased in the last five years; I’m not talking about widespread and continuous looting and fires; The strangest thing for me is that crimes in the upper classes are increasing in the same way and, so to speak, in parallel” (6; 134).

Luzhin gives examples taken from the criminal chronicles of the post-reform period that began: a student robbed the post office, people from a sufficient and educated environment counterfeit money and bonds, “the main participants included one lecturer in world history,” etc. etc. And Alena Ivanovna was killed by a man not from the lower classes, because men don’t pawn gold things, he concludes reasonably.

Luzhin is lost in explaining the reasons for the facts that frighten him as an owner.

Razumikhin gives an answer, although colored in Slavophile-soil tones, but fundamentally correct: the criminality that outrages Luzhin grows from the “Western” thirst for money that has overwhelmed everyone, from the same ideology and psychology with which Luzhin is filled to the brim.

Luzhin makes a careless move; a man of the middle, a man of commonplaces, he, contrary to the theory he had just preached, utters a philistine hypocritical maxim: “But, nevertheless, morality? And, so to speak, the rules...” (6; 135).

And then Raskolnikov, triumphantly, catches him and finishes him off:

“What are you bothering about?.. According to your own theory!.. bring to the consequences what you preached just now, and it will turn out that people can be slaughtered...” Luzhin protests, Zosimov believes that his patient has gone overboard, Luzhin “arrogantly” retorts: “There is a measure for everything... an economic idea is not yet an invitation to murder...”. “Is it true that you,” Raskolnikov completes the circle, “is it true that you told your bride... that you are most glad that... that she is a beggar... because it is more profitable to take a wife out of poverty, so that later rule over her... and reproach her for the fact that you have benefited her?..” (6; 135).

Razumikhin and Raskolnikov judged correctly: murder for money, robbery overt or covert, “buying” a wife - morally speaking, phenomena of the same order. Luzhin has nothing to do with the search for a new truth and new justice. Luzhin - “sticky”. Luzhin is a man of an alien, opposite and hostile camp, using “new ideas” when it suits him and as long as it suits him.

Even Andrei Semenovich Lebezyatnikov dissociates himself from Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin - Dostoevsky draws a dividing line between them. “Lebezyatnikov,” we read in the novel, “...also began to partly not tolerate his roommate and former guardian Pyotr Petrovich... Simple as Andrei Semenovich was, he still began to gradually see that Pyotr Petrovich was cheating him and secretly despises that “this person is not like that at all.” Lebezyatnikov tried to explain to Luzhin the system of Fourier and Darwin, but Pyotr Petrovich listened “somehow too sarcastically, and very recently he even began to scold” (6; 253). But Lebezyatnikov is only a caricature, only a transmitter from the third voice of a worldview that, like it or not, had to be taken into account and with which Luzhin really had no points of contact.

Luzhin is a man of the camp to which the dandy who pursued a deceived and seduced girl on the boulevard belonged. And even worse. The dandy was overwhelmed by lust, Luzhin by a passion for profit, he acted according to a strict calculation of benefits and disadvantages, according to which it cost him nothing to destroy or devour a person. Luzhin slandered Sonya and accused her of theft in order to arrange his affairs, to discredit Raskolnikov and regain “these ladies.” In a melodramatic and at the same time tragic scene, the angry, indignant Lebezyatnikov exposes Luzhin’s meanness and thereby finally proves that there is nothing in common between Luzhin and nihilism, even in the most vulgar forms, a la Eudoxie by Kukshin (from Fathers and Sons), that there is an abyss between them. Razumikhin says to Dunya: “Well, is he a match for you? Oh my God! You see... even though they’re all drunk there, they’re all honest, and even though we’re lying, that’s why I’m lying too, but let’s finally get to the truth, because we’re standing on the noble road, and Pyotr Petrovich.. ... is not on the noble road...” (6; 186).

“They” are the participants of the party to which Raskolnikov was invited, socialists, anarchists, “soilists,” Porfiry Petrovich, and finally, people with an alarming conscience, in mistakes, in evasions, “seekers of hail.” Luzhin is looking for money and only money. Luzhin is kicked out three times throughout the novel, three times they disown him: once Raskolnikov kicks him out, and even threatens to throw him somersault down the stairs, the second time Dunya: “Peter Petrovich, get out!” And the third time - Lebezyatnikov: “So that your spirit is not in my room right away; If you please, move out, and everything is over between us!” (6; 289).

