6.5 I swear, I’ll fire again… I’ll… kill you!…

This is one of the chapters with unexpected turns. Reading it feels like being on an emotional roller coaster. Let's take this ride together: Svidrigailov loves putting on a show for us.

Hello everyone!

I'm happy to share that I've finally managed to include writing articles in my schedule again. I've missed it, and I hope to better manage my schedule, tasks, and challenges going forward. My goals are to finish "Crime and Punishment" before New Year's and write about plans for 2025. I hope you're all doing well as the festive season approaches.

How are you? Did you finish reading the novel during this month-long break since the last chapter?

List of articles by chapters you can find here

Reading schedule is here.

We left off at one of my favorite chapters—not for its plot, but for its composition and intensity. The events are truly frightening: the unstable and unpredictable Svidrigailov, a potential murderer and child molester, lures Dunya into his room.

The scene in that locked room is chilling in its possibilities. It reminds me of a scene from "Dogville," where all houses are drawn with simple lines.

A still from the film Dogville (2003, Lars von Trier)

If you haven't seen it—I recommend it. There's a powerful scene where a man and woman are alone in a house marked only by white lines. Without revealing what happens, I'll say it captures that same feeling of helplessness—a woman trapped, unable to call for help despite being mere steps from others. While "Dogville" creates this tension with minimal staging, Dostoevsky places his scene next to Sonya's room, in the heart of a bustling capital—making the isolation even more striking.

To Lure into His Web

The meeting of Svidrigailov and Dunya on the bridge, with Raskolnikov's presence there, creates an interesting emotional dynamic. Raskolnikov stands as a romantic hero on the bridge, gazing pensively at the canal water, while Svidrigailov and Dunya, who see both him and each other, secretly slip away like lovers or conspirators so he won't notice. Why does Dostoevsky show how Dunya falls into Svidrigailov's web? Rodion recently described how he, like a spider, lured the old woman and killed her, and now Dunya might voluntarily become a murderer's victim.

Is it the pistol that gives her such confidence?

I'd like to point out the parallel between the bridge scene with Dunya and the earlier scene where Svidrigailov followed Sonya home. The scene with Sonya initially appeared sinister but proved innocent—Svidrigailov was simply walking to his own home, their neighboring locations a mere coincidence. Yet here, what begins as an almost friendly encounter between seeming allies transforms into a tense and nearly fatal confrontation.

And so, Svidrigailov deceives Dunya into coming to his apartment. This final meeting between Svidrigailov and Dunya, decisive in both their fates, almost never succeeds in film adaptations and stage productions of the novel. The reasons vary in each case, but there is one common thread: the complex array of emotions that possess both Svidrigailov and Dunya during this encounter is extremely difficult to capture.

You can watch the scene from the Russian TV series starting at 16:30, though there are no subtitles. It might even be more interesting for those who don't know Russian to watch and see if they can feel the emotional intensity. In my opinion, it's not quite there, but it's filmed in an interesting way.

Love or Passion?

Svidrigailov appeared to genuinely love Dunya, viewing her as an unattainable ideal.

Why do you need Razumikhin? I love you just as much... I love you infinitely. Let me kiss the hem of your dress, let me! let me! I cannot bear to hear it rustle. Tell me to do something, and I will do it! I will do anything. I will do the impossible. Whatever you believe in, I too will believe. I will do everything, everything! Don't look, don't look at me like that! Do you know that you are killing me...

He yearns to be with her, to escape together and transform his life. Yet a lifetime of sins cannot be cast off so easily—one's nature resists sudden change. In Svidrigailov's soul, his authentic feelings for Dunya are eclipsed—and finally conquered—by lust and his compulsive need to dominate, as has happened throughout his life. Even while revering Dunya, he plots to blackmail her into submission, wielding his power over Rodion's fate after overhearing the murder confession. Should Dunya yield, he promises to arrange their escape abroad—all three of them.

But if she refuses, he stands ready to take her by force. Though Dunya might have responded to genuine romantic love, Svidrigailov proves incapable of offering it. Just as Raskolnikov's pride and hunger for power poison his noble impulses, Svidrigailov's sensuality—cultivated and unchecked for years—destroys his one true love and costs him his chance at happiness with the only woman he ever truly needed: Dunya...

