Connection Between Luck and Fate - Essay Example

The belief in fate and luck persists through out Dostoevskys Crime and Punishment as evident with its main character and other minor characters. While the book mostly focuses on the fate of the main character Raskolnikov, stories of the other characters imply on the belief of the characters that the mishaps in their lives were results of fate and luck. One of these characters is the drunkard Raskolnikov met at the tavern (Dostoevsky 13). Semyon Zaharovitch Marmeladov, the drunkard met by the main character at a tavern had talked about his life with Raskolnikov. A self-confessed drunkard, a widower with a daughter from his first wife and later on remarried to Katerina Ivanovna, a widow who had three children from her previous husband, believed that it was his fate to be a drunkard to the point that he had sold most of his possessions including some of his wife’s valued possessions (Dostoevsky 16-17). In acceptance of his fate as a hopeless drunkard, Marmeladov claimed, “Such is my fate! Do you know, sir, do you know, I have sold her very stockings for drink?. (Dostoevsky 17)” But later on reasons out that his drinking is a self-inflicted suffering to pay for his sins to his wife and children as he claimed, “Thats why I drink too. I try to find sympathy and feeling in drink.. . I drink so that I may suffer twice as much! (Dostoevsky 17)” On a close examination of Marmeladov’s behavior, he blaming his fate of loving alcohol too much was his excuse for behaving as he had confessed. Likened to a McLaughlin quote saying that, “The chief reason for drinking is the desire to behave in a certain way, and to be able to blame it on alcohol,” (Guillemets) Marmeladov blames his actions to his drinking and not entirely taking the blame to himself. On the contrary, Marmeladov, instead of putting the blame on his drinking and lamenting his fate at the tavern, should at least make efforts to retain his job better yet to accept that his family problems are his fault and that he can make a way to at least feed his children and tend to his ailing wife. Also, he should have thought of these problems when he is sober and not when he was drunk since he would eventually forget all his thoughts when the effects of his drink wear off. Marmeladov’s alcoholism had developed into a family problem. Accordingly, alcoholics may have young, teenage, or grown-up children; they have wives or husbands; they have brothers or sisters; they have parents or other relatives. An alcoholic can totally disrupt family life and cause harmful effects that can last a lifetime (Silverstein 65). This was obvious in Marmeladov’s family with his family starving, his wife working herself nearly to death and his daughter living a prostitute’s life. His drinking problems had made his life complicated and the complications extended to his family. As his wife always laments, Marmeladov should be spending his time working and earning for his family instead of spending time with the bottle at the tavern and wasting his time drinking which gives his family nothing to eat and wear. These acts also leave his wife’s sickness unattended and his children not attending school. The effect on Marmeladov’s wife is understandable since alcoholism also has negative effects on the spouse of an alcoholic. The spouse may have feelings of hatred, self-pity, avoidance of social contacts, may suffer exhaustion and become physically or mentally ill. Very often the spouse has to perform the roles of both parents. Family responsibilities shift from two parents to one parent. As a result, the non-alcoholic parent may be inconsistent, demanding, and often neglect the children. Having financial difficulties is another issue that families of alcoholics have to deal with. The family may have to give up certain privileges because of the large amount of money spent on alcohol and also possible joblessness. A survey, “Exposure to Alcoholism in the Family”, conducted in 1988 suggested that alcoholism is a major factor of premature widowhood (Berger 13) Furthermore, Marmeladov endures the cold attitude and physical attack from his sickly wife as he told Raskolnikov, “–and that she will begin pulling my hair. What does my hair matter! Bother my hair! Thats what I say! Indeed it will be better if she does begin pulling it, thats not what I am afraid of… (Dostoevsky 28),” showing that he strongly believes on repenting by self-inflicted suffering. His attitude towards his children was the same as his attitude towards his wife he supposes that his adoptive children had to endure hunger because of his drinking problem (Dostoevsky 28) while his own daughter, Sonia, had to obtain a degrading work just to please his wife and Sonia’s step-mother, Katerina (Dostoevsky 16). The effects on his family were mainly on his wife since Marmeladov’s wife had to take the duties Marmeladov should be handling such as working for the family’s subsistence. Additionally, Katerina was more burdened by her illness plus she had to deal with the crying of her hungry children, the conscience of consenting Sonia to work as a prostitute and the thoughts on how to make her husband refrain from his drinking that impedes his working for the family. On Marmeladov’s notion of self-inflicted suffering, he had the wrong idea of suffering with his family. He was resigned to the thought that he cannot do anything for his suffering family that he would just submit himself to what he had thought as suffering. His perspective was the reverse of what was actually happening to his family. His family suffers because of his wrong notion of a self-inflicted suffering which is his drinking habit. And this wrong notion can be attributed to the effect of alcohol to his way of thinking. Interestingly, though