But Luzhin is tinned, bribes from him are smooth. Lieutenant Pirogov also sits in it, only again not unconscious, but calculating, evil and cruel. He will be exposed, they will tell him who he is and what he is, they will spit in his face, he will just wipe himself off and go on his way. “They,” honest ones, will not succeed in life, many of them will put on the crown of thorns of political martyrs, - the Luzhins are the only winners, emerging from all battles unharmed and with a profit, knowing that, despite their liberal phraseology, those in power with them, holding the authorities to guard their interests.

Luzhin should not be underestimated. Dostoevsky assigned him a large role in the figurative-semantic system of the novel. Luzhin is the key to understanding the essence of reality that emerged after the defeat of the revolutionary democratic movement of the sixties on the basis of the beginning of bourgeois reforms. The Marmeladov family, the Raskolnikov family, the girl who “fell into the percent” testify to the vale of sorrow and suffering in which the majority resides, the best, sweet and defenseless, whose work and dedication holds the world together. Luzhin shows what the hopes awakened by the sixties really turned into. Luzhin is a bourgeois.

Luzhin has just been grabbed by the hand, and he is already going on the offensive, accusing his whistleblowers of godlessness, freethinking and indignation against public order. The amazed, confused Raskolnikov receives an object lesson - what the world is like not only in the present, but also in the future, what Russia has become as a result of the defeat of democracy in the sixties, what it will become in the further process of capitalist development and capitalist differentiation.

F. M. Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment” is “built,” as many readers believe, on the theory and its exposure of the main character Rodion Raskolnikov. But if you read the novel carefully, you can see that not only Raskolnikov has a theory. Several other heroes have something similar. One of them is Luzhin Petr Petrovich.

Luzhin cannot be considered one of the main characters; he is a minor character, but he has a special role. Luzhin is the bearer of a certain “economic” theory - the theory of the “whole caftan”: “love yourself... for everything in the world is based on personal interest.” It confirms the idea of ​​a person’s well-being at the expense of others, the main thing in life is money, a certain calculation, profit, career. By the way, the name Peter and even Petrovich, which is translated as “stone,” confirms the emptiness of the hero’s soul. Just his last name - Luzhin - limits him in his human vision of the world and is associated with a dirty puddle that irritates those around him.

The reader's first acquaintance with Pyotr Petrovich occurs in absentia. We receive a partial description of his person from a letter from Pulcheria Alexandrovna, Raskolnikov’s mother, to her son. She presents Luzhin as a noble man and describes him only on the positive side: “he is a businesslike and busy man... he values ​​every minute... although he has little education, he is smart and, it seems, kind.” But Raskolnikov already understands from his mother’s letter what kind of person he really is. When meeting him, Rodion only confirms his opinion: “To hell with this Luzhin!..”

Luzhin's decision to marry Duna, Raskolnikov's sister, can be explained by his own theory. The girl should be beautiful, smart, but extremely poor. Pyotr Petrovich will act as a benefactor, and under such conditions this is easy and noble. Dunya suited him in all respects: “... such and such a creature will be slavishly grateful to him all his life for his feat and will reverently destroy himself before him, and he will rule limitlessly and completely!..” Moreover, at the expense of Dunya, he I wanted to build my career. Luzhin came to St. Petersburg to open a law office, and in society “the charm of a charming, virtuous and educated woman could amazingly brighten his path, attract him to him, create a halo...”

Luzhin turned out to be stingy, vain, and also a vile person. At the last meeting with Dunya and her mother (Raskolnikov and his friend Razumikhin were also present), all the pettiness of Luzhin’s nature was revealed to those present. His lack of spirituality, love for money, but nothing more, finally opened Dunya’s eyes, and she drove him away with the words: “You are a low and evil person!”

His act towards Sonya Marmeladova - “a girl of notorious behavior,” as Luzhin put it - evokes hatred from Raskolnikov, bewilderment from Lebezyatnikov, and horror from Sonya herself. For what purpose did he try to accuse Sonya of theft, which she did not commit? Looking for a new victim for your “good deeds”?

The image of Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin in the novel is quite simple. F. Dostoevsky presented in it members of society of that time, who emerged from poverty and became masters at the expense of “entire caftans.” Priorities and values ​​rest on only one thing - money and power over the poor. There is no love, no soul, a heart of stone, incapable of sympathy and good for people.

