DOSTOEVSKY’S HIDDEN PARTICLE OF GENIUS

 Art, especially masterpieces, are remembered in pieces. For greatness does not lie only in the moments of grandeur but also in the particles, in the understated expressions. Masterworks are remembered almost universally as a whole but subjectively in pieces of brilliance. It could be argued that the parts make the whole a masterpiece and which speak strong individually will vary from responder.

Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment was the first of his two works which would come to stand head and shoulder above the rest. Many consider The Brothers Karamazov to be the peak of Dostoevsky’s genius but few literary works feel as complete a foray into despair as Crime and Punishment, achieving in its look into the dark recesses of the human mind a near perfection.

There are many aspects of the novel that linger in the mind, from the description of the decaying edifice where Alyona Ivanovna lives in paranoid hesitancy to the dives into the mind of her killer, Raskolnikov who may be inspired as much by the inevitability with which he’s come to accept violence than the philosophical questions behind it.

One obscure bit that nonetheless showcases Dostoevsky’s gift for the understated expression has stood out for years. Virtually nothing is explained about it in the text, we understand all there is to it by the powerplay that has been built between Raskolnikov and his interrogator Porfiry Petrovich, the investigator convinced he is the killer he seeks.

The moment comes shortly after Raskolnikov has murdered Alyona, his pawnbroker, in her flat. At this time the novel is working as a thriller at its finest. Raskolnikov has visited her the previous day to conduct business and, knowing he was known to frequent her residence on that given day of the week, returned the following day to commit murder to reduce suspicion. Unfortunately for him, two painters who were not there the previous day are in the building Taking care to hide and blend in, he makes his way out.

We have learned at this point that Raskolnikov is, in part by virtue of adaptation to his surroundings often in control and manipulative, but is susceptible to streaks of panic. Once Porfiry has determined that he is the murderer he figures Raskolnikov’s weakness out.

Shortly after the murder Porfiry pays Raskolnikov a visit and an interrogation begins. Raskolnikov maintains throughout that he was at Alyona’s apartment on the day he would normally go to conduct business but was not there on the day she was found dead. Casually and without an explicit clue from Dostoevsky about what is happening in Porfiry’s mind or his ploy, the detective asks the suspect if he happened to see two painters on the day he claimed (and the only day he claimed) to have been at the victim’s apartment. Dostoevsky offers not direct insight into why the detective is asking this simply because it would be superfluous information. So concise was his development of the minds of the two characters, so vivid his rendition of the powerplay in the works and the strategies of each opponent that we know exactly why Porfiry is asking what he is asking and the trap he is setting. An affirmative answer from Raskolnikov is as good as an admission of guilt.

There is little doubt despite his starting to break under pressure that Raskolnikov knows why Porfiry asked about the painters and sees the trap. He knows the right answer and delivers it. Porfiry’s mistake, and the reason his trap fails, is not assuming that Raskolnikov had been there both days.

In its understated, quiet and almost unnoticed way this brief moment reaches a height of literary mastery seldom seen. Simply by observing their behavior we are compelled by the mind games of two characters we understand like we understand real people