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The bridge as a symbolic detail in Crime and Punishment [Prestuplenie i nakazanie]
https://doi.org/10.31425/0042-8795-2018-6-182-193
Abstract
The article analyzes the significance of the ‘bridge’ detail in F. Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment [Prestuplenie i nakazanie]. The bridge is not a mere landscape feature, but a means of subtextual expression of the protagonist’s inner drama. The purpose of the article is to demonstrate the detail’s artistic significance in the novel.
Examination of the plot sequences and the context for the mention of a bridge helps to establish its compositional role as a connector between two existential dimensions: the true one, inspired by realization of God’s design, and the false one, generated by Raskolnikov’s theory. The symbolic meaning of a bridge in the aesthetic universe can explain the character’s internal struggles and acute spiritual controversy.
The study of the functions of the ‘bridge’ detail in Dostoevsky’s novel clarifies the writer’s artistic intent and the book’s philosophical background.
About the Author
N. A. Kladova
Educational centre ‘Forward-school’
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Natalia A. Kladova – Candidate of Philology
9 Krasnaya Presnya St., Moscow, 123242
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Review
For citations:
Kladova N.A. The bridge as a symbolic detail in Crime and Punishment [Prestuplenie i nakazanie]. Voprosy literatury. 2018;(6):182-193. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.31425/0042-8795-2018-6-182-193
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