The image of Luzhin in the novel Crime and Punishment occupies an important place. This hero is negative, but at the same time quite bright and interesting. Characterization of Luzhin is one of the common topics of essays on literature.

Collective image

In describing the appearance of his heroes, Dostoevsky attached special importance to the eyes. The look revealed both the character’s inner world and the author’s attitude towards him. But nothing is said about Luzhin’s eyes in the novel. This character represents a soulless personality, examples of which began to appear in large numbers during the time of Dostoevsky. There is no such complex inconsistency in him as, for example, in Svidrigailov. Therefore, the writer did not characterize his view.

The image of Luzhin in the novel Crime and Punishment is based on a description of his appearance and some unseemly actions. This is enough to conclude that this hero is a primitive mediocrity, and people like him appeared not only in the second half of the nineteenth century, but also much later, at all turning points in the economic and political sphere of the country.

Who is Luzhin?

This man decides to marry the main character’s sister, Duna Raskolnikova. In his future bride, what attracts him, first of all, is not spiritual beauty. He is unable to discern it due to his own lack of spirituality. Dunya is poor, and therefore will be a submissive wife. The image of Luzhin in the novel “Crime and Punishment” plays a certain role in the construction of the plot.

Raskolnikov commits a crime for the sake of an idea he himself created. But the need that not only he, but also his family is in, pushes him to commit crime. For Dunya, becoming Luzhin’s wife means sacrificing herself for her brother.

Appearance

Luzhin is nouveau riche. This person is just beginning to “get out into the world.” And with his entire appearance, he wants to draw the attention of others to his acquired well-being. The image of Luzhin in the novel “Crime and Punishment” comes down to a description of the clothes and work of the hairdresser, who carries out very careful manipulations over the head and sideburns of this gentleman. He has a pleasant appearance, he is about forty-five years old, but he looks somewhat younger. His clothes are impeccable and have a fashionable cover.

Dostoevsky's work has been inspiring theater directors and filmmakers for more than a hundred years. The image of Luzhin in the novel “Crime and Punishment,” a photo of which can be seen above, in the artists’ imagination is a rather unambiguous figure. He is outwardly pleasant, but behind his appearance there is nothing. And that is why he so insistently gets his hair curled at the hairdresser and so carefully selects his wardrobe items. The author himself emphasizes this, and these properties do not go unnoticed by other characters in the novel.

He has a gold lorgnette, his cambric handkerchief smells of perfume, and on his finger he wears a massive, extremely beautiful ring. Nevertheless, the image of Luzhin in the novel “Crime and Punishment” can be briefly expressed in the following words: a slanderer and an unworthy person. This is what the main characters of the work call him, and this is how the author himself portrays him.

Luzhin and Raskolnikov

At first glance, these heroes in the work have nothing in common. Raskolnikov is tormented by his ideas. He was never able to implement them. Luzhin is calm and reasonable. He does not know the idealism of fans of Napoleonic genius. He is just a businessman who is familiar with the philosophy of “petty egoism.” With this way of thinking, you can live happily ever after, without torment or suffering. But petty selfishness has something in common with the idea of ​​“entitled people.” The similarity lies in the rejection of basic Christian principles.

Raskolnikov dislikes Luzhin even before their first meeting. He learns about the role of this gentleman in the fate of his sister from a letter to his mother. The feeling that the main character experiences when meeting him is reminiscent of disgust. But later he notices with horror that they have something in common.

Dostoevsky created an authentic and realistic image of Luzhin in the novel Crime and Punishment. A summary of the hero's characteristics is presented in this article. But the writer’s extraordinary ability to express the deepest and subtlest aspects of reality can be felt only after reading the novel in its entirety. Dostoevsky's realism is a unique phenomenon not only in Russian, but also in world literature.

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Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin is one of the bright secondary characters in the novel “Crime and Punishment” by Dostoevsky.

This article presents a quotation image and characterization of Luzhin in the novel “Crime and Punishment”: a description of the appearance and character of Peter Petrovich Luzhin.

See:
All materials about Luzhin

The image and characterization of Luzhin in the novel “Crime and Punishment”: description of appearance and character (Petr Petrovich Luzhin)

Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin is the fiancé of Dunya Raskolnikova, the sister of the main character, Rodion Raskolnikov.

