al of his central ‘hero’, Raskolnikov. A former student with atheistic and radical ideas and convictions whose character is primarily concerned with the themes of the novel and the problem of personality. It is possible to ask whether there is room for personality in such a society as the one lived in by Raskolnikov. The society was under heavy threat from bourgeois utilitarianism and radical socialism. With the human self being as susceptible and impressionable to such suffocating movements as it is, Raskolnikov was, and still is, a representation and image of every man. A man that has fallen from grace and, in order not to get crushed by these dark forces, in the disguise of political society, needs to regain it. Raskolnikov holds great contempt for the old woman, whom he refers to as a ‘louse’, for reasons not fully displayed in the first chapter. The initial description of this woman in the first chapter leaves the reader feeling utterly disgusted;‘She was a tiny, dried-up old woman of about sixty, with sharp, hostile eyes, a small, sharp nose and no headcovering. Her whitish hair, which had not much grey in it, was abundantly smeared with oil. Wound round her long, thin neck, which resembled the leg of a chicken, was an old flannel rag of some description , and from her shoulders, the heat notwithstanding, hung an utterly yellowed and motheaten fur jacket.’This frank visual portrait that is painted by Dostoyevsky provides the reader with plentiful reasoning for immediately sympathising with Raskolnikov, who has ‘infinite loathing’ for this disgusting old woman. The detail that is provided by Dostoyevsky is intricate and is obviously an accurate portrayal of the image a woman created in the mind of the writer. She is a suspicious woman who is cautious of committing herself or her money to anything other than completely stable. Unfortunately, her wariness does not pay off later on in th...
