Notes to CRIME AND PUNISHMENT Dostoevsky's Insights into the Dark Side of Humanity

Ernst Neizvestny Painting 

Dostoevsky as Psychologist: Insights into the Dark Side of the Human Soul

Some of Dostoevsky’s insights into the darker side of our nature are hard for us to accept; he often sees things we would prefer not to look at. Here are some examples from Crime and Punishment.

      On the morbidity of the human psyche as a relative conception. Dr. Zosimov: “All of us are frequently more or less deranged, with the slight difference that the ‘sick’ are a little more deranged than we, and therefore we must inevitably draw the distinction. But a completely harmonious person, it is true, is hardly to be found; in tens, or perhaps hundreds of thousands you will meet with only one, and then not a very good specimen” (Part 3, Ch. 3).

(

     On Schadenfreude (злорадство), the taking of joy in the misfortunes of others. After the dying Marmeladov—run over by a carriage and trampled by horses—is carried back to his miserable lodgings, all of his fellow miserable lodgers gather around to watch the spectacle, which stars, as usual, the frenetic Katerina Ivanovna. “The lodgers, one after another, began to press back towards the door, with the strange inward glow of satisfaction that is always there, even among his nearest and dearest, when disaster suddenly strikes our neighbor, and from which not one of us is immune, however sincere our pity and sympathy” (Part 2, Ch. 7).

(

      On masochism. Svidrigailov is telling Raskolnikov how he hit his wife, Marfa Petrovna, with a riding switch, and how she reacted with righteous indignation, ordering the carriage to be made ready, so that she could spread her sad tale about the town. “The first thing she did was to order the carriage… Not to mention the fact that it sometimes happens that women are highly gratified at being insulted, in spite of their apparent indignation. It happens with everybody; mankind in general loves to be affronted, have you noticed? But especially women. You might almost say it’s their only amusement” (Part 4, Ch. 1).

( 

      On flattery. Svidrigailov explains how he went about attempting to seduce Dunya. “I put the blame for everything on my destiny, made out that I was avid and greedy for light, and finally brought into play the greatest and most reliable means of subjugating a woman’s heart, which never disappoints anybody and always produces a decisive effect on every single woman, without exception. I mean, of course, flattery. There is nothing in the world harder than straightforwardness, and nothing easier than flattery. In straightforward dealing if there is one hundredth part of a false note, the result is immediate dissonance, and, in consequence, trouble. But in flattery every single note can be false and the effect will be agreeable, and it will be listened to with some pleasure. The pleasure may indeed be somewhat crude, but it is still pleasure for all that. And however gross the flattery may be, at least half of it will certainly seem to be true. This holds for every stage of development and every social level. Even a vestal virgin can be seduced by flattery, not to mention ordinary people” (Part 6, Ch. 4).

(

          On human “broadness of mind.” Svidrigailov again is speaking. “The minds of the Russian people in general are broad, Avdotya Romanovna, like their country, and extraordinarily inclined to the fantastic and chaotic; but it is disastrous to have a broad mind without special genius” (Part 6, Ch. 5). The idea is that human beings can hold both noble and perverse impulses simultaneously in their souls. You may, for example, feel sympathy for the sufferings of your neighbor, while, simultaneously wallowing in Schadenfreude (see # 2 above). In a famous passage from The Brothers Karamazov, Mitya K. declares that “Man is too broad; I’d have him narrower.”