Mr. Luzhin’s age is 45 years:
“True, he is already forty-five years old. " Mr. Luzhin holds the rank of court councilor (this is a fairly high rank that gives the right to personal nobility):
“He is already a court councilor, Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin. " The following is known about Luzhin’s appearance:

In the end, Dunya refuses to marry the scoundrel Luzhin and a few months later becomes Razumikhin’s wife.

This was a quotation image and characterization of Luzhin in the novel “Crime and Punishment” by Dostoevsky: a description of the appearance and character of Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin.

World of Dostoevsky

Life and work of Dostoevsky. Analysis of works. Characteristics of heroes

Mr. Luzhin is one of the most striking images in the novel “Crime and Punishment” by Dostoevsky.

This article presents a quotation image of Luzhin in the novel “Crime and Punishment”: a table describing the appearance and character, a portrait of the hero in quotes.

See:
All materials on “Crime and Punishment”
All articles about Luzhin

The image of Luzhin in the novel “Crime and Punishment”: table with description, portrait in quotes

Luzhin and his theories

In the novel Crime and Punishment, Mr. Luzhin is a proponent of several interesting theories.

Luzhin supports the theory of poor and grateful wives. The idea was that the wife should be poor and appreciate her husband for saving her from poverty. That is why he decides to marry the poor, but beautiful and educated Duna Raskolnikova.

Luzhin and Dunya Raskolnikova

Luzhin proposes to poor Duna Raskolnikova after an unpleasant incident happens to her in the Svidrigailovs' house, where the girl works as a governess. The father of the family, Mr. Svidrigailov, falls in love with Dunya, who is 2 times younger than him. Marfa Petrovna, Svidrigailov's wife, blames Dunya for everything and undeservedly disgraces her throughout the city.

Soon, having learned the truth, Marfa Petrovna restores Dunya's reputation and finds a groom for her - Mr. Luzhin. Dunya accepts Luzhin's offer in order to save her family from poverty.

As a result, Luzhin's marriage to Dunya is canceled after the vile and deceitful nature of the groom is revealed. Disappointed in Luzhin, Dunya refuses to marry him.

Prototypes of Luzhin in the novel “Crime and Punishment”

• Lyzhin Pavel Petrovich- a sworn attorney with whom Dostoevsky was familiar. The name Lyzhin appears in the draft materials for the novel Crime and Punishment. In Lyzhin's surname, the author, apparently, changed one letter. As a result, we got a well-known character with a telling surname - Luzhin.
• Karepin Petr Andreevich could also become another prototype of Luzhin. Karepin was the husband of Dostoevsky's sister. He married Dostoevsky's 18-year-old sister at the age of about 45. After the death of the writer's father, Karepin also became the Dostoevskys' guardian. This is very similar to Luzhin, who wanted to marry Duna at the age of 45, and was also Lebezyatnikov’s guardian.
• Dostoevsky can also be considered one of Luzhin's prototypes. At the time of writing Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky was about 45 years old, and he, like Luzhin, was wooing his future second wife, a young girl, Anna Grigorievna Snitkina.

This was a quotation image of Luzhin in the novel “Crime and Punishment”: a table with a description of appearance and character, a portrait of the hero in quotes, a description of Luzhin’s prototypes, a presentation of Luzhin’s theories, etc.

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Luzhin and Svidrigailov in the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment"

School essay

The novel “Crime and Punishment” was conceived by Dostoevsky while still in hard labor. Then it was called “Drunk People,” but gradually the concept of the novel transformed into “a psychological report of a crime.” Dostoevsky in his novel depicts the clash of theory with the logic of life. According to the writer, the living process of life, that is, the logic of life, always refutes and makes untenable any theory - both the most advanced, revolutionary, and the most criminal. This means you can’t live life according to theory. And therefore, the main philosophical idea of ​​the novel is revealed not in a system of logical proofs and refutations, but as a collision of a person obsessed with an extremely criminal theory with life processes that refutes this theory.

Raskolnikov is surrounded in the novel by characters who are, as it were, his “doubles”: in them, some aspect of the protagonist’s personality is reduced, parodied or shaded. Thanks to this, the novel turns out to be not so much a trial of a crime, but (and this is the main thing) a trial of personality, character, human psychology, which reflected the features of Russian reality of the 60s of the last century: the search for truth, truth, heroic aspirations, “vacillation” , "misconceptions".