Was Dunya capable of murder?

I think so. Under certain circumstances, she would have killed Svidrigailov. It's generally more difficult to graze someone with a bullet than to hit them in the head. So it was a matter of chance. Dunya could have become a murderer like her brother, but it would have been an entirely different kind of crime. Though she would have been judged just as harshly. Most likely there would have been no mitigating circumstances for a poor woman, especially one found in another man's apartment. Her fate would have been unenviable.

Dunya's pride and virtue rebelled against Svidrigailov's intention to get his way at any cost. After driving Dunya almost to madness and realizing that even if she had once "inclined" toward him, there was now no place for him in her heart, Svidrigailov, himself in despair, allows her to shoot at him twice with the revolver she had stolen. When Dunya misses the first time and the gun misfires the second time, Svidrigailov approaches within three steps, offering her the chance to kill him for certain—Dunya throws away the revolver and humbly asks to be let go.

At this moment, evil was conquered by both: embracing Dunya, Svidrigailov asks her one last time—could she ever love him? Upon receiving a negative answer, he gives Dunya the key to the door he had previously locked and lets her leave.

Let's look at this scene from another angle. After all, Dunya, having rejected Svidrigailov, couldn't be certain that he wouldn't retaliate by turning in her brother. This means that while she was ready to sacrifice herself for her brother in Luzhin's case—because it would have been a heroic deed obvious to everyone—she wasn't prepared to make the same sacrifice with Svidrigailov (even though in this second case, it meant saving her brother not just from poverty, but from long-term hard labor), because no one would ever have known about it. Thus it becomes apparent that, like for Raskolnikov, "genuine self-sacrifice is not the norm for her."

How did Marfa die?

It's important to understand that the revolver Dunya had originally belonged to Marfa. Who was she protecting herself from? From Svidrigailov, or was it needed for criminal activities with him?

Before Dunya's clarification, I had assumed that Svidrigailov had struck her or used some kind of physical violence. I definitely don't believe in the apocalyptic fit. But here appears a new version—poisoning. They say it's a woman's method of murder.

Why does Dostoevsky choose this—there is evidence that he was inspired by an article "Arsenic Poisoning or Apoplectic Stroke," which was published in 1865. It analyzed a controversial court case in Germany regarding the accusation of Heinrich Tresken. Interestingly, there are parallels with Svidrigailov's storyline. There, a husband poisoned his wife who had suspected him of having romantic relations with a young servant living with them. Even while his wife was still alive, this Heinrich expressed his desire to marry the servant, and just a few days after his wife's death, the widower was pursuing her hand. There are certain similarities with Svidrigailov, don't you think?

But unlike Svidrigailov's situation, in the real case, the servant was also considered complicit, which certainly can't be said about Dunya. And back then, the experts couldn't determine conclusively whether it was arsenic or natural causes. In the end, both defendants were fully acquitted. Apparently, death by arsenic and apoplectic stroke weren't easily distinguishable for pathologists at that time.

The same situation occurred with Dostoevsky's father — there's still no answer as to how he died: whether he was murdered or if it was an apoplectic stroke. I wrote an article about this, which you can read.

Halloween Edition: The Mysterious Death of Dostoevsky's Father—Murder or Misfortune?

---

How did this affect Dunya?

Dostoevsky leaves Dunya's aftermath largely untold—we never learn whether this encounter traumatized her, whether she confided in Razumikhin or her mother, or how she, as a strong, independent woman, processed this experience. Like her brother, she possesses a reflective nature, yet unlike him, she doesn't surrender to self-destruction. Had she killed Svidrigailov, though, she might have followed a path similar to Rodion's after his fiancée's death—retreating into an obsessive search for meaning and identity. What form might this have taken? Perhaps a turn toward intense religious devotion. Had she escaped imprisonment, she might have sought refuge in a monastery. What do you think?

As for Svidrigailov's fate, we'll explore that in our next article. That chapter promises fascinating insights into his character and reveals why Raskolnikov's path diverged from his. Intriguingly, it's numbered 6.6—and as tradition holds, repeated sixes carry diabolic significance (referencing the number 666 or 616).

Happy reading!