The image of Luzhin in the novel Crime and Punishment occupies an important place. This hero is negative, but at the same time quite bright and interesting. A characteristic of Luzhin is one of the most common themes in literary works.
Collective image
In describing the appearance of his heroes, Dostoevsky attached special importance to his eyes. The gaze revealed both the character’s inner world and the author’s attitude towards him. But nothing is said about Luzhin's eyes in the novel. This character is an unspiritual personality, examples of which began to appear in large numbers at the time of Dostoevsky. It does not have such a complex inconsistency, as, for example, in Svidrigailov. And so the writer did not characterize his gaze.
The image of Luzhin in the novel Crime and Punishment is based on a description of his appearance and some unseemly acts. This is enough to conclude that this hero is a primitive mediocrity, and people like him appeared not only in the second half of the nineteenth century, but much later, at all the crucial moments in the economic and political sphere of the country.
Who is Luzhin?
This man decides to marry the sister of the protagonist - Duna Raskolnikova. In the future bride, he is primarily attracted not by spiritual beauty. He is unable to make out due to his own lack of spirituality. Dunya is poor, and therefore will be a submissive wife. The image of Luzhin in the novel Crime and Punishment plays a role in plotting.
Raskolnikov commits a crime for the sake of an idea he himself created. But the need pushes him to atrocity, in which not only he, but also his family abides. To become Luzhin's wife for Dunya means to sacrifice himself for his brother.
Appearance
Luzhin is a nouveau riche. This man is just beginning to "beat out into people." And with all his outward appearance, he wants to draw the attention of others to his acquired welfare. The image of Luzhin in the novel Crime and Punishment comes down to a description of the clothes and work of a hairdresser who carries out very thorough manipulations over this gentleman’s head and whiskers. He has a good appearance, he is about forty-five years old, but he looks a little younger. His clothes are impeccable and has a fashionable cover.
Dostoevsky’s work inspires theater directors and filmmakers for over a hundred years. The image of Luzhin in the novel Crime and Punishment, a photo of which can be seen above, in the artists' view, is a rather unambiguous figure. He is outwardly pleasant, but there is nothing behind his appearance. And that is why he so persistently curls at the hairdresser and so carefully selects his wardrobe items. The author himself focuses on this, and these properties do not go unnoticed by other heroes of the novel.
He has a golden lorgnet, from his cambric shawl it smells of perfume, and on his finger he wears a massive, extremely beautiful ring. Nevertheless, the image of Luzhin in the novel Crime and Punishment can be briefly expressed in the following words: slanderer and unworthy person. That is what his main characters call the work, and the author himself portrays it like that.
Luzhin and Raskolnikov
These heroes in the work at first glance have nothing in common. Raskolnikov is tormented by his ideas. He could not realize them. Luzhin is calm and prudent. He does not know the idealism of fans of the Napoleonic genius. He is only a businessman who knows the philosophy of “petty egoism”. With a similar way of thinking, you can live happily ever after without tormenting or suffering. But petty egoism has something in common with the idea of “the right of those having”. The similarity lies in the rejection of basic Christian principles.
Raskolnikov dislikes Luzhin before the first meeting. He learns about the role of this master in the fate of his sister from a letter to his mother. The feeling that the protagonist experiences when meeting each other resembles squeamishness. But later he notes with horror that there is something in common between them.
Reliably and realistically created the Dostoevsky image of Luzhin in the novel Crime and Punishment. A summary of the characteristics of the hero is described in this article. But the writer’s extraordinary ability to express the deepest and most subtle aspects of reality can be felt only after reading the novel completely. The realism of Dostoevsky is a unique phenomenon not only in Russian, but also in world literature.