Rodion Raskolnikov is associated with many people in the work. Some of them are Luzhin and Svidrigailov, who are “doubles” of the main character, because they created theories similar to the theory of the “chosen ones” and “trembling creatures”. “We are birds of a feather,” Svidrigailov says to Rodion, emphasizing their similarities. Svidrigailov, one of Dostoevsky’s most complex images, is in captivity of a false theory. He, like Raskolnikov, rejected public morality and wasted his life on entertainment. Svidrigailov, guilty of the death of several people, silenced his conscience for a long time, and only a meeting with Dunya awakened some feelings in his soul. But repentance, unlike Raskolnikov, came to him too late. He even helped Sonya, his fiancée, and Katerina Ivanovna’s children in order to drown out his remorse. But he doesn’t have enough time or strength to cope with himself and he shoots himself in the forehead.

Svidrigailov is a man without conscience and honor - as if a warning to Raskolnikov, if he does not listen to the voice of his own conscience and wants to live, having a crime in his soul that has not been redeemed by suffering. Svidrigailov is the most painful “double” for Raskolnikov, because it reveals the depths of the moral fall of a person who, due to spiritual emptiness, followed the path of crime. Svidrigailov is a kind of “black man” who constantly worries Raskolnikov, who convinces him that they are “birds of a feather,” and with whom the hero therefore fights especially desperately.

Svidrigailov is a wealthy landowner who leads an idle lifestyle. Svidrigailov destroyed the person and citizen in himself. Hence his cynicism, with which he formulates the essence of Raskolnikov’s idea, freeing himself from Rodion’s confusion, remaining in boundless voluptuousness. But, having stumbled upon an obstacle, he commits suicide. Death for him is liberation from all obstacles, from “issues of man and citizen.” This is the result of the idea that Raskolnikov wanted to make sure of.

Another “double” of Rodion Raskolnikov is Luzhin. He is a hero, successful and not embarrassed by anything. Luzhin arouses Raskolnikov's disgust and hatred, although he recognizes something in common in their life principle of calmly overcoming obstacles, and this circumstance torments the conscientious Raskolnikov even more.

Luzhin is a business man with his own “economic theories.” In this theory, he justifies the exploitation of man, and it is built on profit and calculation; it differs from Raskolnikov’s theory in the unselfishness of his thoughts. And although the theories of both lead to the idea that one can “shed blood according to one’s conscience,” Raskolnikov’s motives are noble, hard-earned from the heart, he is driven not just by calculation, but by delusion, “cloudedness of mind.”

Luzhin is a straightforward and primitive person. He is a reduced, almost comic double, compared to Svidrigailov. In the last century, the minds of many people were subject to the theory of “Napoleonism” - the ability of a strong personality to command the destinies of other people. The hero of the novel, Rodion Raskolnikov, became a prisoner of this idea. The author of the work, wanting to portray the immoral idea of ​​the main character, shows its utopian result in the images of “doubles” - Svidrigailov and Luzhin. Raskolnikov explains the establishment of social justice by violent means as “blood according to conscience.” The writer further developed this theory. Svidrigailov and Luzhin exhausted the idea of ​​abandoning “principles” and “ideals” to the end. One has lost his bearings between good and evil, the other preaches personal gain - all this is the logical conclusion of Raskolnikov’s thoughts. It is not for nothing that Rodion responds to Luzhin’s selfish reasoning: “Bring to the consequences what you preached just now, and it will turn out that people can be slaughtered.”

In his work “Crime and Punishment,” Dostoevsky convinces us that the struggle between good and evil in the human soul does not always end in the victory of virtue. Through suffering, people move towards transformation and purification, we see this in the images of Luzhin and especially Svidrigailov.

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Characteristics of Luzhin in the novel “Crime and Punishment”

The characterization of Luzhin in the novel “Crime and Punishment” is given by Dostoevsky so clearly and expressively that the reader cannot even have the shadow of a doubt about which “camp” to write this character into – light or dark. Definitely, he is a negative hero. However, his role in the work is enormous. Without Luzhin, the writer would not have been able to convey his idea.

