Dec 25, 2011 04:02 PM
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(Updated Dec 25, 2011 05:46 PM)
Sonia or Sofya Semyonovna Marmeladov is an immortal creation of Dostoevsky. Her father, though mostly drowned in drinks, could appreciate her greatness:
" On the last day God will come and ask:' where is the girl who had compassion on her earthly father, and did not turn away in disgust from the habitual drunkard? Where is the girl who sacrificed herself to an unkind, consumptive stepmother, and children who were not of her own flesh and blood?. He will forgive my Sonia. He will forgive her, I know. I felt convinced of it when I was with her just now. We shall all be judged by Him and He will forgive us all; the evil and the just, the wise and the gentle. " This faith in divine dispensation, the forgiveness of God was Sonia's anchor in life.
Dostvesky has described two well defined types of character the Double and the Meek. If Raskolnikov is the representative of the Double, Sonia stands for the Meek, who are dreamers, unpractical, and suffering suffering for themselves as well as for humanity. The Meek characters never suffer from psychological, religious, moral and aesthetic disorder. A thin and lovely girl of eighteen, Sonia is a symbol of self sacrifice in a world where chaos and disintegration were rampant. She was guided by the heart rather than head and intellect. She had to earn for her family by selling her flesh to so many heartless people. She was not allowed to live with her people even at night, because the tenants thought it beneath their dignity to live with a prost itute under the same roof. And yet she had no complaint against any body. For a woman of her profession is, was difficult if not impossible to retain so much innocence, but she did.
Raskolnikov(hero of the novel) heard all about Sonia from her father, and developed compassion for her complete self-denial. He met her for the first time at the time of her father's death. the heroine entered into the room.' Timidly and noiselessly a young girl made her way through the crowd, and strange was her appearance in that room, in the midst of want, rags, death and despair. She, too, was in rags, her attire was all the cheapest.' The dying father looked at his daughter, crushed and ashamed in her humiliation' Sonia! Daughter! Forgive! with these words the father breathed his last in her arms.
Raskolnikov came in contact with Sonia, and felt that she was a fellow sufferer. It was Sonia alone who was capable of teaching him the supreme lessons of humility, insight, compassion and purification through intense suffering. Raskolnikov had no more doubt that his spiritual salvation was in Sonia's hands. He knelt down before her and kissed her feet:' I did not bow down to you, I bowed down to all the suffering humanity.' She lived a life of shame and degradation and yet had such holy feelings, which elevate the soul. She was a lady with the lamp illuminating their dark and dreary life of prisoners.
Raskolnikov was sustained by Sonia's love. Sonia, in her turn, had no doubt that he loved her beyond everything.' They were both pale and thin: but those pale faces were bright with the dawn of new future, of a full resurrection into a new life. They were renewed by love: the heart of each held infinite source of life for the heart of the other.'
