"With an enormous effort he managed to raise himself on one arm. He stared fixedly and savagely at his daughter for a while, as though he couldn't recognize her. He had never actually seen her dressed like that before. Suddenly he recognized her: dressed up in cheap finery, humiliated, crushed and ashamed, meekly waiting her turn to take leave at her dying father. His face expressed infinite suffering. 'Sonia! My daughter! Forgive me!' he cried, wanting to stretch a hand out to her, but lost his balance and fell in a heap off the couch with his face straight down. They rushed to pick him back up and put him back on the couch, but he was going fast. Sonia cried out weakly, ran up, embraced him, froze in that embrace. He died in her arms." (Dostoyevsky, 179)
Each event in Crime and Punishment is written with an awful elegance by
Dostoyevsky. The anxious atmosphere he surrounds his characters scream to the reader the same cramped environment. The position of each character is also very significant. When
Marmeladov is on his death bed, I was captured by the dramatic and tragic interactions between father and daughter. In eight sentences
Dostoyevsky creates an infinite conclusion to
Marmeladov life. In our life as well, there are moments that reverberate in our minds and hearts. They have no end, and in turn one is jolted to a screeching
halt as the circumstances seem so surreal. It is hard to conclude such times as these as we are constantly reminded of the past. Life continues to pass by, but no longer with the same meaning.
Marmeladov's face of "infinite suffering" tells of a feeling never to be replenished. When he tries to grasp his daughter's hand he immediately falls to the floor face down creating a sense of hopelessness and udder shame. Sonia reacts to her father's fall and gives him a hug so pure in so much sorrow. Time stops in this moment. In Sonia's arms her father dies and with the passing of
Marmeladov there follows a galaxy of emotions that will forever rein in the hearts of the characters.