This is a man about forty-five years old. He is “licked,” cleaned, and dressed to the nines. Looks somewhat younger than his age. Dostoevsky focuses special attention on Luzhin’s appearance. He talks about clothes, hairstyle, sideburns, and how long the hairdresser works his magic on his client. Only nothing is said in the novel about the character’s eyes. This means there is nothing to talk about them. After all, eyes are the mirror of the soul, and instead of a soul, Luzhin has emptiness.

A cunning businessman, nouveau riche, an upstart, a man who managed to get rich in an era of economic change. Proud of it, a smug cynic. This is how Luzhin is described. Without a twinge of conscience, he would go over corpses to make his wallet even fatter. Using people, fleecing them, deceiving them - all this, according to the hero, is absolutely acceptable. After all, whoever is stronger is right, people live by the laws of the jungle. Luzhin thinks so.

He even chooses a woman as his wife not out of love or appearance, but based on considerations about whether she will be submissive. Because he doesn't need another. Raskolnikov's sister Dunya fully meets Luzhin's requirements. Initially, the girl agrees to marry a wealthy man. She, too, is not guided by love, but only by the desire to help her family, which is languishing in poverty. In particular, to brother Rodion.

Raskolnikov is extremely outraged by this whole situation. He, an ardent opponent of oppression by some people of others, cannot come to terms with the fact that his sister will marry the soulless monster Luzhin. Raskolnikov is overcome with hatred. He decides to commit a crime that has been brewing in his head for a long time. He kills the old money-lender, who, like Luzhin, profits from people’s grief.

In such an unexpected way, the author connected the fates of seemingly polar heroes. One is a romantic, an idealist, a fighter for justice. The other is a cynic, a calculating hypocrite, a dummy. However, there is something that unites them, no matter how strange it may sound. Both Raskolnikov and Luzhin admit that people can be sacrificed. The first is for the sake of an idea, the second is for the sake of material gain.

Raskolnikov understands this only later, after the murder. He is horrified by the thought that he is in some way similar to Luzhin. The latter does not understand anything at all and does not repent. This feeling is not in his soul, just like her. Luzhin is not a person, but a calculating machine in a polished suit, with chic sideburns and a hairstyle from the best master in the capital.

Being a figment of fantasy, the negative hero still has many prototypes. Many of them still live happily ever after.

“What happens if..?” - an unchanging formula that permeates the entire work of F. M. Dostoevsky. The work “Crime and Punishment” is no exception. It is based on the so-called theory of “blood according to conscience,” in other words: “the end justifies the means.” Another, not so large-scale, but still a theory that belonged to Luzhin, also appears latently - exalting oneself at the expense of the weakness of others. The ideas are not new, but only with Fyodor Mikhailovich “these moral dilemmas” leave the boundaries of the abstract and are resolved in practice. So, what will happen if you put one “tiny crime,” vanity and pride, on one side of the scale, and a thousand good deeds on the other? What will outweigh? Or maybe the imbalance will go away and both bowls will be on the same level? We discuss in the article on the topic “Luzhin (“Crime and Punishment”): characterization.”

Concept

In September 1865, a certain publisher of the Russian Messenger received a letter from Wiesbaden. The fact may not be particularly remarkable, if not for one or even two things... The first is that Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky writes to him, and the second, he writes to him about the idea of ​​his new novel. The idea of ​​the work, according to the author himself, is “a psychological report of one crime.” In other words, there once lived a young man, a very ordinary man, a tradesman by birth, who, due to unfortunate circumstances, finds himself in extreme poverty. What to do? Whether due to frivolity or internal instability, he succumbs to the “unfinished” ideas floating in the air at that time and decides to kill one old woman pawnbroker. The old woman is evil, vile, stupid and obscenely greedy. Why should she live? Can it be of any use to anyone? A clear answer of “no” confuses a former student. He kills her and then robs her, only to use the “proceeds” to make himself and all those suffering happy and thereby fulfill his “humane debt to humanity.” Well, here you can quite guess the title of the subsequent book - “Crime and Punishment”, and the name of the main character - Rodion Raskolnikov. And now more about the novel itself, as well as about the character whose last name is very telling - Luzhin Petr Petrovich.

First mention

So, Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin... Who is he? What role did he play in the immortal novel by F. M. Dostoevsky? These and other questions will be answered in this article on the topic: “The novel by F. M. Dostoevsky “Crime and Punishment: the image of Luzhin.”

