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Article: The sins of children in The Brothers Karamazov: serfdom, hierarchy, and transcendence.
- Article from:
- Christianity and Literature
- Article date:
- June 22, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Conference on Christianity and Literature. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Near the end of Crime and Punishment, in one of the most harrowing passages in all of Dostoevsky's works, Svidrigailov is plagued by a series of nightmares. The last of his dreams is the most horrifying of all: Svidrigailov dreams that he helps and comforts a miserable five-year-old girl whom he finds sobbing in a corner, hiding from her abusive mother. After he tucks her into bed, she attempts to seduce him, with a "fiery and shameless look" on her "completely unchildlike face" "Ah, cursed girl!" he exclaims, and awakes (PSS 6:393; CP 509). (1) Soon after, he commits suicide, unable to accept his own inner world where purity cannot exist without being defiled. The little ...