Characteristics of the hero Katerina Ivanovna, Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky. Character image Katerina Ivanovna

Poor woman, 30 years old, dies of consumption (tuberculosis).

History of creation

The probable prototype of Katerina Ivanovna is Dostoevsky's first wife, Maria Dmitrievna, who died of tuberculosis at the age of thirty-nine. According to contemporaries, Maria Dmitrievna was a passionate and exalted woman, and Dostoevsky copied with that heroine at a time when his wife was already at the last stage of the disease.

Some episodes in the life of Maria Dmitrievna are similar to what happened to the fictional heroine in Dostoevsky's novel. Before marrying a writer, Marina Dmitrievna was already married, and after the death of her first spouse, she was left alone in the middle of Siberia with her son in her arms, without support from relatives or friends.

The image of Katerina Ivanovna also has another possible prototype - a certain Martha Brown, Dostoevsky's acquaintance. A lady who married a drinking writer and ended up in dire poverty. By nature, Katerina Ivanovna is similar to this woman.

"Crime and Punishment"

Katerina Ivanovna Marmeladova is the wife of Mr. Marmeladov, a drunken official who is already over fifty. Katerina Ivanovna herself is about thirty years old. This unhappy and sick woman comes from the family of a court councilor, well-mannered and educated. The heroine's father was an influential person and was going to achieve the post of governor, the heroine's family belonged to high society.

At the time of the action, the heroine looks like an extremely emaciated and sickly woman. Katerina Ivanovna's eyes shine unhealthily, red spots appear on her cheeks, her lips are dry and covered with caked blood. The heroine suffers from tuberculosis, but in her appearance you can still see traces of her former beauty - a slender figure, beautiful dark blond hair.

The heroine is poor and wears the only remaining cotton dress, dark striped. Katerina Ivanovna has a nervous, impressionable character. Being in "agitated feelings", Katerina Ivanovna looks even more pitiful and painful and begins to breathe heavily and fearfully.

Katerina Ivanovna's youth was carefree. The heroine grew up in a certain provincial town and was brought up in the provincial institute for noble girls from noble families. There Katerina Ivanovna was taught French. Upon graduation, the heroine danced at a ball with the governor and other influential persons, and also received a "certificate of commendation" and a gold medal.

Probably, the family was preparing a cloudless future for the heroine, but Katerina Ivanovna, in her youth, fell in love with a certain infantry officer and fled with that from her parents' house, which doomed herself to a sad fate. From her first husband, Katerina Ivanovna had a daughter, Paul, and two more children.

The heroine's family was categorically against this marriage, Katerina Ivanovna's father was incredibly angry, but the heroine nevertheless married her chosen one against the will of her parents. The heroine loved her husband excessively, but he became addicted to card games, was put on trial and died as a result.

Still the young heroine was left completely alone "in a distant and brutal district" with three young children in her arms. Katerina Ivanovna had no money, relatives abandoned the heroine, she fell into hopeless poverty and ended up with the children on the street. Mr. Marmeladov, who was also in that district at that time, was a widower. From the first wife, the hero left a teenage daughter Sonya. Having met Katerina Ivanovna, Marmeladov was filled with sympathy for that and decided to marry out of pity.

Marmeladov was twenty years older than Katerina Ivanovna and was of lower origin, but the woman, out of desperation, agreed to marry him, "crying and sobbing."

The new marriage did not bring happiness to the heroine. Her husband could do nothing to please her, although he made an effort for this, and after a year he lost his job changing states and began to drink. On this, the stable life ended, and Katerina Ivanovna again found herself in the grip of poverty. The Marmeladovs live in bad conditions, "in a cold corner," because of which the consumption, which suffers from Katerina Ivanovna, progresses. Due to illness and emotional stress, the heroine gradually goes crazy.

Due to poverty, the heroine is forced to sit on black bread, wash the floor herself and do housework. However, from childhood, a woman is accustomed to cleanliness and does not tolerate dirt, therefore, she daily torments herself with backbreaking work to keep the house and clothes of children and husband clean. Katerina Ivanovna herself had no clothes left, with the exception of one dress. All the clothes of the heroine had to be sold in order to get money for the life of the family, and her husband drank the last stockings and a scarf made of goat down.

A hard life made Katerina Ivanovna nervous and irritable, so that the children and stepdaughter had to endure a lot from her. Sonya says that before the heroine was smart, kind and generous, but she was weakened by her mind from grief. Katerina Ivanovna forces her stepdaughter to engage in prostitution, but later reproaches herself and considers Sonya a saint.

The heroine has a proud and ardent character, Katerina Ivanovna does not tolerate disrespect for herself, does not ask others for anything and does not forgive rudeness. The first husband beat the heroine, and the circumstances of her life were bad, and it was impossible to break or intimidate Katerina Ivanovna. The heroine never complained.