Mr. Luzhin is one of the most unpleasant, but famous heroes of the novel. The last name alone is worth it! For the first time, the reader gets to know him in absentia from a letter from Pulcheria Alexandrovna Raskolnikova to her son. She characterizes him positively: after all, he wooed Duna, Raskolnikov’s younger sister - a beautiful, strong, self-confident, intelligent, noble girl, but without any dowry. Whatever one may say, the “feat” was accomplished by a man. And here is also a recent unpleasant incident: bad rumors spread about Duna, but, thank God, everything was settled. So his sincere intervention in the fate of the poor girl is now a doubly feat, the most noble act and deserving of all praise. How did she see him? We continue the topic: “Luzhin, “Crime and Punishment”: characterization of the character”

Portrait

It looks like a very “beautiful and respectable face.” The posture is “exaggeratedly strict”, the clothes are dapper, mostly in “light and youthful” colors, despite the fact that its owner is no less than 45 years old. However, he looked younger: his face was fresh, his hair was barely gray, always carefully combed and curled by the hairdresser. In general, he gave the impression of a man of little education, but intelligent, trustworthy, wealthy, after all, he served in two places and was planning to open his own business - a public law office in St. Petersburg. But this is only external. And every medal has a reverse side. Luzhin had her too - stingy, vain, mean, petty, cunning. It was precisely her that the insightful Raskolnikov saw, despite his mother’s simple-minded words.

Luzhin, “Crime and Punishment”: character description

Upon arrival in St. Petersburg, Luzhin, as a groom, went to visit Raskolnikov. He crossed the threshold with a feeling of benefactor and with an undisguised desire to listen to as many sweet compliments addressed to him as possible. Immense vanity, an extreme degree of self-confidence, or, better said, narcissism, played a bad joke on him. Having made his way “into the people,” having risen from insignificance, he became accustomed to admiring his appearance, his intelligence, his abilities, and it got to the point that sometimes, alone, he would look at his face in the mirror. He also loved money extremely. Our own, others', obtained through labor or other means - it doesn't matter, the main thing is their very presence. After all, they helped him rise above his own kind and equalized him with those who were higher than him. Well, the soil for matchmaking on the Duna is the most “fertile” there is. But there was something else...

“Crime and Punishment”: Luzhin’s theory

This is Luzhin's theory. He had been dreaming of getting married for a long time; he saved all his money and waited. What he was waiting for was not love, not a soul mate, but a well-behaved, beautiful, educated and... poor girl. In the deepest secrecy, special emphasis was placed on the word “poor”, since such a girl had probably already experienced many misfortunes and misfortunes in her life, was intimidated, and hence subsequently endlessly grateful to her savior. She will certainly “knuckle down” to him, will be in awe, obey in everything and be surprised only by him. And then the moment came when everything coincided. There is a fortune, grandiose plans are being outlined to conquer the high society of St. Petersburg, and here Dunya is an ideal contender for the role of a beautiful, intelligent, but poor bride, and in the future - a submissive and even servile wife of a successful husband. In his dreams, he already had dominion over her soul and body, and suddenly! No!.. He received “resignation”. And from whom? From a poor student, an arrogant sucker - Rodion, who threw him out of the door. He couldn't bear it. Wounded, he collected all his indignation and immeasurable anger and squeezed it into a revenge ball. And he threw it not just anywhere, but in the desired direction: she was falsely accused of stealing money, which he also planted in her pocket.

F. M. Dostoevsky about Luzhin

This is how readers see Luzhin. “Crime and Punishment” (the character description is presented very briefly in our review) is a complex work. Its characters, theme and issues are not as simple as it might seem at first glance. To understand the essence, it is not enough just to read the book. It will be useful to familiarize yourself with the works of critics and look through the notes of the author himself. In the draft materials for the novel by F. M. Dostoevsky, a lot is said about Luzhin. This is how the author describes the future character: he is incredibly vain, in love with himself to the point of coquetry, extremely petty and has an irresistible passion for gossip. Among other things, he is also greedy, and in this he has some similarities with Pushkin’s hero - the Stingy Baron. The attitude towards money is akin to idolatry, for everything is perishable except means. When a person has money, he is at the very top, he is a master! No one will ever show disrespect, disrespect or contempt towards him. This means that money must be respected and praised... Well, as the writer initially saw it, that is how he appeared before the readers.