Marmeladov was a drunkard, he spoke of forgiveness and understanding throughout his entire monologue about his life. This partly shows that man is innately kind but this kindness is gradually corrupted by the circumstances around him, the people around him and most of the time by man himself. For this reason, man sometimes acts differently to what comes out of his mouth. In Marmeladov’s case, his statements opposes his actions because although he knows that his drinking problem was not right and that it was the reason for his family’s suffering and his own suffering. He cannot refrain himself from drinking and as a result he keeps on putting his family in a miserable and piteous state. He speaks of what should be done but the alcohol in his body greatly affected his way of living to the point that he cannot analyze and realize that his family’s misfortunes roots from his own problems with himself. Marmeladov’s luck, more appropriately termed by Dostoevsky being a luckless man (Dostoevsky 212), was meeting an accident ironically because of his drinking problem. Using the term luck on the consequence of Marmeladov’s alcohol addiction implies ironically that the character’s death was not because of his luck nor because of fate but because of his own decisions and choices in life. Upon Marmeladov’s death, the main character Raskolnikov was deeply affected by his demise. He had witnessed the condition of Marmeladov’s family and in his pity for the man and his family he had left all the money he has. Beforehand, he even pledged to pay for the doctor when he saw that Marmeladov was the unfortunate victim on the road (Dostoevsky 209). Furthermore, Raskolnikov was left to ponder on his fate and luck with death. His brushes with death when he was nearly trampled on by a carriage, similar to what happened to Marmeladov and the other instance when he thought of jumping off a bridge. Marmeladov’s death affected his family more. His wife Katerina, after Marmeladov’s death, burdened with problems on supporting her small children and on what would become of her children when she would succumb to her own death had driven her insane. Eventually Katerina died. Marmeladov’s adoptive children, upon his demise and eventually when they were orphaned by their mother, Katerina, were put up in an orphanage arranged by Svidrigaïlov as evident in the book stating, “At their last meeting Svidrigaïlov informed Raskolnikov that he had made an arrangement, and a very satisfactory one, for Katerina Ivanovnas children; that he had, through certain connections, succeeded in getting hold of certain personages by whose help the three orphans could be at once placed in very suitable institutions;” (Dostoevsky 513). Sonia, on the other hand, was distressed at her father’s demise but had shown how she cared for Marmeladov until his last breath. Later on, she had been a good friend to Raskolnikov that she had influenced him to confess his crime. Marmeladov’s story in Crime and Punishment plainly shows that life should not be entirely depended nor blamed on fate and luck. The character’s actions and decisions which seem ordinary and uneventful had affected most of the characters such as Raskolnikov, Katerina, Sonia, his adoptive children and other minor characters in the story. His death in particular, which may be partly be caused by his drunk state, greatly affected these characters. If Marmeladov chose to follow his own words of putting a stop to his drinking and work hard to uplift his family’s miserable way of life then he might have the chance to die differently. That is, he may not have prevented his death but he could have kept his dignity in tact and his left his family with a decent life. In Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, the belief in fate and luck was fervently expressed by the characters’ words contrary to what was happening to them as a result of their own decisions and choices. This way, Dostoevsky shows that a man’s life is not entirely governed by fate and luck instead a major part of the happenings in a man’s life is due to his own decisions and choices. In addition, Dostoevsky also shows that man’s choices and decisions in life, coupled by fate and luck, influences the people around him even after his death. Thus our lives should not depend on fate and luck alone. The greatest factors in our lives are the decisions and choices we make WORKS CITED Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Crime and Punishment. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004 Berger, Gilda. Alcoholism and the Family. New York: Franklin Watts, 1993 The book tackles how the family is affected by an alcoholic in the family. It explains thoroughly the effects on the physical and mental of family members as one member becomes involved with his alcoholic problems. The book can be related to the topic since fate and luck should not be solely be the cause for the character’s mishap in life instead, his alcohol problems may be a good point to consider in the uneventful occurrences in his life. Guillemets, Terri. The Quote Garden. 18 March 1998. 25 Nov 2007 < http://www.quotegarden.com>. The site is a compilation of quotes by famous people. The quotes were taken from various sources such as books and movies. This particular quote partly explains the behavior of the character on blaming his fate as an alcoholic instead of taking the blame himself. Silverstein, Herma. Alcoholism. New York: Franklin Watts, 1990 The book also delves into the effects of the alcoholism on an alcoholic’s family. Several case studies were also stated in the book. The book also contains supporting facts that alcoholics can change their lives and not put the blame on other things and other people the way their lives turned out. Read More