The heroine dies on the day of the funeral of Mr. Marmeladov, who dies when drunk under a horse. Raskolnikov, the protagonist of the novel, gives Katerina Ivanovna the last money so that she could bury her husband. The cause of death of the heroine herself is the sudden opening of consumptive bleeding. On this, the biography of the heroine came to an end. Katerina Ivanovna's orphaned children are sent to an orphanage.

Screen adaptations

In the 1969 Soviet film Crime and Punishment, the role of Katerina Ivanovna was played by the actress. In 2007, another film adaptation was released - the series "Crime and Punishment" directed by Dmitry Svetozarov, consisting of eight episodes. The role of Katerina Ivanovna was played here by the actress Svetlana Smirnova.

Quotes

“The widow has already taken her, with three children, small, small. She married her first husband, an infantry officer, for love, and with him fled from her parents' house. She loved her husband excessively, but he started playing cards, got on trial, and died with that. "

“If you only knew. After all, she is just like a child ... After all, her mind is just like crazy ... from grief. And how smart she was ... how generous ... how kind! You know nothing, nothing ... ah! "

All her life, Katerina Ivanovna has been looking for what and how to feed her children, she endures need and hardship. Proud, ardent, adamant, left a widow with three children, under the threat of hunger and poverty, she was forced, "crying and sobbing, and wringing her hands, to marry a nondescript official, a widower with a fourteen-year-old daughter Sonya, who, in turn, marries Katerina Ivanovna out of pity and compassion.
The environment seems to be a real hell to her, and the human meanness, which she encounters at every step, hurts her painfully. Katerina Ivanovna does not know how to endure and be silent, like Sonya. A strongly developed sense of justice in her prompts her to take decisive action, which leads to a misunderstanding of her behavior by others.
She is of noble birth, from a ruined noble family, so she has many times harder than her stepdaughter and husband. The point is not even everyday difficulties, but the fact that Katerina Ivanovna has no outlet in life, like Sonya and Semyon Zakharych. Sonya finds solace in prayers, in the Bible, and her father is forgotten at least for a while in a tavern. Katerina Ivanovna is a passionate, impudent, rebellious and impatient nature.
The behavior of Katerina Ivanovna on the day of Marmeladov's death shows that love for one's neighbor is deeply embedded in the human soul, that it is natural for a person, even if he does not realize it. "And thank God he's dying! The loss is less!" - exclaims Katerina Ivanovna at the bedside of her dying husband, but at the same time she fusses around the patient, gives him a drink, straightens the pillows.
The bonds of love and compassion link Katerina Ivanovna and Sonya. Sonya does not blame her stepmother, who once pushed her stepdaughter to the panel. On the contrary, the girl defends Katerina Ivanovna in front of Raskolnikov, "worrying and suffering and wringing her hands." And a little later, when Luzhin publicly accuses Sonya of stealing money, Raskolnikov sees with what ferocity Katerina Ivanovna rushes to protect Sonya.
Need, poverty press down the Marmeladov family, bring Katerina Ivanovna to consumption, but her dignity lives in her. Dostoevsky himself says about her: "And Katerina Ivanovna was, moreover, not one of the downtrodden, she could have been completely killed by circumstances, but she could not have been beaten morally, that is, it was impossible to intimidate and subdue her will." It was this desire to feel like a full-fledged person and made Katerina Ivanovna arrange a gorgeous wake. Dostoevsky constantly emphasizes this striving with the words "proudly and with dignity she examined her guests," "did not deign to answer," "she loudly noticed across the table." Alongside the feeling of self-respect, another great feeling lives in Katerina Ivanovna's soul - kindness. She tries to justify her husband, saying: "Imagine, Rodion Romanovich, I found a gingerbread cock in his pocket: he walks dead drunk, but remembers the children." She, pressing Sonya tightly, as if with her chest wants to protect her from Luzhin's accusations, says: "Sonya! Sonya! I don't believe!" In search of justice, Katerina Ivanovna runs out into the street. She understands that after the death of her husband, the children are doomed to death by starvation, that fate is not merciful to them. So Dostoevsky, contradicting himself, refutes the theory of consolation and humility, allegedly leading everyone to happiness and well-being, when Katerina Ivanovna rejects the consolation of a priest. The end of Katerina Ivanovna is tragic. Unconscious, she runs to the general to ask for help, but their Excellency is having dinner and the doors are closed in front of her. There is no longer any hope of salvation, and Katerina Ivanovna decides to take the last step: she goes to beg. The scene of the death of a poor woman is very impressive. The words with which she dies ("left the nag", "overstrained") The tragic image of grief is captured in the face of Katerina Ivanovna. This image contains the enormous power of protest. He stands in the line of eternal images of world literature.

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Katerina Ivanovna is a rebel, passionately intervening in an unfair and hostile environment. She is an immeasurable pride, in a fit of offended feelings she goes against common sense, puts on the altar of passion not only her own life, but, what is even more terrible, the well-being of her children.

