D. Shmarinov, Illustrations to C and P: Dunya
Dostoevsky the
Neuroscientist
(Dunya and
Svidrigailov)
Dostoevsky’s métier as a writer of fiction is his deep
understanding of human psychology. In fact, his insights are so acute that
already in the nineteenth century he anticipated the findings of neuroscience
in the twenty-first century. In the past twenty years brain scientists have
learned, among many other discoveries, that we humans are often not in control
of our actions, even unaware, on a conscious level, of why we do certain
things. In control, rather, are neurons deep in our brain, working sometimes at
cross purposes even with our own ethical principles.
Examples of such a situation are rife throughout
Dostoevsky’s works of fiction. A good example in C and P is Dunya Raskolnikov’s relationship with the perverse
Svidrigailov. We learn that while she worked as a governess on his estate he
constantly pursued her, in an attempt to seduce her. During that past time in
the narrative she resisted him, as she does in present time narrative. Of the
many melodramatic scenes in subplots of the novel, the encounter of Dunya and
Svidrigailov in his lodgings, their last meeting, stands out (Part 6, Ch. 5).
Svidrigailov has lured her to a one-on-one meeting with his
promise to tell her about her brother’s secret—his having committed
murder—which Svidrigailov has discovered by eavesdropping on a conversation
between Raskolnikov and Sonya. The confrontation scene is quite well motivated
until Dunya draws a revolver; at which point we are into pulp fiction, and the
scene ends up like something out of a Saturday afternoon serial at the local
cinema.
Svidrigailov has offered to save Raskolnikov, to help him escape to
America. And given Dunya’s character, we expect more logically that she would
yield to Svidrigailov in order to save her brother. But she shoots at him,
grazing his scalp.
This confrontation scene does a good deal to advance the
action of the main plot. For example, Svidrigailov recapitulates for Dunya the
multiple motivations for Raskolnikov’s crime. Much is also said about how Dunya
related to Svidrigailov back when she worked on his estate. While resisting his
advances, she was constantly trying to reform him, to cure him of his
“broadmindedness,” which he brings up again at this meeting.
“Ah, Avdotya Romanovna [Dunya], everything is mixed up now,
though that is not to say that it was ever particularly straightforward. The
minds of the Russian people in general are broad, Avdotya Romanovna, like their
country, and extraordinarily inclined to the fantastic and chaotic (Русские люди вообще широкие люди, Авдотья Романовна, широкие, как их земля, и чрезвычайно склонны к фантастическому, к беспорядочному); but it is disastrous to
have a broad mind without special genius. Do you remember how often we two
discussed this theme . . . . sitting on the terrace in the garden, in the
evening after supper? You were always reproaching me with that breadth of
mind.”
Given what we learn in this confrontation scene, plus what
information we have about Dunya and Svidrigailov previously, it is clear now
that Dunya is both attracted to him and repulsed simultaneously. There is good
reason for asserting that, against her own will, she may be even a bit in love
with him. She is morally horrified by that deep neuron in her brain that wants
Svidrigailov, she refuses to admit the attraction and openly expresses the
revulsion.
Svidrigailov, who like the police inspector Porfiry Petrovich, is
one of the keen psychologists of the novel, earlier has explained to
Raskolnikov how he set up Dunya for her fall.
“In spite of Avdotya Romanovna’s real aversion for me, and
my persistently gloomy and forbidding aspect, she grew sorry for me at last,
sorry for a lost soul. And when a girl’s heart begins to feel pity for a man, then of course she is in
the greatest danger. She begins to want to ‘save’ him, and make him see reason,
and raise him up and put before him nobler aims . . . . . I realized at once
that the bird had flown into the net of its own accord, and I began to make
preparations in my turn” (Part 6, Ch. 4).
So exactly how does Dunya feel about Svidrigailov? It
depends on which neuron deep in her brain that you ask. Nothing is ever black
or white in the complicated psychology of Dostoevsky’s characters. Dostoevsky
often emphasizes that she resembles her brother, and is fully as complex a
person as is he. Dunya is a secondary character, so there is not room in C and P to develop her to the full. At
the end of the book Dostoevsky has conveniently married her off to the generous
and good-hearted Razumikhin, but, given her tempestuous and complex nature, we
wonder how successful that marriage will be.
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