We learn that Marmeladov's wife Katerina Ivanovna married him with three children from a conversation between Marmeladov and Raskolnikov.

"I have an animal image, and Katerina Ivanovna, my wife, is an educated person born of a staff officer's daughter .... she is also a high heart and feelings ennobled by upbringing .... Katerina Ivanovna is a lady, though generous, but unfair ..... she fights me whirlwinds ... Just know that my wife was brought up in a noble provincial noble institute and when graduating with a shawl danced with the governor and other persons, for which she received a gold medal and a certificate of commendation .. yes, the lady is hot, proud and adamant. Paul she washes herself and sits on black bread, but she will not tolerate disrespect for herself ... ... The widow has already taken her, with three children, she is too small. She married her first husband, an infantry officer, out of love, and fled with him from her parents' house She loved her husband excessively, but started playing cards, got on trial, and died with that. He beat her at the end, and although she did not let him down ... And she remained after him with three small children in a distant and brutal district ... Relatives all refused. And mountains Yes, she was too proud ... You can judge because to what extent her misfortunes reached, that she, educated and brought up and with a well-known surname, agreed to go for me! But she went! Weeping and sobbing and wringing my hands - let's go! For there was nowhere to go ... "Dostoevsky, ibid., Pp. 42-43.

Marmeladov gives his wife an exact description: "... For although Katerina Ivanovna is full of magnanimous feelings, the lady is hot and irritated, and will cut off ..." Dostoevsky, ibid., P. 43 .. But her human pride, like Marmeladova, is trampled underfoot at every step, she is forced to forget about her dignity and pride. It makes no sense to seek help and sympathy from others, Katerina Ivanovna "has nowhere to go."

This woman shows physical and spiritual degradation. She is incapable of serious rebellion or humility. Her pride is so exorbitant that humility is simply impossible for her. Katerina Ivanovna "riots", but her "riot" turns into hysteria. This is a tragedy that turns into a rough areal action. She attacks others for no reason, she herself runs into trouble and humiliation (every now and then insults the landlady, goes to the general to "seek justice", from where she is also kicked out in shame).

Katerina Ivanovna not only blames the people around her for her suffering, but also God. "There are no sins on me! God must forgive without that ... He himself knows how I suffered! But he will not forgive, so it is not necessary!" - she says before her death.

Katerina Ivanovna has gone mad. She ran to the former chief of the deceased to ask for protection, but she was kicked out of there, and now the mad woman is going to go and beg for alms on the street, forcing the children to sing and dance.

Sonya grabbed a cloak and a hat and ran out of the room, dressing on the run. The men followed her. Lebezyatnikov talked about the reasons for Katerina Ivanovna's madness, but Raskolnikov did not listen, and, having reached his house, nodded his head to his companion and turned into the gateway.

Lebeziatnikov and Sonya forcibly found Katerina Ivanovna - not far from here, on the canal. The widow is completely mad: she hits the frying pan, makes the children dance, they cry; they are about to be taken to the police.

We hurried to the canal, where a crowd had already gathered. The hoarse voice of Katerina Ivanovna was heard from the bridge. She, tired and gasping for breath, then shouted at the crying children, whom she had dressed up in some kind of old clothes, trying to give them the appearance of street performers, then rushed to the people and talked about her unfortunate fate.

She made Polechka sing and the younger ones dance. Sonya followed her stepmother and, sobbing, begged to return home, but she was relentless. Seeing Raskolnikov, Katerina Ivanovna told everyone that this was her benefactor.

Meanwhile, the main ugly scene was still ahead: a policeman was squeezing through the crowd. At the same time, some respectable gentleman silently handed Katerina Ivanovna a three-ruble note, and the distraught began to ask
him to protect them from the policeman.

The younger children, frightened by the police, grabbed each other by the arms and ran away.

Katerina Ivanovna was about to rush after them, but stumbled and fell. Polechka brought the fugitives, the widow was raised. It turned out that her throat gushed out from the blow.

Through the efforts of a respectable official, everything was settled. Katerina Ivanovna was carried to Sonya and laid on the bed.

The bleeding was still going on, but she was beginning to come to her senses. Sonia, Raskolnikov, Lebezyatnikov, an official with a policeman, Polechka holding the hands of the youngest children, the Kapernaumov family gathered in the room, and among all this audience Svidrigailov suddenly appeared.

They sent for a doctor and a priest. Katerina Ivanovna looked painfully at Sonya, who was wiping drops of sweat from her forehead, then asked to lift herself up and, seeing the children, calmed down.

She again began to rave, then she forgot for a while, and now her withered face threw back, her mouth opened, her legs stretched convulsively, she took a deep breath and died. Sonya and the children were crying.

Raskolnikov went to the window, Svidrigailov approached him and said that he would take care of all the funeral worries, he would place the children in the best orphanage, put a thousand five hundred rubles for each until adulthood, and take Sofya Semyonovna out of this pool.